Chapter 11
‘So, I’ve looked through these letters,’ said Joss. Briony took a seat in the sofa chair opposite him in the lounge and picked up her filled roll. They’d left Emily in the kitchen, eating her lunch and making a cuppa.
Luna remained asleep by Joss’s feet. Briony had noticed that for some reason Luna seemed to gravitate to guys, even though her grandmother had had the wolfdog since she was a puppy. Luna had lived with Blythe almost all her life. Her early puppyhood seemed to be a bit of a mystery – at least that was how Emily had made it sound; apparently Blythe wouldn’t divulge where the pup had come from.
Wilbur, on the other hand, was not asleep. He had jumped up on Briony’s lap the second she’d sat down. She stroked the little dog’s silky soft ears, taking a moment to watch as his eyes closed. As an elderly dog, he slept a lot, which made her realise he’d be no trouble when she took him home, as long as she didn’t leave him home alone too much. He was definitely her dog now.
Briony looked across at Joss. ‘What I don’t understand is why someone thinks they can pressure my grandmother to sell, and send threatening letters demanding that she produce the deeds, otherwise they’ll go after the land. At least that’s what it sounds like to me.’
Joss pushed the letters to one side and leaned forward in his seat. ‘I think the way to end all this is to do exactly what they want.’
Briony looked at him in surprise. ‘Pardon me?’
‘Just show them the deeds.’ He rubbed his forehead. ‘What I don’t understand is why Blythe didn’t just produce the deeds after the first letter landed on her doormat. That would have saved all this—’ he gestured at the pile of letters, ‘— aggro.’
Briony did see his point. ‘Yes, I get that. Unless they’re missing.’
‘That would not be ideal.’
Briony thought that this was putting it mildly.
‘However, it’s not unusual. Deeds do go missing, if they are not held by a bank, often if there’s no mortgage on a property. I’m pretty sure that will be the case here.’
‘My great-grandparents built it.’
Joss picked up a photo album from the box that Briony had found in the outbuilding when she had been sorting through all the stuff stored in it. ‘Hope you don’t mind, but while I was waiting for you, I had a leaf through one of the photo albums.’
‘Not at all.’
He held up the photo album and grinned. ‘This is just the kind of thing that can provide proof of ownership.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh, yes. You see, there are other ways to prove ownership of a property if there are no deeds. For example, around three quarters of property house deeds are registered with the Land Registry in England. Which means if your deeds go missing, then the Land Registry has seen the physical copy and created a digital copy which you can get from them. They just charge a small fee.’
‘Great – let’s do that then!’ Briony was so relieved this was going to turn out so much simpler than she thought. While she was trying to find her grandmother, she could sort all this out for her, and finally stop these letters coming.
She looked at Joss. Her face fell when she guessed a big but was coming.
‘But …’
Briony sighed. Here we go.
‘I think if things were that simple, and the deeds were missing, as I suspect they are, she would have done that already.’ Joss sighed. ‘I mean why would you let all this aggravation go on, if you didn’t have to?’
‘Perhaps she didn’t know she could do that, get a copy from the Land Registry.’
‘Then I wish she’d come to me, and I would have sorted this out weeks, months, ago.’ Joss looked at the letters. ‘I will check when I get back to the office, as I guess your grandmother doesn’t have internet here.’
Briony shook her head. ‘Nope, no internet, and patchy mobile phone reception. The place does have electricity and a phone line, but without the internet, it feels a bit off-grid.’
‘I’ll say,’ said Joss. ‘But it is an amazing place.’
Briony got the impression that Joss would quite enjoy living off-grid. ‘You were saying there’s a way around the missing deeds, even if it’s not registered with the Land Registry?’
‘Ah yes.’ Joss picked up the photo album. ‘Now, this is quite interesting.’ He flicked back to the beginning of the photo album. ‘See here …’
Briony gently lifted Wilbur off her lap, stood up and put him on his favourite sofa chair. Wilbur curled up in a ball and fell asleep again. She looked at him and thought, not for the first time, that he was more like a cat than a dog.
