Be Careful What You Wish For (The Clifton Chronicles) Read online

  “Now, I can’t pretend,” continued Emma, “that building a liner of this quality has not been expensive. In fact, the final bill will be just over eighteen million pounds which, as you know from my report last year, has eaten heavily into our reserves. However, thanks to the foresight of Ross Buchanan, a second contract was drawn up with Harland and Wolff to build a sister ship, the SS Balmoral, for seventeen million pounds, provided the project is confirmed within twelve months of the Buckingham obtaining its certificate of seaworthiness.

  “We took delivery of the Buckingham two weeks ago, which leaves us with fifty weeks before we decide whether or not to take up that option. By then, we must make up our minds if this is a one-off, or the first of the Palace fleet. Frankly that decision will not be made by the board or even the shareholders but, as in all commercial ventures, by the public. They alone will decide the future of the Palace Line.

  “And so to my next announcement: at midday today, Thomas Cook will open the second booking period for the Buckingham’s maiden voyage.” Emma paused and looked up at the audience. “But not for the general public. For the past three years, you, the shareholders, have not received the dividends you have been accustomed to in the past, so I’ve decided to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued loyalty and support. Anyone who has held shares for over a year will not only be given priority booking for the maiden voyage, which I know many of you have already taken advantage of, but will also receive a ten percent discount on any trip they make on a Barrington ship in the future.”

  The sustained applause that followed allowed Emma to check her notes once again.

  “Thomas Cook has warned me not to get too excited about the large number of passengers who have already booked places on the maiden voyage. They tell me that every cabin will have been sold long before the ship sets sail, but that just as every opening night at the Old Vic is always sold out, like the theater we will have to rely on regular customers and repeat orders over a long period of time. The facts are simple. We cannot afford to fall below a sixty percent cabin occupancy, and even that figure will mean we only break even year on year. Seventy percent occupancy will guarantee us a small profit, while we will need eighty-six percent if we are to repay our capital outlay within ten years, as Ross Buchanan always planned. And by that time, I suspect there will be a sun deck on all of our competitors’ ships, and we will be looking for new and innovative ideas to attract an ever more demanding and sophisticated public.

  “So the next twelve months will decide the future of Barrington’s. Do we make history, or become history? Be assured that your directors will work tirelessly on behalf of the shareholders who have placed their trust in us, to deliver a service that will be the benchmark in the world of luxury shipping. Let me end as I began. Like my great-grandfather, I intend to do better next year, and the year after, and the year after.”

  Emma sat down and the audience rose to their feet as if it were a first night. She closed her eyes and thought of her grandfather’s words, If you’re good enough to be the chairman, being a woman won’t make any difference. Admiral Summers leaned across and whispered, “Congratulations,” and then added, “Questions?”

  Emma jumped back up. “Sorry, I quite forgot. Of course, I’ll be delighted to take questions.”

  A smartly dressed man in the second row was quickly on his feet. “You mentioned that the share price recently touched an all-time high, but can you explain why in the past couple of weeks there have been such peaks and troughs, which, to a layman like myself, seem inexplicable, not to say worrying?”

  “I cannot fully explain that myself,” admitted Emma. “But I can tell you that a former shareholder dumped twenty-two and a half percent of the company’s stock on the market without having the courtesy to inform me, despite that shareholder having a representative on the board. Fortunately for Barrington’s, the broker concerned was shrewd enough to offer those shares to one of our former directors, Mr. Cedric Hardcastle, who is himself a banker. Mr. Hardcastle was able to place the entire holding with a leading businessman from the north of England, who has wanted for some time to purchase a substantial stake in the company. This meant that the shares were only on the market for a few minutes, causing minimum disruption, and indeed within days the price returned to its former high.”

  Emma saw her rise from her place in the middle of the fourth row, wearing a wide-brimmed yellow hat that would have been more appropriate at Ascot, but Emma still ignored the woman, pointing instead to a man a few rows behind her.

  “Will the Buckingham only be sailing on the transatlantic route, or does the company have plans for her to visit other destinations in the future?”

  “Good question,” Giles had taught Emma to say, particularly when it wasn’t. “It wouldn’t be possible for the Buckingham to make a profit if we restricted her voyages to the east coast of the States, not least because our rivals, particularly the Americans, have dominated that route for almost a century. No, we must identify a new generation of passengers who do not consider the sole purpose of travel as simply to get from A to B. The Buckingham must be like a floating luxury hotel, on which her passengers sleep each night, while during the day they visit countries they never thought they’d see in their lifetime. With that in mind, the Buckingham will make regular trips to the Caribbean and the Bahamas, and during the summer she’ll cruise the Mediterranean and sail along the Italian coast. And who can say what other parts of the world will open up in the next twenty years?”

  Once again the woman was on her feet, and once again Emma avoided her, pointing to another man near the front.

  “Are you worried about the number of passengers who are choosing to travel by airplane rather than ocean liners? BOAC, for example, are claiming that they can get you to New York in less than eight hours, whereas the Buckingham will take at least four days.”

  “You’re quite right, sir,” responded Emma, “which is why our advertising concentrates on a different vision for our passengers, offering them an experience that they could never hope to have on an airplane. What airplane can offer a theater, shops, a cinema, a library and restaurants that provide the finest cuisine, not to mention a sun deck and a swimming pool? The truth is, if you’re in a hurry, don’t book a cabin on the Buckingham, because she’s a floating palace that you’ll want to return to again and again. And there’s something else I can promise: when you arrive home, you won’t be suffering from jet lag.”

  The woman in the fourth row was on her feet again, waving. “Are you trying to avoid me, chairman?” she shouted.

  Giles thought he recognized the voice and looked around to have his worst fears confirmed.

  “Not at all, madam, but as you’re neither a shareholder nor a journalist, I didn’t give you priority. But please, do ask your question.”

  “Is it true that one of your directors sold his vast shareholding over the weekend, in an attempt to bring the company down?”

  “No, Lady Virginia, that is not the case. You’re probably thinking of the twenty-two and a half percent Don Pedro Martinez put on the market without informing the board, but luckily, to use a modern expression, we saw him coming.”

  Laughter broke out in the hall, but Virginia wasn’t deterred. “If one of your directors was involved in such an exercise, shouldn’t he resign from the board?”

  “If you’re referring to Major Fisher, I asked him to resign last Friday when he came to visit me in my office, as I’m sure you already know, Lady Virginia.”

  “What are you insinuating?”

  “That on two separate occasions when Major Fisher represented you on the board, you allowed him to sell all your shares over a weekend, and then, after you’d made a handsome profit, you bought them back during the three-week trading period. When the share price recovered and reached a new high, you carried out the same exercise a second time, making an even larger profit. If it was your intention to bring the company down, Lady Virginia, then, like Mr. Martinez, yo