Page 43 of Hello Goodbye Amore

“ROBERT,” HIS aide, Blake, said as he knocked on the frame beside the open door to Robert’s tiny office.

“Am I late for another meeting?” Robert looked up from his computer, where he’d been preparing the documents on a case for a client whose landlord was trying to evict her improperly. The guy was a real piece of work, and Robert was determined to win her some relief from the local council.

Blake chuckled softly. “No.”

Robert breathed a sigh of relief and continued typing as fast as he could. He was scheduled to meet with the council in less than an hour, and he wanted to make sure he had all his arguments in place.

“But there is someone here to see you. A solicitor from London.” Blake sounded half-breathless with excitement—probably wondering what was going on and if he could increase his stature in the office rumor mill.

Robert closed his eyes and tried to think if he had had any business or clients that would precipitate a visit from a colleague in London.

Robert was technically a barrister, trained to argue cases in front of the courts.

But here on the edge of Cornwall, Robert had decided that rather than go into high-powered practice in London, he’d become an advocate for those without the means to advocate for themselves.

So he’d gone into practice with a few like-minded friends from school, and they’d opened their office on the second floor of a run-down building in Smithford.

In their practice, they took everything and did everything.

Two of his partners were solicitors, and Robert had learned the ins and outs of that profession as well.

“Give me five minutes, please.”

Blake nodded, and Robert put the last touches on the argument and then saved the file. He’d just finished when Blake led in a man about Robert’s age, spit-and-polished, wearing a suit that cost as much as Robert made in a month. Robert stood to meet the man.

“Robert Morton? William Montgomery. I’m here on behalf of your uncle, the Earl of Hantford.”

“My uncle….” Robert didn’t honestly remember having an uncle, but then again, his mother’s family had not been the most accommodating when she’d married Robert’s father. No one had talked about his mother’s family in so long that they didn’t register immediately in his memory. “Yes…?”

“Yes. Your uncle, Lord Harrison Hantford, the Earl of Hantford….” He paused.

“Apparently the family changed their last name to that of the estate some six generations ago. He recently passed away, and under his will, you are his heir. The estate is entailed, which means your uncle didn’t have a great deal of choice in the matter.

You are his closest living male heir, and as such you are entitled to the earldom, as well as all the property associated with it. ”

Robert shivered slightly and blinked in near disbelief. He motioned for Mr. Montgomery to sit down, remembering his manners through the complete shock. “So you’re saying I’m the Earl of Hantford now?” He sank into his chair and wondered what kind of holy hell had befallen him.

“Yes, sir. Or I should say, your lordship.” Mr. Montgomery seemed to be taking little delight in this.

“Did you know my uncle?” Robert asked.

“I’m afraid I didn’t. He was a client with Rhodes, Wentworth, and Middleton for many years, and the task of notifying you fell to me.”

“I see.” Robert’s analytical mind began to kick in. “So what exactly has my uncle left me?”

“There is the family estate, Ashton Park, and a home in London. I’m at a loss to tell you much about them.

I haven’t seen either property myself, but I will be happy to meet you in the coming weeks to take you to visit them, as well as discuss any arrangements you’d like to make for the properties and contents,” Mr. Montgomery said, very businesslike, which was both a relief and unsettling for Robert.

“Can you tell me if the estate is healthy?”

Mr. Montgomery chose that moment to break eye contact, and immediately Robert knew the answer.

“I don’t know the particulars, but I am under the impression that your uncle lived in the home in London and that he rarely visited Ashton Park.

As to more details on the state of the place, we’ll have to assess that when we go see it.

” It was a diplomatic answer, which probably meant that he’d just inherited a huge money-sucking country house with very little means to support it.

“All right.” Robert had no idea in hell what else to say. He was a man who made his living with words, and he was at a near complete loss. “Thank you so very much.”

“Would you like to meet tomorrow? I can at least take you to Ashton Park so you can see it. I will also have a number of papers and documents that I will need you to sign.”

“Is there anyone else who has a potential claim on the estate?” Robert asked.

