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Chapters 121 through 125. |
| Chapter 121 Anthony smiled at his impatient friend. “There’s just a bit more. Dr. Brown pointed me in the direction to track down the Atherton family. There are still descendants living in the Westbrook area.” Jack sat up straighter in his chair, fascinated by what Anthony just told them. “Can we contact them about Rebecca and Essie, I mean their bodies?” “Already done.” Anthony looked over to the dining room door where he’d spotted Kevin, the mansion’s desk clerk, coming toward him. “I think Kevin might have news for us about one of them.” He stood when Kevin reached their table. “Is he here?” Kevin’s big grin confused him. “Well? When I talked with him over the phone, Mr. Atherton said he’d send Alex over to meet with us. Is he here yet?” “Right behind me. We were just waiting to see if you were still eating dinner.” Kevin motioned for the person waiting unnoticed by the door, and the two men at the table automatically stood up as Alex entered the room. “Did I mention Alex is short for Alexandra? No? Well, I’d like to introduce Alexandra Atherton.” Alex stood patiently next to Kevin while the other men took in the sight of the woman in front of them. It was clear to any of them who had met Colin Edgeworth that Alex was related to him. Her long, blonde hair matched the color of the Englishman’s, and she also had his tall height. Her slender frame, though, was definitely female. When enough time had passed to let the men absorb the fact Alex was not a man, she asked in a soft, cultured voice, “Is one of you Mr. Greene?” Anthony found his voice. “Yes, that’s me, but please call me Anthony.” He then pulled out a chair for Alex, and everyone except Kevin returned to their chairs. The desk clerk, although wanting to hear more about the woman, left and returned to his duties. After glancing at each of the men, Alex once again faced Anthony. “I understand you’d like to know more about my family’s ancestors. How far back would you like me to go?” Her attention swung back to Jack when he asked, “Do you know anything about Rebecca Atherton or the governess of the younger children, Esmeralda Ferguson? They both lived near the end of the 19th century.” The men became confused when Alex looked as if she was about to cry. Chapter 122 Anthony rushed in at this point. “I’m sorry if this upsets you. We just are curious since we recently found the bodies of those two women.” Alex’s voice shook when she finally spoke. “It’s only because my cousins taunted me all the time I was growing up with stories about the youngest Atherton child. They teased me about Alexander being a bastard, and at least one of the following generations had to carry his name as a reminder of his shame.” She still couldn’t look at any of the men. “I’m the latest. My father told me our line carries the blood of the harlot governess, and I’m not a true Atherton.” Jack took her hand in his when he quietly asked, “Do you know who Alexander’s parents were?” He felt like a miserable cad when she looked at him, tears in her blue eyes. “Yes, at least her mother.” Her whisper was so soft the men had to lean forward to hear. “It was Essie, the governess, but no one knew who made her pregnant. One of the stories was it was her boss, Mr. Atherton, but the family never believed that. He was a gentleman and truly loved his wife.” Her voice steadied. “Another guess at the time was it might be the daughter’s fiancé, a Mr. Edgeworth. However, when Essie also disappeared soon after the birth of her child, the rumors about Mr. Edgeworth stopped. The fact they had never found Rebecca clearly devastated him.” “So, Mr. Edgeworth was innocent?” This came from Anthony. “Yes, after weeks of searching for the two young women, he returned to his home in England. The stories about him portrayed a man who went into a deep depression at the loss of his future bride. The memories of Rebecca saddened him so much he never returned here, but left his mansion unoccupied for decades until Mr. Walker bought it. The rumor was Rebecca had run off when her family refused to let her marry a younger neighbor she loved instead of Mr. Edgeworth who was many times her age.” “Did anyone interrogate this young man? Were there any clues left behind when Rebecca disappeared?” Ever the forensic agent, Anthony wondered why her family didn’t know she was going to have dinner that night with Edgeworth. “The servants on his estate all gave him an alibi for when Rebecca first went missing. She had left a note she was having dinner with Mr. Edgeworth, but he denied inviting her. He was heartbroken that she might have ridden her horse over unescorted. He thought she might have lost her way in the dark and drowned in the lake on his property. They found her horse safe in the Atherton stables, so Mr. Edgeworth next mentioned someone probably had kidnapped her. When no ransom note came, the authorities even ruled this idea out.” Alex looked around at the men. “Do you know anything about what happened to Rebecca or the governess? Did I mention Miss Ferguson