The Family Affair Read online

  “She’s a beautiful dog,” Beth smiled. “I noticed her in here yesterday. And by the way, I didn’t expect you to meet me immediately, so I’m really grateful to you for giving up your time.”

  “It’s our pleasure. As an Earnshaw I don’t underestimate how strange it must feel to know Highlands finally has new owners and they’re actually living there,” Matt said, raising his eyebrows.

  “It does feel strange,” Beth nodded, feeling a twinge of jealousy as she spoke. “But I‘ve got a lot of conflicting emotions about a lot of things at the moment, not just the house.”

  “That’s totally understandable if you’ve just lost your father,” Lottie replied, leaning in towards her. “When Olivier called us this afternoon we wondered what your exact connection was with the house and whether it was a good idea to meet.”

  “I was in two minds about it as well,” Beth agreed. “On the one hand it felt great that suddenly I had the opportunity to re-establish the link. But I also had this incredible longing to turn back the clock to when my grandparents lived there.”

  “Ah,” Matt exclaimed. “So the connection is Charles? You’re a direct descendant of the big man himself.”

  “Yes,” Beth smiled back. “Charles was my grandfather and Julia was my grandmother. You’ve obviously done a bit or research?”

  “You can say that again,” Lottie laughed, throwing her long mane of thick strawberry blond hair over her left shoulder. “He’s obsessed with researching the history of Highlands.”

  “Well to be fair darling,” Matt corrected her, as he lovingly placed his hand over hers as it rested in front of him on the table, “I’ve always been interested in houses, land issues and history generally. In fact I’m nearly as interested in all of that stuff as I am in vintage cars.”

  “That’s pushing the truth,” Lottie teased. “It’s just that with Highlands you’ve been particularly obsessive about things in my humble opinion.”

  “Well there was good reason for me doing all the research,” Matt retorted a bit defensively. “I thought we needed to find out as much as we could about the people who’d lived there and what kind of lives they’d had before we started to restore it.”

  “Why did you feel you needed to do that?” Beth interrupted, intrigued.

  “Firstly, because we heard all sorts of rumours about a lot of things before we moved in and, secondly, houses tell you a lot about people,” Matt answered.

  “Really,” Beth interjected hopefully.

  “Absolutely,” Matt enthused. “When people own a property and land they leave big clues about their personalities. I call it an energy footprint, which is why some houses feel sad and some feel happy. And I’m really interested in smoking those kinds of things out.”

  “Well that’s lucky for me then,” Beth smiled. “Given that I’m desperately trying to find out as much as possible about a few things that happened there. What kinds of things can you smoke out?”

  “Oh lots of things,” Matt explained. “Next time you get invited to anyone’s house make sure you take a few mental notes about the land and how it feels when you walk inside a property.”

  “Sorry, I’m not exactly following,” Beth interrupted.

  “Look at the boundaries,” Matt continued. “Aggressive personality types almost always have disputes. And the more insecure the person, the more layers of protection they put up around themselves.”

  “Interesting you should say,” Beth replied. “I visited my Uncle Arthur’s house earlier today and a couple of things really stood out. The first was the precision with which he had manicured his garden.”

  “Well that might just tell you he loves gardening or that he likes having more precise privet hedges than his neighbours,” Matt interrupted half-jokingly.

  “I’d say the former,” Beth replied quite solemnly. “He doesn’t have neighbours.”

  “However, it could also mean that he’s got control issues” Matt continued. “If you observe enough of the small stuff about a property a very reliable profile starts to emerge of the people living in it.”

  “Um,” Beth said sitting forwards. “So here’s what I think. My Uncle has quite significant control issues.”

  “Possibly,” Matt laughed. “What was the second thing you noticed?”

  “That he had a huge stone peace symbol in the middle of his garden,” Beth said leaning forwards. “It was massive and it seemed so out of place.”

  “That sounds like he’s trying to make a statement of some kind,” Matt replied, scratching his head. “Has he been involved in a nasty dispute?”

  “He’s my Uncle,” Beth replied smiling. “And my family has had a number of disputes over the years, although he tended to stay out of things, like my father.”

  “You’ll probably find that he built the peace symbol as a way of telling the rest of the family he wanted no truck with the arguments then,” Matt answered.

  “Probably,” Beth nodded. “That’s exactly what I thought when I drove away from his house today, that in some way he was trying to give someone somewhere a message.”

  “Well there you are then. You’re already good at this,” Matt replied. “And how did it feel when you walked inside?”

  “It felt contrived and they were holding things back from me,” Beth said honestly. “Everything seemed perfectly controlled and serene and yet underneath I felt both my Aunt and Uncle were like ducks. Calm on the surface and frantic below.”

  “I’m already getting an interesting picture of them as people,” Matt smiled. “The subtext is they want peace but their demeanour suggests they are not at peace.”

  “Yes,” Beth replied leaning forwards. “I think that sums things up brilliantly. I think somehow they’ve unwittingly become involved in a huge cover up.”

  “I remember hearing about your Arthur from some of the locals we met,” Lottie interrupted. “He seemed to have moved away. But the disputes will have affected him.”