“No. Your uncle married, but the earl and his wife had no children. I understand from the more senior colleagues in my firm that that was a great sorrow to both of them. However, other than a few impressions and details, I don’t have much information to give you.

The earl’s business was handled by one of our partners who recently passed away unexpectedly, and I’m stepping in to try to fill his rather large shoes.

” Mr. Montgomery sounded excited about this opportunity, but Robert also saw a touch of fear in his eyes, which would help keep him on his toes.

Robert understood that kind of fear; he experienced it on a regular basis.

Failure could be lurking everywhere, so it was to be guarded against and held at bay by always being at one’s very best.

“All right.” Robert pulled up his calendar and figured he could clear part of his schedule for the following day. He arranged a time, and Mr. Montgomery left his office.

Somehow Robert managed to get his mind back on his work, but not without a great deal of effort.

THAT EVENING, after a successful local council meeting that granted him everything he had wanted for his client, Robert pulled up to his mother’s small cottage on the outskirts of town.

She and his father had saved for years to buy their dream home.

His mother, who was approaching seventy, still tended the garden and lovingly cared for the house the way she always had and showed no signs of slowing down.

“How was your day?” She gave him a fright when she popped up from behind one of the garden gateposts, where she had apparently been wrestling with some stubborn weeds.

“God.” He stepped back and took a breath to still his heart. “It’s getting a little late to be working out here, Mum.”

“Pish,” she said dismissively. “When you’re as old as I am, you take your bursts of energy when you can get them.” She dropped the weeds she was holding on the pile she’d collected. “Let’s have a cup of tea.”

“Good idea.” He followed her inside and sat on one of the kitchen chairs, watching his mother put a kettle on.

He remembered the dining room furniture from when he was a child.

His father had made the table and chairs for his mother as a wedding present, and they had been a part of the family for as long as he could remember.

“What brings you by?” She plugged in the electric kettle and got down the cups and pot so they would be ready.

“It seems that your brother passed away.”

She patted the table a few times. “Harrison is dead.” She said the words in the same tone that she did when she talked about her neighbor, who she referred to as “the damned old randy bastard” on a regular basis. She smiled for a second and then turned to him. “Christ on the cross.”

“You got it in one, Mum.”

“But I was disinherited, and….” She sank into the chair across from him. “So my arse of a brother ended up with what he wanted anyway.”

“Excuse me?” Robert said, trying to follow all of this.

“My brother was many things—pompous, arrogant, a pain in the arse know-it-all who thought since he had the title, he also had the right to make decisions for everyone else.” The kettle was done, and she got up and poured.

Robert waited until she was ready to continue.

She brought the tea tray with pot and cups to the table and set it down gently.

She filled the cups, knowing already how he took it, and handed him his.

“My parents died when I was nineteen. So Harrison inherited the title and became head of the family. He thought two things. First, that the title gave him the right to dictate everything about my life. And second, that we’d stepped back a hundred years and that he ruled the damn roost, as well as my personal life.

The idiot.” She took a sip, pinkie out, as genteel as possible.

“Why didn’t I ever hear any of this before?”

She set down her cup. “I dated a friend of my brother’s for five years.

He was also titled, with a lot of money.

Harrison was so excited. He thought we’d marry, but the reason we dated for so long was because I wasn’t ready.

Then I met your father. George, the guy my brother wanted me to marry, was as pompous as Harrison.

He’d hired your father to do some restoration work at his home, and I took one look at him and that was it.

Your father stole my heart with a wink, a smile, and one peek at his gorgeous backside.

” She giggled, and Robert was glad he didn’t have a mouthful of tea at that moment.

“So you dumped George and married Dad.”

“Yes. In a way. I announced that I wasn’t going to marry George and that I loved Peter with all my heart, and Harrison went into a rage.

He was always a control freak. Now I think he was deranged and needed professional help.

But he hadn’t gotten any then. When I didn’t back down, he disowned me, and I turned my back on the arsehole forever. ”

“Mum, I think you’re losing me a little.”