Chapter Ten
When Miranda joined Libby outside the following morning just as dawn was filling the sky with vivid colour, her friend smiled at her so warmly she felt instantly happier. What a difference that lovely woman had already made to how she felt about the world!
She hadn’t the slightest doubt that this new and closer relationship the two of them had created would last. She just knew it, somehow. How wonderful was that?
They didn’t hang around but got on the road and listened to the early morning news, which for once was mostly good news. After that Libby switched the wireless off and they chatted now and then but mostly enjoyed the scenery.
As they got closer to their destination, Libby pulled into a petrol station to fill the car so that they didn’t arrive with a nearly empty tank. She didn’t even try to protest when Miranda gave her a determined look and went to pay for that.
They grabbed a quick mug of coffee from a self-service machine near the pay desk then sat at a small table outside to drink it and get a little sun on their faces.
As they sipped the coffee and ate the biscuits that came with it, Miranda decided that it was only fair to warn Libby about the possible pitfalls of the situation they were getting into.
‘Look, I need to tell you something about, well, the background to this inheritance.’
Libby looked at her in surprise. ‘Oh? You sound as if it’s not something good.’
‘I’m afraid it isn’t or at least it might not be. I know it sounds as if we’re living in a glorious fantasy story about a poor young woman suddenly inheriting a big house and a lot of money but with my great-aunt involved, this may turn out to be a horror story instead, with the potential for traps being set for me around every corner.’
Libby looked at her in puzzlement. ‘But she’s dead now! How can she set any more traps for you?’
‘She may have already done that. I feel the words to use are “has probably set up some nasty surprises”. She’s made conditions about me going to live there, hasn’t she? I’d be mad to refuse to adhere to them and lose the property and financial benefits I’m inheriting but I’m all too well aware that I’ll need to tread carefully once I get there. She’s made sure I have to stay there for two years to inherit, for a start. That’s a long time to have to watch your back for sneaky tricks.’
‘Well, no one with half an ounce of sense in their skull would refuse to agree to her terms with such a large sum of money at stake.’
‘Precisely. And I didn’t refuse, did I? Who knows what she’s got planned to happen during those two years, though. I can’t help wondering what I’ll be facing, so although it won’t be aimed at you, you might suffer collateral damage, so you should keep your eyes open, too.’
‘Can I ask why has she has always behaved so badly to you that you’re afraid of her even after she’s dead? Have you any idea?’
‘My guess is it’s because she hated my father and therefore doesn’t want his daughter to have an easy life – nor did she like the idea of me taking control of the cosy little world she had created for herself and the money she loved to manage and accumulate. I may be wrong and I hope I am, but I’m preparing myself mentally for all sorts of nasty tricks, which is why I felt I had to warn you to be careful too.’
‘And you’re utterly certain she’ll try to hurt you?’
‘Fairly certain. Who knows what she’ll do, Libby? I never knew her well enough.’ She frowned and stared into space for a few moments, then shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think she’ll wish me dead, because she wants the family line to continue and I’m the sole female descendant of the right age in this generation, so I have the right genes for providing an heir. And of course at my age I’m still likely to be fertile. I’m not nearly up to my last chances of motherhood yet.’
Her friend gave her a wry look. ‘Healthy women usually are fertile but there are never any guarantees.’
‘Yes, I know. Which is why she’s kept an eye on the only close male heir as well. In fact, she sent me a message to say I was to marry and produce more than one heir as soon as possible because she doesn’t approve of him. She did leave him a long free tenancy in a cottage on the estate, though, presumably to keep him available.’
‘That sounds ominous.’
‘Who knows? She seems not to care a jot about my happiness or even who I might marry, as long as he’s physically healthy, comes from a decent background and is willing and able to produce several heirs. My father didn’t want more than one, which I think is one of the reasons why she disliked him so much, and he got into debt that the trust had to pay off for my mother’s sake, which made her furious.’
She chuckled suddenly. ‘I reckon she put up with me mainly because she regarded me as a sort of human brood mare, for lack of there being anyone else suitable.’
‘You always sound very negative when you talk about marriage.’
‘I can’t help it. I already have a bad track record for finding a suitable man. I chose a nasty guy, thinking we were truly in love, and his tenderness didn’t last long, did it? He’d thumped me within a couple of months of us starting to live together. I wondered why he thought he’d get away with it, but my best guess is that he thought I was meek enough to stay with him because I usually try to avoid quarrelling and hassles, as you know.’
‘That wasn’t you to blame for being bad at choosing a partner. If he was abusive, it was his choice to act like that and therefore his fault. What’s more, I reckon you did the right thing to leave him quickly before he could really hurt you. Some people, both males and females, seem to be born nasty and it doesn’t necessarily show in their faces. I’ve met one or two shockers in my time.’ She scowled, probably at some unpleasant memory of her own, but didn’t share any details.
