A Christmas Visitor (9 page)

“I can tell you nothing confidential, you understand,” he warned pleasantly.

“Yes, I do understand.” Henry nodded. “My son is a barrister in London.”

“Rathbone!” Westwood’s face lit up. “Really? Oliver Rathbone? Well, well. So he is your son? Fine man.” He smiled. “I still can’t tell you anything confidential. Not that much of it, mind you. Nasty business. All very foolish.”

“The estate was in the Gower family?” Henry
began. He repeated essentially what Antonia had told him.

“Precisely,” Westwood replied. “Originally the estate was in the Colgrave family. Then Mariah, the widow of Bartram Colgrave. She married Geoffrey Gower and had two sons by him. One of them died as a child, the other is Ashton Gower. But the whole thing was much smaller than before they built that big house, and of course long before they found the archaeological site with all the coins and so on. But I’m ahead of myself.” Westwood coughed and cleared his throat. “The widow, Mariah Colgrave, brought not only the land, but a great deal of money to her second marriage. With it Geoffrey Gower purchased more land, and built that house that is the center of the estate now. When he died, it passed to Ashton, his surviving son.”

Henry was puzzled. “Then what was it that was forged? And how could Ashton Gower be responsible? It seems to have happened before he was born. How could Peter Colgrave have had any right to it? He wasn’t in direct descent.”

Westwood pursed his lips. “It’s not the estate itself, it’s the date of it that’s at issue,” he explained. “It all hinges on whether the extra part of it, which includes the house, the better part of the land, and the place where the Viking hoard was found, was purchased before Wilbur Colgrave died, or after.”

“Who was Wilbur Colgrave?” Rathbone was following it with difficulty.

“Bartram’s brother, and Peter Colgrave’s father. A matter of which way the inheritance went, you see?” Westwood said. “Before and it should pass to Peter Colgrave, after and it passes to Mariah, and then to her son, Ashton Gower.”

“Didn’t they know that at the time?” Henry still did not understand. “And if it was a forgery, then Ashton Gower was not even born, so he couldn’t possibly be to blame.”

Westwood waved his finger in the air. “Ah, but it was only questioned when Mariah died, just over eleven years ago. Before that everyone took it for granted.”

“Well, if Mariah forged it, or Geoffrey did, it is still not Ashton Gower’s fault!”

“That is the crux of it!” Westwood said, his face sharp with interest in the problem. “The forgery was recent! They knew that from the ink on the paper, even though whoever did it lifted all the seals off the old one, the family one, and reused them. Very clever, but the rest of it was rubbish!”

“Then why didn’t Wilbur Colgrave claim the estate, and the money, at the time? It was rightfully his!” Henry pointed out.

“That is a very good question,” Westwood agreed keenly. “He is a bit of a scoundrel, and rumor has it that he was always more than a little in love with Mariah—his brother’s wife. By all accounts, she was a real beauty in her day. They even said she paid for the land with personal favors.”

He blushed very slightly. “Least said the soonest mended, I think. Anyway, the part that concerns Judah Dreghorn is that when Ashton Gower came to claim his inheritance, Peter Colgrave swore that the
Gower deeds to the estate were forged, and it should be his, as heir to Wilbur Colgrave, who was the younger brother and heir to Bartram, rather than his widow, who forfeited it on remarriage. It was entailed, and supposed to remain in the Colgrave name, except that Wilbur died, too, leaving his widow and child, Peter. All rather a mess.”

“And Ashton Gower took advantage to try to prove the estate was his by forging a new deed with the right date for Mariah, and thus for him?”

“Precisely,” Westwood agreed. “But it failed. The land went back to the Colgrave family, the only one left—Peter. Which was probably where it should have been all the time.”

“And Gower went to prison,” Henry concluded.

“Quite. It was a great deal of money he attempted to steal by fraud,” Westwood said gravely. “It could not go unpunished. The sentence was perfectly fair and appropriate.”