Briony sat down next to Joss. She happened to glance out of the window on to the beach as she sat down, and caught Troy at the window looking in. That’s odd, thought Briony. What is he doing? He quickly passed by the window as soon as she spotted him, but she knew he must have seen her shifting to sit next to Joss.
‘So, look here,’ Joss was saying, pointing at the photo album on his lap. ‘This series of photos shows your great-grandparents on site with workmen building this property. Was it their holiday home?’
‘Yes, I think it was. My great-grandparents lived in Oxford, but I know the house in Oxford was passed to my grandparents when they married. That’s where my mum was raised. So my great-grandparents must have moved into The Beach House.’
‘So, when they passed on, they left The Beach House to Blythe?’
‘Yes. Like my mum, she was an only child.’ Briony had been through the photo albums, and it was obvious that Blythe was an only child whose parents doted on her.
‘So, your grandmother kept the property as a holiday home, until she moved in permanently.’
‘Yes. My grandparents divorced just before I was born, so my grandmother came to live here.’
‘Well, at least you had a lovely place to come for your holidays.’
Briony breathed a heavy sigh. If Joss was going to help her out, although she didn’t quite see it as relevant, she felt she really must tell him the truth – all of it. ‘Actually, no, that wasn’t the case. You see, my mum and grandmother are estranged – have been all my life. This is the first time I have visited The Beach House.’
Joss looked at her, surprised. ‘Oh, sorry. I just assumed …’
‘Yeah, it makes no sense, does it? I would have loved to spend my school holidays here, but it was not to be.’
‘What brings you here now?’ Joss asked. ‘Have they patched things up, your mother and grandmother?’
Briony shook her head. ‘Nope. I got a letter out of the blue from my grandmother to meet her here.’ Briony left out the part about her mum opening and reading her letter, and binning it, despite still being upset with her mum for doing that.
But that did make her think. ‘Could I be in trouble for reading my grandmother’s letters?’
Joss shook his head. ‘In these circumstances, with your grandmother missing, and the official nature of the letters, I should think not.’ He paused. ‘What I don’t understand is that if your grandmother wrote to you to come and see her, why isn’t she here?’
‘My letter got lost in the post, and only resurfaced a few days ago.’ In the bin. Briony tried to sweep that thought aside.
‘I see. So, it sounds to me as though she wanted to see you before her op.’ He tapped his chin with his forefinger. ‘I wonder …’
‘What is it?’ Briony asked, studying his thoughtful expression.
‘May I ask why she wrote to you? What did the letter say, exactly, if you don’t mind me asking?’
She shrugged. ‘Not at all.’ Briony didn’t need to go and fetch the letter from her handbag. She’d read it enough times. ‘She said she had something she wanted to give me, and that there was something she wanted to tell me; something important that she didn’t want to tell me over the phone or in a letter. It had to be in person. She wanted me to meet her here.’
Joss rubbed his chin. ‘Hmm, go on.’
Briony had told him the gist of it, but he had rightly got the impression that there was more. In the spirit of telling him almost everything, bar the fact that her mother had read her letter first, she told him the rest. ‘She mentioned that she’d also sent a letter to my mum asking her to come and look after the house while she was in hospital for a minor operation.’
‘I take it your mum didn’t come.’
‘No, she didn’t.’ Briony frowned, realising that if her mum had done as she was asked, her grandmother would most likely have recuperated at home, maybe even mending bridges with her daughter while she did so. And she would not have gone missing.
Briony stood up and returned to her seat opposite Joss. She sighed. ‘There’s more.’ She remembered reading the final sentences in the letter, which warned her not to accompany her mother to The Beach House. Blythe had also said that if Briony’s mum did do as Blythe had asked, she suspected she would not tell Briony about her trip, and certainly wouldn’t want Briony to join her. But it was the last sentence that had sent a chill down Briony’s spine – and still did.
