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‘You think that means anything?’ Sir Charles raged, forgetting every consideration of decency in his spluttering anger. ‘He wouldn’t have been the first man to have been made a fool of by some scheming little tramp—’
He got no further; his voice was choked off as the stranger moved swiftly from his chair, and gripped the front of his shirt in one iron fist. ‘I could knock you through the wall for that,’ he stated, his voice quiet with menace. ‘But it’s my wall now, and I don’t want to damage it. And if you don’t want me to damage you, I suggest you pack up what legally belongs to you as soon as possible, and get out of my house.’
Pippa started forward in horror. She was appalled by what her father had said—but she couldn’t let this much younger, much stronger man actually strangle him! But he had already let him go, brushing off his hands in a gesture of pure contempt.
‘Mr Gibbons—I’m sorry,’ he apologised, underlining the insult to her father by his meticulous politeness to the solicitor. ‘I think I’d better get out of here before I do something permanent.’
Pippa barely had enough time to step back out of the way as he strode through the open french window, almost colliding with her. He stalled briefly, casting her just one look of cold dislike, and then stalked away, leaving the air behind him crackling with the tension of his last warning.
Sir Charles had collapsed into a chair, mopping his face with a handkerchief. ‘I’ll contest this,’ he vowed, still raging. ‘There must be something we can do. Surely no court of law would uphold a situation like this?’
‘I’m afraid any challenge would be difficult to sustain,’ the solicitor advised in arid tones. ‘Under the terms of the relevant act, there is no intention for the court to reform the dispositions of statute unless it can be established that the applicant is in need of reasonable financial provision, and even then the amount would be only such as is deemed sufficient to meet everyday living expenses...’
‘Yes, yes—spare me all that legalistic clap-trap. Well, he needn’t think it’s going to be as easy as that. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. We’ll see what my solicitor in London has to say about the matter.’
Mr Gibbons bridled, plainly affronted. ‘I can assure you, Sir Charles, that I—’
There was a nervous little tap on the door, and it opened tentatively to admit a lady in her middle years who, in spite of the severity of her very correct black twin-set, still managed to look fluffy and pretty. Her fair, curly hair was untidy, as usual, and the flush of pink in her cheeks betrayed the fact that Helena, Lady Corbett had already been making inroads on the gin and tonic, though it was not yet mid-morning.
‘May I...? I just wondered if... Oh, Mr Gibbons, you’re still here?’ she twittered. ‘I heard raised voices, and I—’
‘He’s gone,’ growled Sir Charles to his wife. ‘Come on in. You might as well know the worst. He gets it all.’
‘All?’ Lady Corbett put her hand to her mouth, going slightly pale. ‘You mean...he didn’t leave you anything?’
‘He didn’t even leave a will! And according to some damned archaic law, that means he gets the lot.’
‘But... Whatever will we do...?’ She sat down weakly. ‘Surely... That can’t have been what he intended? Why, we’ve cared for him all these years—and heaven knows it hasn’t always been easy. Many were the times I’ve wondered if he might perhaps be better off in a home.’ She had turned her soft, appealing eyes on the solicitor. ‘But he was as close as our own flesh and blood. I never begrudged a moment of it.’
Pippa rolled her eyes heavenwards. Sometimes her mother’s capacity to alter the truth amazed her—and the incredible thing was that she really seemed to believe her own version. She had already surmised that both her parents had known the identity of their unexpected visitor; she had long suspected the existence of a skeleton in the family cupboard, something alluded to but never referred to openly. Well, he had certainly picked his moment to pop out!
Her father was still fuming. ‘You can bet your life that was exactly what the old fool did intend,’ he declared belligerently. ‘The ingratitude! But of course, it’s just what I might have expected of him. I’m only glad that my poor dear mother isn’t here to see it. God knows, she suffered enough, the way he used to flaunt that...that woman and her bastard brat right under her nose...!’
‘Hah!’ Pippa was betrayed into a snort of derision. ‘I wish I could have seen it! He would never have dared do any such thing.’
Her parents looked up in surprise, neither of them having been aware of her presence until now. ‘I thought you were out riding,’ her father grunted irritably.
