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‘Find a pub.’
‘I’m bursting.’
The old man sighs. ‘OK, make it quick.’
The housekeeper takes Evie inside as an ambulance steers onto the grass to allow the butcher’s van to pass. Lord Buchan is standing on the steps when he notices us. He seems to do a double take at the sight of Florence.
‘Who do we have here, Wallis?’ he asks.
‘They were just leaving,’ says Collie. ‘They were looking for a wedding venue.’
Buchan doesn’t respond. He is staring at me. ‘Have we met before?’
‘No.’
‘You look familiar. I’m very good with faces.’
‘I’ve met your brother,’ I say.
‘Did he send you?’
‘No.’
‘You’re not here about a wedding venue, are you?’
‘No.’
Collie interrupts, fuming. ‘Ah’ll see them out.’
Buchan waves him away. ‘Lock up the guns, Wallis, and make sure my guests are looked after.’
The paramedics are treating the wounded beater, who is sitting up on a stretcher. Lord Buchan turns back to me.
‘You have two minutes to explain yourself. Then I call the police.’
‘My name is Cyrus Haven. I’m a forensic psychologist who consults for Notts police. This is Florence Gatsi, a lawyer, who works for Migrant Rescue.’
‘My brother’s pet project,’ says Buchan. ‘How is the people trafficking trade? Enough deaths for you? Enough misery?’
‘We don’t cause the deaths,’ says Florence.
‘You encourage people to come.’
‘We make it safer.’
‘Safer,’ he says, laughing without closing his eyes. ‘The safest choice might be to stay at home, or to apply for asylum in the first safe country they enter.’
‘The 1951 Refugee Convention does not require a person to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach,’ says Florence.
‘The Refugee Convention is no longer fit for purpose. It was written more than seventy years ago, in a different world, during the Cold War. The Soviet Union is no more. Refugees are coming from across the globe. And most of them are economic migrants, not fleeing persecution.’
‘Next you’ll tell me that Britain is full?’
‘No. We have the space but not the infrastructure and the services. And the majority of people in this country feel that we’re full.’
‘Because that’s what you tell them.’
‘On the contrary. They see the queues, the surgery waiting lists, the lack of housing, the soaring rents, the congestion . . .’ Buchan has an eye for an opening – and here is an opportunity to sermonise. ‘Do you think it’s a good thing, Miss Gatsi, that so many people risk their lives trying to reach Britain in small boats?’
