“I have my own personal statement and testimony as your father’s man of business, not to mention the documentation.” Mr. Longham lifted his satchel. “Every bit of it. It is all in order. Signed by your father. Signed by her mother.”
“Papers? Hogwash. I’ll fight this in court.” He pointed his forefinger first at Mr. Longham and then at her. “Neither you—nor you—will ever see any of my father’s property.”
“It’s not the money you are worried about, is it?” Mr. Longham’s voice was impressively even. “You’re not going to get the land, if that is what you are thinking. You’ve seen the will; you know it as well as I. Miss Hale had three years to inherit. If she did not, then the Stricklin estate would have three years to lay claim. And then it would go to you, but only as a last resort when all other options havebeen exhausted. It goes either to her or to the Stricklin estate. It’s what your father wanted.”
“And who is going to press the issue? You?” Peter Clark sneered. “What’s in it for you to go and drum her up? Or the estate, for that matter? You must be getting something.”
“I made a promise to your father.”
“Bah. I don’t trust you, Longham. Furthermore, I don’t believe you. You have something to do with this. Something to gain. Oh, I’ve read the will. So has my solicitor. If the land is not claimed after a six-year period, it reverts to the estate, which I’m inheriting. It’s all right there. Leave it alone. For all I know, you wrote that sham of a letter yourself and started this whole debacle.”
Cassandra stiffened. She had trusted Mr. Longham from the beginning, but Mr. Clark’s words struck a chord. She had no proof that Mr. Longham was truthful either. In her eagerness to have answers, she had accepted blindly.
Mr. Clark’s sharp tone recaptured her attention when he pointed a thick finger at her. “I don’t know who you are or where you come from, and honestly, I don’t care. But if you are putting any trust in this man, your faith is misguided. I wash my hands of this matter entirely. You stop spreading rumors about my family, or you will pay. Pay dearly.”
***
Stunned and dismayed, Cassandra eased back against the carriage seat as they departed the countinghouse and headed home toward Briarton Park.
The conversation with Peter Clark drummed in her mind. The animosity. The disbelief. The fact that he burned the letter from her father. She’d expected him to resist her and to protest Mr. Longham’s words, but his reaction was more turbulent than she could haveimagined. Furthermore, Mr. Clark had planted seeds of doubt toward everything Mr. Longham had told her. Uncertainty, even more potent and vicious than before, swirled within her.
As if sensing her distress, Mr. Longham expelled a long sigh and patted her gloved hand with his own. “Don’t let this discourage you, Miss Hale. I’m not in the least surprised at Peter Clark’s behavior, vulgar as it was. I’ve been a solicitor long enough to know that inheritances cause a great deal of turmoil in even the most basic of cases, let alone one with unusual circumstances like this.”
“You said he’d be argumentative about it”—she tried to avoid saying too much until she worked out her thoughts—“but there was much I’d not considered.”
Mr. Longham retrieved a pipe from his coat. “My business is in the letter of the law, Miss Hale, not in managing family dynamics, but here’s what I know to be true. Your father had regrets and altered his will to include you to attempt to make amends. I have all the paperwork to satisfy a court, so please, do not fret. No doubt you were taken aback at Peter Clark’s outburst, but I was not. I fully intend to see this through and fulfilled as soon as I get to London.”
“I still have so many questions. Who’s Mr. Stricklin?”
“Edward Stricklin was the man who gave your father his first loan that allowed him to build his first mill—Tutter Mill. It’s the mill that was forced to close due to debts. Edward Stricklin’s been dead for years, but Robert had always intended for the land to go to him, or at least to his family, by way of repayment. But in his later years he decided it should go to you instead. Since we could not locate you initially, he amended the will in the days leading up to his death to state that if you did not claim the land and then the Stricklin estate did not claim the land, then it would default back to the Clark estate and Peter Clark would manage it. It is all quite detailed and would easily be overlooked, and that’s what Peter is counting on—that no one will pursue the details and that time willpass, allowing him to become the owner of both the business and the land.”
She bit her lower lip in contemplation. “I just don’t understand how that would work. How can I own the land and he owns the business on it?”
“It is quite a simple arrangement, on paper at least. Like any tenant leasing land from a landlord, the mill would pay you rent for occupying space on your property. You will receive a rather hefty sum regularly that will allow you to live very comfortably. And if the business should go under, the land will always belong to you. By the way the will is written, the land cannot be sold for fifty years after his death. You will always have income. Your father actually protected you.”
Cassandra shook her head. “No wonder Peter Clark is upset.”
“No doubt he sees it as a slight, but father and son had a difficult relationship. They did not see eye to eye. Never did.”
Cassandra studied Mr. Longham, from his thinning white hair, to his bulbous nose, to the deep wrinkles etched around his muddy-brown eyes. Her heart trusted him, she realized, but her head urged caution. “And, if I may ask, what do you get out of this entire situation? It seems a great deal of work for you to track this all down and set it to rights. What benefit will you see if I, or even the Stricklin estate, for that matter, inherits?”
The corner of Mr. Longham’s wide mouth quirked in a smile. “I’m a man of my word, Miss Hale, but I’m also practical. If you read the will in its entirety, you’ll see that your father left me a rather small amount once the will has been served out. The more expeditiously this matter is resolved, the larger my payment. Naturally I’m eager to resolve this entire situation as soon as possible, but I also know this situation is not without its difficulties. Locating you was the most challenging part. Now, everything else should fall into place.”
Cassandra could not share his optimism. “What if Peter Clarkcontests it in the courts? It seems almost certain he will. How will I fight that? I’ve no money.”
“If you are worried about my fees, do not be. They will come out of your inheritance when all is said and done. That is, if he actually does contest it.”
His words took her aback. “If?He seemed so angry. Surely he will.”
“Bear in mind, my dear, any contesting will make this all public, you see. Such a scandal surrounding his name could very well bring about ruin or, at the very least, damaging gossip, especially in such a precarious business.”
It all seemed so impossible and foreign to her. “So what do I do?”
“You must be patient. This will all work itself out in the end. These things always do, in time. I will assist you. You forget that I was there the day you were born. I was a witness as the paperwork was signed. It’s my name you’ll see signed beneath your father’s. I personally watched as you were moved from the house. I was there when you were sent to Mrs. Denton’s school. You may have felt abandoned all these years, but you were not without people watching over you.”
A surprising lump tightened her throat. All this time she’d assumed she was alone, and now to find out that people were aware of her and even caring for her was overwhelming. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You need not say a word. I knew that, at the end of all, your father would regret a life separate from you. Now we must focus on moving this whole business forward.”
