A handful of stars

by Lucy Gillen

  CHAPTER NINE

  -IT was the following morning that a letter arrived asking her to call and see Philip Chartres as soon as possible, and Charlotte welcomed it as much for the opportunity it offered of possibly seeing Noel again as for the news that everything was at last finally and irrevocably settled about the estate. That must be the reason for the summons, she felt sure, although the letter did not actually say so, -but hinted at urgent and important matters to -be discussed. She felt a lilting excitement in her heart as she read it, and decided that today was as good a day as any to go. She breakfasted and then telephoned for a taxi to come and fetch her and take her into Chedwell. She rather optimistically told Mrs. Borden that she would be out for lunch and smiled at her own optimism. If Noel was either not free or not willing to take her she would take herself and the housekeeper none the wiser. She was puzzled and not a little hurt that Noel .had been out of touch for so long. She had seen nothing of him since his exchange with Scott, but she was unwilling to believe that Scott had had 161 anything at all to do with his absence. Usually be used every opportunity to speak with her, or visit her, and she could not understand why he had not rung and arranged the appointment, as he more normally would have done. Unless of course he knew nothing about it, Philip Chartres rose from behind that same big desk that she remembered from their first meeting, one finger inevitably stabbing the ill-fitting spectacles more firmly into position on his nose. 'Ah, Miss Brown!' He looked rather less affable and smiling than at their first meeting, Charlotte thought, and felt a sudden ominous coldness clutch at her stomach. 'Please do sit down.' She sat, as she had done before, on the chair facing him across the desk, but this time there was no sign of Noel and she swallowed hard, suspicion again rearing its ugly head. Something, was wrong, she could feel it in her bones, and it left her with a limp, panicky feeling inside. Suppose some other family heir had shown up at last? Someone she knew nothing about and who, perhaps, had a better claim to Blanestock and old Ezra's fortune than she had. It was a prospect that would hardly bear thinking about, but nevertheless had to be faced. 'Is something wrong, Mr. Chartres?' she asked, and Philip Chartres gazed down at the papers in front of him for several seconds before he raised his eyes and looked at her over the tops of his escaping spectacles. 162 'I'm afraid matters have taken rather an unexpected turn. Miss Brown,' he informed her pedantically. 'We appear to have been rather remiss in leaving some stones unturned.' The rather annoyingly vague allusion irritated Charlotte, and she frowned her dislike of this obvious beating about the bush. 'I'm afraid I don't follow your meaning,' she said. 'Is something wrong?' Apparently Philip Chartres was still not prepared to come directly to. the point, instead he leaned back in his chair, his elbows on the arms of it, his fingers steepled and his rather full lips pursed thoughtfully. 'My son tells me that you had a most unfortunate accident last week,' he said at last, and Charlottes frown deepened. 'If you mean when the cellar stairs collapsed, and I was trapped down there,' she said, 'I'm quite recovered now, Mr. Chartres, thank you.' 'I'm very pleased to hear that.' The smooth, deliberately blank face betrayed nothing, but he nodded his head slowly. "Such a fall could have had much more serious consequences.' 'It could,' Charlotte agreed, tired of procrastinating. 'I'm grateful for your concern, Mr. Chartres,' she went on. 'But I understood that you had something important to tell me.' 'Ah yes, so I have, so I have.' He smiled, a cool and distinctly non-humorous smile that set Charlotte's heart racing in panic again. 'The law, so they say, Miss Brown, cannot be hurried, and I'm afraid 163 the adage is true.' 'If it's important and it concerns if it concerns Blanestock, I have a right to know,' she told him. 'Oh yes, yes, of course.' The steepled fingers were lowered to the top of the desk and there tappd out a slow dirgelike rhythm that made her clench her hands tightly and feel like shouting. 'While you were down in the cellars at Blanestock, Miss Brown, did you find anything?' -'Find anything?' Charlotte echoed, frowning curiously. 'I don't understand you.' Smooth, plump hands waved vaguely in the air. 'Did you discover any documents, papers of any sort?' She thought for a moment back to those long, frightening hours she had spent in the cellar. So much had happened since then, although it was only a few days ago. 'Oh yes, of course.' She put a hand to her forehead, probing her memory. 