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“Why not? He appointed himself chairman while ere at Cedric’s funeral, so ouldn’t he rewrite the bank’s statutes if iton the board? Just because he’s a despicable man doesn’t ot a far bigger proble you on the home front”

“At Kaufman’s?”

“No, at Barrington’s I did warn your mother that if she allowed Desmond Mellor to become a director, it would end in tears He’s been on the board for four years, and I’m sure you know he noants to be deputy chairman”

“He couldn’tas et it”

“I agree, just so long as your mother is chairun to park his tanks on your front lawn?”

“What are you talking about?”

“If you read this ’s Financial Times, you’ll find tucked away under new appointments that Adrian Sloane has invited Mellor to becos Now you tell me, what do those two have in common?”

This silenced Seb for the first time

“An intense dislike of your family But don’t despair,” continued Ross, “you still have a card up your sleeve that he’ll find hard to trump”

“And what’s that?”

“Not what, who Beryl Hardcastle and her fifty-one percent of Farthings’ stock Beryl won’t consider signing any more documents sent by Sloane that haven’t been carefully scrutinized by her son first”

“So what do you advise?”

“Once you’ve got six percent of the bank’s stock, you can park your tank on Sloane’s front lawn and cause havoc”

“But if I were to get hold of Beryl Hardcastle’s fifty-one percent, I could park a whole army on Sloane’s front lawn, and he’d have no choice but to beat a hasty retreat”

“Nice idea, as long as you know someone with the odd twenty million pounds to spare”