‘Be quiet!’ Richard Jackson thundered. He came limping across the road at top speed. ‘Do you want the whole village to hear you?’

‘Oh, Uncle,’ sighed Ben. ‘It’s a bit late to worry about that, don’t you think?’

Somehow they all found themselves back in the house. Richard Jackson was plainly a broken man, holding himself together by sheer willpower. He accepted a mug of coffee, but made no move to drink it. ‘There was a meeting up in Manchester for all the claimants to the estate, including Norma. She went with Edward,’ he mumbled. ‘I was supposed to go, but Edward said he could speak for both of us. He phoned me on Friday night and said it had gone very badly, and there was almost no chance of us inheriting anything at all. Norma’s case was stronger than ours, but this girl of Simon’s was almost certain to win. He said we should just cut our losses and forget about it.’

‘And did you agree with that?’ asked Ben.343

‘For myself, I never much cared. But Norma’s been a pal all our lives. More like a sister than a cousin. We hated to see her lose out, just when she’d thought it was in her grasp. The thing is,’ he raised his head, ‘that husband of hers, Bernie. He’s been borrowing money against the expectation of landing the farm. If they lose it now, he’s going to be in quite a mess. He’s already got a hopeless credit rating, after getting into trouble in his youth. Norma’s spent years trying to live that down.’

‘Ah!’ said Ben and Thea together, fitting another piece into the picture.

‘So, Edward backed Norma up when she turned nasty in the car. Karen must have been left in no doubt what they intended to do. No wonder she was so scared when you found her,’ said Ben to Thea. ‘That more or less wraps it up, doesn’t it?’

Thea had said nothing since the moment when she understood that Richard blamed her directly for everything that had happened. ‘She saw us from the window?’ she said now. ‘So – what would have happened if I hadn’t ever met her? Karen, I mean. If she’d crawled off on her own and somehow got back home to the real Grace with no harm done?’ She gazed miserably at Richard. ‘You’re right. It is all my fault.’

‘Stop it,’ Ben ordered. ‘You can’t go thinking like that. You thought you were doing her a kindness. You couldn’t possibly have known what was going to happen. Besides, Norma didn’t have to do what she did, did she?’ He turned to Richard. ‘And you knew all along what had happened, didn’t you? You knew and never said a word.’344

The elderly man nodded slowly. ‘I thought it best just to let everything settle down without sullying the family name. The woman said her name was Grace. Nobody had the slightest idea who she was. I thought perhaps it would all just remain unresolved for ever.’