“He didn’t have to. Mostly, his job is to find us and then call in the Uboats. Only, with most merchant ships being barely capable of token resistance, the Focke-Wulf crews are getting overconfident. I doubt he was expecting the volume of fire we put up. Now he’s going back to doing what he was supposed to.”
“U-boats.” Beaumont spoke the words as if they were a curse. “They’re waiting for us.”
“They’re trying.” Stewart was less worried about them than the bomber. “But we’re holding 22 knots and that makes us a hard target. The bastards will be laying in wait, for sure. So, we’ll make their job a bit harder. We’ll swing north and that’ll take us clear of anybody that Kondor had called in.”
Stewart drummed his fingers on the bridge rail and thought for a second before giving out the new helm orders. He had to swing far enough north to take his ship clear of any U-boats in ambush positions, yet not so far north he would delay their transit to Canada any more than absolutely essential. He made another decision.
“Increase revolutions for 24 knots.”
“How did things ever come to this?” Lord Halifax looked at R.A. Butler with distress compounded by confusion. “Any hope that Winston would take his removal with good grace was asking far too much, but as a distinguished parliamentarian who knew and understood the rules, I thought he would take it on the chin and retire quietly. I was expecting a bare minimum of public cooperation at least, no matter how bitter he felt privately. But, first he disappears, and then turns up in Canada breathing fire and brimstone upon us.”
“What did you expect from a half-breed American whose main support is that of inefficient but talkative people of a similar type?” Butler nearly snarled the comment out. His antipathy, bordering on hatred, for Churchill was well-known. He had wanted Churchill arrested after the coup, but cooler and wiser heads had intervened. They had pointed out that Halifax and Butler had absolutely no grounds for arresting him other than that he had been on the wrong side of a party coup, and any attempt at an arrest would have alienated their support base. To arrest a man over a philosophical and policy disagreement was just not done. Churchill’s continued presence in the House would have been awkward for all concerned certainly, but not anything that would justify detention or any breech of a very prominent person’s civil liberties.
It had seemed such a good idea to distract Churchill by throwing out a rumor that his life was in danger should he return to London. Butler had always known that they had to keep Churchill away from a microphone for the critical hours after the coup. Support for the new government was just one cracking good Churchillian speech away from wavering and a couple of Beaverbrook editorials wouldn’t have helped either. How could we have known he would take that threat seriously? Butler asked himself the question with a frustrated snarl. Churchill had no reputation for cowardice, or reticence. By fleeing the way he did, he made our threat real. His absence from London and public view raised as many, if not more, questions and doubt about the new regime than any stink he might have kicked in the normal course of events if he’d returned. People would have seen a degree of sour grapes and thwarted ambition/revenge in any counter-coup effort, and tuned them out to some degree. But his silence was deafening, the genitive undercurrents playing much less softly, and get swamped by events in any case.
Then he had turned up in Canada with rumors swirling of a daring escape, pursued by dark and mysterious agents of the coup. There had even been whispers that he had been taken on his way to a secret execution only to be rescued by a group of Scottish supporters and smuggled to safety. Instead of being delayed and entangled, he got away and formed a countergovernment in Canada. We got what we wanted, an unopposed assumption of power, but arriving in Canada the way he did has only confused Imperial opinion and given them another reason to delay and again withhold legitimacy from our Government. Damn the man.
“Silencing Churchill is our first priority.” Butler had one idea at least along those lines. It was an idea that his new National Security Service was well-placed to carry out, even though it seemed to take far longer to get things done than he had expected. “He must be made to cease his attacks upon us. We do have a tool for that purpose, one that might prove most effective.”
Halifax looked up. “And that is?”
“When Winston cut and ran, he left his family behind. Lady Clementine and the children. I have instructed the Security Service to detain them. We can make it clear to Winston that the treatment of his wife and children will be determined by his conduct while in Canada. We can make the conditions of their detention sufficiently arduous to drive the point home.”
There was a long silence while Halifax stared at Butler, his expression one of total disbelief. Eventually, when Halifax spoke, his voice was quiet and passionless.
“Are you completely out of your mind? Has your distaste for Winston driven every vestige of common sense from your wits? What you suggest is foolish beyond measure. I can think of nothing that would damage the standing or stability of our government more than the course of action you so lightly suggest. Even if that consideration did not apply, your proposal is reprehensible. You say you have issued orders for the detention of Lady Clementine and the children?”
“Yes, although….”
“Then we must pray that the time is not already too late. Your Permanent Secretary is available?”
“Arnold Robins? He is outside.” Butler was slightly bewildered at the sudden change in the atmosphere and the way Halifax had changed from a weak and pliant tool to a real authority figure.
“Send him in. Immediately.”
Robins must have been waiting in the anteroom, for his appearance was delayed by only a few seconds. Halifax took the time to calm down and swallow his outrage at Butler’s suggestion. When he arrived, Robins had a look of distinct concern on his face.
“Robins, I understand you were given instructions to order the detention of Lady Clementine Spencer-Churchill and her children. Have these instructions yet been issued?”
“Prime Minister, in view of the somewhat nebulous and inexplicit nature appertaining to the remit of the National Security Service and the arguably marginal and peripheral nature the subject of the instructions we have been given has to the political security of the realm, it was believed that the central deliberations and decisions that would result in the issue of the instructions in question would benefit from legal consultation as to their accommodation within the political process and that there could be a case for re-structuring the nature of the contemplated actions in such a way as to eliminate them from the immediate agenda pending a clarification of the responsibilities of the Service with regard to the population at large.”
Halifax relaxed. “Thank God for that. Robins, you will take personal responsibility for ensuring that the safety of Lady Clementine Spencer-Churchill and her family and placing them on a suitable means of conveyance to Canada. You will confirm to me in person when these instructions have been fulfilled. Now, leave us.”
Once the room was clear, Halifax returned his attention to Butler. “There is a time and a place for the adoption of dark methods, Richard: when the security of the realm is at stake and we are obliged to take that path in the cause of the greater good. Even then, we should regard that path as a last resort. Bear that in mind when you undertake actions on behalf of this Government.”