Robin Harte and Kit Harte

Robin Harte and Kit Harte are half-brothers whose alliance in a plot against their mother, Emma Harte, transforms their longstanding distance into a partnership of convenience. They agree to wait until Emma is dead before trying to secure control of the Harte businesses, but their objectives are not identical: Kit wants to run the stores, while Robin is prepared to sell Harte Enterprises for the millions he expects the sale to yield. Their conspiracy makes the brothers central antagonists in Emma’s struggle to protect the business she built.

Background and Unequal Ambitions

The brothers had never been close, making their sudden cooperation especially painful to Emma. Kit, her eldest son, had long wanted the stores, but Emma judged that he lacked both an aptitude for retailing and the imagination to devise the scheme on his own. She had steered him into Harte Enterprises and toward the Yorkshire woollen mills, which he managed efficiently. In her view, Kit’s patience and stubbornness suited a long wait for what he wanted; his part in the plot was consistent with that persistent appetite for control.

Robin, by contrast, appeared to Emma to be the instigator. A Member of Parliament with a taste for high living, he was accustomed to seeking money to support his lifestyle. Emma suspected that he was directing Kit, who could be manoeuvred, rather than originating the plan himself. Their collaboration therefore joined Robin’s appetite for a profitable sale with Kit’s desire to possess and operate the stores.

The Succession Plot

Gaye Sloane told Emma that Robin and Kit had discussed the difficulty of taking over the business while Emma was alive. They believed they lacked the power and sufficient shares to gain control, and Joe Lowther insisted that they would have to wait until her death. Joe expected Emma to leave him the controlling shares in the Harte chain and intended to run it himself; Robin, however, wanted the business sold to a conglomerate, a transaction he believed would provide him with the wealth he wanted. Their opposing plans for the chain exposed a fault line beneath their alliance even as they agreed to act together against Emma.

The men also considered the uncertainty of Emma’s will. Joe said he did not know what it contained, though he thought she would treat them fairly. He worried that Paula McGill Amory, who was close to Emma, might have gained some advantage and insisted she must not be told about their plans because she would inform her mother. Robin reacted anxiously to the possibility that the will might not favour them and urged that they formulate a plan to put into effect after Emma’s death. Their conversation thus combined an expectation of inheritance with a contingency plan to overcome it.

Family Alliances and Exposure

The conspiracy sat within a wider fracture among Emma’s children. Edwina Harte had previously backed Robin during a takeover bid and, in Emma’s assessment, was now likely his chief ally. Emma could not be sure whether Elizabeth Harte would join them. She was more certain that Daisy McGill Amory, who loved and trusted her, would not take part in a scheme to divide the Harte holdings. Robin and Kit’s cooperation was therefore not simply a private disagreement between brothers: it threatened to organize the family around competing loyalties and claims to control.

When Gaye disclosed the conversation in New York City, Emma was stunned by the betrayal. She had suspected who was involved, but needed to hear the names and the substance of the plan before accepting it. Her immediate anguish gave way to cold anger. By the time the children and grandchildren gathered at Pennistone Royal, Emma had already taken steps to make the plotters powerless against her, though they did not yet know she had learned of their scheme. Their apparent alliance had become the concealed subject of the family confrontation she had summoned.

Significance of the Alliance

Robin and Kit’s relationship is defined by a shared attempt to turn kinship and expected inheritance into business control, despite their lack of closeness and their incompatible visions for the company. Robin’s proposed sale and Kit’s wish to run the chain reveal an alliance held together less by a common future than by a common obstacle: Emma’s continued authority. Their plan also sharpens the contrast between Emma’s view of her business as the result of decades of purpose and sacrifice and the plotters’ calculation of what they might inherit or sell. The brothers’ partnership brings that conflict into the family itself, forcing Emma to defend both her authority and the dynasty she founded.