Bia's War (36 page)

The shop was busy when she
peeped through the door from the kitchen, but she still left the
house through the side door, so that her Dad wouldn’t see her leave
and ask where she was going. Nana had been very firm about not
letting anyone know about this visit. Within minutes, she was
opening the front door of Mr Vine’s office on Station Road and
marching up to Miss Talbot’s desk with a totally different attitude
from the last time she had visited the solicitor’s workplace.

Chapter Seventeen

Miss Talbot didn’t raise her
head from the sheet of paper she was perusing, merely asking “Yes?”
as she made a note with a pencil on the page. Victoria didn’t
answer, but continued to stand in front of the desk, taking as much
interest in the naked white sheet as Miss Talbot. The battle of
wills was almost won when Miss Talbot looked up at Victoria and
repeated her question.

“Yes, can I help you?”

That was much better.

“I’m sure you can.” Victoria
replied. “I would like to see Mr Vine as soon as is convenient,
please.” She wasn’t going to leave room for Miss Talbot to accuse
her of being rude.

“Mr Vine is with a client at the
moment. Perhaps you would like to leave your name and address and
Mr Vine can contact you when he is free.”

This wasn’t good enough for
Victoria. Nana Lymer had told her to insist on seeing Mr Vine that
day and Miss Talbot was no longer the insurmountable barrier that
she had been before, the last time that Victoria had visited the
office.

“That’s fine.” Victoria said.
“I’ll wait until he is free.” And she crossed the room and sat down
on a wooden chair which was beside the open fire. Miss Talbot
followed her across the office and stood in front of Victoria with
her arms folded across her chest and a rather superior smile on her
face.

“You won’t be able to see Mr
Vine today, because he has clients booked in all day. I told you,
leave your name and address with me and he will let you know when
it is convenient for you to see him. A solicitor is a busy man,
with no time to be messed about by a schoolgirl.”

This last was said with a
distinct smirk as Miss Talbot looked down her nose at Victoria.

“You don’t need me to tell you
who I am.” Victoria said, very calmly, meeting Miss Talbot’s smirk
with a clear open face. “I have no intentions of leaving until I
have spoken to Mr Vine and, as I only need a few minutes of his
time, I won’t be holding up any of his other clients. And if you
are intending to phone my mother again to tell her that I am here,
I would suggest you wait until about five o’clock. She has got
numerous appointments this afternoon and will be unavailable,
probably until tea time.”

Victoria was rather pleased with
herself at managing to remain calm and unruffled despite Miss
Talbot’s open hostility towards her and once again surprised
herself by being so composed and adult. She wasn’t sure how much
longer she would be able to sustain this attitude however and was
relieved to hear Mr Vine’s office door open and see Mr Vine emerge,
shaking hands with an elderly gentleman as he left.

Mr Vine hadn’t missed Victoria’s
presence in the waiting room and crossed the office quickly to
speak to her.

“Do I take it that the
inevitable has unfortunately occurred and you have come to appraise
me of your grandmother’s passing?” he asked, his face creased in
concern.

“I’m afraid so.” Victoria
answered. “Nana Lymer died in the early hours of this morning.” She
couldn’t help but wonder if all solicitors spoke in this rather
stilted fashion or if Mr Vine thought it gave him a certain
gravitas which his age didn’t bestow on him.

“Peacefully, I hope?” Mr Vine
asked, taking hold of one of Victoria’s hands and absentmindedly
patting it as he spoke. “It will have come as a great shock to you,
I know, even though it has been expected for quite some time. We
are never truly prepared for any death and I know how close you
were to your grandmother.”

Victoria could feel the salt
tears beginning to gather in her eyes again, but she shook them
away, determined that she wasn’t going to cry like a child in front
of Miss Talbot. Mr Vine realised that she needed some time and
space to get herself under control again, so he turned her round
and began encouraging her to pass inside his office and sit down at
his desk.