  “Did you pick anything else up about the family when you moved in?” Beth asked.

  “There were a lot of rumours but who knows if any of them were true,” Matt smiled. “But I’d say there was an overwhelming sense from everyone we talked to that the Earnshaws had worked hard for their money and knew how to run a successful business.”

  “That’s a fair assessment,” Beth said proudly. “Whatever the disputes, none of them shirked work, including Dad. He may not have worked in the firm but he always worked, no matter how menial the job.”

  “That’s why the fire was so tragic,” Matt interrupted. “I mean apart from the loss of life it just seemed so unfair that the family history went up in smoke like that.”

  “Yes. It destroyed everything my great-grandparents and my grandparents had built,” Beth said sadly.

  “But it didn’t take everything,” Lottie interrupted. “Parts of the main building remained intact. And all the land and the outbuildings were pretty much untouched.”

  “Yes, it’s important for you to know that,” Matt interjected vigorously. “All the newspaper reports made out there was nothing left but that’s not true. And we certainly tried to retain what we could, keeping the design as true to the original as possible.”

  “That’s so good to know,” Beth said gratefully. “My parents couldn’t bear to read or keep the newspaper reports about the fire and what happened there, so I never saw them.”

  “There were lots of kind words about your grandfather,” Lottie smiled kindly. “Saying he was the powerhouse behind the business and that he’d always been generous with his staff as he’d got richer.”

  “That’s exactly right,” Beth smiled, sitting forwards again in her small wooden chair at the mention of the one person in her life who had been straightforward and happy.

  “Your great grandfather had set things up well but it was Charles who pretty much single-handedly built the firm up to what it bec
ame in its heyday,” Matt continued.

  “Yep,” Beth nodded. “He was the second generation who turned the business into a really profitable firm.”

  “Absolutely,” Matt nodded. “And it’s actually his spirit and way of doing things that we try and emulate in our own business.”

  “God,” Beth replied, touched by what Matt said. “It’s so great to know that he could have had such an influence even though you never met him.”

  “Absolutely, and so his spirit lives on,” Lottie smiled. “Charles was a real positive force for good and a superb businessman. Why shouldn’t we want to try and be like him?”

  “I agree,” Beth said quietly. “And that’s why I’m so disappointed that the rest of us didn’t ensure that his legacy lived on through his own family.”

  “These things happen and you can’t go back,” Matt said. “I don’t doubt that you feel disappointed but, if you wanted to look at it another way, you have his genes and there is nothing to stop you starting all over again.

  “Yes, I guess,” Beth nodded. “That’s a new way of looking at things and much better than just having regrets, which is what I am very good at.”

  “So let me get this straight then. If Arthur is your uncle, you must have been Doug’s daughter?” Matt asked, eager to introduce new questions.

  “Yes,” Beth answered. The subject of Richard had not come up, and that surprised her, given he was the most recent of the Earnshaw’s to live at the house.

  “Doug had a really tough time of things,” Matt said interrupting. “I mean he should have inherited the business and Highlands, right?”

  “He should, and that’s one of the reasons I’m still in Kepton,” Beth answered honestly, her heart beating. “There is still a lot I don’t know about his life. He never spoke about some of the really difficult bits.”

  “Yes,” Matt pondered, as he looked up at her from over his wine glass. “A few family secrets buried somewhere possibly?”

  “Definitely,” Beth agreed glumly. “And that’s what I have to get to the bottom of.”

  “And what about Richard Earnshaw?” Matt asked suddenly, without letting on whether he could help her or not. “He seemed to be a very colourful character. Was he a good guy or a bad guy in your view?”

  “He was the middle son,” Beth replied, her face reddening as she avoided answering Matt’s question directly. She had her own views about Richard but was much more interested in hearing about theirs.

  “And he lived at the house at the time of the fire,” Lottie said, her huge diamond engagement ring dazzling in the candle light. “It was his name on the deeds as the last of the Earnshaw’s to have owned Highlands.”

  “Yes,” Beth said more aggressively than she wanted to sound. “Uncle Richard inherited pretty much everything. He moved into Highlands with his wife and son after my grandparents died. A few years later the fire happened. We never went back.”

  “I can understand that,” Lottie nodded sympathetically. “It’s such a beautiful house in such a stunning location. I guess for your father it must have felt he’d not just lost some of his family but he’d lost the house and all his childhood memories all over again.”

  “I think he felt that and a lot more besides,” Beth said, wondering if they knew about Alistair. “Everything that happened there was all just too much for my parents in the end. To survive I think they just pretended Highlands and the past never existed.”

  “And I think that’s the most honest reason I’ve heard why the Earnshaw family sold the house after the fire,” Matt said. “They never had any doubts about needing to get rid of it despite the deep family connections.”

  “I’m not sure what conversations Dad and Uncle Arthur had about keeping it in the family,” Beth answered. “I think they thought it was best to let it go to someone outside. I know that they sold it for a ridiculously knock-down price, just to add to the misery of it all.”

