Fallen Grace - Mary Hooper [34]
‘The father – the Parkes man – died abroad.’
‘Good, good . . . makes things easier.’
‘Died where his extremely large fortune had been made, in the Americas, by all accounts.’ He began drawing hard on the cigar to get it going. ‘And what I’m thinking now that you’ve got her in the bag is that the ten per cent being offered for finding her may not be quite enough. I mean, there are two of us.’
‘You think we should get more?’
‘More?’ Sylvester Unwin asked. ‘I think we should get the lot. I think you should make the girl part of the Unwin family circle – adopt her if you have to – and then gently acquire the money on her behalf.’ He paused for thought. ‘Yes, you may need to adopt her, but you must be canny about it.’
‘How d’you mean?’
‘You don’t want it to look as if you only adopted her when you found out she was an heiress, do you?’
‘Certainly not!’
‘So we’ll have to have the adoption papers forged and backdated ten years.’
‘And what will the girl have to say about that?’
‘Nothing much! You say that she’s simple?’
George Unwin nodded.
‘Then it should be easy – with a little persuasion – to convince her that she’s been living with you for ten years or more.’
George Unwin nodded again. ‘Should be . . . should be. And what about the other girl? The sister?’
‘No one knows about her, and she doesn’t know about the inheritance. We’ll keep it that way. Maybe we can send her away on a nice long journey with no return ticket.’
George Unwin clapped his cousin on the back. ‘An excellent idea,’ he said. ‘Excellent! By heck, no wonder they call you Sly!’
x
Chapter Thirteen
‘Come on, can’t you? Hurry! I’ve got to take you right across the park and then go back again.’
Rose, the housemaid who’d opened the Unwins’ door, pulled at Lily’s hand in an effort to get her to move along, but having passed the park’s carriage drive – which, as always, had been over-full of the fashionable – they had reached Rotten Row and Lily was staring, entranced, at the immaculately dressed horsewomen in their tailored riding habits and shiny top hats. As their horses clip-clopped past, each rider wished the other the compliments of the day in formal manner, lifting their silver- or gold-tipped cane as they did so. Occasionally a gentleman rider came along, all polished leather boots and jangling stirrups, calling greetings and raising his top hat to every attractive lady.
‘Why are they all out and riding their horses now – in the middle of the day?’ Lily asked Rose.
‘Why?’ Rose answered. ‘Because they want to, that’s why.’
‘Haven’t they any work to do?’
Rose gave a snort of laughter. ‘Not they!’
‘Are they all very rich?’
‘I should say so.’
A lady and gentleman trotted by together under the golden-leaved, fast-falling trees, each horse lifting its hooves in perfect unison with the other. Rose looked at them searchingly, for she knew that sometimes Queen Victoria and Prince Albert took a little riding exercise together in the park and, having seen them once, she very much hoped to see them again. Especially Albert, whom she’d thought a very handsome gentleman.
‘They’re so rich that they don’t need to work,’ she reiterated, pulling at Lily’s hand again. ‘Not like me. Or you.’ She stared at her companion. Whatever must the master and mistress be thinking of to take on a girl like this, shoe-less and dunder-headed? The other girl seemed decent enough and could possibly act the mute and attain the high funereal standards expected by the Unwins, but really, there was no hope at all for this baggage. A maid for Miss Charlotte? Oh, Lord, she was glad she didn’t have to tell her!
By threatening and persuading in equal measure, Rose managed to get Lily away from the horse riders, across Hyde Park and into Kensington Gardens, where they were then delayed by Lily wanting to have a closer look at the nannies rounding the pond with their perambulators.
‘Oh, may we go and look at the babies?’ she asked. ‘Just for a moment.’
Rose was about to say no, but gave in, for she very much liked looking at the babies