Page 27 of Heirs and Graces at Highland Hall
‘Of course, of course. Don’t let me keep you.’ He stepped aside, making room for Bex to step past, and as she just reached the door, he called out.
‘Oh, by the way, I mentioned to some of my friends about the work you do. Friends who need accountants. There might be some good news for you there, too.’
‘Well, thank you. I appreciate that,’ Bex said, struck with an urge to get inside, which had nothing to do with the cold.
‘No worries. Have a good day, Rebecca. See you soon.’
He left her with one of those flashing smiles, and she could feel something between excitement and nausea filling her. What the hell had she just agreed to?
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‘That’s a lot of photo albums,’ Bex said as she stared at the pile on the study floor. ‘Where did you find these?’
‘They were in the drawing room,’ Gordon explained as he took a seat and dropped one of the heavy tomes onto his lap. ‘Kieron wasn’t too keen on me rummaging freely, but I noticed those when I was in there talking to him and it seemed like a good place to start. Before we go interrogating the village.’
‘Did he not want to know why you wanted the photo albums?’ Bex asked. Paperwork would be understandable, but photo albums seemed a little suspicious. At least to her.
‘I said we’d found quite a few documents in the ones in here,’ Gordon replied. ‘Said his uncle had a strange form of filing. Said he didn’t seem to know what kind of folders were for what.’
‘You mean you lied?’ Bex said, unable to resist a smirk.
‘Aye, well, I prefer to say I was lenient with the truth,’ Gordon replied. ‘Now, let’s see if there’s anything that helps.’
Bex took another of the photo albums off the floor and randomly opened it up. Her heart did a sudden somersault at what she saw.
It was a picture of Duncan there with Fergus. Four dogs sat in front of them. None of the dogs were ones that Bex recognised, but that wasn’t a surprise considering how old the image was. At a guess, Duncan was about seventeen. Around the age he’d been when he moved out of the family house and into the lodge, where he had lived with his parents before his mum’s death. Bex remembered thinking it was sad that a boy that young would choose a life living by himself, rather than with the comfort of his family around him, but if this image was anything to go by, it had been a happy time. For both of them.
The pair of them were smiling broadly, with Duncan’s arm slung over Fergus’s shoulder, while the sunlight glinted off the loch behind them.
‘Have you found anything?’ Gordon asked, noticing the way she was staring.
Bex shook her head and turned the page. ‘No. Just looking,’ she said, before flicking through more of the images, searching for something to actually help them.
Most of the album seemed to have been given over to a village event, which included everything from traditional games, like caber toss and the hammer throw, to highland dancing, and an astronomical number of bagpipes. She stopped again to pause on what she was sure was a photo of a young Lorna, not to mention Horace and Roddy, who’d worked for Fergus.
‘I think this one is probably too late,’ she said after a few minutes, flicking through pages. ‘If we’re thinking that Fergus had a child, then it would’ve been before he married Winny, don’t you think?’
While Bex knew Winny hadn’t been the love of Fergus’s life, that didn’t mean he hadn’t loved her. There had been a deep level of care and affection between the pair, who would have loved to have had their own children together. She couldn’t imagine him having an affair. It just didn’t seem like Fergus.
‘I tend to agree.’ Gordon nodded. ‘So anything with Winny in it, we’ll leave till later. Should help narrow things down.’ He looked at the album in his hand. ‘There’s no sign of Winny in this one. If you want to look through, that is,’ he said, handing her another album. ‘I think most of these are earlier, actually.’
Having taken the album, Bex looked through it, flicking through several pages, until she found a photo that made her stop. She had seen it before, when she had sorted out all the accounts.
It was Fergus, Duncan’s grandfather and a pretty young woman standing between them. While the image was in black and white, the woman appeared to have light blonde, perhaps strawberry blonde, hair. Her lips were thick, as were her eyebrows, while her cheeks were pushed into perfect rounds by the force of her smile. Bex had previously thought this woman could be the reason Duncan’s grandfather and Fergus had fallen out. What if she had been spot-on? What if Fergus had loved her, and there had been a child involved?
‘Do you know who this is?’ Bex asked, showing Gordon the photo.
His jaw clicked as he pulled his glasses down to the end of his nose and studied the image for a moment before crinkling up his face.
‘Can’t say I do,’ he said. ‘Pretty face like that would have stuck in my memory for sure. She’d definitely left the village by the time I turned up. If she was from here.’
Was that good news? It was definitely a lead. One worth examining more.
‘Do you mind if I take it?’ she asked. ‘I’m going to see Moira tonight. I can ask her. She might have some idea.’
‘Sounds good,’ Gordon said, nodding in agreement. ‘Let’s see how many more like that we can find. Someone’s got to know something.’
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