George had got used to Neil Haughton's habits over the last few years and could just suffer his flashes of petulance, his domineering tendencies, his total self-absorption and the red Cabinet boxes that he obsessively worked his way through most evenings. She couldn't really complain about the last foible, as she tended to shut herself away with her cases. There were compensations of a pleasantly material nature, which her growing expensive wardrobe testified to. She was unashamed and honest about her appetites for the material pleasures of life. She had to admit that she enjoyed flaunting Neil Haughton to John and thereby teasing him mercilessly. John would never resist rising to the bait in verbally slashing her boyfriend's character to pieces in conversations with her. She knew how her contrary argumentative nature drove her to disagree with him even if she inwardly agreed with some of his conclusions. At moments like these, poor John overstated his case and hopelessly betrayed his jealousy.
Friday night was an especially dismal experience for her and hit a new low. She had made her way home after the trial in an especially thoughtful mood. Her spat with John was a perfectly normal occurrence in her life and she inwardly admitted to herself that they both found exchanging verbal bolts of lightning somehow pleasurable. She could never say that life was boring whenever John crossed her path. As she drove home, she couldn't help thinking also of her clash with the formidable Ms Wade. Her impressions of the case, such as she had been aware of it, was that the culprit was some loud publicity conscious crop haired lesbian out to cause trouble. She had come across a woman who had certainly given her a run for her money even if her brand of caring liberalism irritated her. She had to smile at the way she had made a fool out of poor Ian but, then again, he did walk headlong into the most obvious traps. She sneakily considered that the woman had style, helped from a background in some minor boarding school and she wasn't unattractive in her rather mannish fashion. In other words, Ms Wade was something in the same league as she was. What had given her most food for thought was her comments about the need for women to be protected from rapists. She couldn't help worrying about Charlie on the loose at Sussex University and John's foolish, rose tinted faith that everything would be all right.
As soon as she got home, she could feel solid waves of fury radiating outwards from the living room even before she opened the door.
"I am telling you, once and for all, I have absolutely no comment about the trial. None at all," he snapped and slammed the phone down.
"Careful, Neil. You'll have a stroke if you carry on that way."
"It's that wretched ex husband of yours, He is infecting the other judges with that bleeding heart liberalism that I thought had been stamped out decades ago along with union wreckers."
"You mean Mrs Thatcher?" George replied impulsively and then immediately regretted her gaffe. Before becoming a born again New Labour politician, Neil Haughton had originally made his pile in advertising and it would have been supremely tactless to say that Brand X and Brand Y were virtually identical. He set great store in branding even if the man in the street was unversed in subtle presentational distinctions. His move into politics was less of a radical change of direction than the casual observer might think.
Neil glowered at her, his expression daring her to say that one more provocative word. More than ever before, John's attractions came to the fore as both of them would have no hesitation or inhibitions in launching into an all out battle of words. It was one thing in their lives together they both agreed on as well as on deciding Charlie's upbringing..
"Would you like a cup of tea, mineral water or something stronger," George offered in her best polite drawing room fashion.
"Just for once, a scotch and mineral water but not too strong mind you."
George smiled inwardly. What he really wanted was a stiff shot of spirits and a dash of water to dilute his sin with something health giving. It contrasted with Daddy's unabashed love of malt whisky. She duly poured out the drink he really wanted and sat back in her armchair.
"Did you have a hard day, darling?"
"You can say that again. That wretched Wade trial goes pear shaped and the press in on my back straight away. Far from being tough on crime and cleaning up the streets so that it is safe for law-abiding citizens, I look a perfect fool for apparently getting it wrong in the first place. It's so unfair as it was all my predecessor's fault. I mean, why should I take the blame for something I didn't decide in the first place? I'm due to address the Annual General Meeting of the Police Federation and this trial is bound to be brought up and used against me. Never mind, I'll have those recalcitrant judges under my heel yet and they'll sing my tune if it is the last thing I ever do."
The rest of the evening was a total washout. George did her best to distract the man but nothing worked. The worst of it was that periods of rage made the man impotent as he could think of nothing else but his damaged ego. Again, she couldn't help but think that John by contrast was totally reliable in this one area of their marriage, infuriating though he could be otherwise.
From waking up on early Saturday morning, Neil Haughton continued to be as tiresome as last night. George came to an instant decision. She would go and see Daddy.
"Have you the usual Cabinet papers to go through," she called out as he was up already and in the dining room.
"Even more than usual. I simply must get on top of them."
"So you don't mind if I go and visit Daddy?"
