For King and Country

Money Honey

*knock* *knock*

Madeleine pulled her dressing gown around herself as a cool breeze swept down the empty corridor.

Who was knocking at her door so late at night, a shiver of fear trembled down her spine, she steadied herself and opened her bedroom door, it was heavy with the tension of the moment.

So casual, he almost blended in with the floral wallpaper he was leaning against was the pathetic figure she recognised instantly. Madeleine drew a sigh of relief and then confusion furrowed her brow. 

'Is something the matter, Jim?' Madeleine asked, her mind already racing at the possibilities.

It was police officer Jim, she had just seen him guarding the front door to No.10 Downing Street earlier that night, she had barely spoken to him then. Maybe she should have stayed and looked through the comprehensive list of goings-on. 

Jim made no sound as he peeled himself away from the wall opposite her stepping towards her, Madeliene took a dainty step back into her room, this wasn't the Jim she had just seen something was different about him.

'Hullo,' Jim said, his voice seemed lower than usual. 

'It is late.' she reminded him. 

'I just came to say that I'm off shift now, I've swapped over, the door, I mean.'

Madeleine nodded.

'Ok... Thanks for letting me know Jim. Although I do understand the process. Was there anything else?' She looked along the corridor there were no other staff on this floor, she suddenly realised how easy it had been for Jim to just walk up here and knock on her door.

Madeleine was beginning to get irritated now, she was already tired she didn't need evasive policemen turning up at her bedroom door in the middle of the night.

'I missed you this summer.'

'Huh?' she said her hand gripping tighter on the door handle.

'I missed you.' Jim repeated

'Well, I'm back now, I suppose.' Madeleine glanced behind herself into the room for the emergency bell.   

'I want to kiss you now.'

Jim lurched forward.

Madeleine closed the door, she felt rather than heard his face squash into the hardwood. She took a deep breath and quickly reopened it to assess her next move, Jim was still reeling.

'Oops,' she said loudly, the last thing she needed to do was anger, Jim.

Jim lurched forward at her again now clutching his broken nose. Madeleine dodged out of the way effortlessly dripping him up as he came careening towards her. With a loud thump, he hit the floor face down blood splattering on what was a very old and expensive rug. She'd have to explain that to her housekeeper tomorrow.

Margaret Thatcher never had to deal with this s**t, she thought, as she straddled the concussed police officer and slipped his own cuffs out of his pocket attempting to bend his arms behind his back. Groggily he twisted his arms up as she wrapped the metal and plastic around him. 

'I love you, Maddie.' she heard him mumble against the carpet.

'Shut up Jim.' she told him

Carefully she stepped off him, he didn't seem very inclined to move, she leaned back down and sniffed him, he smelled of spirits a habit very unlike the Jim she thought she knew. 

Madeleine walked over and intercom'd downstairs, soon there were plenty of people on her floor dragging away the almost- lifeless body of Jim and helping her back into bed with a cup of tea and a police statement. 

The housekeeper was in an absolute state at having missed the whole event, Madeleine ended up having to explain what had happened three different times before she eventually grew far too sick of it. The on-duty WPO they sent had no regard for her sleep schedule and by the 30th question of 'what exactly happened?' Madeleine had been very tempted to drop kick her as well. 

Her bedroom eventually lessened as people left. She tried to assure them she did not want a scandal simply relocating Jim to being a Traffic Warden in a small village and some (plenty of) mandatory training would be more than enough. Frankly, she had more important things to worry about, a whole country (several countries) in fact. She didn't have time for the plight of one man to be all over the papers.

Madeleine pulled on her eye mask and turned over into her comfy double bed, now it was time for sleep. Godammit, she thumped the pillow, she just remembered the schedule Eric had given her before she left. She hated early morning starts, she hoped this bloody country would be grateful that she was losing so much beauty sleep for them. Madeleine reached over and set her alarm for four hours time, before launching herself back into bed. 

88888888888888888888888888 THE NEXT MORNING 888888888888888888888888888888

The sleek new look Madeleine was sporting was well worth the early morning call. The choppy bob was a fierce look that matched her dark red lipstick, people would just have to keep up with her new look. Madeleine moved to brush her hair off her shoulder and grinned when she realised it was gone.

