Chapter 10: Henry’s Initiation

Henry still wasn’t used to being called in to see Julia in what had been his old office. It wasn’t quite that he resented the fact that he had been displaced but it still felt strange. Even so, he tried not to show the fact. “You wanted to see me, Ms Fain,” he said as she looked up in response to his knock on her door.

Julia had spent quite a while thinking about this encounter. She had chosen her outfit deliberately to set the right tone with Henry and, while it lacked the dramatic impact of Raven Courten’s more extreme couture, her charcoal grey tailored suit, starched, pin-tuck-front, yellow shirt and yellow patent leather heels seemed to have the right effect on Henry as he took in her appearance as he entered.

She hadn’t been looking forward to the meeting. She was worried about what Henry’s reaction might be and how she was going to deal with it if he was resistant to her proposal. It was all very well for Raven to say – as she had – ‘just grit your teeth and go for it’ but Julia was used to taking a more indirect approach to getting what she wanted and this time there didn’t seem to be an indirect route available.

“I need to talk to you about sponsorship,” she announced.

“Of course, Ms Fain,” Henry responded. “I can get the latest figures on take up from the files if you need them.”

Julia admired Henry’s willingness to help in whatever way he could but she was irritated by his mistaken idea that she was about to embark on some general policy discussion. “No,” she said. “That’s not needed. This is about you. It’s about your current unsponsored status,” she could see that Henry was looking uncomfortable at the turn the discussion was taking, “Sylvia has made the point to me that it was rather difficult to persuade younger members of the department’s staff to accept sponsorship when the once-head-of-the-department is himself avoiding it.”

“But I haven’t been avoiding it...”

“But you haven’t got a sponsor, have you?”

“Well no...”

“No. Well, it can’t go on. The good news for you is that I’m in the minister’s black books too. It seems the Minister is quite unhappy that one of her team cannot be seen to be fully supporting Government policy. And I think it was you that told me that a Permanent Secretary should do all they can to ensure the minister has confidence in the advice that they give.”

Henry was looking more uncomfortable. Julia was right about the advice he had given her.

“So, I have decided to resolve my position by taking a male into sponsorship and unless you have any alternative proposal I have decided that will be you.”

“But I thought you said your accommodation wasn’t suitable.”

“That’s been resolved.”

“And there’s the work I’m doing for Ms Courten.”

“That’s been resolved too.”

“Oh.”

“As you can see.” Henry looked puzzled. Julia got to her feet and walked around to where Henry was standing. She pointed to her ankle where a key hung from a slim silver chain. It was clear from Henry’s expression he realised what it was. “Don’t you think you ought to have a close look,” Julia said, playfully, realising perhaps for the first time, that she might find this exercise more fun than she had imagined. “It would be just awful if Ms Courten had given me the wrong one, wouldn’t it.”

Embarrassed, Henry got to his knees and bent down to get a close look. Sure enough the key had the word ‘Bunny’ engraved on it. He looked up at Julia. “So does this mean...”

“I don’t know what it means yet,” Julia said, cutting him off. “We’ll have to see how it works out. You’ll be moving in to my apartment in Pepper Wharf, though. And I’ll need your ident card so I can register your sponsorship. That is unless you have other plans? Be warned though, those ‘other plans’ had better involve an alternative sponsor or Sylvia is going to be very unhappy indeed.”

“No,” said Henry, “I don’t have other plans.” He didn’t want to contemplate a very unhappy Sylvia or the problems that a man of his age might face in the current job market. And besides, if he was to have a sponsor, why shouldn’t it be the one he had fantasised about?

“Good,” said Julia, “that’s settled then. Now get up. We’ve got work to do. The Minister still needs to complete the paper on Ms Courten’s proposals and I think you were due to finish your research this morning, weren’t you?”

“Yes, err,” Henry paused for a moment uncertain what to call his new sponsor. In the end he opted for the least contentious alternative. “Yes, Ms Fain. I’ll get back to it now if I can.”

“That’s fine. Oh and by the way,” Julia reached into the drawer of her desk and pulled out a small pamphlet. “You’d better read up on this. I know you always like to have the rules and procedures for anything well organised.”