by Rebecca King
The more Elspeth thought about the men’s machinations, the more furious she became.
“God, Aaron matters nothing to you either, does he? He thought you were his friend,” Elspeth snapped.
“He has his own life in London. He hasn’t given a damn about me for years. Most of the time we got together he came here, don’t forget, but only because he was sniffing around you. It had nothing to do with me,” Thomas said dismissively. “He isn’t any friend of mine.”
“No. I can see you don’t have a lot in common. He works for justice for the War Office. You are nothing more than a petty thief, a bully, a fraudster and a coward.” Elspeth shook her head.
She knew that if she signed the papers Thomas would kill her anyway.
“What is to stop me from going straight to the magistrate with this?” She threw the papers onto the desk with a dismissive air she truly didn’t feel.
Thomas leaned toward her, his lip curled in contempt. “What do you think I am going to do?”
“Shoot me then,” Elspeth shrugged. “Because I am not going to sign your papers. I am not going to allow you to thieve what is mine a second longer. You have lied all along and denied me what is mine for years. I think you have done enough, don’t you?”
Thomas snorted. “Oh, so it was all right for me to have to look after you? While I owned this house, it was all right for me to have to be the one to sacrifice my life just because I was saddled with you? That’s how you see it, it is? Nobody wants you, Elspeth. Nobody wants to get saddled with an old maid like you for the rest of their lives. I wanted to go and live in London, but no. You wouldn’t move, or even contemplate life outside of this house. Rather than going out there and even finding some way to help furnish the coffers, you have refused to go anywhere. Instead, you have sat in here every day and sucked the life out of both of us. Now that you know you own the house, I am now not allowed anywhere near it?” Thomas sneered at her, his eyes full of contempt. “Don’t you think I deserve it? Who is the hypocrite now? Who is greedy, Elspeth? Me? You? You are no better than me.”
“I have never pretended to be dead and deliberately lied to steal from you,” Elspeth retorted despite the hurt that flooded her chest. “If you were so unhappy with your lot, why didn’t you just tell me? Why did you decide to go to these lengths? Did you not think I wouldn’t sit and listen?”
“You never go out anywhere,” Thomas snarled. “I want you out of this house, but you refused to bloody budge. Instead, you thought I would be willing to sacrifice my life and my choices to look after you all the damned time, and for what? So we can sit here and get old together like book ends?”
“I thought you were happy,” Elspeth snapped.
“Why do you think I didn’t pay the debts, eh? If you want the awful house, you have to know what it costs to keep somewhere like this. You have nothing else to do with your day. Why don’t you sort out the damned bills? I wanted you to be destitute, so you had to sell this place and live somewhere else. It’s a damned mausoleum from the past; a life that should have died when our parents did. But the people who are owed money had a letter didn’t they, from that meddling oaf from London, Sir Hugo? Suddenly they are all too amenable and are willing to wait for what is due to them.”
“You asked Sir Hugo for his help,” Elspeth huffed.
“I want out of here, and I am going to break free of this place if I have to kill to do it. You are not going to hold me back any longer,” Thomas boasted as though she hadn’t just spoken.
“What do you plan to do? I hope you have great plans because when Aaron and his friends find out what you have done you are going to end up behind bars. I doubt your choices will bring you the freedom you so desperately crave,” Elspeth replied.
“Aaron and his friends have gone. They are not here. They all rode out of town several hours ago. Aaron had no qualms about taking what you offered, though, did he, eh? You didn’t mind whoring yourself for the lawman, but I forgot, Elspeth, only you get a life, don’t you? I am supposed to sacrifice mine for your choices,” Thomas hissed.
