Faith - Lesley Pearse [188]
‘Did you draw up a will for her?’
Again the man hesitated. ‘Yes,’ he said somewhat reluctantly.
When was that?’
‘Well, I couldn’t have told you that an hour or two ago. But I looked through her file when Mr Goldsmith rang me, to refresh my memory. It was the same day she inquired what was needed to gift the farm. In December ’92. I drew it up, then a few days later she came in and signed it.’
‘Who witnessed it?’ Stuart asked.
‘Mr Conway’s secretary. Margaret Cameron.’
‘And where is this will?’
‘We have it here in our vault. As I said, I didn’t know about her death until today. If I had I would have passed it on to her executor.’
‘Who is?’
‘You, Mr Macgregor.’
15
‘I need a stiff drink,’ Stuart said as he came back into the flat.
David looked up from some paperwork he was doing.
‘You didn’t thump him, did you?’ he asked.
‘Of course not, but I reckon Calder could do with it. I’d say he’s as bent as a hairpin.’
David poured him a large Scotch, then sat down to hear what had happened. Stuart told him first what Calder had said about the deed of gift, then went on to tell him that Jackie had made a new will.
‘When he said I was the executor, I nearly keeled over with shock. That was the last thing I expected. But it was a stroke of luck too, for I doubt he’d have handed it over to me, or even told me the contents, unless I was,’ he said, taking the will out of his inside pocket and handing it to David. ‘There was a letter for me with it explaining why she asked me. She said I was the only person she felt she could trust with it.’
David unfolded the will and began to read it. ‘Bloody hell,’ he exclaimed. ‘She left Brodie Farm to Laura and two of the cottages in Cellardyke to Ted. Another one to Gloria.’ He looked up at Stuart with a jubilant expression. ‘This is brilliant, we’ve got the perfect reason now for calling Ted and Gloria as witnesses.’
‘Read on,’ Stuart said. ‘The plot, as they say, thickens!’
‘Roger gets some of the London property, a house in Kensington for Toby, and blimey, Stuart, you get one in Notting Hill!’
‘Yeah, you could have knocked me down with a feather at that bit. But there’s more astounding stuff,’ Stuart said.
‘Numerous other smaller bequests,’ David murmured, reading out some of them, including the sum of £15,000 to Jackie’s parents, which she urged them to blow on a trip around the world. ‘Kirkmay House! What’s that doing in here?’ he exclaimed in shocked surprise. ‘Kirkmay House was Jackie’s, not Belle and Charles’s!’
Stuart nodded. ‘And she’s left it to none other than Meggie and Ivy, Laura’s sisters.’
‘But what about Belle and Charles?’ David’s eyes were scanning down the page, assuming he had missed them. ‘She doesn’t appear to have left them anything!’
‘That’s right. She explains it to me in a letter.’
‘I thought she didn’t know about Laura’s sisters?’ David said. He looked so puzzled that Stuart laughed.
‘You’d better read her letter,’ he said, taking the envelope out of his inside pocket and handing it over. ‘Read it aloud. I’m so blown away by it all that I probably haven’t taken it in properly.’
David moved closer to the window to see better and cleared his throat.
‘Dearest Stuart’ he read.
As I write this I’m quite sure you’ll never read it, which makes me feel pretty silly even putting pen to paper. I always hated the idea of wills as I often told you. Roger coerced me into writing one years ago, and it made me feel like my business was the important thing about me, not me as a person. But I’m forty-eight now, and as Mum is so fond of telling me, I may just pop my clogs before I’ve managed to give away my little empire or spend my dosh.
I’ve taken the liberty of putting you down as my executor as you are the only person that is younger than me, who I know I can trust implicitly. I’m sorry if it proves onerous, maybe