Money or Love

CHAPTER ONE - 1891-1

CHAPTER ONE

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1891The Solicitor finished reading the document in his hand and looked up at the couple listening intently to him.

“I am afraid, Sir Robin,” intoned Mr. Lawson, “that you have been rather shocked by all you have just heard.”

Sir Robin Dunstead, a good-looking young man of twenty-nine, replied,

“Shocked is scarcely an adequate word. Horrified and appalled is perhaps better. Actually there are no words to express what I am really feeling.”

His sister Alena, who was sitting next him, put out her hand and laid it on his arm.

She agreed totally with what he was saying and was feeling the same herself, but there was no point in her saying so.

“I am very sorry,” continued Mr. Lawson, “and, of course, Sir Robin, unless you wish me to tell anyone, everything I have told you will remain strictly confidential to myself and my partners.”

“That is just as I would wish,” replied Sir Robin. “Equally I am wondering if you are absolutely sure there is nothing left in the house that is not entailed?”

The Solicitor hesitated for a moment.

He was an elderly man with white hair and had served Sir Robin’s father for over forty years. He knew more about the family possessions than anyone else.

“I think,” he stated solemnly after the silence had become almost unbearable, “that I must now be completely honest with you.”

“I agree.”

Sir Robin nodded his head.

“Speaking frankly, Sir Robin, your father has been through the entire house perhaps a dozen times looking for anything he could sell. We found some small unimportant objects, but I can assure you that there is nothing left worth more than a few pounds that is not entailed.”

The eighth Baronet, Sir Edward Dunstead, had died the previous week and because he had been ill for such a long time and his son had only recently returned from India, the funeral had been a quiet one with only relatives who lived nearby expected to attend.

Robin and Alena were the only near relatives alive and as their father had been in a coma for nearly a year, it would have been untrue to pretend they were deeply upset by his death.

It was actually a merciful relief both to the sick man and to every member of the household.

Sir Robin had not asked to meet Mr. Lawson and hear the will until today, as he was quite sure that the only two people really interested in it would be his sister and himself.

He remembered with horror that when his father first became ill, he had agreed to the Solicitor’s suggestion that the relatives who relied entirely on Sir Edward for their income should be given the capital sum they would have expected on his death.

This meant that his son, who was serving in India, would not be required to sign any more of the monthly cheques that were sent out to the relatives.

Now, with the will read, Mr. Lawson had made it very clear that there was nothing left.

Sir Edward, before he became ill, had spent money lavishly as if he was an immensely rich man.

And when he had no ready money, he merely sold something from the house and spent the proceeds.

This had been easy as Dunstead Hall in Oxfordshire was one of the most outstanding and historic buildings in the whole country, filled with prized antiques and objets d’art.

It originally dated back to the fifteenth century and had been added to and improved, especially in the previous century.

The Adam brothers themselves had added a new façade and built on two side wings.

It seemed absurd for one man to live alone in such an enormous building, but no one in the family had been brave enough to criticise Sir Edward.

Most of them lived far away and his only son was serving in the Army in India.

His daughter, Alena, since the age of sixteen had been educated at the most select seminary for young ladies in Florence.

Because it was a long way to return home for the holidays, she had spent them with her friends in France and other countries of Europe and this had certainly enhanced her education and use of languages.

But her absence had made her completely unaware of her father’s financial position.

Because of his two magnificent houses and the way he lived, she had always imagined him to be enormously rich.

Now she and her brother were told that there was nothing left but the houses and their contents – all of which were entailed on the new Baronet and in turn onto his son, if he could ever afford to have one.

Alena at eighteen was very lovely.

In fact ‘ethereal’ was usually the word most people used to describe her.

She had sat silent whilst Mr. Lawson read out their father’s will, her lovely face inscrutable.

She now found that it was impossible to find words to express her feelings.

“I suppose,” her brother asked after a long pause in which he had been thinking deeply, “I am not allowed to sell the house in London?”

“That too is entailed, Sir Robin, so I would suggest that you rent it out, but it is very large and since it has not been lived in for several years, it will require a great deal of restoration.”

“Which, of course, I cannot afford.”

Mr. Lawson nodded.

“And what about the estate?”

The Solicitor, who was a kindly man, sighed.

“I am afraid that two years ago your father sold the few hundred acres that were not entailed. The rest, like the garden, the stables and, of course, the private Racecourse, which are all in very bad repair, are also entailed.”

Sir Robin and his sister had already been informed that the Dunstead Trustees, one of whom was Mr. Lawson himself, came round once a month to make sure that everything was intact and in place.