‘Well, my horrible old great-aunt may have arranged for me to be forced into spending two years living at Fairfield House, but she didn’t say anything about me not being allowed a companion to come and live there with me, did she, Auntie Libby?’
‘No, she didn’t, my dear niece. Are you inviting me to stay?’
‘Yes, I am. And for the whole time I’m there. We already know how well we get on, after all, and it’s apparently a big house so we won’t be under each other’s feet all the time.’
‘We do get on well, don’t we? So I accept happily. We’ll stick together, Miranda, and I’ll stay there with you for as long as you need me. Having people on your side can make a big difference to just about any awkward situation in this life, I’ve found, whether they’re family born and bred, adopted family or just good friends. But I’ll heed your warning and make sure I tread very carefully into our life together at your new home, keeping my eyes open for traps. And we are neither of us stupid. In fact, quite the opposite, I believe. So we’ll each keep an eye on each other as well.’
Miranda smiled at her new ‘aunt’ and nodded. ‘The nice lawyer who took over the Westerby account when the old one retired was as shrewd as they come and he advised me to take someone with me when I went there the first time, and now fate in the shape of my old car has brought you and me together to do it, which fits in very nicely.’
She paused again for thought then added, ‘I think he’ll be pleased about it and I suspect he’ll be keeping an eye on what’s happening officially as well as unofficially because there are legal aspects to the situation. He certainly didn’t like what my great-aunt had made him promise to say to me and he didn’t try to hide his worries about my safety.’
‘Tell me about what your other aunt made him say.’ She drew inverted commas in the air as she said ‘other aunt’, which brought a brief smile to her younger companion’s face.
‘Not worth repeating. It was petty, spiteful stuff and I was used to that from her so I ignored it. I reckon her mind must have been failing towards the end because what she did and said seemed to get steadily worse, and more openly weird too.’
‘She sounds to me to have always been nasty towards you, so I don’t think much of her mindset at any time.’
Miranda shrugged. ‘She’s gone now. Even she can’t come back from the dead.’
They drove along the motorway in silence for a while, then Libby said thoughtfully, ‘This home and inheritance all come from your mother’s family, don’t they, the maternal side of her lot?’
‘Yes. But I know virtually nothing about the relatives on her paternal side, just the Westerby bunch. And nothing about my father’s side of the family either. If I tried to talk or ask about it, Mum just said that we would never be going back to Fairfield House and told me to forget about the existence of all the rest of the family, both sides. It was why we moved to live on the other side of London, to make a fresh start.’
‘Except she didn’t change your surname, did she? None of the females in your family seem to have done that, even if they got married.’
‘Well, why should they? Men don’t change their surnames when they marry.’
‘Some of them sound to have done that when they married one of the Westerby heirs.’
‘That’s all water under the bridge now. Sadly, Mum’s efforts at keeping me away from Phyllis were in vain because when she was killed in the traffic accident, I fell totally into my great-aunt’s power again. I didn’t go to live with her, though. She sent me away to boarding school immediately, and I even stayed there during the school holidays.’
‘Did you not make any long-term friends there?’
‘Sort of. By the time I got there, however, most of the others had been in that boarding school for years, often since primary school, and they’d already formed some very close friendships. They weren’t unpleasant to me but I didn’t get as close to any of them as they already had done to one another.’
Libby’s voice was gentle. ‘You’ve been very much alone since you lost your mother, haven’t you? Did she never tell you anything about the Westerby side of her family?’
‘Not much. And that was deliberate. Her main advice was that I should ignore them completely, as she had done. She even once suggested I emigrate once I’d finished my studies.’
‘Did you consider doing that?’
‘No. I feel too English. And now Fate’s tossed me into the Westerby family at the deep end and here I am about to start running the family trust. I had no choice about being the one to inherit, did I? What’s more, I’ll be moving into the long-time family home, as arranged by the wicked great-aunt my mother mistrusted. Ironic, isn’t it? It’s the old saying: Man proposes, God disposes. Or in this case, old aunt disposes.’
Libby cocked her head to one side, frowning in thought. ‘Who said that originally? And was it in the fifteenth or sixteenth century? I know it was one or the other.’
‘Does that matter?’
‘It does to me. I hate not remembering things accurately.’
‘I think it was Thomas à Kempis. Hmm. Was it in the sixteenth, no, definitely the fifteenth century. I collect useless information like that too. I don’t set out to do it, the facts simply stick in my brain and usually it only takes a couple of quick nudges to bring them back out of storage again.’
‘Well, I’m glad to get that detail sorted out. It’d have irritated me till I’d remembered, otherwise. I would have remembered eventually, mind you. I always do.’
‘We’re a bit like one another in that way, aren’t we?’
They nodded and exchanged smiles.
‘So let’s change the subject to something more positive, shall we, Miranda? We’re out of the busy traffic from here onwards and I’ll drive the rest of the way at a steady pace, not surrounded by people in a hurry. I like driving along country roads slowly enough to enjoy the scenery, don’t you?’