“I don’t need to stay.” Victoria
spluttered. “Nana only told me to come and let you know when she
died. I don’t need to take up any more of your time. I know that
you have other clients to see today.”

“Nonsense.” Mr Vine boomed. “My
next appointment isn’t until 3 o’clock so I’ve got time for a cup
of tea and a chat with one of my favourite Lymer ladies. But your
name won’t be Lymer, will it? Lymer is your mother’s side of the
family. Don’t tell me, I’ll have it in my brain any second. Wilson!
That’s it. Miss Victoria Wilson. I’ve actually got some information
for you, Miss Wilson, now that your grandmother has died,
information which only you and I need to know. We will not be
discussing it when I report the terms of your grandmother’s will to
your parents and your aunts and uncle after the funeral. That is
why Mrs Lymer wanted you to come and see me immediately after she
died. She wished you to be in possession of this information so
that it wouldn’t come as a surprise to you at the Will
Reading.”

Victoria glanced across at Mr
Vine where he was in the process of closing his office door. In the
split second’s chance that she had to see into the reception area
before he closed the door, she saw Miss Talbot, with her mouth
hanging open and her eyes fixed on Mr Vine. Despite what had
happened that day, Victoria felt an almost over – whelming urge to
laugh at the shock and desire for knowledge written across Miss
Talbot’s face. It seemed that Mr Vine was enjoying seeing her
reaction as well, because he closed the door so slowly that quite a
few really nosy expressions passed across Miss Talbot’s face before
she managed to bring her greed for gossip under control and resumed
her usual, slightly superior, facial appearance.

Mr Vine re-opened his office
door immediately and neither he nor Victoria were astonished at the
close proximity to the door Miss Talbot had managed to reach in
those few seconds. Victoria wondered how often Mr Vine had caught
his secretary blatantly listening at his office door and was
surprised that he tolerated such behaviour, unless he also enjoyed
thwarting Miss Talbot’s attempts to glean gossip. If she had
overheard any sensitive information surely it would make a
reduction in his professional rating?

“Can we have two cups of tea in
here, Miss Talbot please? Miss Wilson and I have a number of
important matters to discuss and I always think that tea lubricates
the brain cells.” Mr Vine closed the door again and sat behind his
desk, putting his hands together and steepling his fingers and
resting his chin on them.

“When I came to see your
grandmother a couple of weeks ago, she led me to understand that
she was the second wife of your grandfather, Mr Samuel Lymer, and
that there had been some children of the first marriage, although a
number of those children had died in childhood as well as one son
who died during the First World War and one son who had died as a
result of the wounds he had received during that War, a number of
years after it ended. This leaves your mother, your aunt in
Australia and your uncle from your grandfather’s second marriage
and your three aunts from his first marriage still alive. Is that
right?”

Victoria crossed them off on her
fingers as she thought about her mother’s brother and sisters. The
three aunts from her granddad Sam’s first marriage seemed more real
to her than her aunt and uncle from his second marriage, because
she had learnt from Nana Lymer exactly what they were like when
they became part of Nana’s life. Her true aunt in Australia and her
true uncle who lived down south somewhere were shadows compared to
the other three.

“Aunt Hannah, who lives in York
and Aunt Jenny, who lives in Birmingham both have children and
grandchildren. Do you want a list of them, Mr Vine?” Victoria
asked, not sure why she needed to know about a section of her
grandmother’s will before anyone else in the family, and eager to
help unravel the slightly complicated family tree.

“No, thank you,” he replied.
“Mrs Lymer’s last Will and Testament contains bequests to the six
children still living of Mr Lymer’s two marriages. I expect she
intended any children and grandchildren to be provided for by their
parents and grandparents. Do you know where the third sister of the
first marriage lives?”

“Oh yes,” Victoria hastened to
answer. “Aunt Lizzie is a companion to an old lady who lives in
Bishop Auckland and lives with her there. She has never married and
has no children and I would suppose that both she and the lady she
looks after will be getting on in years now. Nana has her address
in her address book at home. I’ll find it for you and bring it
round tomorrow.”

