Fallen Grace - Mary Hooper [66]
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Chapter Twenty-Four
At the appointed time, by the letter box at the top of Edgware Road and under the light from the street lamp, Grace read through the newspaper article which James Solent had given her. When she’d finished, she looked up at him despairingly.
‘It’s the Unwins, isn’t it? It’s they who are saying that they adopted Lily.’
James nodded. ‘I’ve made some enquiries to a friend of mine, a clerk at Binge and Gently, and it is them, I’m afraid.’
‘They’ve claimed the money. Then they’ve won!’ Grace said. She’d known, of course, that it was too wonderful to be true; that stories about poor girls coming into fortunes only happened in the fairytales she’d once told Lily.
‘I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’ve won,’ James said, ‘although at the moment they certainly seem to have the upper hand.’
‘But my sister!’ Grace said, bewildered. ‘I can hardly believe it. Why would she go along with this? How have they persuaded her to say she was adopted by them?’
‘For money?’ James suggested. ‘Or perhaps they promised her some jewellery or other frippery.’
Grace began shaking her head immediately. ‘Lily isn’t interested in things like that,’ she said. ‘And she is too fond of me – and I of her – for us to ever pretend that the other one doesn’t exist.’
‘But something has made her lie.’
‘She can’t even tell lies with any degree of success. A child of four could find her out!’
‘Hmm.’ James thought for a long moment, then said, ‘Perhaps they discovered that fact for themselves . . .’
Grace looked at him, not comprehending.
‘Perhaps,’ he explained, ‘having discovered that Lily wouldn’t go along with the story they wished to perpetuate, they have employed someone else to be Lily for them.’
‘You mean – an actress?’ Grace asked.
‘An actress. Exactly. Someone to take her part while the real Lily is kept out of the way.’
‘Of course!’ Grace said, and all at once realised the truth. ‘But they don’t need to employ an actress – they have their daughter!’
‘The Unwins have a daughter?’
Grace nodded. ‘A girl about the same age as my sister. They will have used her instead.’
‘You’ve seen this girl?’
‘I have. She behaved very pleasantly towards me. Oh!’ Grace clapped her hand to her mouth. ‘That’s why she asked me so many questions about my mother and her circumstances. And Lily told me that she was as affable to her, too.’
‘Oh, clever Unwins!’ James said. ‘She was trying to unstitch your past. To discover everything about your family that she possibly could.’
‘But she seemed so very nice . . .’
James smiled wryly. ‘Where money is concerned, niceness can be put on to order.’
‘You don’t think . . .’ Grace hesitated, took a breath, began again. ‘Do you think my sister is safe? They wouldn’t have . . . have done anything to her, would they?’
James shook his head. ‘I really don’t think so. They might kidnap someone, lock them away, but even the Unwins wouldn’t stoop to mur—’ He coughed. ‘To anything worse.’
A violent cacophony of vehicle horns suddenly erupted from the encircling traffic and both James and Grace fell silent.
When the noise ceased and they could make themselves heard again, Grace asked, ‘What can be done? There must be something.’
James nodded. ‘Tomorrow I’ll speak to Mr Ernest Stamford, the venerable head of our chambers, and acquaint him with the whole story.’
‘Is there anything that I can do?’ Grace asked anxiously.
‘Just keep your eyes and ears open. Do you ever see people arriving at the funeral home and hear what they speak about?’
‘Sometimes,’ Grace said.
‘Then it’s possible that you may overhear something. My law clerk friend told me that the Unwins have yet to produce the adoption papers for Lily.’
‘Because no such papers exist!’
‘Quite. They’ll be having forgeries made, of course, but these will need to look authentic and will take some time to create. If, when they get them, you were able to steal them . . .’
‘But wouldn’t they just