'Yes, I remember now. I was looking in some old trunks, cabin trunks or something of the sort they were stored down there. In one of them I found various pieces of jewellery. A locket, rings, things of that sort. Sort of keepsakes mementoes, and there were some photographs too.' She bit her lip when she remembered those, for she had fully intended handing them over to Scott. She had no desire to see old Ezra's very private feelings for the now Lady Everslade become public knowledge. She must do something about them as soon as she got back. 'Anything else?' Philip Chartres asked, and Char164 lotte brought herself back sharply to more immediate matters. 'I believe there was a a legal document of some sort,' she said, frowning over the vague memory of it. 'But I'd just found that when I heard the door being locked and I don't remember what I did with it.' She thought for a moment. 'Oh yes, wait a minute! It was a ' Her eyes widened suddenly and she knew all at once the reason for her being there. 'It was a will, or something of the sort,' she said slowly and warily. 'I remember now. It was signed Ezra Albert Blackwell, I seem to recall, but I had no time to look at it properly before. I heard the door close and I was shut in down in that wretched cellar. All I could think about after that was how to get out of there again.' 'Naturally,' Philip Chartres agreed quietly. 'But you must have put that document into a pocket or something. Miss Brown ' 'I did,' Charlotte concurred. 'I remember now, I had on an old brown cardigan with big pockets and I stuffed the everything into them.' : 'I have no knowledge of anything else,''the solicitor told her, 'but the document must have fallen from your pocket and my son picked it up, rather i absentmindedly, I imagine, in the circumstances.' 'You mean Noel took it?' She thought she p began to understand at last, and the realisation brought her no comfort. 'My son must have put it,in his own pocket on -the spur of the moment,' he explained, carefully and B. . 165 pedantically. 'Intending, of course to return it to you, but with one distraction and another suppose it was forgotten until Saturday morning. He discovered it still in the pocket of the suit he had been wearing that day. Naturally, in the circumstances, he was curious enough to read it and realised at once the significance of it. Accordingly, Miss Brown, I wrote and requested a visit from you.' 'I see.' It was becoming more plain every minute, Charlotte thought wryly. She had expected to see Noel on Saturday, but he had not been near all weekend, and today, Tuesday, she had received the letter. 'Where is it now?' she asked quietly. The eyes behind those precarious spectacles had a shrewd glint as he looked at her across the width of the desk. 'Where it should have been all the time, Miss Brown, in my hands.' 'It is a will?' , He nodded, with evident satisfaction. 'It's the only will, as far as we can discover, that Mr. Blackwell ever made, and we searched most diligently. While it isn't a proper, legally worded document it is sufficiently clear and legal to affect your own position, Miss Brown.' 'I see.' Charlotte's heart was somewhere in the region of her stomach and it felt cold and heavy as she anticipated further disaster to come. 'You mean I'm not the heir?' 'I'm afraid not. Miss Brown.' The words fell like a bombshell and it was quite clear to her now why Noel had not contacted her 166 first about his discovery, given her some warning instead of being so legally proper and showing it to his father without even a hint to her. If the will affected her position as an heiress, she was obviously much less of an attraction than she had been. She sought for words, knowing it was hopeless to even ask for a glimmer of hope, but unwilling to see it all slipping away from her. 'But you advertised, you said there were no relatives! No one at all, you said so.' 'And as far as we are aware there are no other relatives but yourself. Miss Brown,' he told her, and Charlotte shook her head. 'Then how can ' 'One need not be a relative to inherit under a will. Miss Brown, as you will realise,' he told her smoothly. 'We advertised in good faith, under th