also disappeared about the same time?” Since Jack was the de facto host in Walker’s absence, he felt it was his place to answer her questions. “Alex, we found the bodies of both women along with journals written by the man who murdered them.” He paused and then said, “Are you sure you want to hear everything?” When she silently nodded and pulled her hand away from his, Jack sat there wishing Walker was there to tell the waiting woman about her murderous ancestor. Taking a deep breath, Jack decided to start at the beginning with Nancy’s death. Chapter 123 Jack had started explaining about finding Nancy’s body when he saw Kevin once again coming into the dining room. In his hand he held a cordless phone. “Jack, I think you need to take this call. It’s Ron for Walker.” He handed the phone to Jack. “I told him Walker’s in San Francisco right now, and he said he needed to talk to you instead.” “Thanks, Kevin.” Jack then spoke into the phone. “Hi, Ron. What’s up?” He listened for a few minutes to Ron Hanson, the senior partner of the law firm Walker had on retainer. Anthony, Kevin, and Alex watched various emotions crossing Jack’s face during the long-distance conversation. When he handed the phone back to Kevin, who left to return to his desk, Jack was shaking his head in disbelief. His first words were for Anthony. “Do you remember meeting Lady Edgeworth, Colin’s wife?” Anthony grimaced. “How could I forget? She was a real piece of work.” “Well, that was Ron Hanson telling me she’s suing Walker for the wrongful death of her ‘beloved’ husband.” “You have to be kidding! After what he did to Samantha, she has the balls to…” Anthony sputtered, unable to complete what he wanted to say because of the innocent woman sitting next to him. Alex looked from one man to the other, confused at what was happening. “Who is Colin Edgeworth? Is he related to Rebecca Atherton’s fiancé? What did he do to this woman?” Jack still seemed to be absorbing what he’d heard from Ron, so Anthony decided he’d have to explain. “Colin is, or was, an ancestor of Jason Edgeworth. He’d visited here before to meet the new owner of the mansion. From what people told me, he was a perfect guest and took a shine to Samantha.” “Samantha? She works here?” Jack finally took over. “She’s more than Walker’s employee. Samantha is special to us.” His voice turned harsh at the memory of recent events. “Colin took more than a shine to her when he kidnapped her.” He went on to tell Alex about discovering Samantha in the underground cavern. Jack continued with finding the other bodies, left there by Jason Edgeworth decades earlier. He ended with finding Colin’s body and the arrival of Lady Edgeworth after that. Anthony noticed Jack had glossed over the more horrific details, for which he was grateful. Seeing the bodies had been bad enough without having to hear the graphic descriptions of their deaths. When Jack finished, Anthony had some questions. “What did Walker’s lawyer have to say about the Lady Edgeworth lawsuit? What makes her think she has grounds for it?” When Jack suddenly started laughing, Anthony waited to hear what was so funny about Lady Edgeworth suing Walker. Jack’s explanation soon also had him laughing. After a few minutes, both men calmed down and looked at Alex. She had no idea how drastically her life was about to change because of that phone call. Chapter 124 Once the men stopped laughing, Anthony turned back to question Jack, “Walker will want to know about this. When’s he coming back?” “Today is Saturday, right?” Jack took his eyes off Alex, reluctantly. Once again, the young man was falling in love at first sight, something his friends often kidded him about. Most of them had given up hope of Jack ever settling down to romancing just one woman for any length of time. “I got a phone message this morning to have a car at the airport around noon tomorrow. Walker’s flying his plane back then, weather permitting.” “He’s doing the flying? Not one of his pilots?” Anthony asked. “Walker’s had a pilot license since his early 20’s. Usually he lets someone else do the flying, but he planned on spending a few days in San Francisco.” Jack didn’t share Walker’s private message he wanted to spend some time with Samantha alone on the flight back home. Alex looked at her wristwatch and remarked in dismay, “Oh dear, I didn’t realize it was so late.” Both men joined her when she pushed away from the table and stood. “I promised to run errands for my mother today. She gets furious when I forget about her orders.” Alex started to leave, in a rush to placate her domineering mother. Jack stopped her before she got too far away. “Alex, can you come back tomorrow afternoon? I really think you need to meet Walker and discuss your, well, just let’s say it is imperative you meet with Walker.” * * * When Alex opened the mansion’s front door the next day, she found herself on the edge of a group of people crowded around a tall, grinning man. He had his arm protectively around the shoulders of a beautiful, redheaded woman. Jack spotted Alex and quickly made his way to reach her. “You’re just in