Inherit the Skies

by Janet Tanner

  Painfully erect, she struggled to the door. Watching her go Sarah felt grudging admiration. She did not like Blanche but without doubt she knew how to behave like a lady. What a pity her son was not more of a gentleman! Sarah was still shaking from his verbal onslaught, still stunned by the provisions of Gilbert’s will. She had not fully taken them in yet. All she knew was that between them she and Alicia were now the major shareholders in both companies with all that that entailed. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. But why had he done it? Why?

  Alicia rose and crossed to the lawyer.

  ‘Would you care for some tea, Mr Dunn?’

  Sarah almost laughed aloud. Tea! If he was as shaken as she was a glass of whisky would be more appropriate!

  ‘Sarah?’ Alicia’s voice was icy but polite.

  ‘No, thank you.’

  ‘You should – and something to eat as well. You are looking very peaky these days.’ She paused. ‘ You know, something occurred to me just now. If you had not fainted that morning we would not be here now for the reading of Father’s will. Because it would be you, not he, who died, wouldn’t it?’

  Again Sarah encountered the naked hatred in her eyes.

  ‘Do you think, Alicia, that I haven’t thought of that?’ she asked passionately. ‘Do you think I don’t remember it every day of my life? And now if you will excuse me …’ She rose and left the library, a small and lonely figure who carried herself tall and straight in spite of the extra weight which the afternoon had laid upon her shoulders.

  ‘What does it mean, Adam? Why did he do it?’

  Adam had driven her home. Now, in her little sitting-room she drifted between window and table, idly re-arranging the roses in the cut-glass bowls that she had picked this morning – a lifetime ago – in order to try and bring some colour into the house, for though the curtains were no longer drawn for mourning, darkening the rooms to an eerie twilight, the atmosphere of greyness remained.

  ‘I am grateful to him, of course,’ she went on reflectively. ‘Eric left practically nothing and a legacy of some kind I would have understood. But to leave me a third share in his estate and so much control in the companies … that I don’t understand.’

  ‘I think Gilbert knew very well what he was doing,’ Adam said. He looked slightly uncomfortable, too large a figure for the minute sitting-room. ‘He knew you have the best interests of Morse Bailey at heart – and he had great faith in your judgement.’

  ‘Perhaps – but to treat me equally with Alicia – his own daughter …’

  ‘I think there is something you should know,’ Adam said. His tone was serious and she stopped fidgeting and looked at him sharply. ‘ Gilbert had a very good reason for treating you equally with his family.’

  ‘Because he brought me up, you mean?’

  ‘More than that. Have you never wondered why Gilbert took you in, educated you and cared so much what happened to you?’

  ‘Because I went to him for help and he felt sorry for me, I suppose.’

  ‘Possibly. But that is only part of it.’ He paused, looking at her directly. ‘I thought you might have guessed the truth, Sarah, but I see that you have not. The reason is very simple. Gilbert was your father.’

  The air in the room was heavy with the scent of roses. It hung, cloying, in her nostrils. She stood motionless for a moment, almost uncomprehending. Gilbert – her father? It couldn’t be! And yet suddenly she knew that it was true. It was as if deep down she had always known yet rejected it as impossible. She had loved him and known he loved her, the bond between them had been so strong, so special that to deny it was madness. Now, everything fell into place and in the quiet room she seemed to hear her mother’s voice, weak with sickness, mustering all her failing strength to enunciate the last words she would ever speak: ‘ Tell Mr Morse! Do you understand? Tell Mr Morse!’

  That was it, of course, that was the reason. And she had never guessed it, not even when she had grown old enough to wonder who her father really was. For her mother had been just a lowly seamstress, if a very beautiful one, and Mr Morse was the lord of the manor.

  ‘How do you know?’ she asked.

  ‘Gilbert told me. I think he wanted to share it with someone. He had toyed with the idea of telling you but he was unsure how you would take it.’

  ‘Does anyone else know?’