“You have sacrificed your life, Thomas, for your greed. Theft is theft, after all. I am going to report you to the magistrate for this. Your lies about your death will become known anyway, once everyone sees that you are alive. You will earn yourself a reputation for being a liar as well, but never mind, eh? You are going to be behind bars anyway, so what does it matter?” Elspeth countered, her voice icy. “You see, this is my house. You were the interloper, the burden. According to these papers, there is a fortune that is mine as well. A fortune you have been using at will – without my permission by the way. How did you manage to persuade the bank to let you have access to my account? Fraud, is it? Was using my money and living in my home not enough for you? What happened to your fortune by the way? Father wouldn’t have left me everything. He had to have left you something of equal value.”
Elspeth shook her head and stared blankly down at the papers.
“No wonder you were happy for the reading of the will to go ahead without me. You must have known what it contained,” she whispered.
“Father knew I hated it here,” Thomas said quietly. “I was glad you were too upset to meet with the solicitor. You, stupid female that you are, were happy to sit here on your backside and let me hold all the meetings, weren’t you?”
“He told the solicitor and bank that you had given him authority to act on your behalf and that you were too grief stricken to attend the reading of the will. We have found a note, several in fact, allegedly signed by you, Elspeth, that gives Thomas full authority to act on your behalf. Because the house was transferred into your name, Elspeth, the solicitor was happy to talk to Thomas, but he couldn’t stop the house being signed over to you. We have spoken to the bank as well. The money you inherited but didn’t know about was deposited in a bank account in your name. Unfortunately, in the five years since, Thomas has withdrawn several large amounts of money from it using a letter, supposedly written and signed by yourself, that gives Thomas authority to take it,” Aaron informed her from the doorway.
Elspeth almost cried out loud with the force of the relief that threatened to overwhelm her when she saw Aaron. She was positively shaking with the strength of emotion, the love, that pummelled her.
“But I never signed anything,” Elspeth informed him. “It’s fraud.”
“It’s theft,” Aaron retorted flatly. “When he tried to get the solicitor to transfer the house into his name, the solicitor refused and insisted on speaking to you directly, Elspeth. I think that is what prompted Thomas to go to such extreme lengths to steal the house.”
“When? When did he try to get the property transferred?” Elspeth whispered.
“About a month before he faked his own death,” Aaron replied. “Callum has returned from London. He has located a friend of Thomas’s who admits to signing the forged death certificate.”
“Who was the man the farmer found then?” Elspeth asked with a heavy frown.
“There wasn’t one,” Aaron declared flatly. “It was all a lie. Thomas took the money to London, got his friend to sign a fake death certificate, put the money into a newly purchased coffin and screwed it down. Then the friend, pretending to be a magistrate, informed the solicitor of Thomas’s death. The solicitor then arranged for the body to be returned to Cromley. The rest you know. In effect, the three thousand pounds in that coffin is yours, Elspeth, because he spent your three thousand pounds on himself.”
Aaron’s venomous gaze fell to the gun Thomas still had pointed at her. The only outward sign of his inner fury was a small muscle that ticked rhythmically in his jaw, and the hard glint in his eye that Elspeth recognised.
Aaron saw the marks on the pale flesh of Elspeth’s shoulder and felt sick at the thought of what could have happened to her if he had been prevented from returning to the house. He wanted to shoot Thomas right there and then, but Sir Hugo said he had to face a life in gaol instead. While they were there, the p
roblem the men from the Star Elite had now was how to get Thomas and Frederick out of the house without injuring Elspeth.
“I warn you now, Thomas, that we have been outside for the last several minutes and have heard everything. We have also arrested your friend in London for fraud. I am afraid that helping yourself to money that belongs to Elspeth, without her approval, is embezzlement,” Sir Hugo warned from the doorway.
Outside, Elspeth watched Oliver position himself in front of the window. The dark shadow that fell over the room made her look to the window behind the desk only to find Niall watching them through the glass. It was clear, even to her, that nobody was going to leave the house without running into the Star Elite.
“Going to the trouble of trying to persuade everyone you are dead is a sign of guilt, isn’t it? You must be a desperate man,” Aaron drawled. He studied the man he had once considered a friend and wondered if he had ever known him at all. “What happened to you?”
