Moonshadows by Mary Ann Artrip Read Free Book Online Page B

seemed to count away the years in her fevered brain. “Time goes so quickly that it’s easy to lose track. I received a short missive via the post. She said Etienne was studying drama and was planning to go into the theatre—on the legitimate stage, of all things. Such trashy people, thespians. Trashy and common.” She sighed. “She said he was doing quite well, but then Isabella always did have this great need to exaggerate. So I have no way of knowing the real truth. I’ve heard nothing since,” she concluded and her body went slack.
    “Grandmother, how old is Etienne?”
    “About your age—twenty-six or so. I remember getting the news of his birth just about the same time you came along. Isabella wrote that he favored your great-great grandfather, Morgan. ‘Handsome to a fault’ she said.” She gave a weak smile. “Frankly, my dear, I never did see any handsomeness in Morgan, but Isabella did. I guess there’s no accounting for taste.” Her eyes filled with tears and her hand continued to pick at the bedcovers. “I’ve worried for him, for both of them.” She gazed across the room, seemingly lost in thought. “I have.” She glanced back at Janet. “You mustn’t think unkindly of me, child. Those were such different times—difficult circumstances.”
    Janet realized that her anger had evaporated. “I don’t think badly of you,” she said. “But you mustn’t let this overwhelm you so. You’re not strong enough to deal with it right now.”
    “But Janet, I must. Don’t you understand? Now is all the time I have. I know I shan’t live much longer, and I have to put things to right. The will,” she said, peering into Janet’s eyes, “is the only way I can do it.”
    “The will?”
    “That’s the reason I was so insistent on you coming up this weekend. To explain about the will, about Etienne. The estate must be shared equally between you and your cousin. Do you understand?”
    “Of course, I do, Grandmother. You’ve done so much for me already and Etienne has gotten nothing. I’m not sure that sharing equally would be fair to him.”
    “Nonetheless, that’s the way it is, the way it must remain. The will has been set to paper and must not be changed, unless—”
    “Unless what?”
    “As I told you, Janet, I’ve heard nothing from Isabella for many years now. Ian Newkirk has engaged an associate.”
    “A detective?”
    “He knows about these sorts of things and has been actively seeking their whereabouts, but to no avail. One would think that an actor would be easy to locate.” She shook her head. “They seemed to have just vanished.”
    “What if they aren’t found?” Janet dared to ask. “What if something’s happened to both of them?”
    “If that should prove to be the case, the entire estate will go to you. Ian has suggested, and I concur completely, that a time limit of one year be placed on the dispensation of the will. After the year has lapsed and Etienne is not found, you will become sole heir. Should he be found before the year is ended, the two of you will inherit jointly.”
    She paused and licked her parched lips. There was a slight rasp to her breathing. Then she continued.
    “If he is located and misfortune should befall either of you before the year is up, the entire estate—which, even by today’s standards, is considerable—will go to the surviving heir.” Her breath was irregular and emitted a fetid odor. “Do you understand all I’ve said to you, Janet?”
    “Yes, Grandmother, I understand and agree totally.” She stood, stepped to the bedside and leaned over to touch her grandmother’s pale cheek. “Now will you please rest?”
    The old lady struggled to heave herself up from the bed. She raised a claw-like hand and waved it in the air.
    “There’s something else, something I must—”
    Her voice failed and she collapsed back against the pillows
    “Grandmother, what else do you want to tell me?”
    Her grandmother’s eyelids fluttered