A hot bolt of shock traveled down Leo’s spine and threatened to send her up from her chair. She stayed seated; however, Anthony pushed his own chair back in a clatter as he leapt to his feet. Helen’s face went slack, and she let out a strangled cry. Leo, whose confusion had turned back in on itself, warping through her into yet another knot, turned to Jasper. He’d gone stone still. His dark green eyes met hers briefly before hinging on the solicitor.
“Mr. Corman, there must be some mistake,” he said slowly.
“She…she gave them the London house?” Nadia Stroud sat forward in her chair, finally looking as if she cared about what was happening. “She can’t have done.”
Located in the distinguished Lancaster Gate neighborhood, just north of Hyde Park, Craven Hill was one of the finest streets in London. Finer even than Charles Street, where Jasper lived in the Inspector’s old home. That property, too, had been gifted by a relative of Emmaline’s—in that instance, by her grandmother to Gregory Reid.
“Inspector Reid is correct,” Leo said, raising her voice to be heard above Anthony and Helen arguing between themselves about what Francine had been thinking. “It doesn’t make any sense for Mrs. Stroud to have left us property.”
The solicitor appeared as if he had been prepared for a storm wind of arguments. Fitting, as the gales of rain outside had intensified. The electric chandelier overhead seemed to brighten as the storm further darkened the evening skies.
“Be that as it may, the two of you have been granted equal ownership of the Craven Hill address.” Mr. Corman came away from his seat to bring them a thinner folio than what he’d opened previously. “This is the deed to the home and some other documents you will need for the property, and the keys, of course.” He gave this to Jasper, who stared at the folio in his hand with plain skepticism.
He pushed back his chair and stood. “I’d like some explanation, Mr. Corman. Miss Spencer and I did not even know Emmaline Reid had a sister. We’d never met Francine Stroud in our lives.”
“Do you see?” Anthony hissed to his wife, gesticulating toward Leo and Jasper. “Your mother had gone mad! Corman, there must be a way to obstruct this bestowment.”
The solicitor did not respond to Anthony but extended something more, this time to Leo. It was an envelope.
“Mrs. Stroud assured me that all will be explained within the contents of this letter,” he said, as Leo took the envelope.
“You are to read it together,” he instructed. “Apart from the rest of the family.”
Their names, Leonora and Jasper, had been scrawled on the front, in looping, unfamiliar handwriting. Leo rose from her chair on numb legs. The other three people at the table had all gone utterly silent when the letter had been presented.
“We’ll take our leave then,” Jasper said and, with his hand coming to rest on Leo’s lower back, led her from the library.
Chapter Two
Decamp was waiting for them in the hallway. Jasper kept his hand on Leo’s back. Her gait was unusually stiff and halting. Understandable. The muscles in his own legs were strung tight, his head swimming after the last several staggering minutes.
“If you will follow me,” the butler intoned.
He led them toward another corner of the entrance hall, past the bottom of a wide staircase. The solicitor had likely explained to Decamp in advance that they would require a private room to read the proffered letter. It was all smoothly done and meticulously planned. Jasper didn’t like it at all.
“What just happened?” Leo whispered to him as they trailed the butler.
“I’m not entirely sure,” he answered. But he was damn well going to find out.
They were brought into a small sitting room. Two electric lamps had been switched on, and a small fire had been stoked in a white marble hearth in preparation for them.
“Tea will be delivered shortly,” Decamp said before disappearing from the threshold.
Alone at last, Jasper rolled his shoulders, releasing the tension that had built up. It had all but wiped away any pleasure and relief he’d felt at seeing Leo again. He dropped the folio of papers onto the low tea table in front of the settee and raked his fingers through his hair.
“She’s given us a bloody house?” he remarked as he walked toward the window. Rain lashed the glass, and a shudder of lightning brightened the room momentarily.
He’d had misgivings about this visit to Cowper Fields. Now, he was confounded enough by it to become irritated.
He didn’t understand how Mrs. Stroud had known about him and Leo, or why she had thought about them enough to include them in her will. Not to mention that she, or perhaps her solicitor, had known to send his summons to the police department in Liverpool, rather than to Scotland Yard.
“It makes no sense, Jasper. Mrs. Stroud’s daughters should have inherited the property,” Leo said as she opened the sealed letter without first looking for a penknife. The envelope tore, and she cast it aside as she came to stand with him by the window.
“The husband seems to agree with you,” Jasper replied.
Anthony Dalton had every right to be upset, but the man had still grated on Jasper’s nerves in the library. His petulant arrogance had made him sound more like a spoiled child than a grown man.
“I would wager Mr. Dalton would be unpleasant even if his late mother-in-law hadn’t cheated him out of an expensive property,” Leo replied, unfolding a single sheet of thick, cream-colored paper. Handwriting filled the page, front and back.
