Chapter Ten

In Which Secrets are Revealed which Confuse Everyone, and a Risky Plan is Hatched

Richard did his best to compose his thoughts, even though all the eyes in the room were on him.

It was unnerving, to say the least, but he had had more than a little experience in delivering various legal matters to clients, and knew he could do so with relative ease. So he treated this occasion in much the same fashion.

“As you all now know, Sir Duncan contacted our firm a few weeks ago, with a request that we investigate and confirm the legal status of the boundaries of three properties. They are Forest Grange,” he nodded at Lord Hawthorn, “Rosewood Park,” a glance at Sir Duncan, “and finally Myrtle Manor.”

He paused for a brief moment and took a breath. “We hired a surveyor and other legal assistance to review the documents we had obtained from the various records offices, and his report confirmed that the borders were still as established at the original time the land was settled.”

“So the oldest records are still accurate and legally in effect?” Sir Duncan’s gaze was fixed on Richard.

“That is the case, sir, yes. There have been no adjustments or changes to the original extent of any of the properties.”

“I knew it,” Sir Duncan clenched the fist that wasn’t holding the brandy snifter. “Deuced interloper.”

“You must mean Blackstone,” said Lady Hazel. “I doubt anyone else would fit that description.”

The old man nodded. “In the beginning, I had some correspondence from a couple of friends of mine in town on this matter. Then Blackstone’s name came up. He introduced himself, detailed some of his business dealings with my friend—and yes, I did validate those facts—so I took him at his word. When he invited me to consider sharing an investment that was based in my own neck of the woods, so to speak, I found myself intrigued.” He glanced around. “Let’s be honest, everyone is interested in adding to the family coffers.”

“I can’t argue with that,” commented Lord Hawthorn.

“Anyway,” continued Sir Duncan, “his letters became more insistent, and he requested a meeting, letting me know that he had pertinent information about the river and its importance to the land around here. It had a bearing on his latest endeavour, and he offered to explain it all to me if I could come to town and meet with him.”

Lord Hawthorn snorted. “Go to London, at this time of year, for a business meeting? Pshah . The man obviously has no understanding of the weather or how everyone spends their Christmases…in the country with their families.”

“In all fairness, nobody anticipated this kind of storm,” Holly pointed out. “They are more usually expected in January.”

“A valid point, my dear,” Sir Duncan smiled. “But be that as it may, Mr Blackstone arrived on my doorstep last week, full of bonhomie , and bringing vast amounts of paperwork with him.”

“How frightening.” Lady Hazel made a face.

“Indeed it was,” agreed Sir Duncan. “But I offered him a room, fed him, and listened to everything he had to say.” He grimaced. “Knowing what I know now about the man, I should have sent him off with a flea in his ear, or better still, never have invited him in the first place. But I confess, I was curious.”

“It was about canals, wasn’t it?” Richard couldn’t help himself.

“Yes, Mr Hawkesbury, you are correct. Our Mr Blackstone is convinced—or at least he tried to convince me—that the river’s position now, at this time, has taken it out of the Myrtle Manor property, which makes it publicly accessible, and therefore available for conversion into a canal.”

Lord Hawthorn stood and poured a little more brandy into Sir Duncan’s glass. “And since Forest Grange ends before the river, it is publicly accessible without question. The Trease property is not involved at all. Which explains why he never needed to talk to us.”

“True.” Sir Duncan sipped and nodded his thanks. “So all Blackstone wanted was for me to sign over my rights to the section of river passing through Rosewood, and he would have a clear path to a new, and lucrative, canal.”

“But the waterfall…” Holly exclaimed. “How can you have a canal where there’s a waterfall? No matter the size of it, it’s still there…”

“Locks, I would imagine,” Richard reasoned. “They’d require quite a bit of construction, but would allow barges full use of the waterway. For a charge, of course.”

“That is quite a stretch of the river.” Lady Hazel was frowning. “And by my reckoning, it would open up a trade route that would quickly fill with barges from not only the agricultural areas to our west but also the mining and manufacturing companies that are rising up quite quickly.” She looked at her husband. “I cannot say I like that idea at all, Hawthorn.”

“I’m damned sure Harry Chalmers wouldn’t, either,” he replied. “Where is the dratted lad? Do you know, Holly? Have you seen him lately, or spoken to anyone who has?”

She shook her head. “He’s been away for quite some time, Papa. He wasn’t here when Cherry met Garrett, and that seems like ages ago.”

“Harry answers to no one but himself,” observed Lady Hazel. “He’s a challenging neighbour in that regard, but he lives his life as he pleases.”

“Well,” Lord Hawthorn sighed. “At least now we know what Blackstone is after. But at this point, we must discuss your part in this, Mr Hawkesbury.”

