by Rebecca King
“What do you mean by that?” Elspeth gasped when she heard the sneer in Rollo’s voice.
“I didn’t realise you had a suitor,” Rollo replied. His gaze slid over the men in the kitchen as though he was trying to guess which one it would be.
“Well, now you can assure your gossips that Elspeth will cope beautifully in life, even though she has, sadly, lost her brother. She doesn’t need you calling by at this time in the morning, risking damaging her reputation, now does she?” Aaron’s voice hardened at the last. His gaze turned spiteful. He leaned down until Rollo had no choice but to look at him.
Slowly, with a nervous gulp, Rollo shook his head.
“I suggest you leave the young lady to her life and go about yours from now on. Do not call by unannounced, and do not think about spreading any unfair or unnecessary gossip, do you understand?” Aaron warned.
“Now, tell us what you know about Elspeth’s financial situation? What is going around the village about her?” Oliver slid a seat in front of Rollo and sat down on it, leaving Rollo in no doubt neither of them was going anywhere until Oliver had all the answers he needed.
“Well, I don’t know really,” Rollo stammered.
“But you must know. If you are confident enough to feel able to call around here at this time of the morning, you must be certain of the facts,” Aaron challenged.
“There were rumours that she is in financial trouble now. That cousin of hers has been around the village telling everyone that he owns the house, and is going to have her as his wife,” Rollo muttered.
Elspeth closed her eyes on a wave of horror and sighed miserably. She slowly turned and gazed blindly at the garden while Aaron continued to pummel her unwelcome guest with questions.
“Why would the locals believe him, a stranger?”
“Everybody knows she is an eligible, single female, and all alone in the world now. Everybody knows Frederick Miniver. He isn’t liked very much. It caused quite a stir amongst the locals when they heard he was going to live here. They are talking about her recent loss and how much it will change her life to be all alone. Understandably, people realise she will have to marry for protection, and someone to keep a roof over her head. They just don’t want Frederick Miniver to be her husband.”
“Me? Marry Frederick Miniver? I shall certainly do no such thing,” Elspeth bit out. “What do you think I would do, sell myself to the likes of you or Frederick Miniver, who is my cousin by the way, just to keep a roof over my head? You really think I would be that desperate? I would rather die.”
She slammed out of the house without a backward look leaving Aaron to stare blindly at the door. He knew then that getting her to accept him as a husband was going to take a considerably long time, and it was time he didn’t have right now. While he and his colleagues had left the Star Elite, or as good as, they all expected Sir Hugo to contact them soon with a more amenable suggestion toward how they could have a life and continue the work they all did for the Star Elite. He would then have no choice but to leave for London.
Thankfully, until then, Aaron and his colleagues were free to do whatever they chose, wherever they chose.
“I think you need to take that as a bold declaration that the lady is not interested in your offer and would rather die. Given her vehemence, and the fact that she is going to move out of here, but only to live in more salubrious circumstances with her husband, which is not Frederick Miniver by the way, I think you have no cause to call around here again, do you?” Oliver mused thoughtfully.
Rollo lifted supercilious brows at him. “Who is she going to marry then?”
Aaron bent down and grinned at him. “Me.”
Rollo went still. He looked at Aaron, then at the men around the kitchen. “Look, who are you? Is she in some sort of trouble? Is that what the villagers are talking about?”
“No, she is not in any kind of trouble. Why would you think she is in trouble? Why would anybody think Thomas was in trouble before he died?” Aaron asked.
“He was just acting oddly, that’s all,” Rollo scowled.
“How? Was he fearful of something? Distracted? Angry? What gave anybody any suspicion Thomas Lincoln had a problem?” Oliver bit out, his voice harsh and clipped.
“A couple of people said they called out to him when he left the village that last morning only he didn’t answer. He didn’t even bother to look up and just rode straight past on his horse,” Rollo replied.