e impression there was no will, because Mr. Blackwell had seen fit to conceal it. And unfortunately for you Mr. Blackwell knew nothing of your existence. There is absolutely no doubt that the instructions given in that document you found in the cellar are Mr. Blackwell's last wishes and therefore must be carried out as he states.' Charlotte shook her head slowly, her eyes shiny with threatening tears, although she was determined not to cry. At least not until she was somewhere on her own, and then there would be bitter and self-condemning tears, for if she had not gone down into that wretched cellar the will would not have been found and nothing would have changed. 167 'Does that mean that that I get nothing?' she, asked huskily. 'I'm afraid so.' T see.' 'Of course we may be able to come to some arrangement with the new heir,' Philip Chartres went on smoothly. 'A reasonable amount, no doubt ' Charlotte stared at him. 'You mean, ask for some of the money?' she said, eyes wide. 'A small settlement, as the only relative. I'm sure something could be arranged. Miss Brown.' 'I wouldn't dream of it,' Charlotte declared firmly. 'Well, of course the decision is yours, my dear young lady, but I'm sure something could be settled if you should have second thoughts when you have had time to think clearly about things.' She merely shook her head slowly, feeling utterly and abjectly miserable and, as yet, unable to fully grasp the complete reversal of her fortunes since yesterday. Also, she realised, her loss not only made her less attractive to Noel, but there would no longer be any reason for Scott to pursue her so relentlessly to make her sell Blanestock. Probably he would try the same tactics with the new owner, if it was a female, and that she was ready to admit was what she liked least about the whole thing. Scott's determined pursuit of her had been purely mercenary and at times had angered-her, but she had enjoyed every exciting minute of it. 'I can't tell you how sorry I am. Miss Brown,' 168 Philip Chartres told her, and she could find it in her heart to believe him, but she could not easily forgive Noel for the way he had acted against her, and without a hint of warning. She sat for a moment or two, stunned and unhappy, then she looked up at last, her eyes appealing. 'Can I may I know who does inherit?' she asked. Philip Chartres considered the question for a long moment, then he shook his head and drew a deep breath as he pursed his lips. 'I think it would be unwise of me to divulge that at the moment. Miss Brown, since the legal heir has not yet been informed.' 'Oh! Oh, I see. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked.' 'A natural curiosity,' Philip Chaftres allowed, magnanimously. 'And now, Miss Brown, if you'will kindly excuse me,' he smiled, and the errant spectacles slid down his nose, 'I have to see another client in a few moments.' 'Of course.' Charlotte got to her feet, still a little dazed, and not quite sure if she was living some appalling nightmare, or if it was really happening to her. T I suppose I must leave Blanestock right away?' she guessed, and felt that would be the hardest part of all. She had learned to love the old house and leaving it again would break her heart. For some inexplicable reason she found herself I wishing that Scott was there to console her, and she bit her lip while the solicitor regarded her for a moment with a raised brow. 'I imagine the new heir will not be too adamant about that,' he told her. 'But it would be advisable, of course, to find alternative accommodation.' 'Yes. Yes, of course.' She left the well-polished, old-fashioned office in something of a daze, so much so that she saw nothing and no one until she cannoned into someone at the comer of the corridor and hands reached out to grasp her arms and steady her. 'I'm so sorry I' The voice was familiar, and she jolted herself out of her daze to meet Noel's earnest but undeniably discomfited gaze. 'Noel ' He would have preferred to have hurried off without saying any more to her, she thought, but she was feeling hurt and angry as well as dazed, and she reached out and curled her fingers round his arm, keeping him there. Her eyes were huge and deep, and their violet colour was made dark by the emotions that churned chaotically in her. 'Why, Noel?' she - asked huskily. 'Why couldn't you have told me?' For a moment he looked shamefaced and embarrassed, then he shook his head. 'It wouldn't have been ethical. Charlotte.' 'Ethical!' Charlotte's face warmed to a bright, angry pink and her eyes blazed at him. 'Neither was it ethical to warn me about Scott wanting to buy Blanestock,' she reminded him. 'But it didn't stop you telling me, did it?' 'Charlotte ' 'Neither did it stop you from making some very 170 unethical remarks about your very important client at times, but I suppose it didn't matter quite so much then, did it? ', She knew she sounded bitter, and she was perhaps being a little unfair to attack him so bitingly, but she had lost Blanestock and old Ezra's fortune and nothing could persuade her that the knowledge had not influenced his behaviour. 'Charlotte, please!' He looked around uneasily, as if he feared someone might overhear them. 'Look I have to take these papers in to Father now, but ' he glanced at his wristwatch, 'in ten minutes I shall be free. Will you let me buy you lunch?' Charlotte hesitated, tempted to be rude to him and reject the offer out of hand, but instead she sighed deeply and shrugged. 