Fallen Grace - Mary Hooper [64]
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Chapter Twenty-Three
The following afternoon, just half a mile down the road, in imposing, wood-panelled offices, Miss Charlotte Unwin, accompanied by her mother and father, met the two most senior partners of that old-established law firm, Binge and Gently, in order to claim the Parkes’ family fortune.
Miss Charlotte, well tutored about her new background, was looking slightly different. Not enough to cause the neighbours to gossip, but just subtle temporary measures that could be changed back later. The Unwins had no way of telling if there was anyone other than the sisters with knowledge of the general appearance of either of the Parkes parents, so to bring her complexion more into line with the skins of Lily and Grace, Charlotte’s blooming complexion had become paler under a liberal application of face powder, and her hair treated with a mixture of glycerine, red wine and rosewater in order to render it darker. In addition, she was wearing a false switch of auburn ringlets on the crown of her head, which shook each time she burst into distracting tears – which was fairly often.
‘My dear. Such a shock, I know!’ Her mother produced a bottle of smelling salts from her crocodile-skin handbag and waved it under Charlotte’s nose. ‘But you always knew you were adopted, did you not?’
Charlotte sniffled tearfully.
‘And now we shall take it slowly and go through all the correct procedures with these helpful and learned gentlemen,’ she said, smiling gummily first at Mr Binge, then at Mr Gently, ‘and then perhaps you and I can go away on a grand tour.’
‘Can we go and find the place that my real papa lived?’ Charlotte asked piteously.
‘Perhaps, perhaps,’ said her mother. ‘We shall see. All in good time.’
‘How quickly can we get the money?’ George Unwin asked, and suffered a hard look from his wife. ‘Our daughter is very sensitive,’ he elaborated quickly, ‘and we are anxious that things return to normal as soon as possible. She should not be subjected to too many disruptions to her customary routines.’
‘Quite,’ said Mr Gently, ‘although you will appreciate that because of the large sum involved, there are certain formalities which have to be gone through.’
‘Charlotte is such a delicate creature,’ Mrs Unwin said, ‘and that’s why we must insist that publicity is kept to an absolute minimum. The fewer people who know, the better. And as for the newspapers finding out our identities – well, heaven forfend!’
‘Indeed,’ said George Unwin. ‘The thought that our clients, colleagues and neighbours might find out about this is simply appalling.’
‘We will do all we can to prevent that,’ said Mr Binge.
‘Although everyone in the city is talking about the case,’ put in Mr Gently. ‘Such an unusual and exciting event, and such a very large sum of money.’
Mr Unwin only just prevented himself from licking his lips. ‘What will happen next?’
Mr Gently looked down at the papers on his desk and shuffled them about a little. ‘You say you have your daughter’s adoption certificate at home?’
‘Of course, of course!’ cried Mr Unwin.
‘It’s just that we didn’t stop to hunt for it,’ said his wife. ‘When my husband’s cousin told us about the advertisement – only yesterday evening – we decided we must come here straight away.’
This, as with most things connected with the Unwins, was not quite true. Sylvester Unwin had rushed round the previous evening, but with news he’d heard on the criminal grapevine that a certain other party was also grooming a young woman and preparing a case in order to claim the inheritance. The Unwins had decided, therefore, not to wait for the false adoption papers to be delivered from the corrupt forgers who’d been employed by Sylvester Unwin, but to contact Binge and Gently immediately and beat the others to it.
‘We don’t take The Mercury ourselves,’ said George Unwin. ‘If Mr Sylvester Unwin hadn’t seen it we might never have found out.’
Mr