Aaron nodded thoughtfully. “That doesn’t mean the man was in any kind of trouble.”
“You know how gossips are,” Rollo huffed with a shrug.
“I know you have to stop talking about things if you don’t have any facts to support your suppositions,” Aaron snorted. “God, these places never change. They are full of narrow minded, spiteful people who are a rule to themselves.”
Aaron stared hard at Rollo as he spoke making it perfectly clear that he meant men like Rollo, who looked outraged, but only for a moment. He swiftly realised he was at a distinct disadvantage sitting amongst so many mean and burly men and retreated into sullen silence while he waited to see what the tall, decidedly powerful men around him would do.
“I think it is time for you to go,” Aaron warned seconds before he hauled the heavier man out of his seat as though he weighed no more than a feather.
Rather than shove him out of the back door and into the garden where Elspeth was, Aaron propelled him out of the front door and put him physically onto the path at the front of the house like one would put out the cat. Once the man had been deposited on the side of the road, Aaron brushed his hands off and turned around to return to the house only to find Oliver standing in the doorway. Oliver pointed at something in the road behind him. When Aaron looked over his shoulder, he groaned when he saw Frederick Miniver marching determinedly down the street toward the house with a small, terrified looking man scurrying along behind him.
“Well, well, well, here comes the cat, and the mouse,” Aaron murmured.
Rather than wait for the newcomers to reach them, the men slammed back into the house. Aaron slid the bolt closed on the front door for good measure then made his way back into the kitchen.
“Go and get Elspeth into the house, please,” he asked of Oliver, who nodded and hurried through the property.
“I think you should come and take a look,” Niall murmured from the doorway to the study.
Aaron lifted his brows and followed his colleague back into the room. Niall nodded to a pile of papers he had unearthed from beneath the desk. He had slid the desk to one side and pulled the rug back. In the exact spot where the desk drawers had sat was a narrow gap, no wider than the width of two floor boards, within which sat several rolled pieces of parchment.
“This is one Hell of a hiding place,” Aaron sighed.
“I haven’t touched anything,” Niall said.
“There might be more of these in the house,” Aaron replied. “We need to look for that money.”
“Three thousand pounds is a heck of a lot of money to hide, Aaron,” Niall replied.
“Maybe Thomas suspected he was in trouble, knew he was not likely to live, withdrew the money from the bank and brought it back to the house so Elspeth could find it. It would be more than enough for her to live off. She could even purchase a new house for herself with it if she was forced to leave here,” Phillip suggested from the doorway.
Aaron nodded. “Maybe Thomas knew the house would have to go to Frederick. Rather than risk Frederick becoming her financial guardian or husband and getting his hands on the money, maybe Thomas made sure Elspeth would get the money directly.”
“What was Thomas up to that led him to believe he was going to die?” Oliver asked from the doorway.
They all ignored the persistent knocking on the front door.
“Why would he risk leaving the money in the house, especially when he knew cousin Frederick would do his level best to force Elspeth out of the house with undue haste?” Niall asked quietly.
“Surely he knew there would be a risk that Frederick would get his hands on the three thousand?”
“Maybe Frederick knows the money is here and that is why he is determined to get into the house? I mean, if he caught Elspeth on a bad day, a grief-stricken woman could be robbed blind and may never notice,” Jasper sighed.
“This whole situation stinks,” Aaron snapped. “I don’t understand it.”
“We will,” Niall assured him. “Working to solve mysteries and catch criminals is what we do. This Frederick fellow is nothing more than an arrogant buffoon. He is a petty crook compared to the manipulative gangs we usually deal with.”
“I bet he has come back with a solicitor in tow,” Oliver grinned.
Aaron smiled back at him, his eyes alight with malicious satisfaction. It was only when he was in the doorway that he noticed Elspeth hovering uncertainly in the entrance to the kitchen.
“Will you leave this to me?” he asked of her before he was bold enough to answer her front door.
