Chapter 3

The letter arrived next Thursday, inviting me to join Furnival Street Chambers as the newest member. The following Monday I was thrown into a maelstrom. Harry showed me to a large office with some six desks crammed together. "This will be your office, sir, Make yourself at home. I have a couple of briefs for you which are in court tomorrow, after that there are a few which I am sure you can handle." He put two bundles of files, secured with pink ribbon on the desk. He pointed to the top bundle "This one, sir is pleading, so all you will have to do is mitigation and clemency. The other is going for 'not guilty'. However my sources tell me he is bang to rights. Do your best but don't expect to win. I'll send one of the junior clerks in with coffee." After asking how I liked my coffee he was gone.

If I expected to be left alone to read the briefs and understand them, I was wrong. Interruptions were endemic. As juniors and barristers came in they all made their way to welcome me and then elicit as much background as possible. The Silks did not bother as they; it would seem inhabited a different world. The only times I had conversation with them was when they needed someone to do some research for them. Time that took me away from my own work and was never acknowledged. Often I would have to consult one of the many books on law. Over time, a barrister will create their own libraries of the publications with reference to their speciality. It is a costly process as most of these books, which do not have a huge print run, can be very expensive. Much of my time was spent pleading to borrow one or any of these books in order to complete my research.

Knowing I would appear in two cases at court was one thing. At what time these cases will be called was another problem. The Court Organisational Officer, usually called the listing officer was a prime source of information. "Mr. Marston, you will be on in Court two quite early. However, I doubt that Regina versus Hathaway will not get on until the afternoon. Of course that does depend on how quickly His Lordship deals with previous cases. We only need a couple of adjournments to kick the timetable completely out. If I were you, Mr. Marston I wouldn't leave the precincts of the court, just in case."

My first case was not exceptional except for the introduction. The prosecution counsel introduces the case to the Judge and then introduces those who would argue the case. Hearing the words 'My learned friend, Mr. Marston appears for the defence.' brought butterflies to my stomach. As the accused was pleading guilty, all I had to do was plead in mitigation and urge the court to clemency. I had a meeting with the prisoner in his cell just before the hearing and was able to bring into court some of his circumstances. He got two years when the tariff for the offence was anything up to five years. I was quietly pleased until I realised that he had received the discount for his guilty plea. Not as good as I thought.

Mr. Hathaway was as Harry had suggested guilty. I managed to trap the prosecution with a couple of points; pyrrhic victories for in reality I could do little except after the guilty verdict make an impassioned plea for clemency. His Lordship smiled kindly at my rhetoric but ignored it. Three years! Not the longest he could get for receiving but neither the least. At least at the end of the day I had earned my first fees as a barrister. Upon my return to chambers, I found two more briefs on my desk. One for assault and the other for theft. I would be defending them both.

Chrissie was always interested in my work always asking questions about cases until she decided that she had humoured me enough and would then tell me how her, her mother and my mother's plans for the wedding were coming to fruition. I thought that as a date had not been decided her plans were premature, but no! "Clem there is so much to be decided that getting it sorted now will make the rest of the arrangements much easier." I would counter that until my practice was solid my getting a mortgage would be improbable. Then of course we would need to save for the deposit. "That's ok, Clem." She declared. "I have enough in savings for that." Talk about bombshell, my jaw must have dropped in astonishment. Chrissie laughed at my expression. "I have been saving for six years, Clem. Ever since that holiday in Newquay. I decided then that we would get married."

"Do you not think that I should be a party to that decision?" I enquired casually.

She looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. "Yes, you were. It's just that you took a lot longer to come to your decision." We were sitting on the settee in her parents' house at the time. We were no longer supervised. Chrissie turned so her back was to me, she relaxed back so I supported her. Then she took my hand and guided it to her breast. She sighed. "I do so love it when you touch my breast."

"I do too." I agreed.

"Clem, if you think my heart is beating faster it's because I just had this thought of you and I in bed together naked. I get all quivery when I think of that."

"So do I. But my reaction is not quite the same."

"I know. I can feel you on my back."

