A Dark Inheritance by H.F. Askwith

Author:H.F. Askwith [Askwith, H.F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241405000
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Published: 2023-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

The following day, I got up early and went to the bank to withdraw as much cash as I could from the allowance Mother released to me every month. When I came out, my wallet was near to bursting. Then I headed to the port, where I was told that we could take a cancellation on an ocean liner that was leaving the following morning. The liner would be able to transport us across the Atlantic in seven or eight days, depending on the wind – not a record-breaking time, but a testament to the incredible progress in engineering nonetheless. The cancellation was for a parlour suite in first class, made up of three connected bedrooms, a private bathroom and a drawing room, and it came to a princely sum that wiped out more than half of the cash I had withdrawn from the bank. The rest of it I exchanged for British pounds. I booked return tickets for us all and hoped that my optimism wasn’t misplaced.

When I returned to Pitch House, I rang Lois to let her know that I would be collecting her early the following morning. I had no way of calling Violet, but no doubt she would have already prepared a bag.

Next I knew I needed to have the conversation with Mother, the one that I’d been dreading. Honesty had become unavoidable.

She was in her bedroom, underneath the silk of her coverlet, but not asleep. Oftentimes, she would spend long days in bed, not sleeping but not fully awake either, lost in the world between the two. This wasn’t something new – it had been a habit for a long time now. A tiny candle flame flickered on her nightstand, and she was watching it.

‘Mother,’ I said, and when she lifted her head I noticed that she was cradling one of Father’s old shirts.

She pulled herself up to a sitting position, and a little noise caught in her throat. She was stroking the shirt the way she would have stroked Father’s cheek, and then she let out a big sigh, one that seemed to go on forever.

‘I’m dreadfully confused. I miss him terribly. I’ve missed him for years. I feel as though he’s been dead a very long time. I thought he was never coming home; then, once he was here, all I wanted was him gone again. And now I feel so wracked with guilt.’

‘You couldn’t have known what was going to happen.’ I clambered on to the bed to sit next to her.

‘When he came back, it was as if the light inside that made him who he was had gone out,’ she continued. ‘Do you understand what I mean?’

I understood exactly. I too had felt that some essential part of what made Father himself had been extinguished.

‘Felix … I found out that your father changed his will,’ Mother said. ‘Everything has been left to a stranger.’

‘A stranger?’ When would the shocking revelations stop?

‘Wade Griffin,’ she said, a small sob escaping her lips. ‘I’ve never heard of him before.

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