Fallen Hero (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 3)

“It is a property issue. The man is in my house,” Frederick protested.

“He doesn’t have the paperwork to prove it,” Aaron informed the solicitor with mild satisfaction.

“I am to inherit this house. I don’t see what difference a week or so makes,” Frederick protested. “Now get out of my way. Where is Elspeth? I demand to speak with her, right now.”

“She is indisposed,” Aaron warned.

“If you have done anything to her, I warn you now-”

Aaron threw the solicitor a dark look, turned around and closed the front door in Frederick’s still blustering face. The absolute silence that followed was broken only by the annoyed slam of the front gate.

“Well, that was interesting,” Niall murmured.

“He certainly is determined to get in here, isn’t he?” Oliver smirked.

“Why? I mean, he has always made it clear that he has wanted this house and has considered Thomas an interloper who should never have inherited it off father, but I had no idea he would be this determined to get it,” Elspeth sighed. “I don’t understand it.”

“Let’s look at these papers, shall we? Maybe they will tell us what we need to know,” Niall suggested.

Everyone made their way into the study.

“Did you know this was here?” Aaron asked of her as he waved to the secret hiding place Niall had found.

Elspeth shook her head. “Do you think the money Thomas took out of the bank might be here?”

“I think it might be the reason why Frederick wants this house. If there are other secret places like this in the house, God knows what they might contain. You could be sitting on a veritable fortune and not know it,” Oliver warned. “Has Thomas ever told you about this?”

Elspeth shook her head. “Why would he keep it a secret from me?”

“Who knows why? He just has,” Aaron sighed.

“I thought we trusted each other,” she whispered.

“It doesn’t look like these papers have been moved for a while,” Niall interrupted. To prove his point, he lifted the uppermost parchment out of the hiding place and blew a thick layer of dust off it. Rather than open it, he handed it to Elspeth.

Elspeth took it off him. She recognised immediately that it was her father’s handwriting detailing a last will and testament. Quickly, she untied the ribbon that held it closed and unrolled the parchment. The ink was faded, but she was able to read the last will of her grandfather.

“It basically leaves everything to your father,” Aaron told them.

“Yes, but there is no mention of the deeds having to be inherited by men in the family,” Elspeth replied. She picked up another piece of parchment and unrolled it. “This is a letter from the solicitor informing my father of the inheritance now being his.”

“Where is Thomas’s paperwork informing him of what he inherited from your father?” Oliver asked.

“It should be in the office, but I can’t find it,” Elspeth replied.

“Is he likely to have left the solicitor to hold it for him?” Jasper asked.

Elspeth shook her head. “Thomas would have wanted something like that in his possession. He wouldn’t have trusted anybody else with it.”

Aaron nodded his agreement. “He was quite pedantic about things like that. It is odd that he hasn’t left it tucked away neatly somewhere. He was always a stickler for everything having its rightful place.”

“None of the paperwork is where I would expect it to have been left,” Elspeth added.

“Well, let’s search again, shall we? There has to be something in here somewhere,” Oliver suggested.

They all spent the next several hours searching the room from top to bottom. There wasn’t a plank on the floor that remained unmoved or brick in the chimney breast that hadn’t been prodded just in case it was loose by the time they had finished. Any paperwork they found was placed in a pile in the centre of the room for them all to go through later.

Eventually, Aaron slid the bottom drawer back into the newly righted desk and sat down to study the large mound of papers they had found in various locations around the house.