  “Yes,” Matt said, nodding his head vigorously. “It was certainly sold at a ridiculously low price. An anonymous developer bought it straight after the fire and then we bought it from him.”

  “Yes I knew about the developer,” Beth replied slowly. “But what I’ve never been able to understand, and what no-one has ever been able to explain to me either, is why he never did anything with it. All we heard were rumours.”

  “Well there were plenty of those,” Matt nodded. “A lot of people said he never had the resources to do a complete rebuild of the house. But once we moved in we picked up different things from other sources.”

  “Like what?” Beth asked.

  “Well, according to a number of local people,” Matt continued looking round. “The developer had the money but lost interest in it as a project. Originally he’d bought it because he’d wanted to turn it into an old people’s home but found a better property in Whitby at around the same time.”

  “Really?” Beth exclaimed, as she thought about Auntie Ada and the wooden dresser in the window of her Whitby care home.

  “Yes it was an odd thing to do given that it was a fantastic site for that kind of development,” Matt continued. “But he still made money on it, so I don’t suppose he cared much.”

  “Well I guess if you have the money you can do what you want,” Beth responded thoughtfully.

  “Yes,” Lottie nodded. “And it was lucky for us he didn’t turn it into a care home. We bought Highlands because of its history and charm.”

  “Maybe the house just didn’t like the developer,” Beth replied, as she finished the last mouthful of pate and bread on her plate. “It sounds like it wasn’t meant to be.”

  “Quite,” Matt said. “After we bought, the landlord in the pub told us that the developer told him that the place spooked him out which is why he did nothing with it.”

  “Didn’t that put you off living there?” Beth asked, perturbed by the thought that anybody could think Highlands spooky.

  “No,” Matt replied. “We were already living in a caravan in the garden and, luckily, we felt the exact opposite.”

  “But I guess what it did do though,” Lottie continued, “was to give us even more reason to find out as much as we could about what had gone on there in the past. And it was just after that conversation Matt decided to so some pretty in-depth research.”

  “So for the first few months,” Matt said, picking up the conversation, “we lived in a caravan near where the main house had been and we spent a lot of time in the local library.”

  “It happened at the right time of our lives,” Lottie continued. “We wouldn’t be able to spend so much time on it now with an expanding fashion business. But buying the house then was a great adventure. We had the time to do a lot of research.”

  “Wow,” Beth said. “I can’t believe you’re also in the fashion business as well? That‘s more than one coincidence I’ve had today.”

  “Yes,” Lottie said. “We’re both designers. Matt’s a Londoner but I come from around these parts originally. We decided to settle in Yorkshire and set up our business here because of the heritage of the woollen industry, as we work with textiles. Are you in fashion too?”

  “Well in a way I am,” Beth smiled. “I’m actually in fashion PR as I wasn’t good enough to be a designer. I’m supposed to be in Paris next week but I decided not to go.”

  “Ah that’s a shame,” Lottie exclaimed. “We go as much as we can, which means when we can get away and not often enough.”

  “I normally love going,” Beth replied. “But with Dad dying I just couldn’t face it. I decided it was more important to meet up with a few of Dad’s relatives.”

  “Good for you,” Lottie exclaimed. “Sometimes you just have to take time for you.”

  “It’s so great being able to talk to you like this,” Beth said during a break in proceedings. “It’s reassuring to know you love Highlands as much as we did.”

  “Is e
verything ok for you all?” Olivier interrupted, as came over to their table to serve them their main course.

  “The food is as outstanding as always,” Matt said, standing up and patting Olivier on the shoulder. “We’re never disappointed when we eat here.”

  “Ah, you are most kind with your compliments,” Olivier smiled.

  As Olivier reached over Beth to top up their glasses she felt his arm press against her own. How wonderful to have him near her once again. She needed his strength and anger to get her through this. She wondered if he felt the things she felt.

  “Let me know if you need anything else,” Olivier continued before moving away from their table.

  “We will,” Matt shouted back, as he put a large dollop of French mustard onto the side of his plate. “Right. I’m starving so let’s tuck in.”

  Lottie looked up and smiled at her husband before turning to Beth. “I know you wanted to see us quite urgently. Do feel free to ask us questions if you have any. We might not know the answers but we’d love to help if we can.”

  “Err,” Beth smiled at Lottie’s concern. “I have so many questions I don’t know where to start. But the main ones are about a subject I find it difficult to talk about.”

  “We understand,” Matt interrupted. “And if it’s easier to meet again some other time that’s fine too.”

  “No, it is better if I just come out with it. My twin brother Alistair died at Highlands many years ago,” Beth blurted out in response. “Call it twin’s intuition, but I think it could have been avoided.”

  “So you are Alistair’s surviving twin?” Matt asked, looking up from his steak and then at his wife. “We wondered if you were but we agreed before we came that we didn’t want to bring that up if you didn’t.”

  “Yes I am,” Beth nodded. “I believe my twin brother died alone in the swimming pool, which explains why I’ve got an on-going fascination with the house.”

  “The papers reported your brother’s death as a tragic accident but there wasn’t much coverage,” Matt said finally, trying to feel his way around the conversation.