Marge somehow managed to find her voice and act with a semblance of normality.‘Thank you, Finlay.I really appreciate your excellent service today.And I know Mr Manson’s family do too.’
‘We do,’ Bernadette added, and Marge noticed that she was slurring, just a little.Marge couldn’t tell if that was the alcohol or the shock of what she’d just told her.
Finlay wasn’t making any effort to leave them.‘I’m so pleased.Which brings me to a slight conundrum.Unfortunately, we have to get this room set up for another function this evening, but we still have a few guests here.’Marge saw that the medical students had now left, and Finlay was nodding to the one other occupied table in the room.‘But I don’t want to offend anyone, so I was just wondering what you would like to do about the ladies at the table over there?’
Marge and Bernadette both turned like synchronised swimmers, but without the bathing caps and the noseguards.Marge took in the attendees at the table.Diana Atkins, Murray Atkins’ ex-wife.Annabel Stevenson MSP.Danielle Strang, model and the face of the new Scottish Tourism campaign.And, weirdly, Lady Clara Kelaney, wife of Sir Lester Kelaney, was still sitting with them too, despite Sir Lester having apparently vacated the building.
Marge felt her pulse begin to race at the prospect of dealing with this situation, but evidently, Bernadette had no such qualms.Marge wasn’t sure if she was relieved or horrified when Bernadette stood up, glass in hand, and said, ‘Don’t worry, Finlay, I’ll deal with this.’
Relieved.Yes, she was definitely relieved.
Right up until Bernadette added, ‘Come on, Marge.Let’s get rid of all these bullshit secrets that have made fools of us for far too long.’
Marge wasn’t prone to indecisiveness or fear, but her legs felt slightly weak as she followed Bernadette across the room.And it wasn’t from the sherry.
As Bernadette approached the table, Marge saw her adopt a convivial smile.‘Ladies, I’m afraid the hotel manager is about to close the function suite and he’s asked us to clear the area.’
‘Oh.’That came from Annabel Stevenson, MSP, who was now glancing around her, as if realising for the first time that they were the last people in the room.‘I’m so sorry.We’ll leave straight away.Thank you very much for your hospitality and my condolences.Kenneth was a?—’
‘Please don’t say “wonderful man”,’ Bernadette countered, and Marge wondered if she might faint.In fact, yes.If ever she were going to faint, it should be now.
There was a perfectly understandable frozen silence, before a smile began to play on Annabel Stevenson’s lips.‘Then I won’t,’ she said, in a way that felt like there was a whole chapter and verse going unspoken.
‘He was a terrible man,’ Bernadette said, perfectly calmly.‘And I think you ladies around this table knew that.In fact, I think that was probably what you’ve been discussing for the last four hours.’
Oh jings.Marge sent a silent prayer to Kenneth to stop raging about his former wife and secretary’s antics and arrange for an immediate fire alarm in this room.
It didn’t come.And Bernadette was still speaking.
‘Annabel, if I remember correctly, you learned what a scoundrel he was sometime around 2006 – in Venice, if I remember correctly.And, Danielle, you became familiar with his complete lack of scruples around 2011.’
Marge had never seen such a rapt audience of so many chins drop at the same time.And the only reason her own hadn’t fallen was because her lips were pursed in absolute terror as to what Bernadette might blurt out next.
‘Diana, I’m not sure when you succumbed to his charms, but I do know that it caused a temporary rift between Kenneth and your former husband.’Bernadette glanced around.‘Who, if I’m not mistaken, left here today with Kenneth’s former mistress.Well, isn’t it a small, incestuous world when it comes to all those arrogant, duplicitous arses.’
No response.Just frozen faces and not because there was a generous amount of Botox on display.
‘Lady Kelaney… Clara, since we’re all friends here… I wasn’t aware that you had a connection to my ex-husband, other than the fact that he was utterly sycophantic to Sir Lester and viewed him as the perfect ladder for social climbing.’
Marge gasped, now positive that the shock of this might kill her.
Lady Kelaney was the first one to come back with a response.‘I can assure you, I had no intimate knowledge of Kenneth’s… habits.But I don’t disagree with your assessment.In fact, I find it quite wonderfully refreshing.’
The fact that it was said with a cut-glass accent made it all the more shocking.This was Charles, Diana and Camilla level antics.
‘Glad to hear it.I’d hate to think I missed one.So, ladies, where does that leave us all then?’
Annabel Stevenson, probably aware that this situation had the potential for a public scandal that could seriously damage her political career, was the next one to find her voice.
‘Without confirming or denying, given that you have approached us with these allegations, perhaps we should ask you that question – where do you think that leaves us?’
Bernadette turned to Marge.She was definitely going to faint.Was Bernadette about to expose what Marge had just told her?
‘Where do you think, Marge?Where does that leave us?’
Even if Marge had a megaphone, she wouldn’t have been able to make a sound.
Thankfully, it was apparently a hypothetical question, because Bernadette turned her attention back to the ladies.
