Masters And Lovers 1-4 novel Chapter 65

*****

James

Beth, shadow-eyed from her long drive, flops onto her seat and Richard presses a glass of wine into her hand.

Charlotte sits next to Michael on the couch, jittery and fidgeting, constantly picking at her nails. The wine is excellent, but her glass is untouched, and she doesn’t look at Beth.

“And?” says Richard.

Beth holds up her hands, shaking her head slowly. “Nothing.”

“Nothing? Nothing at all?”

Charlotte looks up, her face stricken.

“Nothing at all,” says Beth. “I spoke to David and Stephen. They simply stone-walled me. Insisted that they never had a sister and that you're misremembering.”

Richard’s lip curls. “No, I’m not.”

Beth’s eyes dart across to Charlotte. Both women look upset. “I believe you my Love,” she says, “but I can't get anything out of them. They simply won’t discuss it. When I tried to press the point, Stephen made their excuses and they left.”

Charlotte’s head drops to her chest. Michael is watching her, her hand eclipsed by his. As she begins to shake, he pulls her close into his chest, one hand stroking the back of her head as he says something quiet to her.

“I'm sorry,” she sobs. “I'm sorry. I just hoped.…”

Richard looks down at my weeping mermaid, his voice dripping disgust. “There’s nothing for you to apologise for, Charlotte. We all know what you hoped for.”

“Which takes us back to the rest of Albert’s papers,” I say. “If we find something solid in there, present them with it, then they can’t deny it can they.”

Beth sucks in her cheeks, nodding slowly. “What did you have in mind?”

“Oh, I don’t know…. Old photos, school reports maybe….”

Michael pipes up. “Funny that. Now that I think about it, I’ve not seen any photos at all. It’s one thing that seems to be missing. Are there any more boxes to come out of Albert’s old house, Beth?”

“No, it’s all but empty now. Just a few sticks of furniture left. I’m done there really.” She looks depressed, takes a sip from her wine. “What have you all achieved while I was away? Anything more useful than I did?”

Richard looks uncomfortable.

He really has no need….

Too close to the knuckle with his own wife?

Does he want me to do the talking?

I cock an eye at him and he nods.

Turning to Beth, “We have put together a paper trail,” I say. “The long and the short is that Albert Kimberley came up with the idea for the first City project. It was a good plan. At a time when the City was really only a town, he conceived the notion that would tie together different unconnected areas….”

I jam my hands together, lacing together spread finger…. “into a single co-ordinated whole. It was a stroke of genius and he bought the land to make it happen. He wanted Richard’s father to fund the project. Judging by what we have here, Edward Haswell was keen to make the project work too and everything would have gone well except that Albert had a gambling problem and drove himself into bankruptcy. When his assets were seized, he lost the lot.”

Beth’s eyes widen, and she looks to Richard, who still looks uneasy. I continue. “Meanwhile, Edward bought up the bulk of those assets and went on to build the Imperial and everything else in that area of the City. From a piece of land which was originally just marshland, today, it’s worth billions.”