I sat him down. I wanted to talk to him anyway, about the Bath trip, but I let him go first. ‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ he said, not meeting my eyes… ‘Last night, Roland called the three of us – me, Anne and Helen, to an impromptu meeting. He said he was very worried, because of your family problems.’ Now, he did look up. ‘He said he doubted your ability to lead the team effectively in the circumstances and asked us what we thought we should do about it.’ And that wasn’t all. When Anne had asked him what family problems, he’d apparently told them that my divorce had just got very nasty, with a maintenance battle over my daughter… not to mention an ongoing quarrel with my father-in-law. As Tim told me this, I felt my heart pound at my head and the blood flush through my face… I felt so full of bile I thought I’d be sick… ‘What was the reaction?’ I managed after a moment. ‘We agreed to think about it.