Richard nodded. “I can confirm everything Sir Duncan has said as to the relationship of Rosewood Park to the River Ban. We received his request to initiate a review of the properties, and did so. Those were the documents I was carrying in my bag.”

“The ones that you were nearly killed for…” Holly touched his arm.

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Well then, lad, I think it’s time you revealed their contents.”

Richard sighed and turned to Sir Duncan. “I can tell you now, without hesitation, that those documents proved that no part of the River Ban is public property, regardless of its current course.”

A ripple of surprise seemed to shimmer through the room.

“How can that be?” Lady Hazel leaned forward.

“The surveyor was extremely accurate, and laid out the new course of the river on the maps most carefully. But…” Richard paused dramatically. “That had no bearing whatsoever on the actual property boundaries.”

“I’m confused,” muttered Holly.

“It sounds muddled, I know,” he looked at her with a smile. “But trust me. We reviewed every single document pertaining to this area. And there was no question at all. The borders of Rosewood Park and Myrtle Manor have not changed since they were legally established at the beginning.”

“Even though the river moved?” Lord Hawthorn stared at Richard.

“Yes, my Lord. Even though the river moved. You see, the border was created along a certain boundary, and at that time it ran along the bank of the river. I have to suppose it was convenient for those early surveyors.” He paused for breath. “I’m not sure if any of you have heard about metes and bounds ?”

Silence greeted his question.

“I think it goes back to the sixteen-hundreds or so, but to keep it simple, metes refer to the distances between landmarks, and bounds are the landmarks themselves.”

“That makes sense,” remarked Lady Hazel.

“It was—and still is—a very accurate way of defining the borders of a piece of land,” Richard continued. “And we have many old documents in our files using these terms.” He looked at Sir Duncan. “Your request, sir, was one of them.”

“I had no idea,” Sir Duncan replied, eyes wide.

“It is interesting, to be sure, but in this instance, I think I’d best move on to its application here in our business.”

Holly nodded. “Please do, but know I’m going to look up these metes and bounds things when we’re done.”

“I’d expect nothing less,” grinned her father. “But go on, Richard, if you please?”

“Right, well in our case, the bounds , the markers used at the beginning, still exist. Although it looked as if the river had initially separated the two properties and was, therefore, the current boundary line, our surveyor re-confirmed the position of those bounds , using information from the original documents…and they are still in the same place .” He paused. “Two quite large granite rocks, that were partially overgrown and barely visible until unearthed.” He shook his head. “They even had the date carved into them.”

“You’re saying, then, that the movement of the river had no effect on the borders?” Holly’s eyes were wide with surprise.

“That’s just what I mean, even though over the years many must have assumed it would,” answered Richard. “When the confirmation of the metes was completed, it turned out that Forest Grange has exactly the same boundaries now that it had over two hundred years ago, as does Myrtle Manor and Sir Duncan’s land. Whatever paperwork Blackstone has that shows otherwise is completely invalid, and might well be forged. The only way he could get use of that piece of the river for a public canal would be by leasing the rights from the Chalmers family.”

“Which is what he wants to do to with the Rosewood Park portion of the river,” said Sir Duncan. “His offer was minimal, to say the least. So I’m going to hazard a guess he believes I know little or nothing about the whole canal situation.” He quirked an eyebrow. “In that, he errs.”

Richard’s mouth turned down. “And I’m sure he’d be asking for additional funds to create the locks, all while touting the enormous profits to be made from your investment after it’s been built and working for a few years.”

“How did you guess?” Sir Duncan asked, wryly.

“I’ve seen it happen before, I’m afraid. There is money to be made in canals, without question, but all too often it’s the wrong people who walk away with their pockets full, leaving the waterways and surrounding land irretrievably altered or damaged.”

“Well,” Holly straightened. “That explains why you were attacked, Richard. Somehow Blackstone knew what information you were bringing with you to Sir Duncan. And he knew it would reveal his own dishonest plans.”

Richard nodded briefly. “Yes, I agree. Somehow, he must have learned about your request to our firm, Sir Duncan, but he still thought he could get you on board. By eliminating the documents I carried, he would persuaded you to invest, and there would have been no questions or contrary evidence against his any of his assertions.”

