A Question of Inheritance by Elizabeth Edmondson Read Free Book Online

and enjoyed all those jolly wenches, Nell Gwyn and so on. The Merry Monarch.’
    ‘Yes. Well, Thurloe knew where the bodies were buried.’
    ‘Which bodies? Are we back to my father and the flagstones?’
    ‘No, we’re still in the seventeenth century. Thurloe knew which members of Cromwell’s circle were really in cahoots with Charles when he was in exile. And, more to the point, he knew which of Charles’s circle were secretly working for Cromwell. He wrote everything down in his little black book. Which meant that when Charles was restored to the throne there was no danger of Thurloe being prosecuted or held to account in any way for having served Cromwell so faithfully. As a result, he died peacefully in his bed.’
    Sonia shrugged. ‘If you’re saying that Selchester had a black book, I never heard of it.’ She was lying. Rupert was sure she knew about the black notebook. ‘I’d quite like to get my hands on it,’ he said.
    ‘Afraid he wrote notes about you, Rupert? Wicked deeds that you’d rather no one knew about?’
    Rupert said, ‘What wicked deeds? I’ve nothing to hide.’
    That brought a peal of genuine laughter. ‘Oh, Rupert, you have plenty to hide.’
    Rupert sat back, savouring his own cigarette. ‘Everybody has a few things in their life that they would rather didn’t come to the public eye.’
    ‘And, as a rising young politician with a promotion on the horizon, you don’t want anyone rocking the boat.’
    ‘What promotion?’
    ‘You don’t need to pretend with me. You saw the Chief Whip yesterday. Hamilton’s got to go; such a messy divorce; it simply won’t do. I hear that you’re going to be the one who gets the tap on the shoulder. That is, as long as you can flourish a blameless reputation. There have been a few too many scandals in the party, aren’t I right? Now you all have to be whiter than white.’
    Rupert was confident that he had covered all his tracks well enough for it to be unlikely he’d to run into that kind of trouble. The few people who might be a threat to him could be headed off. Which was exactly why he wanted to get hold of that notebook of Selchester’s. For if ever there was a man who knew things about people that could be useful, it was Selchester. And Rupert, having been his personal private secretary at one time, had a fair idea of just how much Selchester wrote down in the notebook he kept so closely guarded.
    ‘Speak to your half-brother. I’m sure you can wangle me an invitation.’ He stubbed out his cigarette, grinding the end into the ashtray, and stood up. ‘Another turn about the floor?’
    As Sonia slid into his arms, she said, ‘I shan’t ask Gus to invite you, I’ll simply ring up the Castle tomorrow and say you’re coming.’
    Scene 2
    Freya was on the telephone in Grace Hall when Hugo came down the next morning. She was having an animated conversation, the curly cord twisted round her fingers and a look of exasperation on her face. She mouthed at Hugo as he went past, ‘Sonia.’ He lifted his eyebrows in sympathy and went on his way towards the dining room.
    Sonia was in full flood. ‘I wish the ghastly man would drop dead. Because, unless it turns out that he’s had a secret marriage and has a son that nobody knows about – like father, like son, how ironic that would be – I’m his heir. If he pops his clogs I inherit as Selchester always intended I should.’
    Freya wasn’t going to let that pass. ‘That’s nonsense. Tom was the next heir. When your father died he had no idea that you were going to inherit.’
    ‘Of course I’d much rather that Tom hadn’t been killed but I did take a great deal of satisfaction in thinking that I could sell the Castle and get rid of everything that Selchester was so keen on.’
    Freya had not yet got to the bottom of the bitterness that Sonia felt towards her father; a bitterness so intense that Freya had always wondered what had been in the pills beside his bed the night he died,