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Alexia looked into his eyes and saw the confusion written there, the desperation. What are you doing here, Billy? Don’t you understand? Toni’s dead. She died years ago. I’m Alexia now, a new person, a phoenix risen from the ashes of a ruined life. I can’t let you drag me back there!
“Let go of me.”
“I know you’re busy.” Tears welled in Billy Hamlin’s eyes. “But this is important. It’s life or death. My daughter’s in terrible danger.”
“Step back please, sir.” Finally, a policeman managed to pull Billy away. Dizzy with relief, Alexia almost fainted. Thankfully Sir Edward Manning reappeared just in time, grabbing Alexia’s hand and helping her through the gate and into the building.
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p; “Are you all right, Home Secretary?”
Alexia nodded. She was still shaking. Through the closed door, she could hear Billy’s screams. Sir Edward Manning heard them too.
“Toni, please! It’s my daughter. My daughter! Why are you doing this? I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!”
They waited for the commotion to calm down and silence to fall. Then Sir Edward Manning said, “I think we need to talk, Home Secretary. Don’t you?”
They retreated to Alexia’s private office. Sir Edward Manning shut the door and locked it.
“That was him, wasn’t it? That was William Hamlin.”
Alexia nodded. “I think so. Yes.”
“He knew you. You knew each other.”
Alexia looked past Sir Edward out of the window. Two barges were making their stately way down the Thames, as leisurely and untroubled as a pair of drowsy swans.
This is reality. London, Parliament, my life with Teddy. The present.
I am Alexia De Vere. I am the home secretary of Great Britain.
The past is gone.
Only the past wasn’t gone. It was outside in Parliament Square, grabbing hold of her in broad daylight, demanding to be heard. It was threatening everything she had become, everything she had worked for.
“Home Secretary?” Sir Edward Manning disturbed her reverie. “What is your connection with William Hamlin?”
“We have no connection, Edward.”
“I don’t believe that, Home Secretary,” the civil servant said bluntly. “What you tell me will go no further than these four walls. But I need to know what’s going on. I can’t do my job otherwise.”
Alexia’s mind raced.
Should she trust him?
Did she have a choice?
“We knew one another slightly. As kids. That’s all. I haven’t laid eyes on Billy in almost forty years.”
“But you chose not to share this information with the police. Why?”
“Because I was born in the United States and grew up there. Nobody in this country knows that—not the media, not the party, not even personal friends—and I’d like it to stay that way.”
Sir Edward Manning took this in. It was quite a revelation. To have made it as far in public life as Alexia De Vere, and to have successfully concealed such a big piece of one’s past, was quite a feat.
“May I ask why you chose to conceal this, Home Secretary? After all, being American is hardly a crime.”
“Indeed. But I’m not American, Edward. I renounced my citizenship years ago, before I stood for Parliament. My whole adult life has been spent in this country and I consider myself completely English. Besides, I didn’t conceal anything. I’ve never been asked about my childhood other than in the most generic of ways. It’s never come up, that’s all.”