‘I got back a while ago.’ She strolled in through the french windows, not troubling to pretend any trace of filial affection. It had been a long time since she had got on with either of her parents—sometimes it seemed that the only thing she had in common with either of them was that she had the same temper as her father; she was as unlike her mother as it was possible to be. ‘So, who is he, anyway?’ she enquired. ‘I’d never even heard of him before.’
Her mother looked embarrassed, but her father was blunt. ‘If you were listening, you know who he is. His mother was the old man’s secretary. How long their affair was going on, I don’t know. He was fifty when the boy was born—disgusting.’
‘What happened to the woman?’ Pippa asked, curious.
‘Oh, he took care of her well enough, while she was alive,’ Sir Charles responded dismissively. ‘She died about fifteen years ago, and Shaun went off to Canada. Thought we’d seen the last of him—I might have known he’d be back, like a bad penny.’
Shaun, mused Pippa. So that was his name—Shaun Morgan. If Gramps had been fifty when he was born, that would make him...about thirty-five now. And he had inherited everything—the house, the land, the company...
She smiled softly to herself. Good old Gramps! He’d contrived to do what he must have wanted to do all along—leave everything to his son, and nothing at all to his stepson. She could almost hear that secret chuckle of his, whenever he’d managed to get one over on his dictatorial wife—‘the Witch’, he’d used to call her behind her back.
Of course, she would be sorry to leave Claremont, the house where she had grown up. Set in the wide green countryside of the Heart of England, it was a lovely old house, with its ivy-clad walls and mullioned windows, and its spacious wooded parkland.
But it would almost be worth it, just to see her father’s nose put out of joint! He didn’t deserve a penny of Gramps’s money, not after the shabby way he had treated him. It was a shame her first meeting with Shaun had set them off on the wrong foot with each other, but it wasn’t too late to remedy that. The next time she saw him, she would go out of her way to be friendly, she decided grimly—just to spite her father!
CHAPTER TWO
‘WELL, I think that all went off rather well,’ Sir Charles remarked with satisfaction as the sleek black limousine pulled away from the small country churchyard. ‘Quiet, but very tasteful. I think George would have wanted it that way.’
‘You mean you wanted it that way,’ cut in Pippa acidly. ‘At least you did when you thought everything was coming to you. I bet if you’d realised Shaun Morgan was going to get it you’d have splashed out on the biggest bash since the launching of the Queen Mary.’
‘Oh, dear...Philippa!’ her mother protested, desperate to avoid a clash. ‘Please—you can’t start arguing with your father—not on an occasion like this.’
‘He’s such a damned hypocrite!’ she muttered, sitting back in her corner and shaking off her mother’s restraining hand. ‘He’s not the least bit upset that Gramps is dead. The only thing he’s bothered about is finding some way of keeping Shaun from getting his hands on the money.’
‘And that I shall succeed in doing, I assure you,’ Sir Charles insisted with arrogant assurance.
‘Oh, yes? How? From what he said, he’s got all the proof he needs that he’s Gramps’s son—and you’ll have a hard time proving you need maintenance out of the estate.’
The car was passing the railings of the cemetery, and through the trees she could catch a glimpse of a tall figure still lingering at the graveside, fair head pensive but unbowed. He had stood like that all through the service, not looking at her or her parents—except for just once, towards the end, when she had stepped forward to toss a spray of lilac, clipped from one of Gramps’s favourite trees, into the grave. Then those level hazel-brown eyes had caught hers, just for a brief moment, before she had turned away.
He looked very different in that well-cut grey suit he was wearing. When she had seen him this morning she would have sworn that he never wore anything but those faded, well-worn jeans, but she had to admit he looked good in the more formal attire—though the tailored elegance of the cut did nothing to tame the ruggedness of that powerful masculine frame.
It had been inevitable that people would notice his striking resemblance to Gramps, and there had been a considerable amount of whispering and speculation during the service—not entirely in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion. Well, everyone would find out soon enough who he was, she reflected—though from what she had overheard, a good many people had already guessed.
