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He opened the lid of the other box, fully expecting to find similar contents. But this was different. This held a leather-bound photo album.
He opened the first page. It was some old pictures of Angus as a young boy with his mother and father. Family snaps had obviously been few and far between then.
He flipped the pages. Angus as he was growing up. In school uniform. In hunting gear. In his army uniform. In a dinner suit.
And then there was Callan. As a small child sitting at the kitchen table that still existed, laughing heartily with Angus laughing next to him. Callan had no recollection of the picture ever being taken, but that tiny snapshot in time struck him like a bullet through his heart.
He flicked again. Him and Angus on every page. Fishing. Horse-riding. Sitting in the grounds. Digging the gardens with Bert. Standing on the cannons in the castle grounds. Sailing across the swan pond in the most rickety paddle boat that ever existed. It had subsequently sunk to the bottom of the pond never to be seen again.
Callan standing at the castle doors holding some kind of certificate in his hands. He had a vague recollection of it being his exam results that gained him his place at university. All little moments in time.
He’d been feeling annoyed. He’d been feeling spurned by the fact Angus wouldn’t sell him Annick Castle. Deep down he’d been hurt that Angus hadn’t considered him in his will.
But here it was. Captured for posterity. Exactly what Angus had left him.
A life.
A safe haven.
Love.
The things he’d needed to shape him and become his own man.
A tear dripped down his face.
Now he understood.
He’d always known how much he’d owed Angus. But here was something to cherish and keep. To help him remember that memories were more precious than material things. None of Angus’s children had shared any of these moments with him.
The gift that Angus had left him was the most precious of all.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE GONG SOUNDED dead on eleven. Laurie had never heard the gong used before. She’d noticed it standing in the entrance hall and wondered what it had ever been used for. It was almost like the start of one of those movies, except Robin wasn’t dressed in a loincloth.
Everyone was gathering in the drawing room. It seemed to be the room where Angus’s relatives had spent most of their time.
The rain was battering the windows with a ferocity she’d never seen. It seemed fitting on a day like this. It was almost as if the weather could read how she was feeling.
She filed in and took a seat. Frank, the family lawyer, was standing in the corner of the room. He looked as if he wanted to be sick. Robin stood next to him along with the guy John who had been playing the butler, and the girl who’d been murdered on Friday night.
There was the sound of hurried footsteps outside. Callan appeared with Marion and Bert by his side. It was only fitting. They should all hear who would own Annick Castle together.
Her eyes fixed on the floor. After Callan had abandoned her in the bedroom she didn’t even want to look him in the eye. She certainly didn’t want to have a conversation with him in front of anyone else. Whatever she had to say to Callan she could say in private before she left.
But Callan seemed to have entirely different thoughts.
He crossed the room in a matter of seconds, sitting on the chaise longue next to her. ‘Laurie, I’m sorry. I had to go and look through Angus’s papers this morning. You won’t believe what I’ve found.’
What? Her head whipped up. She couldn’t help but frown. ‘But you left this morning.’ She shook her head. ‘I woke up and you were gone.’ She couldn’t hide the confusion in her voice. And she didn’t care what he’d found.
He smiled, obviously unaware of the turmoil she’d felt. ‘You looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to wake you. I meant to come back and bring you breakfast in bed, but once I started going through Angus’s boxes I just lost all track of time.’
There was no time to reply. No time to try and think clearly. Frank cleared his throat loudly. ‘Thank you for gathering here this morning. In accordance with Angus McLean’s will, today we will reveal who has inherited Annick Castle. Once the announcement is made, we will make suitable arrangements for a DNA test to be carried out to confirm the family connection. Once this has been confirmed, the process of passing on Annick Castle will take a few weeks.’
Frank looked around the room. He was clutching cards in his hands—the cards where everyone had written who they thought had carried out the murder.
He was obviously feeling the strain. The colour in his face was rising, probably in line with his blood pressure. He gave a nervous smile. ‘It turns out that only one person correctly identified the murderer. There was provision in the will if more than one person had guessed correctly, but that won’t be necessary now.’
Heads were glancing around the room. Everyone wondering who had been right. ‘So, who was the murderer?’ Craig snapped, the tension obviously getting too much for him.
Frank nodded. ‘The murderer was John. The butler did it,’ he said simply.
There were gasps around the room, along with several expletives.
‘That’s not fair!’
‘I hardly spoke to him.’
‘He was only ever in the background.’
‘I never even had a conversation with him!’
Robin was instantly on the defensive. ‘We conducted everything with absolute precision. The clues were all there if you looked for them.’
Laurie was frozen. Her throat dried in an instant. She couldn’t hear anything. She couldn’t hear because the thudding in her ears was getting louder and louder. Sweat. She’d never experienced sweat like it. Appearing instantly all over her body, running down the length of her back and collecting between the cups of her bra. She was freezing. She felt as if someone had just plucked up her body and dropped her in the raging sea ou
tside.
People were still ranting. Callan was just frozen in the chair beside her, holding his breath while he waited for the announcement.
The announcement that would mean any chance they had of having any kind of relationship would disappear in an instant.
Frank’s grey eyes locked on hers. ‘Congratulations, Laurie. Pending a DNA test, Annick Castle is yours.’
The room erupted.
‘It’s a fix!’
‘She’s obviously in league with Frank—you lawyers stick together.’
‘She’s hardly even been here!’
‘She’s in cahoots with that man—Callan. The rest of us never really stood a chance!’
She felt numb. There was good reason she didn’t like some of her relatives. Her vibes about most of them hadn’t been wrong. Any tiny flicker of doubts she’d had about the personality traits of some her relatives were now being revealed in 3D multicolour. She felt as if she couldn’t breathe. The air was coming in, but she couldn’t get it back out.
From the corner of her eye she saw her auntie Mary give her a little smile and blow her a kiss. She was sitting on the other side of the room and her elderly bones couldn’t possibly navigate the melee between them.
It was the first sign of hope. The first glimmer of a good-luck wish.
She was scared to look sideways. She was scared to look at Callan. Part of her wished he’d jumped up to defend her once the rabble had started. But he hadn’t—he’d been silent.
Frank was trying to push his way through the crowd. At this point it looked as if he might be trampled by the objectors.
She stood up and turned to face Callan.
He hadn’t moved. He looked shell-shocked. The smile on his face earlier had vanished. His green eyes lifted and met hers.
She could read everything on his face and in his eyes. He’d been taking steps forward. He’d been trying to move past the fact that Annick Castle would be inherited by someone else. And he’d been getting there. In tiny baby steps.
