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Sarah nudged Abi on the arm. “Hey, some of us have morals, you know.”
Abi leaned into Sarah’s arm. “I wasn’t talking about you.”
“Why don’t you come to Todmorden for the weekend? I’ll be there Friday evening. We could have a girls’ weekend. You can help me on Saturday, and we can do something fun together on Sunday. I have to be in London all next week for the voting.”
“Reece is playing rugby on Saturday.”
“There we go then. What do you say?”
Abi nodded. “I might put round houses in my village. They’re more energy efficient.”
“Great idea. If you draw out the plan, we can make a scale model over the weekend. I’ll get my assistant to buy the materials.”
Abi frowned.
“What is it?”
“Can we go and get the materials, together?”
Sarah stroked Abi’s hair. God, how much she loved her. “Of course we can. We’ll go to the craft shop first thing on Saturday.” Sarah smiled when Abi’s face lit up. “I love you, Abs. Never forget that.”
Abi started to draw. “I know. And, Mum?”
“Yes.”
“I love you too.”
Sarah’s heart warmed. She took her drink and joined her father and their other guests in the living room.
“Hello, darling.” Her dad kissed her on the cheek. “How’s the future PM doing?”
Sarah rolled her eyes. Her father sat more to the left in his day, and she’d lived with his consistent belief in her bright future. At five, she knew all the historical leaders and their ideals. By ten, she’d written out her own. Her father had tested and challenged her on them until they were robust under a range of economic conditions. There was a hint of arrogance to her parents’ way of thinking, a certainty not backed by hard data but by unwavering belief in principles, and while she didn’t align with all their beliefs, there was something reassuring about being surrounded by people who couldn’t be swayed easily. In her moments of doubt, which had been many over the years, her parents had always been behind her. Her father could pull strings within the party, and he would whether she asked him to or not, and her husband’s business buddies were happy to support the funding of her campaign. She was blessed, but that came with a niggling pressure. She didn’t want to let any of them down, yet she felt, as she had with her children, she might do exactly that if she didn’t get voted in.
“There’s still a way to go, Dad,” she said, trying to calm his enthusiasm.
He waved her off. “Nonsense, darling. It’s a forgone conclusion. You’ll pick up the left and centre votes. Richard is all bluff and thunder, and he’s out of touch with reality. People want a woman in the hot seat now, and they want someone who represents the future, not the past. It’s our duty as politicians to represent our people. And that person, my darling daughter, is you.” He kissed her again and put his arm around his wife’s waist. “Your mum and I are so proud of you.
“Yes, darling, we are.” Her mum smiled. “Who’d have thought it? My little girl leading the country.”
“Never doubted it for a second, my love,” her dad said.
“You’re gonna win, Mum,” Reece said.
He sipped from a half-filled glass of champagne. He was so like his father. His athletic physique, his quick brain, his penchant for spending money and, thankfully, making it. She could easily see him in politics one day, though she doubted he’d go down that route. His aim was to be a millionaire by the age of twenty. He’d already designed a crowdfunding site for new tech ideas to support business workflow processes. It was a loss leader, costing them more to put together than he was ever likely to make, but it was helping him learn the art behind developing a sound business, and that was more important at his age. He would hit on the right venture at some point, she was sure of it. She frowned at Mark for allowing him to drink alcohol, then smiled at Reece who had lifted his glass in a toast to her. He had Mark’s charm too. She loved them both. “Right, lecture over, you lot. I’ve got work to do.”
Mark raised his glass to her. “That’s our girl,” he said.
“Give over.” Sarah waved them off and headed to her study. She would check that they could get the craft stuff they needed in the shop and if not, order some online so it would be there in time. Then she had a mound of paperwork to go through and needed to check the itinerary that Kendra had given her, so she was confident nothing had been missed. This visit needed to run smoothly, and she had to keep her face in the news in the lead-up to the vote next month. It was hard to believe this was really happening, hard to look too far ahead without getting overexcited. She had to keep her cool and not succumb to emotion or flattery. She had to win.
6.
AREPORTER AT THEfront of the small crowd shoved a microphone towards Sarah’s face. “If you lead the party, Ms Thompson, are you going to address your environmental policies?”
Kendra didn’t often rise to anger quickly, but she wanted to punch the smile off the guy’s face. Their party’s policies weren’t perfect, but they were stronger than the current government. It wasn’t the first annoying question of the day though, with reporters trying to steer the conversation away from the work achieved by the three projects they’d visited and onto the bigger topic of what Sarah Thompson would do for the country moving forwards. The combination of the smug look on his face and the fatigue she saw in Sarah’s expression, plus her own exhaustion after what felt like a whirlwind day, had Kendra’s blood boiling. She moved towards him and held up her hand, marshalling the reporter away, though it wasn’t strictly her job to intervene.
“It’s okay, Kendra. Yes, I intend to review our policies should I be fortunate enough to win the vote of my colleagues and the next election.”
“So, your party would put an end to fracking once and for all, and stop investing in easy projects to showcase a lame impact on the environment? Projects like the ones you’ve visited today, for example. Instead, wouldn’t it be more worthy to redirect funding into the conservation of our inner-city wildlife habitats and stopping industry ripping the guts out of our greenbelt areas?”
