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

  Everyone around the table turned to look at the one person none of them had come across before. He was dressed in a three-piece gray suit, white shirt and well-worn blue silk tie. He couldn’t have been more than an inch over five foot, and he was almost completely bald except for a thin, semi-circle of gray hair that barely reached his ears. Because he wore thick, horn-rimmed glasses, it was almost impossible to guess his age. Fifty? Sixty? Possibly even seventy? Mr. Hardcastle removed his glasses to reveal steel-gray eyes, and Emma felt certain that she had seen him before, but couldn’t remember where.

  “Good morning, Mr. Chairman,” was all he said, although those four words revealed which county he hailed from.

  “Let us move on to the business at hand,” said Buchanan. “By the deadline of six o’clock yesterday evening, two candidates had allowed their names to be put forward as prospective chairmen: Mrs. Emma Clifton, who is proposed by Sir Giles Barrington MC MP, and seconded by Dr. Grace Barrington, and Major Alex Fisher, proposed by Mr. Anscott and seconded by Mr. Knowles. Both candidates will now address the board on how they see the future of the company. I call upon Major Fisher to open proceedings.”

  Fisher didn’t move from his place. “I feel it would be courteous to allow the lady to speak first,” he said, giving Emma a warm smile.

  “How kind of you, major,” replied Emma, “but I’m quite happy to abide by the chairman’s decision and allow you to go first.”

  Fisher appeared to be a little flustered, but quickly recovered. He shuffled his notes, rose from his place and took a long look around the table, before he began to speak.

  “Mr. Chairman, members of the board. I consider it a great privilege even to be considered as a candidate for chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company. As a Bristol man born and bred, I have been aware of this great company all my life, its history, its tradition, as well as its reputation, which has become part of Bristol’s great sea-going heritage. Sir Joshua Barrington was a legendary figure, and Sir Walter, whom I had the privilege of knowing”—Emma looked surprised, unless “knowing” her grandfather meant bumping into him at a school speech day some thirty years ago—“was responsible for taking this company public and building its reputation as one of the leading shipping institutions, not only in this country, but around the world. But sadly that is no longer the case, partly because Sir Walter’s son, Sir Hugo, was simply not up to the job, and although our present chairman has done a great deal to restore the firm’s reputation, a series of recent events, not of his making, have led to a lack of confidence among some of our shareholders. What you, my fellow directors, have to decide today,” said Fisher, once again looking around the table, “is who is best equipped to deal with that crisis of confidence. Given the circumstances, I feel I should mention my credentials when it comes to fighting battles. I served my country as a young lieutenant at Tobruk, described by Montgomery as one of the bloodiest battles in history. I was lucky enough to survive that onslaught, when I was decorated in the field.”

  Giles put his head in his hands. He would have liked to tell the board what had really happened when the enemy had appeared over the North African horizon, but he knew it wouldn’t help his sister’s cause.

  “My next battle was when I stood against Sir Giles Barrington as the Conservative candidate at the last general election,” said Fisher, emphasizing the word Conservative, as he felt it was unlikely that, with the exception of Giles, anyone else around that table had ever voted Labor, “for the safe Labor seat of Bristol Docklands, losing by a mere handful of votes, and then only after three recounts.” This time he graced Giles with a smile.

  Giles wanted to leap up and wipe the smile off Fisher’s face, but somehow managed to restrain himself.

  “So I think I can say with some conviction that I have experienced both triumph and disaster, and, to quote Kipling, have treated those two imposters just the same.

  “And now,” he continued, “allow me to touch on some of the problems facing our distinguished company at the present time. And I stress at the present time. Just over a year ago we made an important decision, and may I remind the board that at that time I fully supported the chairman’s proposal to build the MV Buckingham. However, since then, there has been a succession of calamities, some unexpected, others that we should have foreseen, which have caused us to fall behind on our timetable. As a result, for the first time in the company’s history, we have had to consider going to the banks for a loan to assist us through these troubled times.

  “If I were elected chairman, allow me to tell you the three changes I would instigate immediately. First, I would invite Mrs. Clifton to be my deputy chairman, so that the City would be in no doubt that the Barrington family remains fully committed to the company’s future, as it has been for over a century.”

  Several “Hear, hears” emanated from around the table, and Fisher smiled at Emma for the second time since he’d joined the board. Giles had to admire the man’s gall, because he must have known that Emma wouldn’t consider returning the compliment, as she believed that Fisher was responsible for the company’s present troubles, and she certainly would never agree to serve as his deputy.

  “Secondly,” continued Fisher, “I would fly to Belfast tomorrow morning, sit down with Sir Frederick Rebbeck, chairman of Harland and Wolff, and set about renegotiating our contract, pointing out that his company has persistently declined to take responsibility for any of the unfortunate setbacks that have taken place during the construction of the Buckingham. And thirdly, I would employ a top security company to guard any equipment that is sent to Belfast on Barrington’s behalf, so that an act of sabotage like the one that took place on the Heysham ferry could never happen again. At the same time, I would take out new insurance policies that didn’t have pages of penalty clauses in very small print. Finally, I would add that if I am fortunate enough to become your chairman, I will start work this afternoon and not rest until the MV Buckingham has been launched on the high seas, and is showing the company a profitable return on its investment.”

  Fisher sat down to warm applause, smiles and nods of approval. Even before the clapping had died away, Emma realized she’d made a tactical mistake by allowing her opponent to go first. He had covered most of the points she had intended to make, and it would now look as if she was, at best, agreeing with him and, at worst, as if she had no ideas of her own. How well she recalled Giles humiliating the same man at Colston Hall during the recent election campaign. But it was a different man who had turned up at Barrington House that morning, and one look at her brother confirmed that he also had been taken by surprise.

  “Mrs. Clifton,” said the chairman. “Perhaps you’d like to share your ideas with the board?”

  Emma rose unsteadily to her feet as Grace gave her a thumbs-up sign, making her feel like a Christian slave about to be thrown to the lions.

  “Mr. Chairman, let me begin by saying that you see a reluctant candidate standing before you today, because if I had a choice you would remain as chairman of this company. It was only when you decided that you had no alternative but to stand down that I even considered taking your place and continuing the tradition of my family’s long association with this company. Let me begin by confronting what some board members may well consider my biggest disadvantage, my sex.”

  This remark caused an outburst of laughter, some of it nervous, although Susan Fisher looked sympathetic.

  “I suffer,” Emma continued, “from being a woman in a man’s world, and frankly there is nothing I can do about it. I appreciate that it will take a brave board to appoint a woman as chairman of Barrington’s, especially in the difficult circumstances we are currently facing. But then, courage and innovation are precisely what this company needs at the present time. Barrington’s stands at a crossroads, and whoever you select today will have to choose which signpost to follow. As you know, when the board decided last year that we should go ahead with the building of the Buckingham, I opposed the idea, and