Aaron lifted his brows at her. He wanted nothing more than to be able to hold her, if only for a few moments. Elspeth looked so forlorn and fearful that it made him incredibly angry that Frederick, and Rollo, would both consider it acceptable to circle around her like vultures. On a deeper level, he was incredibly worried that there were so many determined suitors pursuing her for her hand in marriage.
Over my dead body, Aaron thought with more determination than ever to see off the buffoon on the doorstep – but only once he had provided Aaron with the information he needed.
“Please do,” Elspeth murmured.
With a nod of thanks, Aaron yanked the front door open.
CHAPTER FIVE
“What do you want, Miniver?” Aaron demanded without preamble. He grabbed the fist Miniver was using to pound on the door and held it tightly for a second or two before he threw it roughly to one side.
“This is Mr Candlewen, my solicitor,” Frederick announced with an air of supreme satisfaction.
Aaron ran a condescending gaze over the small man, who gulped and took a wary step back.
“Card?” Aaron demanded and held an expectant hand out.
The smaller man looked so fearful that Aaron wondered if he might actually run away. Instead, after a moment of hesitation, he fumbled around in his pocket and eventually drew out a small, very crumpled piece of card which he dropped in Aaron’s hand before hurriedly stepping away again.
Aaron picked it up between his fingers and studied the state of it for a moment before he flattened it out and read the damaged writing.
“Well, Mr Candlewen, what do you want?”
Frederick opened his mouth to speak only for Aaron to hold a hand up.
“I was talking to your solicitor,” Aaron warned.
“Are we not to be invited in? It is rude to expect personal matters to be discussed on the doorstep.” Frederick took a step toward the door only to find Aaron had a tight hold on his cravat.
“Take a step inside this house and I will arrest you for trespassing,” Aaron breathed into the man’s face.
“Do you own the house?” Mr Candlewen asked.
“No, but he doesn’t either. I do, however, work for the War Office, and am here on a legal matter pertaining to the untimely death of the property owner, Mr Thomas Lincoln. Should your – client – here wish to force his way into the property, and my investigation, I shall be more than willing to arrest him for it, together with his attempt to break in here last night.”
Mr Candlewen looked at Frederick with wide eyes.
“You are not going to believe him, are you?” Frederick snapped. “Good God man, you are a solicitor.”
“I don’t work on criminal law,” Mr Candlewen gasped. “You need to speak to Mr Morley. You said this was a property issue.”
“It is a property issue. The man is in my house,” Frederick protested.
“He doesn’t have the paperwork to prove it,” Aaron informed the solicitor with mild satisfaction.
“I am to inherit this house. I don’t see what difference a week or so makes,” Frederick protested. “Now get out of my way. Where is Elspeth? I demand to speak with her, right now.”
“She is indisposed,” Aaron warned.
“If you have done anything to her, I warn you now-”
Aaron threw the solicitor a dark look, turned around and closed the front door in Frederick’s still blustering face. The absolute silence that followed was broken only by the annoyed slam of the front gate.
“Well, that was interesting,” Niall murmured.
“He certainly is determined to get in here, isn’t he?” Oliver smirked.
“Why? I mean, he has always made it clear that he has wanted this house and has considered Thomas an interloper who should never have inherited it off father, but I had no idea he would be this determined to get it,” Elspeth sighed. “I don’t understand it.”
“Let’s look at these papers, shall we? Maybe they will tell us what we need to know,” Niall suggested.
Everyone made their way into the study.
“Did you know this was here?” Aaron asked of her as he waved to the secret hiding place Niall had found.
Elspeth shook her head. “Do you think the money Thomas took out of the bank might be here?”
“I think it might be the reason why Frederick wants this house. If there are other secret places like this in the house, God knows what they might contain. You could be sitting on a veritable fortune and not know it,” Oliver warned. “Has Thomas ever told you about this?”
Elspeth shook her head. “Why would he keep it a secret from me?”