'If you still want to be seen with me now that I'm just a common or garden secretary again.' 'Oh, Charlotte, please don't!' 'I'm sorry.' She smiled ruefully. "Anyway, I can't afford to turn down offers to buy me a lunch now,' she told him. He did not bend his head and kiss her, however lightly, and she knew then that it was all over. 'I'll see you in about ten minutes,' he told her, and she watched him walk off along the corridor towards his father's office, wondering if he would really remember to have lunch with her or if some well trained member of her own kind would come and smile apologetically with a message of regret. i7i Charlotte looked across the table at Noel, her lashes concealing the speculative look she studied him with. He was very good-looking and very charming, although there was a less fulsome character to the charm, she was prepared to swear, than there used to be. 'What are you going to do?' he asked, raising the question of her position for the first time as they drank their coffee. 'Do?' Charlotte raised a brow, and smiled at him wryly. 'What else is there to do, Noel? I find another job and go' back to being a working girl.' She laughed shortly, but in fact she felt more like crying. 'I-didn't really have much experience of being anything else, did I ?' 'I'm I'm sorry.' She looked at him steadily over the rim of her coffee cup. 'Are you, Noel?' 'Of course I am you know how I felt about you.' 'I also notice the past tense,' Charlotte told him, and he shook his head, 'I'm sorry, I really am.' 'But it was the rich heiress you were so fond of,' Charlotte said softly, 'not Miss Brown, secretary. Oh, it's all right, Noel,' she added hastily, when he would have spoken. 'I understand.' T I wish it could have been different. Charlotte.' Charlotte smiled wryly. 'So do I,' she said. 'I don't know what to say. I wish I needn't have found the wretched thing, if you hadn't drop172 ped it after you were trapped-in the cellar no one would have known anything about it and everything would have been all right.' 'Yes. Yes, I suppose it would.' 'And for Lingrove to have the wretched, place after all, I ' He stopped then and stared at her, aghast at what he had done, while Charlotte in her turn looked at him with huge, unbelieving eyes. 'Scott?' Her voice sounded little more than a husky whisper. 'Are you telling me that Scott is old Ezra's new heir?' It made sense, of course, she realised when she really thought about it. Scott himself had told her that during those last five years after Mary Bishop had rejected him old Ezra had had no contact with anyone else much, beside him. It was logical that he should leave his home and everything else he owned to the man who had been his only friend during those last, lonely years. 'Oh, Charlotte, I shouldn't have told you. I didn't know if Father had told you who the new heir was, I just didn't think.' 'It was very unethical of you,' Charlotte told him unkindly. 'But if I'd stopped and thought about it, it would have been the only answer, of course, un less it was ' She shook her head at betraying the alternative, but thought the old man would have : been too fond of Mary Everslade, nee Bishop, to have embarrassed her by making her his heir. 'Who -else?' Noel asked, his eyes curious, but t Charlotte shook her head, not to be persuaded. 173 'No one else,' she told him. 'There was a rumour I seem to remember,' Noel mused, not taking kindly to her refusal to disclose the other possible heir. 'So
mething about a woman, but I don't remember much about it. I was only just starting in the job then.' The earnest blue eyes that had once seemed so soulful when they gazed at her now regarded her with almost as much shrewdness as his father's had done. 'Was there a woman. Charlotte? I'll bet Scott Lingrove knew he was the only one who got near the old man in the last few years.' 'There was someone,' Charlotte admitted cautiously. 'But she preferred to marry for love.' It was a deliberate jibe at his own attitude and Noel recognised it as such, his good-looking face flushing warmly while he looked down at his hands. T suppose I asked for that,' he allowed, and glanced at his wristwatch. 'Now you have to go,' Charlotte guessed, and smiled. 'Charlotte ' 'Please, no speeches or excuses, Noel,' she begged. 'I don't think I could take it, not today.' She extended a hand which he took only reluctantly. 'Thank you for the lunch, Noel, and for the good times. Goodbye.' 'Please, Charlotte!' 'Goodbye, Noel!' She got to her feet, gathered up her handbag and gloves and walked away without a backward glance, 174 but her mind was already in another situation. It would be much less easy to say goodbye to Scott, especially now she knew he was the one who- had dispossessed her