  ‘Not as far as I am aware though I sometimes wonder if Blanche guessed. Now you do know it is up to you whether you keep his secret. It is possible the family will make things difficult for you. If they do then at least you have the knowledge as a weapon.’

  ‘Yes. Thank you.’ But her voice was distant.

  ‘It’s not going to be easy,’ he went on, ‘and I don’t just mean coping with your inheritance. I have a feeling the company is in financial difficulties. Not Morse Motors – that has a sound basis. But the aeroplane division is a different matter. Similar companies are going to the wall left, right and centre – Tom Sopwith, for all his success with war planes, to name but one. That is why the South African connection can be so important. Not to mention the airline we planned. Now, with Gilbert gone, it is going to be imperative we have a meeting very soon with our financial advisers and get things sorted out.’

  She nodded. It was all too much. She felt swamped by it.

  ‘Which brings me,’ he said, ‘to the next point. What are we going to do?’

  A nerve jumped in her throat. ‘You mean …?’

  ‘About us.’ It was the first time he had mentioned it since the night of the accident. He had respected her wish to wait a little while out of respect for Eric. But it was not in Adam’s nature to be patient. ‘I don’t think there is an easy option open to us any more. We have been left control of Morse Bailey. We cannot go skedaddling off to South Africa and leave the business to fend for itself. I think the Division should still open but with someone else, not me, and certainly not you, to run it. We have to stay here and fight to get Morse Bailey back on its feet. We owe Gilbert that much.’

  She nodded. He was right, of course. Going to South Africa with Adam, as she had planned to do when a suitable time had elapsed, was no more than a lovely dream now. He was needed here – and so, she supposed, was she. She shivered slightly in spite of the warmth of the evening as she thought of the enormity of the task before them, all the more important in the light of Adam’s revelations, and of the personal animosity they would encounter.

  A knock at the door interrupted her reverie and she sighed with annoyance. What a time for a visitor! But she went to see who it was all the same.

  ‘Mrs Gardiner, I’m sorry to trouble you but I wondered if I might have a word?’ It was Perry, the mechanic who had been dismissed after her training aeroplane had crashed. He stood on the doorstep, his wrinkled face anxious, twisting his cap between his hands.

  ‘Yes, Perry, what is it?’

  ‘Well, it’s a bit awkward-like …’ He glanced around as if afraid he might be overheard.

  ‘Very well, Perry, you had better come in. Mr Adam is here, though.’

  ‘Oh – is he?’ The man hesitated, then appeared to make up his mind. ‘ Well, p’raps t’wouldn’t hurt fer ’im to ’ear what I got to say. It do concern him too and Mr Adam has always been more than fair …’

  She took him into the sitting-room. Adam, who had overheard the conversation, looked at him curiously. ‘Afternoon, Perry. What is all this about then?’

  ‘Well ’tis like this.’ Perry shifted from foot to foot, looking ill at ease. ‘ You know that ther propeller wot come off when you two were up in the training plane? And ’ow we couldn’t make out ’ow it come to be loose? Well, I reckon I can shed some light on the mystery.’

  ‘Good. I’m glad you have decided to come clean about it,’ Adam said shortly.

  The older man bristled. ‘It weren’t nothin’ to do with me. ‘ Tis my belief the nuts were loosened deliberate-like.’

  ‘Come now! Who would do a thing like that?’

  �
� ’Tis a bit awkward really. But you know this ’ere crash what’s killed the boss and Mr Eric? Well, we was talking about it, me and some of the boys – I do meet ’em still for a pint in the evenings – and one of ’em happened to say he’d seen young Leo de Vere snooping about in the sheds the night afore it happened. Messing about in there all on his own, he were, and mighty awkward he acted when he knowed he’d been seen. Hurried out with just a quick goodnight, as red in the face as a turkey cock.’

  ‘Surely you are not suggesting that he tampered with the Condor are you?’ Adam demanded.

