A Set of Lies

by Carolyn McCrae

  McFarlane thought it best not to explain his role in Bertie’s move from Berkshire. “He was a good man, he simply needed a father. Perhaps you should have considered marrying again. You could have had your pick of any number of men.”

  “Perhaps I should have. But who would have taken on another man’s son?”

  “There are such men. Believe me.”

  He knew she would never have considered him as eligible and he knew also that she had no inkling that he would have ‘taken on’ Gussie’s widow and son in an instant.

  “Well it’s not too late for me now I no longer have Bertie to worry about.”

  “You have plans?”

  “I believe I shall make a new life for myself. I am not yet an old woman.”

  “Indeed, because of this bloody war there are many tens of thousands of women facing life alone.”

  “You can arrange someone to lease the Hall? It should not be difficult to find an occupant, someone respectable. I do not want to see it become a hospital or convalescent home, it is not meant for that.”

  “I will certainly attend to that, if that is what you want, but are you sure you want to make a decision at this time? Bertie has been gone less than a month.”

  “I am certain, McFarlane. You will, no doubt be dealing with Bertie’s estate but perhaps you would find time to also arrange for me to rent somewhere respectable, by the seaside I think. I am attracted to Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. Bertie and I spent a summer there once.”

  Iain McFarlane took his leave of the woman he had once loved. He would have some work to do in clearing Bertie’s estate but then he would see no more of her. Perhaps, he reluctantly told himself, that would be for the best. She clearly saw him as a man of business rather than what he was, an old friend of her husband who had done his best for the family for years. She had never, and would never, consider him her social equal.

  *

  Two months later he returned to the Hall.

  “My errand is not an easy one, Lady Lacey.”

  “No?”

  “In fact I’m afraid it is going to be very difficult.”

  “Well you had better get on with it then.”

  “What do you know of Gussie’s family?”

  She was surprised by the question. It was not what she had expected. She had rather assumed that he had made the appointment to see her because he had had some difficulty in finding a tenant for the hall. She had imagined that he had failed in her demand that it was not to be commandeered for the war effort. She didn’t see how her husband’s family could have any bearing on anything.

  As she was about to admonish him for referring to Sir Augustus as ‘Gussie’ she remembered that the man she had always treated with some disdain had, in fact, known her husband better than she had done.

  “Very little.” It was the only answer she could give.

  “You have had no contact with the Lacey family?”

  “As I understood it no such family existed. My husband was an only child.”

  “What about Gussie’s father, Sir Henry, the second baronet?”

  “I never met him but I believe he was also an only child. At least Lady Mary never said anything about her husband having had any family.”

  “Did Gussie never tell you that his father had a brother, William Lacey, and that he had spent time in York making investigations into his Lacey heritage?”

  “Of course not. What are you getting at?” she answered sharply, but she knew there was something in her memory of Gussie talking about the Isle of Wight. Perhaps that was why she had spent the few holidays she had had with Bertie on that island.

  “So you have never heard of William Lacey?”

  “William? No. Never. Who is he?”

  “He was Sir Henry’s brother, Gussie’s uncle.

  “You must be mistaken. Surely Lady Mary would have said something.”

  “Perhaps she never knew. I must tell you he did talk about it when we were in South Africa. He felt his father to have been unusually secretive about his life and in what time he had on his return to England he made some investigations.”

  “He said nothing to me. Surely it can be of little or no interest?”

  “I’m very much afraid it has everything to do with you and your future.”

  “How?”

  “There is more to the Lacey family and you must listen carefully.”

  Iain McFarlane spoke clearly as he quoted the papers he had read and re-read over the previous weeks. “On the sixth day of July in the year of our Lord 1822 Constance, Lady Lacey, wife of the first Baronet, Sir Bernard Lacey, gave birth to twin sons, Henry and William.”

  “Sir Henry had a brother. So?”

  “Sir Henry having a brother opens up a complete avenue of the family.”

  “Perhaps William died young and that is why he was never mentioned.”

  “William is indeed deceased, but at the age of fifty-eight, interestingly enough within weeks of his twin brother.”

  “Not an old man.” Lucille was beginning to see where the conversation was leading. “It is unusual that both twins survived in those times.”

  “Unusual certainly, but not unknown. In this case the elder, by a matter of some minutes, stood heir to his father’s baronetcy.”

  “How hard on the younger.” Lady Lucille did not sound sympathetic.

  “And there is some evidence they fell out.”

  “Which would explain why he was never mentioned.”

  “Precisely so.”

  “So what happened to that line?” Lady Lucille’s curiosity overcame her fear of what the answer might be.

  “William Lacey Esquire, younger brother of Sir Henry, married and had a son.”

  “So how old is this son?”

  “Bernard Lacey is now just passed sixty years of age.”

  “And still alive?”

  Iain nodded before adding, “And he has two sons, confusingly called William and Henry, though in this generation the elder is William.”

