The Ardmore Inheritance, Rob Wyllie [best novels for students TXT] 📗

She shrugged again. 'I really don't know. I know that Peter was very committed to the conservation movement and he became passionate about marketing the estate on that basis. In particular, he wanted to stop offering deer hunting as a sport. I'm not sure Roderick saw eye-to-eye with that.'

'But I assume that it made up quite a large proportion of the revenue?'

'Yes, I think so, although I'm hopeless with money so I never really got involved in Roderick's business affairs.' Which made Maggie smile to herself, having seen the detailed documents Alison's solicitor had prepared in support of her claim against the deceased's estate. 'But I think he was very much against the plan, and not just on business grounds. Roderick saw stag hunting as very much part of the estate's traditional heritage, and preserving that heritage was very important to him.'

'Did you like Peter?' Maggie said quietly. 'Because you were his step-mum. I'm sorry but I'd quite forgotten that.'

'I did,' Alison said, giving a sad smile. 'He was just six when his mother died and he was terribly traumatised by it of course. He never really got over it to be honest. That's why he liked animals much more than people. In the years before he died I often thought Flossie was his only friend.'

'She was Peter's dog?'

'Yes, and much loved. Of course, there was no one to care for her after the... well you know... so I brought her here.'

Maggie saw the chance to steer the conversation back towards the main objective of her visit.

'And so when you married Roderick, you took on his children too. That must have been difficult for you? Particularly with the twins having never known their mother.'

Alison looked at her sharply. 'I did my best, but I was young when Roderick and I got together and I was terribly naive about what being a step-mother involved. And the twins were difficult. Particularly Elspeth, or Pixie as she now ridiculously calls herself.'

'How old were they, when you first got together with your husband?'

'Just four years old. And to be honest, they had been allowed to run wild. Roderick had been really struggling to come to terms with Phillipa's death, and what with his naval career and everything, they never really got the attention they needed. So when I came along, they were rather resentful to say the least. We even thought about sending them to boarding school. It was affecting our marriage you see.'

Poor things, thought Maggie, denied a mother's love then facing the prospect of being shunted off to an institution when they got in the way. It was little wonder they'd turned out the way they did. But now it was time to get down to business.

'So I hope you don't mind Alison, but I want to talk about this legal challenge of yours. About your claim against your late husband's estate.'

Her face suddenly hardened. 'You can talk all you like, but I won't be persuaded to drop it. I won't.'

'No no,' Maggie said, giving an understanding smile, 'and that isn't my instructions from the executors, far from it. But you see the difficulty from your standpoint is that the provisions in the will are quite specific, and the change to the will which made that provision was added less than two years ago. I'm sorry to be blunt, but it says you were to inherit nothing and by implication it means that you can no longer live here in the lodge. And because the change was made so recently, it will be impossible to argue that this is anything but the clear intention of your late husband. It's very harsh, I totally agree with that, but it's also completely unambiguous, I'm sorry to say.'

'But my solicitor says it's totally unreasonable and there's a very good chance that a family court will overturn it.'

Maggie allowed herself a wry smile. Yes, her solicitor would say that, and then many thousands of pounds of fees later, would apologise profusely for the unreasonableness of the judge in seeking to rule in favour in the provisions of the will, irrespective of the moral justice of the document.

'Well I was a lawyer myself,' she said. 'Still am in fact, technically-speaking. And in my experience, a negotiated settlement always wins over conflict. Every time, hands down. And I really do think there's an opportunity for you, given the dispute over the main provisions of the will.'

'What do you mean?' Alison asked, visibly softening.

'You know the estate and Ardmore House must pass to the eldest surviving offspring, and that the remaining assets are to be split between all the surviving offspring? So that would mean that either Pixie or Posy gets the house and the estate, and the remaining assets are split between them.'

'Nearly three point seven million in cash and investments.'

'Exactly,' Maggie said, reflecting that this woman was remarkably clued-up for someone who professed to be hopeless with money. 'But I wondered, you must surely know which of the twins was first-born?'

She answered quickly. 'I don't, as it happens. It never came up and it never ever occurred to me to ask. I'm sorry.' Was it just Maggie's imagination, or was the answer just a bit too off pat?

'Well that's a pity,' she said, screwing up her nose. 'But now both are claiming it's they that's the elder, which makes the whole thing a bit of a mess.'

'But you said there was an opportunity for me?' Alison asked, evidently keen to pivot the conversation back on herself.

'Well yes I think there is. We've been asked to try and establish which twin is the rightful heir, but between you and me, I think there's two-thirds of no chance at all that we can do it. They were born over thirty years ago, and in Canada too, and even if we were lucky enough to find say a nurse or a midwife who was