  Perry’s own face had turned a dull red. ‘That’s about the size of it. Now I know on its own it don’t mean a lot and I can’t think for the life of me why he should do such a thing. But the funny thing is I caught him in the sheds the night before your accident. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but when I come to put two and two together I thought ‘‘Hullo – there’s some’ut funny going on here.’’ So I thought I ought to let you know about it afore he goes and kills somebody else.’

  ‘You realise this is a very serious accusation you are making, Perry?’ Adam said.

  ‘Oh ah, I do. And I couldn’t swear to anything in a court o’ law or anywhere else, but just the same …’

  ‘Well thank you, Perry.’ Adam’s tone was non-committal. ‘Good of you to let us know.’

  ‘I’ll show you out, Perry,’ Sarah said.

  When she returned to the sitting-room she found Adam pacing, deep in thought.

  ‘What do you make of that then? And they say women are the gossips!’ she remarked.

  ‘You think it’s gossip, do you?’ he asked.

  ‘What else? And perhaps a late attempt to get himself off the hook. I don’t like Leo, you know that, but I don’t think he would deliberately set out to kill anyone.’

  ‘Not just anyone – you,’ Adam said grimly and to her amazement she realised he was quite serious.

  ‘Leo – trying to kill me Oh Adam, don’t be absurd!’

  ‘Think about it, Sarah.’ Adam took out a cigarette and lit it. ‘He knew when you were using the training plane – and he knew that you should have been a passenger in the Condor. And as Perry rightly said, there was no reason for him to have been snooping about in the sheds on either occasion.’

  ‘But even if you are right, why on earth should he want to kill me?’

  ‘You were a threat to him and he knew it. You weren’t at the board meeting, Sarah, when the idea of the airline was mooted. Leo was furious – particularly at the suggestion that you should run it. I think he realised you were very much Gilbert‘s protégée – and he was jealous.’

  ‘But surely he would know that such a thing could mean the end of the company? He’d realise that with business already difficult something like that could undermine confidence and sink the boat?’

  ‘I don’t think he realised quite how bad things are. Gilbert kept that to himself. It has only come out since his death. Hatred can be a very powerful motive, and I have always thought Leo has a ruthless streak.’

  Sarah was silent remembering that long ago day when he had bolted the horses out of pure vindictiveness. Yes, Leo was ruthless. But would he stoop to something so perfectly dreadful?

  ‘I must get back and talk to Max,’ Adam said. I doubt whether anything can ever be proved, but all the same … Will you be all right?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Lock the door tonight,’ he warned her. ‘He’ll hate you more than ever now.’

  ‘Adam …’

  ‘Now I have to go.’ As always he was able to switch from the personal to the impersonal without so much as a flicker. ‘ I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  He kissed her briefly and was gone.

  Sarah stood for a moment at her window looking out at the fading dusk. She felt calmer now after the shocks the day had dealt her for she had made up her mind on two very important scores.

  Firstly she had decided she could not keep the shares Gilbert had left her in the companies. She had done nothing to earn them and the accident of parentage did not give her the right to equal shares with Alicia. All very well to say Gilbert had willed it – he had never acknowledged how deep the ill feeling ran between her and Alicia and he could not have envisaged the trouble such an arrangement could cause. The company needed to be strong now if it were to survive, not torn apart from within. No, much the best thing would be to turn the shares over to Adam. He would know how best to handle them. She would see a solicitor first thing in the morning and have them transferred to his name.

  That would satisfactorily defuse one area of dissent, but another still remained – her relationship with Adam himself. Sarah had found herself remembering every word of the conversation they had had and worrying about it. Perhaps if they could have escaped to South Africa it could have worked. But that was now out of the question. They had to be on hand here – or at least, Adam did. And if he divorced Alicia how could he continue to work alongside her? The ill feeling would make it impossible for them to reach the necessary agreements. Worse, the scandal that would surround divorce might harm the company even more.

  At last Sarah had come to a conclusion. She needed a breathing space – time to think and assimilate all the new facets of the situation – and Adam needed the same. She would go away for a little while at least. Maybe – just maybe – she would decide never to come back.