“There’s no need to put yourself
out, Victoria. I can get it when I come to read the Will in a
couple of days’ time. I just wanted a rough idea so that I would
recognise the correct address when I see it. Now we’ve cleared that
up, I just want to discuss a couple of points from the Will with
you without anyone else knowing what they contain. Your grandmother
was determined that no-one else should know the exact amount of
possessions that she has left you.”

“Left me?!?” Victoria could
hardly speak; she was so taken aback by that one small sentence.
“But she didn’t have to leave me anything. I’m going to be a
teacher; I don’t need to have anything left for me!”

They paused at that point as
Miss Talbot knocked on the door and then entered, carrying a tray
with two cups and saucers on it and a small plate of half-coated
biscuits. Mr Vine removed them all from the tray and then asked
Miss Talbot if she could find the files for the next two clients
who would be coming later in the day. She agreed and left, closing
the office door behind her as she went, effectively stopping her
own chances at information gathering.

“It will take her a good while
to find those files because I removed them from the filing cabinet
this morning and have them here, so she won’t be able to listen at
the door.” Mr Vine wrapped his knuckle on the two cardboard bundles
sitting in his in-tray.

“ To carry on from where we left
off - I’m sure you will make a wonderful teacher,” Mr Vine agreed,
“But Mrs Lymer was determined that you would be the greatest
beneficiary of her Will, so that you would have more choices in
your life than you would otherwise be able to have on just a
teacher’s salary. She told me that you were the only member of the
family who knew that she and your grandfather had made rather a
good living from owning and renting out property; from two other
shops apart from the one in Queen Street and from a collection of
gold, silver and jewellery built up by your grandmother from before
she met your grandfather and over the years after that marriage.
She also said you were the only member of the family who had shown
any interest in her life before the birth of her three children.
These bequests can be taken as a reward for your selfless interest
in her and what she had done during her life, without expecting
some sort of monetary remuneration. She also told me you had made
her last few weeks on this earth a happy time for her, mainly
because of the love you had shown her, so she wanted you to have
the following:”

Ownership of the property known
as Number 45 Eston Square, Eston – a general dealers store,
although she recommends that you sell it as a going concern before
the large supermarket chains move into the area and destroy its
customer base.

Ownership of the property known
as Number 11 Ladgate Lane, Acklam – a tea and coffee shop, serving
the local area as it has done for many years. She recommended that
you keep this particular business going as it is becoming more
profitable with every year that passes.

Ownership of the portfolio of
rental properties spread throughout Middlesbrough, Ormesby,
Normanby and Eston. This is another part of the business that your
grandmother recommends that you continue to run as it is also a
profitable concern.

Lastly, her collection of gold
and silver jewellery and her collection of cut and uncut gemstones
collected over many years and kept in her security box at the bank.
She has only ever worn one of these items, a gold chain and locket
which contains photographs of Mr Lymer and a little boy called
Simon Drinkwater, although I have no idea as to the identity of the
child.”

Mr Vine paused here, presumably
to give Victoria time to inform him of the child’s identity, but
Victoria decided she wouldn’t feed his desire for knowledge. If
Nana Lymer had wanted him to know then she would have told him. The
fact that she hadn’t told him informed Victoria that she had no
wish for Simon to be discussed with Mr Vine so Victoria kept Nana’s
council and refused to be drawn on the subject of his identity. It
would make no difference to the carrying out of the Will, given
that he had died in childhood and had obviously never married or
produced any children of his own. Working at the ‘need to know’
level, Mr Vine had no need to know who Simon Drinkwater had been
and therefore, Victoria wasn’t holding back any potentially useful
information.

If she thought about it, there
was only Aunt Hannah and Aunt Jenny left alive who, apart from
Victoria, would know that Nana Lymer had ever had a little boy
called Simon, or even that she had been married before she married
Sam Lymer. Aunt Lizzie had been too young at the time to have any
memory of the events that had happened so long ago.