What sort of life had he led in Canada? What line of business had he been in? Her father had told her that Gramps had paid his mother maintenance when he was a child, but she doubted that he had been able to give him much financial support beyond that—her grandmother would have seen to that.
In fact he had every reason for his bitterness towards her grandmother—she was more than ready to acknowledge that. Maybe it was little wonder that he should have assumed that she was tarred with the same brush.
* * *
Most of the people who had been at the church had come up to the house. There were only about twenty or so—representatives from the board of directors of Morgan & Co, and a few local people who had some claim to be called friends of the family.
As usual it fell to Pippa to act as hostess, circulating among the guests, accepting their conventional expressions of condolence—her mother had already resorted to the sherry bottle to sustain her through the ordeal, and was looking a little frayed.
A sudden hush in the conversation alerted her, and she glanced towards the door, catching her breath on a small shock as Shaun walked into the room. He had arrived with Mr Gibbons, the solicitor, who was looking rather less than happy at being involved in such an awkward situation.
Pippa glanced round swiftly to check how her father was reacting. Surely he wouldn’t be so crass as to make a scene in public? Unfortunately there was no guarantee of that—when Sir Charles Corbett lost his temper, he was inclined to forget all considerations of dignity and decency.
Shaun’s broad shoulders seemed to fill the doorway as he stood for a moment on the threshold, the slightly sardonic curve to his mouth suggesting that he was faintly amused by the stir he was creating. Pippa heard her father’s hissing intake of breath, and moved swiftly to intervene, crossing the room to greet the newcomer with a smile of easy welcome.
‘Good afternoon. Thank you for coming. Can I offer you some sherry? Or something stronger, perhaps?’
Those hazel-brown seemed to regard her with a hint of cool mockery. ‘Thank you—sherry will do, so long as it’s not too sweet.’
‘Oh, no—this one’s quite dry,’ she assured him. ‘My mother has the sweet one.’
He slanted a speculative glance in that direction. ‘So I see,’ he murmured, a flicker of quizzical amusement passing behind his eyes. ‘Is she planning to go through the whole bottle?’
Pippa flushed slightly. ‘I expect so,’ she acknowledged wryly. ‘I don’t know how she can stand the stuff myself—it tastes like syrup.’
‘Each to their own taste,’ he responded drily. ‘I trust you’ve fully recovered from your fall this morning?’
Her smile wavered slightly, but she managed to keep it in place. ‘Yes, thank you,’ she responded lightly. ‘It was such a stupid thing to do, riding like that in the lane. I was lucky it was no worse.’
Now there was no mistaking the mockery. ‘The luck was all mine,’ he taunted, letting his eyes slide deliberately down over the ripe swell of her breasts beneath the silk of her blouse.
She caught her breath, her cheeks flushing a deep pink—she hadn’t expected him to be so blunt as to remind her of that. She turned to the solicitor, struggling to maintain her composure. ‘Mr Gibbons—some sherry?’
A heavy tread warned of her father’s approach. ‘Couldn’t wait five minutes to get your feet under the table, could you, Morgan?’ he grated belligerently. ‘Come to take inventory, to see we don’t remove anything we’re not entitled to, have you?’
Shaun turned slowly, his level brows lifted in sardonic question. ‘I’m quite sure you wouldn’t do anything like that,’ he responded, those hazel-brown eyes—the living image of Gramps’s—glinting with mocking humour. ‘I imagine it would constitute theft.’ He slanted an enquiring glance at the solicitor. ‘Isn’t that right?’
‘Oh...quite,’ that embarrassed gentleman confirmed quickly.
‘You’d better not start counting your chickens,’ Sir Charles advised in a blustering tone. ‘The battle’s not over yet.’
‘On the contrary—Mr Gibbons advises me that there should be no difficulty in obtaining letters of administration. It shouldn’t take more than a few weeks. And if you have any ideas of attempting to intervene,’ he added, his voice menacingly soft, ‘I really would advise you to think again.’
Sir Charles had turned an ominous shade of purple, ready to explode. Pippa was acutely conscious that everyone in the room was listening to the conversation with undisguised interest—everyone except her mother, whose attention was focused solely on the remaining sherry in her bottle. Her plaintive voice cut inconsequentially into the taut silence.