“So Ashton Gower lost his home and the fortune he had always assumed to be his. No wonder he was bitter.” Henry could imagine it, the young Gower
growing up loving the land, riding on it, climbing the hills, feeling he belonged. Then suddenly he lost his father, and his inheritance, the whole nature of his identity and his place in the community was lost. Little wonder he was so angry he could barely think wisely. But it did not excuse dishonesty, and certainly it was not Judah’s fault.

“Why did he blame Judah Dreghorn?” he said aloud.

“Ah!” Westwood steepled his fingers. “That is something I don’t understand,” he admitted. “Gower completely lost control of himself. He ranted and raved at the judge, accusing him of corruption, even at the trial. And then afterwards, when Colgrave sold the estate very quickly, and Dreghorn bought it, Gower swore revenge on Dreghorn for having lied about the whole thing. He said the deeds were genuine, and Dreghorn knew it. Which was all patently ridiculous. But it was extremely ugly. Most distressing.”

“And now Judah is dead, in very odd circumstances.” Henry looked steadily at Westwood. “Do
you believe Gower could be so bent on revenge that he would harm him?”

“Oh, dear.” Westwood shook his head a little, obviously distressed. “You are asking me a highly improper question, Mr. Rathbone. It is one I would prefer not to answer. In fact, I really feel that I cannot!” His eyes were very steady, sharp, and bright. His refusal was an answer in itself, and he looked at Henry long enough to make sure that he understood it as such.

“I see.” Henry nodded. “Yes, quite plainly. Do you know why Peter Colgrave did not wish to keep the estate?”

“He is another man about whom I prefer not to express an opinion.” He smiled very slightly and stared at Henry over the tops of his spectacles. “Don’t press me into something that would be indiscreet, and might embarrass us both.”

Henry gave a half smile. “Thank you. At least I think I understand something of the actual issues, but not why Ashton Gower imagined he could get away with anything so stupid.”

“Arrogance,” Westwood said quietly. “I imagine he made the forgery in the heat of anger, perhaps when he discovered the original and realized what it would mean to him. Then he could not back out of it. But that is only my guess.”

Henry thanked him and went outside into the cold, already darkening afternoon.

They met before dinner, a little later than usual. Mrs. Hardcastle had prepared a magnificent meal, and the whole house was decorated for Christmas with wreaths of holly, ivy, and pine. There were polished apples and baskets of nuts tied with gold ribbons.

Henry saw it with surprise, in view of the recent, terrible bereavement, and glanced uncertainly at Antonia, in case the servants should have done it without her permission.

She smiled back at him. “It’s still Christmas,” she said very quietly. “We must not forget or ignore that.
Without Christmas, there would be no hope. And I have to have hope: wild, unreasonable, against all the logic that man can have, things only God can do.”

“We all have to,” he agreed as they walked into the dining room side by side. “We’ll definitely keep Christmas. Thank you.”

They took their places and the dishes were served one after another. They were ready for pudding when they finally approached the subject of their achievements during the day.

“I walked all the distances,” Benjamin said thoughtfully. “It’s possible, but only if you don’t hesitate at all. And there would be no time for Gower to have waited for Judah more than five minutes. Not if Judah went straight there. Of course he could have waited for Gower, because we have no idea when he died, except that it was some time before three o’clock when they found him. Also we don’t know what time Gower got home again.” He turned to Naomi. “Perhaps you do? Did you manage to see him?”

Naomi gave a rueful little shrug. “It was easier than I expected.” She looked at Benjamin, avoiding
Ephraim’s eyes, but both imagined she was perfectly aware that he was looking at her.

“How did you do it?” Antonia asked.

Naomi smiled at her. “With more invention than I am proud to admit,” she answered. “Let me do you the favor of not telling you, so you can meet the village with complete innocence. People speak of you so highly.” She looked at Antonia with candid regard. “You are much admired, even by those who are stupid enough to listen to Gower. Your reputation is your greatest asset. And when we all go away again, you will remain here and it will matter that it is not changed.”