“He was trying to live an adventurous life like yours but couldn’t afford it. He has pretended this house is his, so he can force me out. Without me here, he can come and go as he pleases, and I would be no wiser to his thieving. Nor would I ever be aware that he has stolen this house out from under me,” Elspeth informed them. “I wouldn’t need to see the house deeds, would I?”
“Did you give him power of authority to work on your behalf, and withdraw money from your account?” Sir Hugo asked.
“No,” Elspeth replied flatly. “I did not. I confess, at the time I lost my parents I was grief-stricken and let Thomas deal with everything. I can remember having a conversation with the solicitor about the will but broke down and hurried home. I wasn’t very old, you see? Thomas said he would deal with everything for me. I didn’t stop to think he would double-cross me. He has led me to believe that he inherited the house and I inherited nothing,” Elspeth whispered. “It’s all been a lie.”
Sir Hugo nodded sadly. “I am afraid to say that it has all been a lie. I have spoken with the solicitor myself to find out whether Frederick’s claim that the house can only be passed on to men in the family has any merit. The solicitor was concerned when Frederick had first mentioned it because he had already transferred the property into your name, Elspeth. When Frederick became most insistent that he should have the house, the solicitor set to work trying to find the old documents, to see if there were any special stipulations in the title deeds.”
“There isn’t,” Aaron added
Sir Hugo shook his head. “The solicitor is confident that you own the house legally, Elspeth.”
“Why would they still be so determined to get the house?” Jasper asked from behind Sir Hugo. “Especially now that we are here? What had they hoped to gain?”
“Frederick was going to sell it, then probably take a cut of the profits which, let’s face it, given a house of this size in a village like this, would have earned him probably a year’s income and then some. Then Thomas would bank the rest and disappear,” Aaron murmured.
Sir Hugo nodded. “Leaving his sister penniless, with an empty bank account that Thomas here had plundered, and with mounting debts would make it impossible for her to stay. They intended to offer her a price for the house that was well under its value. They could under-cut her when she was desperate. I am sure they hoped that Elspeth would be just grateful to have any money that would mean she could eat and pay the outstanding debts.”
Jasper spat an epithet about Thomas’s character that made Elspeth nod emphatically.
“She wouldn’t survive long once she had any money they gave her,” Aaron announced coldly. “I have no doubt she would have died before she could spend much of the money. Either Thomas here would have killed her, or Frederick would have made sure she met an untimely end.”
“Well, I hope the judge casts him to the Devil because Hell is where he deserves to go for his greed,” Elspeth snapped. She eyed Frederick. “They are not wrong, are they? How did you manage to convince Rollo Voss to get involved?”
“They are all thieves,” Sir Hugo informed her before Frederick could open his mouth. “I don’t know how Frederick and Voss became acquaintances. It doesn’t really matter, but when Thomas approached Frederick with this proposition, I am sure his little greedy eyes lit up. He told his good friend, Voss, who decided to join in. After all, three pairs of hands are better than two.”
“We think, Frederick and Voss became greedy,” Sir Hugo murmured. “They began to work together to try to undercut Thomas, who had already faked his own death and couldn’t show his face for fear of his lies being discovered.”
“Good God,” Elspeth whispered. “How much worse can they get?”
“Much worse,” Aaron growled.
“It’s why they both bombarded you with offers of marriage at the time when you felt you were most vulnerable. Neither of them had any intention of staying married to you. If you had married them, I doubt you would have survived the first night before you met with a sticky end. Your husband, either Frederick or Voss, would then have inherited this house upon your death. That was something Thomas hadn’t counted on. Your marriage to one of them meant he wouldn’t get his hands on a penny as planned,” Jasper added.
“How would he know that they were offering marriage?” Elspeth whispered.
“He saw them coming to the house,” Sir Hugo suggested. “Maybe he overheard them talking. Who knows? He must have suspected something was going on, and that they were double-crossing him, or he wouldn’t be here now. Would you, Thomas?”