‘I haven’t had much chance to do that.’
‘Well, seize the moment from now on. Wiltshire has some really pretty countryside if I remember correctly, and there’s nothing in your contract that prevents me from taking you out for little drives to explore it after we’re settled there. I’m sure we’ll both enjoy doing that. We’ll be able to visit Stonehenge and Avebury, for a start.’
‘Ooh, yes.’ Miranda gave her a sudden beaming smile. ‘It really cheers me up how confident you are about what we’re doing.’
‘Not confident that it’ll turn out perfectly, but confident that we’ll give it our best shot. That’s all you can do sometimes, then at least you don’t have to blame yourself for a disappointing outcome.’
‘I like that way of thinking about life. I wish I’d had someone like you to bring me up after Mum died.’
‘ Merci du compliment .’
After that they were mostly silent and Miranda found it soothing to sit peacefully in the front passenger seat, marvelling as how confidently her companion was driving and how pretty this part of England was, and also, how interesting her life had become lately.
‘I’m so glad I shan’t need to work for that fool of a boss, or for any other fool for a long time.’
‘Did you mean to say that out loud?’
Miranda chuckled. ‘No. But the money I’ve inherited is a good thing for that reason as well, as far as I’m concerned. If I never see that horrible boss or the so-called team leader again, it’ll be too soon.’
A short time later she said thoughtfully, ‘I shan’t know how much my great-aunt has left me till we get there, but I’m hoping there will be enough left in my kitty if I live frugally to buy a little house for myself after the two years are over. My biggest ambition is to own a proper house of my own, one nobody can take away from me.’
‘You may enjoy living in the family home. That would solve that problem for you in one fell swoop.’
‘And pigs may fly!’
‘They definitely don’t do that! But strange things do happen sometimes in people’s lives, unexpected things.’
‘I can do without anything else unexpected. I’m still trying to get used to the idea of this family house.’
‘Let’s hope we find the house untouched by intruders, then. That’d make a good start to your new life. After all, that lawyer had the external locks changed straight away, didn’t he? And he said he hadn’t given a key to anyone except you.’
Miranda nodded slowly. ‘And surely someone in the village would have noticed if Fairfield House had been broken into?’
‘Who knows?’ Libby paused then said thoughtfully, ‘I keep coming back to the idea that your whole situation is strange financially for another reason. Why leave all the paperwork in a safe in an empty house? That’s asking for trouble.’
‘Why do that, indeed? I hope the safe is a big, clunky old thing because I haven’t even been told where it’s located in the house, let alone what it looks like. It may be hidden behind something like a painting or a secret panel.’
‘Let’s hope not. But there are two of us to search for it. We must be getting quite close to Fairfield now, so we’ll probably find out more about your legacy quite soon. The scenery has been lovely since we left the motorway, hasn’t it?’
‘Yes. The country round here has been really pretty so far. I shall enjoy exploring it.’
After a couple more miles, Miranda suddenly let out an involuntary ‘Ugh!’
‘What’s the matter?’
‘I had a sudden stupid thought. You know how you do sometimes? Stupid details drop into your mind. I realised that when I move into the house, one of my earliest jobs will probably be to clear out my great-aunt’s clothing and personal possessions, and some of it might include her dirty washing.’
‘You’re not Mrs Cheerful today, are you? But I must agree with your “Ugh” moment. Dealing with someone else’s dirty washing wouldn’t be my idea of a pleasant job, either.’
‘Let’s hope my aunt wasn’t a hoarder. And that she’d mainly left clean underwear. It’ll be bad enough clearing out her drawers and cupboards.’
Libby chuckled suddenly. ‘What a silly thing to focus on! There are such things as rubber gloves, remember!’
Miranda laughed at herself too. ‘You’re right. My brain is hopping about like a flea in a tar pit today, to quote the author Georgette Heyer.’
‘What a lovely image! Not.’
The satnav interrupted just then to tell them to turn left here and Libby slowed down because they were now on a rather narrow road, not much more than a lane.
‘Here we go,’ she said quietly. ‘We must be getting close now.’
Miranda’s smile faded and a tense expression replaced it.
But then the road grew wider for a while as it led them into a pretty village instead of the grounds of the large country residence they’d been expecting.
‘Let’s stop and grab a quick snack and comfort break while we can,’ Libby said quietly.
‘Good idea.’
Libby braked hard and pulled up in front of the village shop, which was clearly a mixture of shop and café. It looked to be thriving, even in such a small village, with a couple of cars parked outside and a few shopping trolleys lined up next to the entrance.
They both got out and stretched.
‘This may be your local shop once you settle in,’ Libby said.
‘Our local shop. It looks to have a good variety of stock. But what I want now is a mug of strong coffee, not a basket of groceries. And ooh, I’ll have one of those pieces of chocolate cake. They look so delicious it makes you feel hungry.’
‘I’ll second that.’