Antonia smiled, but she did not attempt to speak.

Henry had not thought of it in quite those bold terms before, and he realized that perhaps Antonia had not either. None of them had looked beyond the shock and anger of the present. But of course Benjamin would return to the Holy Land. He was probably in the middle of some great excavation. Ephraim would go back again to Africa and his exploration, the plants and discoveries that so fascinated him.
Naomi would make the long journey back to America, and then westward once more to take up Nathaniel’s work, and her own friends in the life they had made there. Even Henry would return to Primrose Hill, and the joys and cares of London. Antonia would then taste the full measure of her loneliness.

Henry remembered the death of his own wife. At first, shock numbs much of the deepest ache. There are things that have to be done, people told, arrangements made. One forces courage to surmount weakness and for the sake of other people, one behaves with dignity.

But afterward, when the first mourning is over and the attention goes, friends and family return to their own lives, then the true weight of loss descends. Everything one used to share is no longer as it was. The silence of the heart is deafening. Antonia had yet to face that.

Naomi had already experienced it, but she at least had some work that would occupy her energies and her thoughts. Of course Antonia had the estate to
run, and her care for Joshua, but his grief was her burden as well.

“What did you learn?” Benjamin was asking Naomi now. She had already answered some of his questions, and Henry had not been listening.

“He seems to have spent the evening with the Pilkingtons,” Naomi replied, a faint look of distaste on her face. “Mrs. Pilkington is a woman of extraordinarily generous bosom, balanced by an opposingly mean spirit. She has opinions as to the moral value of everything, good or bad.
Decadent
is her favorite word. I don’t know why, because I don’t think she knows what it means.”

“She is new money?” Henry inquired, aware of all the social differences that carried, the envy and the ambition.

Naomi’s face lit with a smile, broad and candid. “Exactly! Old money must be immorally obtained. Hers is new, of course. She has espoused Gower’s cause, precisely because the older families can’t stand him. And the violin recital was ‘decadent,’ so
she did not attend. She probably doesn’t know Bach from Mozart, and doesn’t want to be upstaged, poor soul.” There was a sudden thread of pity in her voice, as if the absurdity of pretension had betrayed its inner fear and its emptiness.

Ephraim saw it, and a shred of its meaning registered as surprise on his face, not at the village, but at what he had glimpsed in Naomi, a new beauty. “But Gower was there?” He grasped at the personal meaning.

“Yes. He left to go home at just after ten,” she replied.

“Then he could have got to the lower crossing by the time Judah did,” Benjamin deduced. “But it would have been hard. Don’t the Pilkingtons live right down by the water?”

“Yes.”

He thought for a moment. “He would have to have had luck on his side,” he said. “Or else Judah stood around for some time waiting for him. I asked everyone I could about that day, the servants here, the post office and in the village. There’s no word of anyone
delivering a message to Judah to meet Gower, or one from Judah to him. And it’s not a place anyone would meet by chance.”

“Frankly, it’s not a place anyone would meet at all,” Henry said. “I still find it hard to accept.”

“We have to,” Benjamin argued. “That’s where Judah was, or he couldn’t have found the knife. And the higher crossing is just as absurd, but that’s where he was found.” He turned to Naomi. “What did you think of Gower?”

She hesitated. “A very angry man, one who hits out first, in case he doesn’t get a later chance,” she replied. “A man so filled with his own emotions he doesn’t have time or room to consider anyone else’s. I’m not sure that I wanted to see any good in him, but if there was any, it was easy to overlook. But he is far from a fool. Which is why I wonder how he ever thought he could get away with such a stupid forgery.”

“Even the most intelligent people can behave idiotically once in a while when their passions are in control,” Henry said, pursing his lips as memory
stabbed him. “We lose peripheral vision and see only what we want. It’s a sort of mental arrogance. Being intelligent is not always the same thing as being wise—or honest.”