time to meet Walker and Samantha,” he said, gently pulling her through the crowd until they stood next to Walker. He had to poke his friend on his shoulder a few times to get his attention. When Walker finally turned to see who was so annoying him, Jack made the introductions. “Alex, this is Walker, the guy who owns this madhouse. Walker, I’d like you to meet Alexandra Atherton, descendant of one of the women.” Jack didn’t expand on this explanation since Samantha now was looking curiously at Alex. Unsure of how Samantha would react to someone related to the man who had tortured, raped, and came close to murdering her, Jack looked helplessly at Walker for guidance. Ignoring the men, Samantha held out her hand in welcome to Alex. “Hello, Alexandra. I hope Jack has made you welcome here. I’m Samantha Ward and am pleased to meet you.” With those few gracious words, the two men realized their friend was back and on her way to recovery from her terrible ordeal. Chapter 125 Walker finally managed to extract Samantha from her well-wishing friends and bring her over to where his mother was waiting by the elevator. Walker watched the glass elevator rise, taking the two women to the third floor and Samantha’s rooms. After the elevator disappeared from view, he motioned for Jack to start filling him in on what had been happening in the weeks he was away. Anthony had joined them by this time. Once the elevator returned to the first floor, Anthony, Jack, and Alex made their way to Walker’s fourth floor suite. They only beat Walker by a few minutes. “What took you so long?” called out Anthony, when Walker appeared at the top landing. The older man wasn’t even out of breath from his mad dash up three flights of stairs. “Come on, Anthony, you’re turning lazy, taking elevators instead of the stairs.” Walker grinned after saying this and opened his front door to let the others inside. Once Walker passed out coffee and Chef Geoffrey’s freshly baked biscotti to his guests, he sat and waited for Jack to finish telling him about Ron’s phone call. Like the others the day before, he started laughing half way through Jack’s story. “Leave it to Ron to dig out the truth. Colin really never married her?” Walker only knew of the woman through Randall’s stories about her. The only bright spot during the traumatic visits with a critically ill Samantha was the image Randall painted of the rude Lady Edgeworth. “She actually planned on suing us for Colin’s death?” “Yeah, and Ron said she made a fast retreat when he warned her he would file a countersuit against the Edgeworth estate on your behalf.” Jack waited to see what Walker would say about this. It didn’t surprise him when his friend shook his head. “You mentioned Alex was a descendant of the governess, Esmeralda Ferguson? Do you know who fathered her child?” Walker left his chair and instead moved to sit on the sofa beside Alex. Alex decided it was time to speak up, having remained quiet during Jack’s conversation about the lawyer. “The family could only guess since she refused to tell them. Back then, a bastard child was the sole responsibility of the mother. The Athertons willingly adopted the boy and raised him as their own after his mother disappeared.” She looked at Walker. “Do you have any idea who the man was?” Walker took her hands in his before answering. “According to journals he left behind before returning to England, Jason Edgeworth seduced Miss Ferguson. When she told him she was pregnant, he refused to acknowledge the child. His journal, though, stated the governess had been a virgin when he took her, and the child could only be his.” Alex sat there for a few minutes, silently digesting what Walker had just said. Finally she whispered, “I’m related to the man who attacked your lady friend?” Tears started down her face, and she pulled her hands out of Walker’s loose grasp. “How can I ever face her again?” Walker looked at Jack and Anthony for help since he never knew what to do around tearful women. Jack felt guilty at having told Alex about Samantha’s treatment by Colin, It fell to Anthony to soothe Alex. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. In fact,” he continued, knowing from the sudden smile on Walker’s face that Ron’s conversation finally was sinking in, “I’m sure Walker would be happy to help you put in a claim against Colin’s estate, being a relative and all.” Walker started laughing at Alex’s startled expression. Something good is going to come out of this horror, he thought, while Jack explained to Alex what was going to happen. I can’t make things right for Sam, but maybe this woman will take away some of my helplessness. Within the hour, Walker had relayed to Ron all he knew about Alexandra Atherton and her relationship to the recently deceased Englishman. Everyone involved, except Alex, knew that once Walker decided on a battle plan of action, he refused to lose. Alex was going to be a very rich heiress, and the so-called Lady Edgeworth could go whistle for her share of Colin’s vast estate. Continued in next segment.
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