Madeleine marched into Parliament her three-inch high heels clicking against the stone, it was quiet this early in the morning especially with Parliament not yet back in session. She had already sent messages on ahead, she had a determined look in her eye and she was ready to get to work. No one was stopping this bombshell.

The security guard who had been following her on her walk over from Westminster leaned against the entrance as she arrived. Madeleine had made no comment that it wasn't a police officer this morning but rather someone from GCHQ the government's security service, she decided she would let them sort out their own issues, she knew she could defend herself well enough.

Madeleine took the lift up to her office, briefly glancing inside her folder again, she had just enough time for this meeting before Eric arrived to hassle her again. 

The small office was sparse with staff, most of them weren't back from there summer vacation yet. Madeleine greeted her secretary warmly, Tanya had only been here three years and she was the most kind and loyal friend to Madeleine, she could be a bit ditzy and sometimes Madeleine wished she was more ambitious after all she had the brains to be more than her secretary, but Tanya was happy getting her tea. Which she helpfully handed to Madeleine now. 

She pushed open the door to a large meeting room. The walls were covered in a deep mahogany panelling, the floor was a lavish Turkish carpet the same deep red as the heavy velvet curtains. It was a little gauche really for a workspace, but it was the same traditional decor found throughout the Parliament Buildings.  Madeleine mostly ignored her surroundings and got one with the job at hand.

She took a seat in a high leather-backed chair at the head of the long table. 

Soon everyone would be arriving for her new policy meeting, she only felt slightly cruel for calling the Bank of England, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and several more ministers back early from their holidays. 

But hey, politicians are meant to serve the people not their tans, plus she really wanted to get this new idea rolling. 

Madeleine sat and paced her way through the comprehension, she had read most of it this morning during her hair appointment and also sent several follow up emails and phone calls during her autumn makeover, that she hadn't realised Eric had scheduled straight after. 

Madeleine's finger paused over the drought statistics for the summer, she couldn't solve climate change by herself, she could mediate some of the effects of course, but it was always a smaller problem hiding a much bigger problem. 

Madeleine looked up with a grin, she heard grumbling outside the large mahogany doors. Good! her ministers had arrived. 

She looked around the room, whilst she had been working Tanya had been in to set the meeting room with te and coffee and all the other accoutrements necessary for a meeting. They were all set for her presentation.

The Chancellor entered first, followed by his more amenable colleague the Head of the Bank of England, Mark,  and then various policy advisors and assistants, who would likely be the ones to do all the hard work soon enough.

'Welcome everybody, I have a new idea and I think you are all going to be very impressed.'

'This better be good, I could have been on my fourth margarita by now.' she heard her chancellor mutter. 

Madeleine rolled her eyes and aimed her laser pointer at the projector.

'Welcome to the future of money, honey.' she said shooting him a wink.

She watched the assistants furiously follow along in their notebooks as she explained the demonetization of the £50 note along with its relative non-impact on society. Madeleine had been especially impressed by the science experiment videos she had found online of copper coins melting away. 

The slides on the economic benefits were the dullest to sit through but she knew that's why the chancellor was here, this would be saving them a lot of money even if it would be erasing a significant amount of the Royal Mint.  

She finished up her presentation by explaining the benefits of reusing and uses of copper and new metal for train lines etc. and the correspondence she'd had with businesses that relied on copper, for example, 99p shops and how they would be willing to change their branding to £1 or 'budget' retail.

Madeleine passed her laser pointer to the Head of the Bank of England, Mark to lead the discussion. 

The door slid open, Madeleine glanced up and saw Tanya slip into the room, holding something tight to her chest. Madeleine followed her progress around the long table with only half-listening to the news report.

Tanya slipped a new cup of tea in front of her next to the cup she had yet to finish, as she was leaving a post-it note, fluttered artfully from Tanya's hand on to the desk. 

Tanya made no move to collect it but hurried away.

Smiling to herself at Tanya obvious attempts of deception Madeleine opened the folded note tidying it into her other papers. Madeleine recognised it immediately and it wasn't Tanya's handwriting; it meant he had been here and he had left a note for, a cryptic note, but one that didn't take much deciphering. 

Madeleine tightened her fist and turned her attention back to the meeting knowing that inside her palm lay;

A drawing of a crown 

2:30pm 

For now, she would just have to wait.