‘How much is this party going to cost?’ he asked.
As he suspected, Olivia shrugged. ‘I’m not sure. It’s just a few bottles of champagne, and whatever Jess needs for the catering.’
‘And how much does the champagne actually cost, Olivia?’
‘I don’t know the precise amount, Sebastian. The estate will pay, though, won’t it?’
And there it was: his way in. ‘With what?’
‘What do you mean “with what”?’
‘There. Isn’t. Any. Money.’ Sebastian enunciated every word carefully, to garner as much attention as he could. ‘There’s no money to pay for the temporary housekeeper you decided we couldn’t survive without, and there’s definitely no money for bloody stupid parties.’
Olivia laughed, then frowned as she watched his expression. Their mother shook her head. Candida did her best to look anywhere but at any of them.
‘This estate is all but bankrupt,’ he added.
‘But Daddy always said there was nothing to worry about, that we were to enjoy ourselves and the estate would take care of itself.’
Sebastian heard himself laugh, but he wasn’t sure where the sound came from – this was anything but funny. ‘That sounds about right. Well, Olivia,Daddywas wrong.’
‘No. That can’t be right.’ Olivia was on her feet now, the detective drama on the television playing to an audience whose attention was anywhere but on the killer’s denouement.
‘Your Land Rover, the one with all the extras and the fancy off-road kit? Did you think we own that?’
Perhaps he was being unfair, zeroing in on his sister like this, but she’d started it with her secret party plans.
‘Well, yes. Daddy bought it for me.’ Olivia’s voice had lost some of its bullishness, her confident expression losing its rigidity.
‘No. WhatDaddyactually did was take out a finance agreement which the estate is still trying to pay back. Alongside the one he took out on his Evoque, and the one on your Audi.’ Sebastian moved his focus to his mother. Then he swung back to Olivia. ‘In fact, my VW is the only vehicle on the estate which hasn’t got finance owing on it.’
‘What, even the keeper’s truck, and the estate manager’s car?’ There was a definite uptick in the level of concern in his mother’s voice.
‘And the vehicles are the tip of a fucking enormous iceberg,’ he added. ‘Right now, I’m trying to work out how to be able to afford all the upgrades needed in the tenant properties – just to bring them up to standard. Upgrades which should have been completed years ago.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. We’re breaking laws with some of what hasn’t been done.’ He waited for his words to sink in, then said, ‘Anyone been up to the attics lately?’
Olivia looked confused as she shook her head. ‘No. Why would I?’
‘Oh. No reason. Unless you fancied lending a hand to bail out the dozen or so buckets which are up there to catch the water leaking in through the roof. I think Mrs Keel has been doing it, and now Jess has taken over the job. An additional skillset any housekeeper worth their salt would love to add onto their CV, don’t you agree?’
‘Now you’re being petty,’ Olivia said. ‘And anyway, it’s too late – they’re all invited.’
‘How is your priority still the sodding party? This can’t go on any longer.’ He should take some of the sting out of his words, absorb some of the blame by admitting his part in all this, his lack of interest in anything to do with the estate until his hand had been forced. But he needed them to understand just how serious their situation was.
‘What do you mean?’
Sebastian glanced at his mother. She was watching him intently. He didn’t want to put her through this, not in this antagonistic way – but she needed to know, to understand. They all needed to understand.
‘Living as though there’s a bottomless pit of money. It’s going to stop. Luckily enough, I have managed to come up with some possible solutions,’ he said.
Olivia sank back onto the sofa, already beginning to relax. His mother continued to watch him like a hawk, and internally Sebastian congratulated her for her perceptiveness.
Nobody interrupted him, so he continued. ‘Among some of Father’s papers I came across a letter from someone called Edward Ellingham. He visited a few years ago, brought some friends for a day’s shooting. Enjoyed himself so much that he wrote to Father to tell him how he loved Kirkshield Castle.’
‘So?’ Olivia said.