Neil Haughton glared at her but didn't exactly lodge an objection. He was conscious of the pile of work he had to get through and if the wretched press would leave him alone, he would be able to concentrate single-mindedly on his work.
'If you have to, George."
"I know that he has annoyed you but he is my father. I simply can't allow that trial to come between us."
"You know that your loyalties lie with me," he grumbled.
"What's done is done, Neil. I absolutely refuse to talk shop and I'll stop Daddy from doing the same."
With bad grace, he turned his head in her direction while she graciously lowered her cheek to him and she left the room quietly. She made the one phone call, adjusted her elaborately arranged makeup and lipstick and she was off in her shiny Convertible car. If she peeked within herself which was rare, she admitted that a lot of time she was either ratty, dissatisfied or else feeling as if she had to control her facial expression and her words to play a part which she hadn't written. For that reason, she was almost disappointed that Neil hadn't provoked an argument as that would have released something out of her pent up system. The rest of the time, she was playing a part except that her thoughts of the formidable Ms Wade challenged her normal thinking.
"I didn't expect to hear from you George but you are as always, very welcome," Joseph Channing greeted her in his palatial mansion and waved her through. His sharp mind noticed that her smile of greeting and manner was unclouded and as it normally was. Her knew his daughter's willful personality and, in being caught between a clash of loyalties between him and Haughton, he would expected to be on the receiving end of her anger.
Instead, George's roved round the living room with satisfaction that it was at it had always been. The room contained overstuffed old-fashioned armchairs, which she always remembered sinking into, not like this modern functional inferior rubbish that awaited the next fashion fad of 'Changing Rooms' to dispose of. Everything here was built to last and hadn't changed since she was a little girl. It was comfortable and reassuring.
"I'm surprised you are coming to see me after the events of the previous day."
"I'd rather not talk about it, Daddy," George said quietly, putting her hand to her head as if her head hurt.
"You don't look well, George."
"It's nothing that several hours spent in peace and quiet won't cure."
"I expect that you are totally furious with me as well as John and Monty." Joseph said guardedly with a slightly ingratiating smile on his lips.
"Not with you or even John. I caught up with him after the court hearing and gave him a piece of my mind and got all the anger out of my system."
"It's perhaps unfair that he was the sole recipient of your wrath," chuckled Joseph with a vivid mental image based on solid experience.
"Daddy, it's what he's there for. Haven't you understood that one by now?" George grinned with total aplomb." Besides, he's the only man I've known that has ever given me back as much as I've given him. It's very therapeutic. It kept our marriage going as long as it did, despite his infidelities."
"So how do you feel about it now?"
"I'm sick of having had my ear bent by Neil last night and this morning. This was the reason I came to see you today. Anyway, enough of it. I'm sorely in need of a drink."
As Joseph pottered around to carefully pour two measures, it struck Joseph how animated George became when John's name was mentioned and how quickly Houghton was dismissed. It suited his purposes. When her father returned, her sharp eye spotted her father's small measure and drew understandable conclusions.
"Daddy, I do believe that you are becoming abstemious in old age."
"Not so much that," admitted Joseph with a weak smile " but the after effects of a celebration last night with John and Monty."
'You mean a drinking session."
"Well, we did put away a lot of drink as well as enjoying good conversation. If you think that I'm not at my best, John must be totally hungover. He has splendid endurance in keeping up with Monty and I but he hasn't the practice," Joseph chuckled with an evil leer in response to George's bald reply.
"You know, what puzzles me is how you and Monty and John apparently have got on so well during this trial. For one, John has a hopelessly interfering nature that even Jo Mills objects to. For another, you and Monty are died in the wool Conservatives and John is, well, John."
"It's been a curious experience. For a start, John has been remarkably amenable and perceptive. Jo Mills presented her case excellently while Frobisher was pedestrian. Ms Wade acquitted herself splendidly under tough questioning from the three of us. I must admit that she is also a remarkable woman since she was given no prior warning that she would be called to the stand."
"I know. I crossed swords with her after the trial and I don't think I got the best of the encounter."
Joseph raised his eyebrows sharply at his daughter's behaviour. She was a notoriously bad loser yet she spoke in slow thoughtful tones without any trace of malice or resentment.
The Sunday morning passed off in total peace and tranquillity yet throughout this pleasant interlude, he was conscious that there was a lot that George was mulling over in her mind but she wasn't saying. She never referred to Haughton again whereas she chattered away affectionately about Charlie and occasionally spoke uninvited about John. There was a note of regret in her manner when she finally explained that she was having to set off for home and she didn't hurry herself in getting herself ready. He knew better than to intervene and that when she was ready to speak, he would hear soon enough.