  “And what has happened to them? They would be of an age to be in France.”

  “William lives in the family seat on the Isle of Wight but I believe his younger brother, Henry, is serving in France.”

  “So what of William?” Lady Lucille was not interested in Henry.

  “He was born in 1887. He runs his family’s businesses.” Iain noticed Lady Lucille’s raised eyebrow. “His mother was the daughter of a wealthy Welsh businessman.”

  He heard, but chose to ignore, Lady Lucille’s bitter comment, ‘Trade.’

  “The family, the de Burghs, have substantial mining, banking and farming interests. He is involved in the running of those businesses which are essential, as I’m sure you will agree, to the overall war effort.”

  “All this talk of trade is very interesting but how does the fact that my husband’s father had a brother who survived and who had a son, who in turn had sons, hold any interest for me?”

  “It should hold a great deal of interest. It means that Bertie’s title, his estate and all his property that is entailed to the baronetcy pass to this Bernard. Bernard is Gussie’s heir, as the nephew of his grandfather, his first cousin once removed.”

  “His title?”

  “Yes, Bernard Lacey is now Sir Bernard Lacey, fifth Baronet of Oakridge on the Isle of Wight in the County of Hampshire.”

  “And his estate?”

  “His title, his estate and all his property—”

  “All his property? Surely that comes to me?” Lady Lucille interrupted, certain that there had been some mistake.

  “Nothing comes to you.” Iain McFarlane’s face was grave.

  “Nothing?”

  “Everything that was Bertie’s is now Sir Bernard’s.”

  “Not everything, surely?”

  “Allow me to explain, and please understand that recounting this gives me no pleasure. Your father’s entire estate passed to you on his death as he returned to England from the Cape. You were a
t that time unmarried and as a spinster, under the laws of the time, you were entitled to inherit. On your marriage to Gussie, again under the laws of the time, everything that was yours became his. In your marriage you ‘endowed him with all your worldly goods’.”

  “What do you mean, ‘under the laws of the time’?”

  “I have gone into this in a great deal of detail, be assured of that. Matters have changed on the thinking of women’s rights to wealth and property, but rather too late to help you. Your marriage to Gussie took place in August 1882.”

  “A lovely day, I remember,” she said bitterly.

  “Indeed, I was there to witness your happiness.”

  “Yes, I suppose you would have been.”

  After a short, imperceptible, breath Iain continued. “The Married Women’s Property Act did not pass into law until the first day of January 1883 which means your marriage is governed by the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870. This was considered enlightened at the time because it enabled women to have property in their own right. Wages earned and investments made by a woman once married could be treated as her own property but anything by way of inheritance became and remained the property of her husband. As a result everything your father left you became Gussie’s on your marriage.”

  “But when Gussie died surely it came to me?”

  “You will not have forgotten all the trouble we had, at Lady Mary’s and your insistence, to persuade the courts that the title should pass to a male unborn child. We eventually won our case but it was not only the title that went to your unborn son, it was all his father’s estate which of course included all that had been yours before your marriage. You were made aware at the time, I have the papers here, that Bertie’s inheritance included all that you had inherited from your father.”

  “I had not thought… The implications had not… So Bertie inherited everything Swann as well as everything Lacey? I have had nothing all these years?”

  McFarlane nodded. “Since your marriage you have had nothing in your own right.”

  “Everything was Gussie’s and then Bertie’s? Nothing was ever mine?”

  McFarlane nodded again. “Not since the day of your marriage.”

  Lady Lucille raised her arms in a gesture of helplessness and let them drop in her lap.

  “You must understand that at the time we knew nothing of the Isle of Wight Laceys, but there is no argument, all that was Bertie’s now passes to his heir who happens to be the now Sir Bernard Lacey.”

  “Everything?”

  “After the not insignificant matter of Estate Duties.”

  “Estate Duties?”

  “I’m afraid the war and our debt to the United States of America has to be financed somehow, and Mr Lloyd George feels the aristocracy and landed classes should bear the brunt. Estate Duties on an estate of this magnitude run at a very high percentage.”

  But Lady Lucille was not interested in Estate Duties. She was beginning to fear for her future.

  “This cannot be right.”

  “I’m very much afraid everything I have said is correct. I have looked for a way through but there is none.

  “So I have nothing and I have no right to anything, not even that which has been in my father’s family for generations?”

  “Unfortunately, that is what the law says.”

  “Then the law is absurd.”

  “Many have said that and one day it may change but this situation is the law as it stands today.”

  Iain looked at the woman he had once, years before, thought to make his wife and sighed. Nothing he could say would make this easier for her.

  “Where does this leave me?”

  “An annuity will be determined, but even that is subject to the approval of Sir Bernard. Any income you may have is in his gift. He will, I feel certain, view any application you may make in a kindly and generous fashion. As I said, they are a wealthy family in their own right.”

  “So I am to beg for an annuity? Beg for the charity of a pension? From a tradesman?”

