Your Royal Hostage Read Free

final signal for the disbanding of the group.
    The others watched him go and remained silent. It was against the rules for anyone to speak to anyone else once the meeting was over, except for Chicken and Pussy, who used their agreed cover as a couple of middle-aged ladies to continue to chat.
    In this way it was not breaking the rules, only breaking the spirit of them, for Pussy to remark aloud to Chicken in a small defiant voice: 'I still think I'm right. Of course she's guilty. Youth is simply no excuse.'

CHAPTER TWO
    No One To Blame But Herself
    princess: wedding scare : Jemima Shore was relieved to find that headline in the Standard which she bought at Tottenham Court Road Tube station. She did not bother to read any further. Another made-up tale about these tiresome nuptials. All the headline meant to Jemima was that the story, her story, was not yet out.
    For Jemima Shore Investigator had just been sacked by Megalith Television. That was the plain truth of the matter, however much lawyers, spokespersons and purveyors of official statements might attempt later to wrap it up, for one reason or another. Undoubtedly Jemima Shore, the star reporter of Megalith, was News (much as Princess Amy getting married was News). Television companies like Megalith were also on the whole News, especially when enjoyable things were taking place, like management coups, or the arrival of so-called hard-faced businessmen and the abrupt disappearance of household names from the company's employment - household faces might be a better phrase under the circumstances. The combination was liable to prove irresistible to the Press: thus Jemima was under no illusions but that her peremptory dismissal would make the headlines when it emerged.
    By the time the train reached Holland Park station, however, Jemima was wondering just why she had been relieved not to find the story in the Standard lunchtime edition. It was after all merely postponing the evil hour. The story had to come out sooner or later. So she bought t he late edition from the wooden booth outside the station just to show that she could face it, whatever it contained; it also occurred to her that her flat in Holland Park Mansions might by now be ringed by Press and though that too had to be faced, it was just as well to be warned.
    princess: wedding scare had now been moved to second place in the Standard but there was still no sign of the headline she expected. What form would it take? Could she expect something as mild as jemima quits ? Unlikely. Fleet Street had its sources inside Megalith as well as everywhere else. tv star 'sacked' was the best she could hope for, the inverted commas round the word 'sacked' being a delicate protection against the possibility of Jemima suing them just in case the story was not true.
    But the story was true. Jemima Shore spared a wry thought for Cy Fredericks, the recentl y departed Chairman of Megalith Telev ision. O Cy, O Tempora, O Mores, O Cy, O Cy's mores  which were not always absolutely open to ruthless inspection. Yet in spite of this, Jemima could not rid herself of a certain fondness for her former Chairman, despite the manner of his abrupt departure from the board which had led indirectly to her own dismissal. It was a dismissal brought about directly by Jemima's public declarations of loyalty for Cy. In short, as the hard-faced businessman had pointed out, more in sorrow than in anger (for he had studied Jemima's ratings on the eve of the interview) Jemima had no one to blame but herself.
    One way and another, Jemima was inclined to agree with that verdict. Why on earth had she agreed to speak up for Cy - at his own urgent request - without paying more attention to the dark, and not-so-dark hints dropped by his knowledgeable secretary Miss Lewis on the subject of Cy's future plans? She had even told the board that she would not continue to work for Megalith if Cy was ousted, believing Cy when he assured her that this was purely a