What was really outstanding about Dunstead House was its magnificent collection of pictures that were always the envy of every art collector.

From where she was sitting now, Alena could see a picture by Rembrandt, another by Frans Hals and a third, which she had always especially loved, by Raphael.

It was his famous picture of St. George and the Dragon.

It passed dramatically through her mind now that if anyone had a dragon to fight it was her brother.

His dragon being the misery of complete poverty.

She looked up at the Raphael as she pondered their situation.

St. George mounted on his rearing white horse was not unlike Robin and the dragon with its long black wings and its snarling mouth appeared as horrifying as everything they had been told by Mr. Lawson.

As if he had nothing more to say and found it hard to control his feelings, Robin rose from his seat.

He walked to the mullion window and looked out at the garden.

He remembered it being perfectly kept with smooth green lawns and well kept flowerbeds.

He was not surprised to see that the lawns needed cutting and the flowerbeds appeared to have more weeds in them than flowers.

During his father’s illness, the Solicitors, realising the family’s dire financial position, had cut down the staff, so that in the house and on the estate there were as few men and women employed as possible.

Sir Robin had already discovered that the majority of the staff were old and they had been prepared to stay on for only a small wage because they had nowhere else to go.

But they were all far too old to keep the place in the perfect order he remembered from the days of his youth.

His father had been quite unable to communicate with anyone and Robin had therefore not come home earlier, as he now thought he should have done.

The Viceroy had begged him to stay on in India because of his excellent work and he now realised that while he had wanted to stay, he should have returned home.

But even if he had, he told himself firmly, it would have been too late for him to stop the rot – far too late to prevent every penny his father possessed being squandered.

He most certainly had not expected that everything saleable would have been sold.

He could see now why there was an empty space on each side of the marble fireplace where there had been two exquisitely carved Queen Anne mirrors.

He had also noticed as soon as he came into the hall that the grandfather clock he had loved as a small child had disappeared.

There were spaces in the passage leading towards the reception rooms where there had once stood exquisite inlaid cabinets that every visitor admired.

Mr. Lawson had told Robin that he had drawn up a list of items that to his knowledge had been sold during the last five years.

He had pushed the dossier over the table, but Robin had not even looked at it.

‘What is the point?’ he thought to himself.

They had all gone and as there was little chance of their ever returning, it was a sheer waste of time regretting their disappearance.

What he needed to think about now was just how he and his sister could live without raising money with two large historic houses on their hands.

He was quite certain that he would be blamed for letting matters deteriorate so far without knowing about it.

As he had not quizzed the Solicitors, they had been, as was correct, loyal to his father and no one had told him what was happening.

The late Baronet had always been an exceedingly generous man and he had never denied himself anything he really wanted.

He had bought the best horses and, as his friends commented mockingly, ‘he lived like a Lord’.

There had always been a butler and six footmen at Dunstead Hall and it was very much the same in Dunstead House in Park Lane.

The magnificent collection of paintings had been started by the second Baronet and then added to by each of his successors.

The pictures were divided between the two houses and with walls groaning with such treasures, no one would believe that the present owner had no money to pay for his meals, let alone keep the two houses clean and tidy.

*

There was at the moment complete silence in the large study. It was where the late Baronet had always sat at his exquisite Regency writing table.

As Sir Robin did not turn from the window, Alena, who had been quiet for some time, remarked,

“There must be something that we can do. But in the meantime, Mr. Lawson, you are quite right in thinking we would not like everyone to know about the predicament we are in.”

“You can trust me, Miss Alena. I need not tell you of my deep affection for your family and, although it may seem presumptuous, I am very fond of this house because it contains more treasures than any other house I have ever visited.”

“Treasures are certainly here, but I am wondering how we can keep them clean and from falling off the walls as even the cords that hang them need replacing.”

Alena spoke as if she was very close to tears.

“I am certain,” Mr. Lawson added, “that Sir Robin will find some way of making money. After all he bears a distinguished and ancient name and I am sure that there are many Companies that would welcome him as a director.”

Robin turned round.

“I have been thinking of that. At the same time it would be a considerable disadvantage if they knew that the director who was there to help them in making money was himself completely penniless!”

“I agree with you,” Mr. Lawson responded quickly. “That is why I have never breathed a word to anyone about your father’s position, although I and my partners have for some months felt that something should be done.”

“I think I should have been told much earlier, but we will not talk about it now. My father is dead and I have taken his place. Somehow I have to keep my sister and myself alive and preserve the contents of this house and the one in London.”

“You could possibly,” Mr. Lawson then suggested tentatively, “put the pictures into storage. Or loan them to one of our best museums.”