The Eden Inheritance by Janet Tanner Read Free Book Online

grandparents and Tante Celestine would think I had changed, I am sure. As would anyone who has not seen me from that day to this. It would be the same with von Rheinhardt. I expect I could pass him in the street and not know him.’
    But the tiny tremor was back in her voice, telling Guy that was not the truth. The arrogance of the man would not have changed, those cold eyes in the handsome Aryan face … she was seeing them now. Thirty years or three hundred, she would never forget.
    â€˜Don’t you think he deserves to be brought to justice?’ Guy said harshly. ‘Why should someone who commits the sort of crimes he committed get away with it? And live with the proceeds of his wickedness? Surely if he was so evil you want to see him punished?’
    â€˜I’m sure he will be punished,’ Kathryn said quietly. ‘If not in this life, then the next. I think I am content to leave it at that.’
    Guy prickled with frustation.
    â€˜How can you say that?’
    â€˜Von Rheinhardt had a way of contaminating everything and everyone around him, spreading evil. He’d do it again.’
    â€˜He wouldn’t have much chance of getting away with it in a prison cell.’
    â€˜Don’t be so sure. There are people who manage to spread mayhem whatever the circumstances. Von Rheinhardt is one of those. I don’t just mean tangible disasters, Guy. He somehow manages to bring out the worst in people. No, I honestly believe the past is best left alone now. I have managed to put it behind me. Why can’t you do the same?’
    â€˜Because unlike you, it seems, I want the man who is responsible for my father’s death brought to justice, if that is at all possible, and I want the family treasures back where they belong. I don’t want to hurt you, Mum. I don’t want to drag up memories that are painful to you. But I owe it to my father, don’t you see? I owe it to my heritage.’
    â€˜The Savigny inheritance.’ She said it wearily, looking, he thought, suddenly older than her fifty-three years, though such a short time ago she had looked much younger. ‘ Oh Guy, what a lot that has to answer for!’
    â€˜What do you mean by that?’
    She was silent for a moment, then she shrugged.
    â€˜Family pride and duty. You sound just like your father. I’m sure your grandpapa has instilled it in you just as it was instilled in him. I know it’s up to you to carry on the Savigny line. I’ve done my best to make it easy for you, though God knows, it isn’t what I’d have chosen for you. We’ve lived in England but I have tried to ensure you were as much at home in France as you were here, that you understood their ways, that you would be worthy of the title and your family name. I’ve accepted that one day I will lose you to them …’
    â€˜That’s rubbish!’ he interrupted. ‘You don’t have to lose me at all!’
    â€˜I’ve accepted that your place will be there, just as it would have been if your father had lived,’ she went on as if she had not heard him speak. ‘But this one thing I ask you, Guy. Don’t go after vengeance for the sake of vengeance. It won’t do anyone any good and it may do a great deal of harm.’
    â€˜Then you won’t help me?’
    She looked at him long and steadily. He thought he saw a flash of that old familiar fire in her eyes, then her mouth set in a determined line.
    â€˜That’s right. I won’t help you. I’d go further. I have very rarely asked anything of you. I want you to have your own life and I’ve avoided making any demands of you. But I am asking you now. If you have any respect for my feelings, forget this whole thing. Please. Leave the past where it belongs.’
    He looked at her, feeling her pain, wanting to alleviate it and knowing he could not. This was something he had to do, for his father, for his