“He might well have done it, too.” Sir Duncan looked embarrassed. “He’s a fast talker and puts together a solid and intriguing proposal.” He paused. “I wonder what he was going to tell Chalmers…”

“Good thing Harry was not at home,” remarked Lady Hazel. “But now that we know the truth of this matter, we are faced with the question of what to do next.” Her gaze travelled to Richard. “And what to do about the missing papers, because without them, we have only your word…”

The implications of her statement struck Holly immediately. “Oh no. He’s not going to try to eliminate Richard. Not here. Not at Forest Grange. We simply cannot allow that…”

Lord Hawthorn laughed. “Rest easy, Holly dear. I don’t think he’ll dare to try anything havey-cavey, with all of us in residence. Hired thugs and a dark night in the woods are one thing. A well-lit and fully staffed country home is another. Besides, he doesn’t know we know his real plan. He thinks that with the documents gone, he has a clear road to achieving his goals.”

Holly subsided with a mutter and shot a pointed look at Richard.

“I’ll be quite all right,” he murmured. “But thank you for worrying.”

*~~*~~*

“It is a complicated situation,” sighed Sir Duncan. “And although I’m glad we all are aware of what’s happening, I cannot say I have any ideas as to how to move forward.” He looked at Lord Hawthorn. “I’ll be honest with you, I dislike the notion of confronting Blackstone with this. The man is intimidating.”

“I agree,” endorsed Lady Hazel. “But given the situation and the snowstorm, we can’t kick him out, much as I’d like to. I cannot be happy with the idea of letting him believe we are unaware of his plans, but I don’t think I could maintain the facade for very long.”

Holly turned the problem over in her mind. “Papa, if the documents were still with Richard, Blackstone couldn’t hope to convince anyone that his plan was legitimate, could he?”

“Well, no, certainly not. If they were as definitive as Mr Hawkesbury describes.”

“They were, my Lord.” He paused. “I wish there had been time to make copies. I had the map that was drawn by the original surveyors, and two accompanying documents verifying the ownership of the land in question, but there simply wasn’t time—or the idea that it was even necessary—to create copies.”

“Ownership records are usually kept in a variety of places,” mused Sir Duncan. “I have a copy in my library, and I’m sure you do as well, Hawthorn?”

“I do,” the Viscount nodded. “But I doubt they’d be regarded as valid evidence of something this important.”

“Papa, I have an idea.” Holly rapidly turned it over in her mind and then looked at Richard. “When we were talking a little while ago, you mentioned that you paint, yes?”

He blinked, puzzled by the question. “I do. A little. Mostly for my own enjoyment, though.”

She looked back to Lord Hawthorn. “We have lots of maps of our property, don’t we?”

“Yes…” his eyebrow rose, his gaze fixed on his daughter.

“What are you thinking?” Lady Hazel leaned forward.

Holly looked back at Richard. “Would it be possible—if we provided you with some of our maps—that you could recreate something similar to the most important document you brought with you?”

Her question caught him by surprise, and he looked stunned for a few moments.

“Uhhh…”

“Good,” smiled Holly in satisfaction. “We can announce that Richard had a copy made of one of the documents in his lost bag and secreted it on his person…or something. How would Blackstone know any different? And even if he does, how can he say so without revealing his part in Richard’s attack?”

“But we don’t have copies,” said Sir Duncan.

“By tomorrow we could, sir,” Holly replied. “I have a complete set of art supplies in my study. I used them recently to create a painting of the moon while I was observing it over the autumn.” She glanced at her mother. “I believe we could make something that would pass as an official document…Richard must know the necessary wording to include, and we have plenty of maps of the area we can copy. Perhaps even one old enough that it could be used as a foundation.”

“Well, I don’t know…” Sir Duncan pursed his lips, but got no further.

“My personal wing, with my telescope and books, is far enough away from the main house that there’s no reason Blackstone would know it exists, let alone come snooping around to find out what we’re doing there.”

“It will take a bit of time,” the Viscount tugged at his lip in thought.

“It could work, Hawthorn,” Sir Duncan offered quietly. “If we all stand behind it…and Mr Hawkesbury thinks he can do an adequate job of it, of course.”

“I’m for anything that will get rid of that dreadful man,” declared Lady Hazel. “And we’ll see that Richard has everything he needs…”

“Well then,” Holly stared at him. “It’s up to you, Richard. What do you say?”

He took a deep breath and blew it out through pursed lips as he thought about it. “I must say yes. I’ll try my best.” He looked at Holly. “With the understanding that if I fail, you all remember this wasn’t my idea to start with…”

Lady Hazel chuckled. “So noted. But you won’t fail. I have faith.”

Holly leaned toward Richard as everyone started talking at once. “I have faith, too. I believe you can do this. I really do.”

“Will you help me?”

“Of course.”

“Good. I’m not sure if I can do it alone, but with both of us working on it? We have a chance at success.” He stood. “Take me to your study, Miss Holly, and let’s get started.”

She jumped up and took his arm, leading him toward the door as she glanced back over her shoulder. “Mama, I’m afraid we won’t be at dinner this evening.”