‘Charles, you really will have to bring up some more of this Oloroso,’ she declared, her careful diction not quite concealing the slur in her voice. ‘I really can’t think where it all goes.’
Someone tittered with embarrassed laughter, and Pippa closed her eyes for a brief moment, wishing devoutly that the ground could just open up and swallow her. With a snort of rage, Sir Charles turned on his heel, and stalked out of the room, slamming the door viciously behind him.
‘Oh...’ Lady Corbett blinked, startled. It had finally impinged on her blurred consciousness that something was amiss, but she wasn’t at all sure what it was. She glanced around rather anxiously, afraid that she might have committed some faux pas. ‘I...I didn’t necessarily mean right now...’ she protested vaguely.
Shaun’s eyes still held a faintly mocking smile. He handed his glass back to Pippa. ‘I guess I’ve already overstayed my welcome,’ he drawled, an inflexion of sardonic humour in his voice. ‘Mr Gibbons, if you happen to be going my way, I’d sure appreciate a lift.’
‘Of...of course.’ The solicitor looked as if his tie was too tight.
‘Thank you. Well, good afternoon, Miss Corbett.’ The smile was blandly polite. ‘Thank you for your hospitality. I look forward to meeting you again.’
For a moment Pippa could only stand rooted to the spot, staring after him as he left the room. But then suddenly it seemed as if she had been released from some strange spell, and, putting down the tray of sherry glasses on a convenient table, she ran out after him.
‘Shaun—wait!’
Halfway across the panelled hall he paused, glancing back, one eyebrow lifted in mocking enquiry.
She hesitated, awkwardly wondering how to follow up on her impulsive action. ‘I just...I wanted to apologise for what my father said to you this morning,’ she stammered. ‘It was quite abominable of him.’
The hard glint in his eyes as he subjected her to a lazy appraisal seemed to turn her blood to ice. ‘Well, Miss Corbett—this sudden change in your attitude towards me is very interesting,’ he taunted in that soft, laconic drawl. ‘What brought it on, I wonder? Trying to play your grandmother’s game?’
She stared up at him, bewildered. ‘I...I don’t know what you mean?’
‘Don’t you?’ His eyes hardened perceptibly. ‘The Corbetts never have had any time for anyone whose breeding didn’t match their own—unless they found themselves in need of funds. Your grandmother was more than willing to prostitute herself by marrying my father for his money—maybe it’s occurred to you to do the same.’
His words struck her like a slap in the face. ‘How dare you speak to me like that?’ she protested, furious. ‘I wouldn’t touch you with a barge-pole!’
He laughed softly, taking her chin between his fingers and turning her face up to study it from several angles, as if she were one of the chattels of the estate he had just inherited. ‘Not bad,’ he murmured with an air of cool detachment. ‘The pedigree is unmistakable, of course—every inch a Corbett. It could be quite interesting to break you to bridle.’
She slapped his hand away. ‘You won’t get the chance!’
‘No?’ Those hazel-brown eyes were regarding her in amused speculation. ‘We’ll see. It would be good to take a little revenge on your family.’ A hard edge had crept into his voice. ‘Your grandmother’s behaviour prevented my father from ever supporting my mother properly—she had to struggle by on a pittance until the day she died. That’s something I won’t ever forget or forgive. And I’ve never been allowed to get to know him, either—the last time I saw him was more than fifteen years ago, at my mother’s funeral.’
‘Well, whose fault was that?’ Pippa retorted, refusing to let herself be swayed. ‘You chose to go off to Canada—’
‘Because it was more than obvious that I was a constant thorn in the old witch’s side—for which she made my father pay with every breath he drew.’
‘My grandmother died six years ago,’ she pointed out, cool blue eyes regarding him with disdain. ‘You could have visited after that.’
His eyes glinted dangerously. ‘I tried,’ he said. ‘I came to England two years ago with just that intention, but Charles wouldn’t let me into the house.’
She laughed in scorn. ‘If you’re trying to tell me you couldn’t have got past my father...!’