  “I am sure it can be done in the most pleasant of ways through lawyers, and I will do my utmost to advance your cause.”

  “Will I have to meet the man?”

  “That should not be necessary.”

  “I think the very least this Bernard can do is show his face to me and explain how it is that my father’s house, the home of the Swann family since Tudor times, should become part of his obviously already vast estate. The very least he can do is tell me to my face that I am to be thrown from my home without so much as a penny to my name.

  “I am sure it will not come to that.”

  “I’m afraid your reassurance is empty. It appears the law is clear. I have one question and that is why, as his man of business and you say my husband’s friend, you allowed this situation to arise?”

  “It is unfortunate that we had no knowledge of the existence of another branch of the Lacey family. Had we known that we would have arranged matters in a different manner.”

  Lady Lucille could not take any more that afternoon.

  “You should have known.”

  She turned and pulled the bell rope.

  “The gentleman is leaving.” It was all she could do to maintain some degree of calmness in her voice.

  Iain turned as he left the room. “I will do everything in my power to make the transition as painless as possible.” But Lady Lucille had turned away and was staring out of the window.

  As the door closed she sat down and looked around at the contents of the familiar room. Everything that had been her father’s had come to her on his death.

  At the time she had considered herself the luckiest of women.

  *

  It was over a month later that William Lacey was ushered into Lady Lucille’s drawing room.

  She had meant to stand her ground, be imperious and in control, she had intended to proffer her hand with disdain for him to take. She was the injured party in all this after all. But when she saw him she was overcome with the likeness to Gussie and forgot everything she was going to say.

  “Your ladyship? Are you not well? Shall I fetch someone?” William was concerned as he saw all colour drain from the lady’s face.

  “I am recovering,” she said weakly. “It is just that you are… you are so like my late husband.”

  “My father extends his apologies. He is unwell and unable to travel.” William Lacey spoke stiffly.

  Lady Lucille judged the man against her son. He seemed younger, he was taller, broader, and had more cold character in his face. Whereas Bertie had been a boy all his life, this Cousin William was a man.

  “I must apologise Mr Lacey, you are so like my late husband and the son I have so recently lost. I find it difficult.” She resorted to a woman’s wiles and feigned a continued weakness she did not feel in order to gain time.

  “The Lacey family genes appear to be very strong.” William relaxed as he decided he had the upper hand in the difficult conversation. “Both my brother and I look very like our grandfather, William. But our father resembles his mother I believe, at least from all the family portraits that seems to be the case.”

  His general conversation was designed to allow Lady Lacey to recover her composure. It was as kind as he intended to be.

  “Your family seems to lack nothing despite being descended through the younger son.”

  William was unfazed by her bluntness. “We have not always been so lucky. The position we are in today has been won by a fierce determination to succeed against all odds.”

  “A series of good marriages?” Her rudeness was intentional.

  “Certainly. Good in many senses.” He was equal to her.

  “So you have no need of my money?”

  “As I understand it, Cousin Lucille,” he paused almost imperceptibly on the deliberate familiarity to see her reaction and was happy to see a flash of anger in her eyes, “you have none.”

  “It is my family’s estate, my parents’ ho
use, their money.”

  “And under the law, the very clear law, of this land, it passes to my father.”

  “Unjustly.”

  “I am not here to argue, cousin, I am here to take away any documents you may have that belonged to your son, his father and his grandfather. They may relate to the title and you will appreciate that we have the right to them. What can be removed easily I will take with me. My father has also charged me with establishing how you would like him to assist you.”

  “I should not be in need of his assistance.”

  “I’m sure we both agree you are, and we offer it willingly. Our two branches of the family have been estranged long enough, we do not want to cause any more unpleasantness than is necessary.”

  “But you imply some is necessary?”

  William nodded slowly. “You are, after all, about to lose your home.”

  “And also much that has belonged to my family for generations. You will know that very little of what you see about you came from the Laceys. There are few heirlooms that are not Swann heirlooms. I cannot understand why you would want those.”

  “It is a question of the law. But I am sure my father would be happy that you keep one or two mementos.”

  “Are you being deliberately provocative?”

  “No, cousin, I am being deliberately precise.”

  “Are you also to discuss an income?”

  “We would prefer this to be handled by others. We should take their guidance.”

  “Shall I have to present household bills to show how much I require for a comfortable life?”

  “We will purchase a residence for your use and we will pay reasonable household and staff expenses.”

  “I am allowed staff?” she interrupted acidly. “How generous you are that I shall not have to do my own laundry.”

  William ignored her. “In addition we will arrange a generous pension for fripperies.”

  “Fripperies?”

  “Personal expenditure, clothing, entertainments and the like. You will be able to carry on living to much the same standard as you do now.”

  “Much the same?”

  “Of course your household will be smaller, but you will still be Lucille, the Dowager Lady Lacey. We will not allow you to live in penury but then nor will you live in luxury as every penny you spend is not yours.”