Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Pippa was suddenly aware of other people in the pub looking in their direction, as all around them the hum of conversation hushed. Sebastian’s breath was thick with the unmistakable aroma of wine. His eyes were slightly unfocused, but the anger behind them was lodged deep.
He sat back in his chair, staring between them before his gaze settled on Theo.
‘Horace Vale,’ he began slowly, ‘is a liar and a thief, and your grandfather isn’t much better.’ The words came out sharp and unpleasant.
Theo didn’t rise to it. He looked at Sebastian with an expression that was almost calm, but Pippa saw the flicker of something beneath it.
‘You’re drunk,’ Theo said, not unkindly. ‘I’d suggest you go and sleep it off, and if you still want this conversation tomorrow, then we can try again.’
Sebastian let out a low, humourless laugh. ‘I’m not going anywhere and you don’t get to shut me up.’
Theo shook his head. ‘Sebastian…’
‘No.’ Sebastian jabbed a finger at him, the gesture clumsy but full of force. ‘You don’t get to sit there looking so bloody reasonable. Not when you’ve kept things from me. Things about our families.’
Theo’s brow creased. ‘Sebastian, we only just—’
‘Oh, don’t pretend you’re innocent.’ Sebastian leaned forward, eyes narrowed. ‘You know exactly what you’ve been sitting on and it’s about time you answered for it.’
Theo moved his wine glass to the side. ‘I’ve no clue what you’re talking about.’ He kept his voice steady. ‘But I will share with you that we discovered only this week that your grandfather was Andrew Wetherby.’
Sebastian’s expression shifted slightly, but the look of anger remained on his face.
‘Why didn’t you say anything at university?’ Theo asked.
‘Why would I? I’d have been more of an outcast than I already was. Horace and your grandfather ruined my grandfather’s life.’ He stared hard at Theo, eyes burning.
‘How?’ Theo asked.
‘They set him up.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Pippa cut in.
‘What am I…?’ Sebastian let out a sharp huff of breath. ‘Arthur Blake and Horace Vale accused my grandfather of stealing something they were working on. Said he’d taken it. Said he’d betrayed them, and everyone believed it. Everyone. By doing that, they destroyed my family.’
‘Whatever has gone on, it’s nothing to do with me. And there’s no denying that things that were stolen from the Vale workshop were found in his home.’
Sebastian briefly closed his eyes. ‘Yes, they were. He’d worked with Horace for years, and it was Horace who’d given him mementos along the way, especially the little bit of gold, which was left over from the secret commission.’
Pippa felt Theo’s leg stiffen against hers as he briefly caught her eye. They still had no clue what it even was.
‘He was … so happy working for the Vales.’ Sebastian’s voice cracked slightly.
‘And yes, he might have taken the odd souvenir from the office there. Small things. Tokens. He shouldn’t have, I know that, but it wasn’t the way the newspapers made it out.
He was hardworking,’ Sebastian went on. ‘Creative. Intelligent. My grandmother always said that, and she never believed he stole…’
‘The secret commission?’ Theo pressed.
‘Yes, the secret commission. He wrote her a letter from prison. Pleading, saying that Horace had given him the items the police found, because he worked so hard. The judge made an example of him because of who the Vale Brothers were. Because they had a name, and a reputation, and connections. I believe he was framed because if the truth had come out…’
‘What truth?’ Theo pressed again.
‘Everyone would have known that Horace Vale was a fraud.’
Pippa felt her pulse spike. Neither of them interrupted.
They wanted Sebastian to keep talking, and thankfully he wasn’t finished yet.
‘My grandmother had to leave town. Her husband was branded a thief, and people made things so difficult for her. She had two sons and no money and had to change her name. The scandal caused so much stress between them, they split up – my grandfather’s face had been all over every national newspaper and my grandmother didn’t want any stigma attached to her boys – even though it broke her heart to leave him. ’
The three of them sat in a tense stillness, the moment stretching. Pippa felt her heart racing as she dared to ask the next question. ‘Why would Horace Vale and Arthur Blake want to set up your grandfather, and where was Walter in all of this?’
‘Because my grandfather was the genius behind the Vale Brothers’ designs. Horace pinched his ideas – the ideas that made them famous and earned them lots of money.’
Pippa sat there open-mouthed.
‘The design for the secret commission was all my grandfather’s work, and Arthur Blake would have known that.
And Walter? He was the one in the partnership who had no clue what was going on.
He just engineered the designs. The payment for the secret commission was going to be thousands.
It would have set up my grandparents for life.
When my grandfather discovered Horace had used his design, he questioned him.
Horace claimed it was his design. Then suddenly my grandfather was being arrested for theft. ’
There were still so many unanswered questions. ‘What caused the feud between Horace and Walter?’ Pippa threw the burning question out there. ‘And what exactly was this secret commission?’
‘I don’t know. All I know from my grandmother is that there was an almighty row between the brothers on St Swithin’s Day in 1965, and then my grandfather was arrested.
He came back to the island when he was released from custody while he awaited the start of the trial.
He tried to talk to Walter, but Agatha wouldn’t let that conversation happen, and it seems they never spoke again. ’
‘How would your grandmother know there was an almighty row on St Swithin’s Day?’ asked Theo.
‘Because my grandfather and your grandfather witnessed that row before catching the last bus off the island, just before the causeway closed due to flooding. The police were waiting for my grandfather when he got home.’
It was clear that all of this had been eating away at Sebastian for years.
He’d been desperate to find some justice for his grandfather, and although he hadn’t always made the best choices in that pursuit, Pippa could understand the drive behind them.
Sitting here now, picturing how she’d feel if someone in her own family had been accused of something she believed he hadn’t done, she knew she’d have gone to the ends of the earth to prove their innocence, too.
Sebastian looked Theo dead in the eye. ‘What do you know about the secret commission?’
‘I honestly know nothing.’
‘But your grandfather does.’