“Thomas had to do something drastic, like re-appear, to protect his vested interest in getting the house sold as planned,” Aaron murmured, his voice vibrating with anger.
“We did the work,” Frederick shrugged. “He was hiding. One of us was prepared to marry her, whoever could break her down first and get her to agree to our protection.”
“Protection that would end up with her dead,” Aaron grunted. “Jesus.”
“It’s only right we should have the money off the house. He had all that money,” Frederick snorted.
Aaron smirked when Thomas glared at Frederick. He looked so murderous that Aaron didn’t doubt Frederick would have tasted a bullet had Thomas not needed his shot for his sister.
“Sign the papers,” Thomas persisted.
Elspeth shook her head. She didn’t get the chance to even squeak before Thomas launched himself across the desk. He hauled her out of her seat and slammed a hard arm around her shoulders while he pressed the blunt end of the gun hard into her temple.
“You can’t go anywhere,” Aaron informed him bluntly. “What do you think killing your sister is going to achieve. Does it not matter to you that she is your only family?”
“No.” Thomas shook his head. “She has been my problem for a very long time.”
“Only because you made me your problem. If you hadn’t lied about everything you wouldn’t be in this situation, Thomas,” Elspeth said bluntly. “You have lied to the solicitor, and the bank, to me, Aaron, and practically everyone else you have met. You had to face living with the knowledge that I would one day find out about your lies. I suppose by pretending you were dead you believed you wouldn’t have to face justice for your crimes. You just needed to get your hands on the money, and the property, if you could only swindle it from Frederick and Voss.”
“You bastard,” Frederick snarled.
Elspeth glared at him. “Did you think you would be exempt from his greed? God, you are a fool.”
“Someone has to make sure the job is done properly,” Thomas declared coldly.
“What do you think you are going to do if you kill her here and now? Where do you think you are going to go? There are men all around the perimeter of this house. You can go nowhere because they won’t let you free.” Aaron waved a hand to Oliver outside the main window. “You are both under arrest for attempted murder, breaking and entering, and embezzlement. You, Thomas, are also under arrest for fraud. You are both under arrest for as
saulting Elspeth.”
“I am not going to kill her – yet,” Thomas informed them. “She has served a purpose eventually, after all. I mean, beyond being your whore she has had very little to do with her time since the day our parents died. It is about time she did something useful. On this occasion, she can provide me with a hostage.” He smirked and looked at Aaron. “You can have her back when I have done with her. She is of no use to me. I have lost enough because of her.”
With that, Thomas began to round the desk.
“Move away from the door,” he ordered Sir Hugo and Aaron coldly.
“No,” Sir Hugo declared flatly.
“What do you intend to do, shoot me?” Thomas laughed. “What good is your criminal going to be to you if you cannot put him behind bars because he is dead? I am going to take Elspeth with me – dead or alive.”
Aaron didn’t doubt it. “It will be all right,” he murmured to Elspeth.
“What?” She looked at him in horror. “You are not going to let him take me, are you?”
Her stomach recoiled in fury at the thought that they might, after everything, just calmly hand her over to her brother’s merciless machinations. She was appalled that they intended to simply allow Thomas to walk straight out of the door with her.
“He isn’t going far,” Aaron murmured.
“Say goodbye to your friend here, Thomas, because he isn’t coming with you,” Sir Hugo warned. “Frederick is our prisoner now.”
“Keep him,” Thomas shrugged. “He is no good to me either. He has tried to double-cross me. I don’t care if you kill him.”
Frederick was left staring open mouthed after his associate. Now that he realised he was all alone in facing the consequences of his criminal activities, Frederick completely lost his willingness to fight. It was with a new meekness that he held his hands out when Callum moved forward with the manacles.
“Aaron,” Elspeth pleaded.
“Don’t fight him,” Aaron warned. He was sick with worry at the awful situation that had unfolded. “If his finger slips on that trigger you are going to die. Just go with him. He can’t out-run us. We will be with you every step of the way.”