  And so she had penned a letter to Adam explaining what she was doing though making no mention of where she planned to go – she was not entirely certain of that yet herself. She posted it in the letter box set in the wall opposite her cottage and after she had packed a suitcase she paused for a moment to look out of her window at the familiar rural scene. Would she ever stand here again? she wondered. Refusing to allow herself to brood, she went back downstairs, put fresh water into the bowls of roses and arranged one close to the framed photograph of Eric. Then she took her suitcase and her coat, went out and locked the door behind her.

  Her motor car was full of petrol. She tossed the suitcase into the back, cranked the engine and climbed in.

  As she drove out of Chewton Leigh darkness was falling.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  When he left Sarah, Adam did not go straight home to Chewton Leigh House. Instead he drove around for a while for he needed time to think.

  Unlikely though it seemed on the face of it yet he had a gut feeling that Perry had not been far out when he had accused Leo of tampering with the aeroplanes. The two incidents were too convenient to be mere coincidence and from what he knew of Leo he believed the man was quite capable of sabotage. He was ruthless, he was ambitious and Adam had no doubt that he would stop at nothing to attain the position he believed was rightfully his. Besides this, he had clearly had the opportunity. But did he have the know how? No reason why not. He was not an engineer but he had been around aeroplanes for long enough to be familiar with them and he had access to the drawings that explained their component parts. He was no fool – quite the opposite. If he set his mind to it sabotage would not be outside the bounds of his ability, particularly sabotage as simple as loosening the fitting of a propeller. What he had done to the Condor no-one would ever know for certain, of course. The evidence had been destroyed and the mechanics, hampered by the presence of the press on that fatal morning, had relied upon the checks they had carried out the previous day – something which Leo had perhaps anticipated and relied upon.

  There remained the objection Sarah had raised – the damage that such a highly publicised disaster could do to the company. But as he had pointed out Leo had not known how close to the brink things really were and it could be that he had taken a calculated risk, gambling everything on an all-or-nothing throw. He had known Adam had asked to take over the South African division; with Sarah out of the way Gilbert would have been forced to rely on him as his right-hand man and eventually he could reasonably expect that control would fall into his hands.

  It was a wild scheme – i
nsane, almost – but then Adam had thought for some while that where power and position in the company were concerned Leo was a little mad.

  Not for one moment did he doubt Perry’s words. The man was a solid sort, without the imagination to dream up such a story even if he had thought it might help his case, and he had made no request to be reinstated on the strength of his information. What was more Adam happened to know that Perry had found other employment, servicing the engines for a transport concern in Bristol, so he would have been unlikely to go to such lengths even if such a thing had occurred to him. No, on balance Adam believed he had hit on the truth. But proving it would be another matter. Even with witnesses to say they had seen Leo in the sheds at the relevant time it was not evidence enough to take legal action. This was something which would have to be worked out between themselves.

  His mind made up Adam turned the motor in the direction of home. With something like this hanging over him all his instincts called for immediate action. At first he had been shocked, now he was angry. He would have the matter out with Leo and do so now. There was no time like the present.

  The trees outside Chewton Leigh House were casting long shadows as he turned into the drive. He parked the car in the yard at the rear and went into the house.

  The library and drawing-room were empty. The family were all in their rooms dressing for dinner, he guessed. He was about to go upstairs in search of Leo but as he passed Gilbert’s study he heard what sounded like a drawer being slammed shut. He turned on his heel and opened the door.

  Leo was there, poring over two or three files which lay open on the big leather-topped desk. He looked up, startled, an expression of guilt surprised creeping over his thin features.

  ‘Adam! I was just …’

  ‘I can see what you are doing, Leo,’ Adam said shortly. ‘Snooping.’

  He went into the study, closing the door behind him.

  ‘Things have to be sorted out – and quickly,’ Leo blustered. ‘ I thought if I were to make a start …’