Heirs of the Body(6)

“I’m not at all sure whether Mother is planning to take any part in the affair. She still hasn’t forgiven Edgar for inheriting Fairacres, though he had no choice about it. One couldn’t describe her as being on neighbourly terms with them, even if the Dower House is all of half a mile away.”

“But she’s bound to want to vet the next heir, or claimants to heirdom, don’t you think?”

“I certainly do. It’s an intriguing situation. But you never can tell with Mother.” Daisy grimaced. “I’d better see if she has anything to say on the subject. I’ll open her letter after dinner.”

“You haven’t read it yet? Coward!”

Daisy wrinkled her nose at him. “I am,” she acknowledged, “when it comes to Mother. You deal with her much better than I do.”

“So that’s why you’re so determined to get me down to Fairacres?”

“She’s going to be breathing fire at these poor people Tommy’s digging up. Not that I’m too keen on them myself.”

“I don’t know why you want to go,” Alec grumbled, “when you’re already prejudiced against them.”

“I’m not!”

He merely raised his eyebrows, well aware that the simple change of expression always had the devastating effect of making her examine her conscience. It had much the same effect on suspects and recalcitrant witnesses, though for them he put enough ice in his stare to intimidate; some claimed he froze the marrow of their bones. With Daisy, he was laughing at her—usually.

“I can’t dislike them when I haven’t even met them yet. But I resent them,” she admitted. “I resent anyone who might take Father’s and Gervaise’s place. When it happened before, I didn’t have a chance to think about it beforehand so … it came as a shock but I didn’t have to participate. I expect it sounds silly, but I feel disloyal.”

“Not silly at all, love. Very natural.” Reluctantly he resigned himself to doing his best to be there to support her. “But if we’re committing ourselves to staying for several days, I hope you’ll try not to show your dislike.”

“I don’t dislike them, truly. I’m just a bit disgruntled.”

“Well, gruntle yourself, love, or I’ll conjure up an emergency at the Yard and go back to work.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“I might.”

“You will come, then?”

“If I can wangle the time off, yes. I take it you’ve decided not to participate in Pearson’s interviews with the claimants.”

“Of course I shall. I’ve already made an appointment with him to talk about it. It’ll be easier to cope with meeting them one at a time, rather than facing a horde of strangers at Fairacres, don’t you think? And I might be able to help weed them out so there isn’t a horde by then.”

“‘A consummation devoutly to be wished,’” said Alec.

After dinner, when they were settled with coffee in the sitting room, Daisy picked up the Benares brass letter opener and attacked the dowager’s cream linen paper envelope.

“At least it’s short,” Alec remarked, as she took out a single sheet.

“Mother can pack a lot into a few pithy sentences when she tries. Ah, I might have guessed. It’s all Edgar’s fault. He was unforgivably remiss not to ascertain the identity of his heir as soon as he had appropriated the title.”

“Appropriated? Is that the word she uses?”

“I told you she’s by no means resigned to dowagerdom. Dowagership? Dowagerhood?”

“All the same, she has a point about his being remiss.”

“Remember, the poor man wasn’t brought up to the business of being a lord.”

“Lordhood, as it might be.”

“To do him justice, though he must be glad not to be surviving on a schoolmaster’s pension, he doesn’t care two hoots about the title. So, not having any children, why should he care who gets it next? Mother does, however. Wouldn’t you think she’d have learnt that she has no say in the matter?”

“Your mother considers herself a law unto herself.” And her younger daughter occasionally followed her example, as he’d discovered the very first time Daisy had interfered in one of his investigations.

“Anyway, she intends to keep a close eye on things, since Edgar has neither the common sense nor the breeding to.… Yes, well, we’ll skip the invective. Aha, here we are. She expects me to bring you down to Fairacres, because if a policeman can’t sort out the impostors from the real heir, what’s the use of having one in the family? She’ll be very disappointed in me if—As if that was an inducement! She’s disappointed in me whatever I do.”