After six years together, we knew each other quite well. We had kissed and caressed yet had not 'gone all the way'. In many ways, it was the attitude of the time. Contraception was not easy in the early sixties. The pill was available, but no family doctor would write that prescription for an unmarried girl. It took a Parliamentary debate to change that, even then, some doctors would still refuse to prescribe. It wasn't as if Chrissie and I longed to have that full relationship, it was more that she knew that her mother would know, just by looking at her. Within minutes, her father would know and Chrissie would have been distraught to see the hurt on her father's face. Ergo we remained almost chaste.

As months went by, I eased into my profession, learning by hard-earned experience how to do my job. It is unfair but true that the client pays the price of a barrister's inexperience and mistakes. The barrister is chastened but is still paid. Life isn't fair! I learned, listened, and became competent. I would never be one of those dramatic barristers who commanded the court with grand gestures and high-flown rhetoric. Nor would I be one of those barristers who would intimidate a witness with quick-fire questions not allowing the target of this ambuscade to think logically. Indeed, I always thought that type of barrister was desperate to get something out of a weak case. My attention was in the details, highlighting any slight discrepancies in the prosecution's case and luckily, often enough put into the jurors collective mind the possibility of a conviction being unsafe. It worked and over time, it seemed that I was seen as a safe pair of hands. Confirmation of this came when Andrew Renton Q.C. one of the silks in our chambers asked me to be his junior in a high profile murder case. This propelled me from fifty pounds a brief into the heady realm of three hundred a day. Silks can get away with almost anything in the court. Andrew asked one of our defence witnesses a leading question. Of course, the prosecution objected and his Lordship admonished Andrew who apologised profusely. He went on to ask the same question properly. The witness replied exactly as Andrew had indicated with his previous question. The judge knew what he had done, the prosecution knew what he had done as did I. The jury were unaware. I smiled inwardly as I am sure did the judge and the prosecution barrister.

The case went on for ten days and I pocketed three thousand pounds less commission for Harry and other expenses such as rent for my desk in the chambers. However as we had won the case it gave me a higher profile and the opportunity to appear in bigger and more involved cases, consequently my income received a much needed increment. With that, I decided that this long engagement with Chrissie should culminate with a marriage.

Mr. Ames, of course was aware of my earnings. He took his position seriously and not a word was ever slipped to Chrissie or Mrs. Ames. I took him to one side and suggested that I could now afford a mortgage. He nodded wisely. "Yes Clement How much do you think you can afford on a monthly basis?" I mentioned a figure and he looked surprised. "I would think that you can do a little better than that." He then explained how much I could borrow and what the repayments would be. "I know your income will vary and your estimate errs on the safe side. I can get you a good mortgage at a slightly reduced rate. Banks and Building Societies work hand in hand you know." He then scribbled some figures on paper and eventually told me. "I think you can afford that." The figure he had written down was much higher than I envisaged.

"Right." I said. "Well I will have to start approaching some building society's to see if they will accommodate me."

"Don't worry about it. I can guarantee you a loan with the Midshires. The Area Manager was in the other day to see me and I mentioned this as a possibility. He said yes. Go and see Christine and start looking for a home. Oh! Do me a favour and put her mother out of her misery by setting a date for the wedding."

The date was set for six weeks. We found a rather nice house that would suit us down to the ground. Three big bedrooms, a bathroom en-suite with the main bedroom (we, in the UK had not yet fallen into the habit of calling the main bedroom the master bedroom). It had one large room downstairs running through from the front to the back, and a large kitchen with a dining area. From my point of view, it had one drawback, a large garden. I was not a gardener, I enjoyed looking at gardens but spending hours working in one was not my idea of fun. Chrissie loved it declaring that it would be the perfect place for our children to play. My mind asked a question. What children? We hadn't discussed that. However, the delight on her face upon seeing the house put paid to any drawbacks I could see. We could move in two weeks after our wedding, which was perfect.

Back at the chambers, I was informed that almost everybody in chambers would be coming to my wedding. Melvin Askwith without a blush of shame declared that despite my not sending them invitations they would be there. He then asked why I had not invited them. "I'm sorry, Melvin. I thought as one of the most junior members no one would accept. My mother in law to be is being quite strict on numbers considering the cost."