He lifted his eyebrows in faint surprise. ‘What do you suggest I should have done? Knocked him down? I must admit I considered it, very seriously.’
Silently reserving that she would have enjoyed seeing it, she shrugged one slim shoulder in a gesture of unconcern. ‘Well, you couldn’t wait to get here as soon as he was dead,’ she tossed at him coldly.
‘Of course,’ he returned, immune to her poison darts. ‘Wouldn’t you have expected me to come to my own father’s funeral?’
‘And to throw us out of our home,’ she added hotly. ‘Don’t tell me you’re not gloating over that.’
‘I don’t suppose you’re likely to believe that I had no idea of the way things stood—I hadn’t even given it any thought. But I have to admit, the situation does have a certain pleasant irony.’
She glared at him in impotent fury. ‘Well, I shouldn’t get too excited about it,’ she advised him, gritting her teeth. ‘Half of it will probably go in inheritance tax.’ And turning him an aloof shoulder, she stalked away.
* * *
Inevitably there could be no other topic of conversation at the Corbett dinner table that evening—it wasn’t exactly an aid to digestion. ‘Walking in here like that, as if he already owned the place,’ fumed Sir Charles, spearing a lump of kidney with his fork as if it had been freshly cut from the body of his enemy. ‘Looking around in that sly way, pricing everything up. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was planning to sell off the lot!’
‘What I simply can’t understand,’ his wife remarked for the fortieth time, ‘is how the law can even recognise a...a natural child in that way, let alone favour them. I mean, it’s virtually condoning...that sort of thing. I wonder if the Government is aware of it? I think perhaps I shall write a letter to the local party agent, just to draw it to his attention.’
‘Well, he’s going to find out that it isn’t going to be as easy as he seems to think,’ Sir Charles rambled on, ignoring his wife’s contribution. ‘Possession is nine-tenths of the law. That damned stupid old fool of a solicitor—I don’t trust a word he said. Good God, bringing the man here like that, quite openly—it’s easy to see whose side he’s on! Well, he’s burned his boats with me. We’ll see what a decent solicitor makes of the matter!’
Pippa ate in silence, the acrid taste on her tongue ruining her appetite. Shaun’s words were still bouncing around inside her head. How dared he interpret her simple gesture of friendliness as an attempt to make a play for him? As if she would lower herself even to consider marrying a man for his money! And least of all him! She had never met such an insufferably arrogant man in all her life, and if she did ever meet him again—which she sincerely hoped she wouldn’t—she would tell him exactly what she thought of him.
Although it would be disappointing if she never had the chance to respond to that...that outrageous insult he had handed her. At the time she had been too stunned to be able to think of a suitably cutting retort, but since then her mind had been occupied with nothing but honing and refining a few extremely choice words that would wither him into the ground.
‘He’ll know he’s got a fight on his hands,’ her father was still pontificating. ‘I’ll take it all the way to the House of Lords if I have to. You mark my words...’
‘Oh, can’t you leave it alone for five minutes?’ Pippa burst out irritably. ‘Even if you do manage to stop Shaun getting the money, that doesn’t automatically mean it’ll come to you. It’ll go to the Crown instead—so you won’t be any better off, and you’ll just have wasted a fortune on legal fees.’
They both stared at her, startled by her heated intervention. ‘And what would you know about it?’ her father demanded crossly. ‘You’d just better hope it does get sorted out right, my girl. It would have all come to you eventually, and if you’re telling me you’re happy to see a fortune whistled down the wind you’re a bigger fool than I ever took you for.’
Pippa rose to her feet. ‘I really couldn’t give a damn about a fortune,’ she snapped, her patience strained beyond endurance. ‘I’d just as soon be poor. And you’d better take that glass off her,’ she added with a wry nod towards her mother. ‘That’s her fourth brandy already this evening, on top of all that sherry this afternoon. She’ll be under the table by ten o’clock at this rate.’
‘Philippa! How dare you speak of your mother like that?’
‘Oh, come off it, Dad. You know she drinks, I know she drinks, everyone knows she drinks. Why don’t you try to get her to do something about it, instead of closing your eyes to it all the time?’
