The Wait of the Soul

Part 25

There are days when every thought is insightful, every ambition achievable. Days when everything is clear. For Alicia Locke today was that day.

The heart specialist she had reluctantly consulted was sympathetic, but there was no expectation of recovery. Surgery was possible, but it treacherously offered hope of nothing more than a few months, while actually risking what life she had left on the operating table. The inevitability of death focused her mind on the dilemma of the Locke inheritance. Robert was never going to shoulder those responsibilities. Like his grandfather before him, the family was second to his own personal needs and ambitions. It always would be. To him, the family name opened the right doors, nothing more. The land was merely an asset that could be liquefied if necessary. The very thought made her shudder. There was, as far as she could see, only one answer. The child Sophie would, of necessity, become her heir. Of course, the estate would continue to be administered by Travers and Beck, they had been the family solicitors for years, she trusted them implicitly.

She would considerably enhance Robert's trust fund, which should satisfy him, but Locke House and its lands were her great-granddaughters. The mother could not refuse a dying woman's last request surely? Dr Letty Warren appeared to be devoted to her child, as well as a committed professional, she would be a fool not to secure her daughter's future.

"Travers, I wish to make the changes to my will that we talked about. How long would that take?" Alicia spoke to her solicitor as she always did, clipped, direct.

A few minutes later she replaced the receiver and sighed. The team of lawyers and accountants would have the amendments to her will in place in a day. By this evening it would be signed, sealed with copies securely held by the bank and Travers and Beck. Now all she needed to do was to inform Robert and Letty Warren of the resolution to her dilemma. Neither would take it lightly, but she was not a woman who cared over much for the petty insecurities of others.

It would be done, and Travers would ensure that it could not be undone.

She picked up the receiver again.

"Robert, I would like you to bring Dr Warren to dinner tonight. There is something you both need to hear."

###                 

Letty was curled on her battered sofa. She had tried to read, watch TV, sleep, anything but talk to Adam. It had been three days since the memories of the attack and rape of Arlette had crashed through Letty's brain. The truth of the assault, of its brutality. The terror and disgust still left her nauseous, and even Adam's tender, but very male presence caused her discomfort. She couldn't look at him, froze if he touched her.

Her logically trained mind told her he hadn't known the plans of his trollish mentor. He hadn't given his gentle young wife for the beast to do as he pleased, but he had left her exposed, unprotected. A foolish boy who trusted where he should not, and Arlette paid the price.

Simple.

Letty shuddered at the thought of the spiteful fingers on her skin. But it was not her, it was Arlette who had endured, whose body had been bruised and torn, not hers. The Adam who guarded her now was not the easily manipulated, adolescent boy of then. But still she rejected him, blamed him. Unreasonable as it was, she couldn't help it.

And she missed Sophie.

She resented Sue's practical good sense. Letty wanted routine again, she wanted Adam to disappear, wanted the disturbing memories of that sad life to disappear with him. She needed the quiet organised existence of Sophie, work, and study.

###

Adam alternated between desolation and anger. He had no idea how to help her, he could not heal the wounds with soft words or kisses. Promises of love and protection brought him contemptuous looks and silence that speared his heart. But he knew well how old anger seethed deep.