On no account tell her about this letter or your trip to see me, if you choose to come.
Joss sat back in his chair and regarded her for a long moment after she had told him this.
Briony finally said, ‘What are you thinking?’
Joss let out a sigh. ‘I might have an idea what it’s all about.’
‘Really?’
‘I have come across these sorts of scenarios before – unfortunately, all too often.’
Briony looked at him, wondering what he meant by these sorts of scenarios.
‘Look, what I’m thinking is, although your grandmother’s op was routine, she isn’t getting any younger …’
Briony recalled what her cheeky best friend, Angel, had said. She’d encouraged Briony to go and see her grandmother, if for no other reason than the possibility that she was including her in her will.
Joss continued, ‘I’m not saying your grandmother is going to pass away imminently; I mean, she’s only in her early seventies. But it’s possible the thought of going into hospital perhaps brought her mortality home to her. No operation is without its risks, and she’d probably considered the possibility, even though its miniscule, that things might go wrong on the operating table.’
‘You’re saying she wanted to see me because she intended to change her will. I’d already thought of that.’
‘Or make a will.’ Joss added, ‘You’d be shocked how many people die intestate – without a will – and leave behind a right mess for their poor relations to pick up in their wake.’ Joss stopped. ‘Did I just say ‘wake’?’ He shook his head. ‘Um, excuse the pun.’
‘You’re excused.’ Briony smiled. ‘My best friend suggested the same when I told her that I’d received a letter out of the blue from my grandmother – that perhaps she was leaving The Beach House to me.’
Joss nodded. ‘It’s highly probable. If she’s been estranged from her daughter for years, and they are still not on speaking terms, it would make sense for her to leave the place to you. And it would explain why she told you not to mention the letter or the trip to see her.’
‘In case it caused a rift between me and my mum, if she found out Blythe had cut her out of her will, in favour of me?’
Joss breathed a heavy sigh. ‘Let’s put it this way: I would never advise people to avoid dealing with their personal issues by simply writing someone out of their will. It’s better to try and resolve things while you are still alive than effectively making a sweeping statement through your will that can never be undone, after you’re gone, leaving things basically … unsaid. Unresolved.’
Briony stared at Joss. She was getting a bit more out of this meeting than she’d bargained for.
‘I think any conversations around your grandmother’s will should include your mum. Whatever has happened between Blythe and your mother, the last thing you want is for that to affect you and your mum.’ Joss shifted in his seat. ‘Sorry, but I take it you are on good terms with your mum?’
Briony nodded. Apart from the fact that her mum had never really supported her decision to become a marine biologist, they’d always got on well.
‘Then I think when you find your grandmother, you need to let your mum know about the letter she sent you.’
But she already knows! Briony didn’t quite know how to tell him about her mum intercepting her letter.For whatever reason, her mum was determined that she would never meet her grandmother.
Joss noticed that she was subdued. ‘Of course, until you find her, I can only surmise what your grandmother wants to see you about. I could be barking up the wrong tree, and it’s something else entirely.’
That didn’t make Briony feel any better. If the letter wasn’t about being a beneficiary of her will, then she couldn’t imagine what it was about, and it was making her anxious – especially in light of what Angel had said before Briony left for Suffolk. Angel had warned her about opening Pandora’s Box, saying that there might be a good reason why her mum didn’t want her to have any contact with her grandmother. Angel had even gone so far as to suggest her mum had withheld the letter to protect her.
But from what? Briony had met some lovely people since she’d arrived on the Suffolk Coast, and nobody who knew or had met her grandmother appeared to dislike her. They didn’t have a bad word to say about her. On the contrary, it sounded as though she was well-liked. Her grandmother fostered kittens, for goodness’ sake. And she’d taken on a wolfdog puppy. She clearly wasn’t an ogre.
‘Briony? Are you all right? I haven’t upset you – have I?’
‘No, no – of course not.’ Perhaps Joss was right: it was time that three adults, her mum, grandmother, and herself, sat down and talked.