“Who knows why? He just has,” Aaron sighed.
“I thought we trusted each other,” she whispered.
“It doesn’t look like these papers have been moved for a while,” Niall interrupted. To prove his point, he lifted the uppermost parchment out of the hiding place and blew a thick layer of dust off it. Rather than open it, he handed it to Elspeth.
Elspeth took it off him. She recognised immediately that it was her father’s handwriting detailing a last will and testament. Quickly, she untied the ribbon that held it closed and unrolled the parchment. The ink was faded, but she was able to read the last will of her grandfather.
“It basically leaves everything to your father,” Aaron told them.
“Yes, but there is no mention of the deeds having to be inherited by men in the family,” Elspeth replied. She picked up another piece of parchment and unrolled it. “This is a letter from the solicitor informing my father of the inheritance now being his.”
“Where is Thomas’s paperwork informing him of what he inherited from your father?” Oliver asked.
“It should be in the office, but I can’t find it,” Elspeth replied.
“Is he likely to have left the solicitor to hold it for him?” Jasper asked.
Elspeth shook her head. “Thomas would have wanted something like that in his possession. He wouldn’t have trusted anybody else with it.”
Aaron nodded his agreement. “He was quite pedantic about things like that. It is odd that he hasn’t left it tucked away neatly somewhere. He was always a stickler for everything having its rightful place.”
“None of the paperwork is where I would expect it to have been left,” Elspeth added.
“Well, let’s search again, shall we? There has to be something in here somewhere,” Oliver suggested.
They all spent the next several hours searching the room from top to bottom. There wasn’t a plank on the floor that remained unmoved or brick in the chimney breast that hadn’t been prodded just in case it was loose by the time they had finished. Any paperwork they found was placed in a pile in the centre of the room for them all to go through later.
Eventually, Aaron slid the bottom drawer back into the newly righted desk and sat down to study the large mound of papers they had found in various locations around the house.
“I can’t understand why he would ha
ve his paperwork scattered around so much. It is all his. Most of it is in his handwriting,” Aaron sighed.
“Maybe he was worried about someone going through his papers in his study and finding something important, so made the papers that mattered a little harder to find,” Oliver suggested.
“I always thought everything was in here where it was supposed to be,” Elspeth frowned.
Once again, she had to wonder if she really had known her brother as well as she had thought she had. He certainly had lived differently to how she expected.
“Did you not get left any kind of stipend from an aged relation at any time in the past?” Aaron asked.
Elspeth shrugged. “I may have done but Thomas always dealt with things like that.”
“Details of anything like that might be in here,” Oliver said.
“I suggest we have something to eat and then go through this lot. Jasper should be back from the solicitors soon. It will be interesting to find out what the solicitor has to say about the contents of Thomas’s will,” Niall said.
He brushed his dusty hands off and pushed to his feet with a weary sigh.
Half an hour later, while everybody was pouring through the paperwork, Jasper slammed into the house.
“Hello?” he called.
“In here.” Aaron poked his head out of the door. The look on Jasper’s face could only be described as thoughtful. “Well?”
Jasper stalked into the study and lifted his brows at the veritable mounds of paperwork covering practically every surface.
“The solicitor has Thomas’s will, however has already had a visit by Frederick, who is adamant the terms of the deeds to the house are that the property can only be inherited by the men in the family, or close relations if there is no issue. The man was so rude with the solicitor that the man, Mr Kerlew, refused to accept his word. There is no paperwork to support Frederick’s claims, you see?”
“None at all?” Elspeth whispered.
She looked about to cry. So much so, Aaron edged closer and slid a comforting arm around her.
“Has the will been read?” Aaron asked.
“No. Because the solicitor has to ascertain whether there is any such condition in the property deeds. He has gone through it all and has requested her father’s file from the old solicitors. Unfortunately, there has been trouble finding the old paperwork. It is over fifty years old, apparently. Nobody is sure if it even still exists.”