Political Death Read Online Free PDF

incoming Labour Prime Minister. One of the others was thirty-one-year-old Burgo Smyth: he lost his seat, and was able to disappear out of the public eye for the next five or six years until he regained it in 1970. For an MP who had been a key witness in an official secrets case, there was a positive benefit to this obscurity.
    The Faber Secrets Case! What a sinister, baffling affair it had been, thought Jemima. And the disappearance of Franklyn Faber his presumed suicide at such a dramatic moment in his trial meant that it would never be utterly resolved despite many books written on the subject (and programmes like her own). Had Franklyn Faber really passed on that secret list of armaments for money as the prosecution alleged? Or had he done so for idealistic reasons as the defence firmly stated? Just why did he kill himself- if indeed he had? His friendship with Burgo Smyth, going back to Oxford days when Franklyn Faber had been an Oxford scholar, now what was the truth of that?
    Jemima poured herself another glass of Chardonnay; somehow the bottle was emptying itself remarkably quickly, as though there were an invisible but drinking ghost beside her. Or perhaps just the spirit of Lady Imogen hovering over her Diary, no mean drinker she, determined to inject her presence into the Faber Mystery even at this late date. In all this, the name of Imogen Swain had never, so far as she knew, appeared. Yet here she was holding in her hand the Diary (with its chic initials) which purported to tell the truth of it all... Or rather one of the Diaries. She had left the others in Hippodrome Square for another occasion, and those letters on their House of Commons' writing paper as well.
    Time to begin. It seemed appropriate enough, since she was to read of a woman's passion for a younger man, to put on the first act of Der Rosenkavalier. As Jemima began to read Imogen Swain's sprawling black handwriting, the sensual post-coital music of the Marschallin and Oktavian (Lotte Lehmann and Sena Jurinac, restored to life by CD) filled the flat. It was music which Ned also loved... But it didn't do to think about that... The first entry in the Diary was fairly short. But for Imogen Swain and Burgo Smyth at this stormy moment in their lives, the background of Der Rosenkavalier did indeed seem well chosen.
    "February 3. Bur came round after vote. We had cocoa for hours. Then more cocoa. Bur wonderful. Ecstasy etc. (Tee in country, good)."
    Cocoa? Ecstasy from cocoa? Ah yes, lovers' code. All lovers had them. To Jemima, Lady Imogen's code had something rather pathetic about it, nursery talk. However, what would Lady Imogen make of her, Jemima's code... Let that thought drop too and back to the Diary.
    "Made stupid scene when he said he had to go. Said stupid things. Me: "You don't like me as much. I'm getting old. " Cried. Bur: "I've never loved anyone like I love you. Just remember that. " More cocoa. Ecstasy.
    "Bur really had to go. In court tomorrow. Will get me a ticket but better if I go with Su. Girl/fiends more respectable. All that about F.F. is awful. Poor Bur. But can't worry too much when we're so happy. He's never loved anyone like me, not Tee, not anyone.
    Tee. That's just because he thought an MP should be married. I'm the first woman he's ever really loved. He never understood about loving women before he loved me. His shady past as we call it!" Jemima skipped quickly over a less ardent day.
    "Talk to Nanny about Mill and The Lies. Mill tells lies, then gets furious if she's caught out. N says Mill "a little show-off". Always wanting attention. Mill jealous of poor baby Ol, always so good and sweet, never any trouble. Even when Ol has one of her black clouds, she just doesn 't speak. How unlike Mill! Me: "Well, Nanny, give her plenty of attention then she won't tell lies." So that was how an actress was born, thought Jemima, out of a neglectful mother and an unpleasant Nanny, to say nothing of a jealous older sister