By Staff Writer
INVERNESS — The Ministry of Information confirmed yesterday that an inquiry has been opened into Dame Ceryl of Cullerton, following allegations that she exerted improper influence upon the Prime Minister in connection with the controversial appointment of Henry Hugenaut as Commissioner of Land and Water Resources.
According to senior sources within Parliament, Dame Ceryl, long regarded as one of the capital’s more persuasive hostesses, is suspected of using “personal familiarity and strategic persuasion” to advance Mr Hugenaut’s nomination despite his chequered record and well-publicized industrial interests. The investigation, described as “preliminary but vigorous,” will examine correspondence between the Dame’s Cullerton estate and several ministerial offices in the weeks preceding the appointment.
The Prime Minister’s Press Office issued a short statement insisting that “no improper pressure was brought to bear” and that all appointments are made “on merit and with the full confidence of the Crown.” Yet the political atmosphere in Inverness has grown restive, with whispers that the affair reaches well beyond mere patronage.
Old Flames and Red Shadows
Dame Ceryl’s name has circulated for years in connection with the Socialist Party of Eyehasseen, the subversive movement proscribed by Royal Proclamation of His Majesty King Edmund two decades ago. The Socialist Party, whose slogans once promised “Equality Through Upheaval,” was driven underground after investigators linked its members to both the Bombing of Market Square and the Great Fire of ’09, which left more than a hundred citizens homeless and sent tremors through the royal capital.
While Dame Ceryl has never been formally charged with affiliation, records suggest she has accepted funds from sympathizers and, on more than one occasion, retained Socialist-aligned enforcers as a personal security detail during public appearances. Her defenders claim the accusations are little more than “political embroidery,” designed to weaken a woman of independence who has long irritated the government with her unpredictable alliances.
“Dame Ceryl has merely advocated for land reform and fair treatment of the working classes,” said one associate, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If that makes her a Socialist, then half the Kingdom is guilty.”
Others are less forgiving. “Where the Dame walks, conspiracies follow,” remarked Lord Bramwell Trent, a senior member of the Privy Council. “She toys with the Kingdom’s stability as if it were a bauble at her supper table.”
A Patroness of the Powerful
Once celebrated for her philanthropy and her fashionable salons on Chancellor’s Row, Dame Ceryl’s reputation has waned in recent years. Her Cullerton estate has become a gathering place for intellectuals, reformers, and the occasional exile—figures whose devotion to the Crown is, at best, tepid. Sources within the Constabulary say she remains “under discreet observation,” though no formal surveillance order has been issued.
As for Mr Hugenaut, the newly appointed Commissioner, he declined to comment on his alleged benefactress, telling reporters only that “I am indebted to no one but the people of Eyehasseen.” Few were persuaded.
Meanwhile, protests over his appointment continue outside Government Row, where demonstrators carry signs reading “Cullerton Controls the Cabinet” and “No More Red Hands in the Treasury.”
Whether Dame Ceryl’s influence truly reaches into the Prime Minister’s office—or whether she has become a convenient scapegoat for the government’s missteps—remains uncertain. What is clear is that the shadow of the banned Socialist Party still stretches long across the Kingdom’s public life, and that the name Cullerton once again drips from the tongues of politicians like a taste both bitter and dangerous.