Exocet

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The sentence hung in mid-air unfinished. She said, ‘I see. I’m to take him to bed, lie back, think of England and hope he says something worth hearing about the Falklands?’

‘Put rather starkly, but close enough.’

‘What a bastard you are, Charles.’ She got up and picked up her riding crop.

‘Will you do it?’ he asked.

‘I think so,’ she answered. ‘I’d seen the play before anyway, and to be honest, this Raul Montera of yours looks much more interesting.’

The door closed behind her and Fox poured himself more tea. ‘You think she’ll do it, sir?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Ferguson said. ‘She loves to take part in the theatre of life, our Gabrielle. How much do you know about her background, Harry?’

‘Well, she and Tony were married for what, five years?’

‘That’s right. French father and English mother. They were divorced when she was quite young. She read politics and economics at the Sorbonne, then did a year at St Hugh’s at Oxford. Married Villiers after meeting him at a Cambridge May Ball. Should have known better than attend a function at a second-rate university. How many times has she worked for us, Harry?’

‘Only once where I’ve had direct contact, sir. Four other occasions through you.’

‘Yes,’ Ferguson said. ‘A truly brilliant linguist. No good where the rough stuff is concerned, either physical or anything else. A genuine moralist, our Gabrielle. What family has she got living now?’

‘Father in Marseilles. Her mother, sir, and step-father. He’s English. They live in the Isle of Wight. She has a half-brother, Richard, aged twenty-two, serving as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy.’

Ferguson lit a cigar and sat behind the desk. ‘I’ve met women, Harry, and so have you, of beauty and considerable distinction, but Gabrielle is something special. For a woman like that, only a special man will do.’

‘I think we’re fresh out of those this year, sir,’ Fox said.

‘We usually are, Harry. We usually are. Now let’s go through the Foreign Office tray.’ Ferguson put on his half-moon spectacles.