you or pass this knowledge on to you. She knew Sir Hugo from before, though, and felt that you would be cheated. There was little she could do when presented later with proof in your own signature that you had given up hope of inheritance and had been banished for the alleged rape of your sister. This was not in the courts, the last part, but part of a personal confrontation with her and Sir Hugo, so she never tried to write to you.'
'I sound most awesomely poor from all this, Mister Cheatham.'
'You might have been but for one thing, the deviousness of women.' Cheatham laughed, clapping him on the shoulder and bidding him sit once more. 'Your grandmother did not die. In fact, at last report some six months ago she is still, surprisingly, with us. She rallied, sir! If I may paraphrase the noted lexicographer Dr. Johnson, one's impending death concentrates the mind most wonderfully. She not only rallied and left her deathbed, but she immediately was wed to an old friend of hers, a Mr. Thomas Nuttbush, Esquire, of the same parish in Devon.'
'But my father still has the estate,' Alan said miserably.
'One, not until she passes over, and two, not if the Lewrie estate is signed over to a husband by legal conveyance awarding him coverture after her death. To make matters even worse for Sir Hugo, Thomas Nuttbush is possessed of three fine, healthy sons, so if there is no Lewrie estate but a Nuttbush estate, you are no longer the eldest male issue of either side in line to inherit. He has guardianship over nothing, and when you reach your majority, there is nothing for him to steal from you at that time, or at the death of your grandmother. The legal paper which Kittredge saw informally at the meeting with Sir Hugo lists you as giving up inheritance in both Willoughby and Lewrie estates, assigning everything to your father. But it says nothing about the Nuttbush estate.'
'Holy God, am I part of it?' Alan yelled, hoping against hope.
'You are, sir. A codicil to the conveyance assigning Mr. Nuttbush lifetime coverture provides you an inheritance,' Cheatham told him with great glee. 'Oh, your grandmother's a sly-boots, Lewrie, and I see which side of the family you get your own nackiness from. Your grandmother's paraphernalia does not come under coverture of a husband, so that is what shall be your portion upon your grandmother's passing. My brother Jemmy has been in touch with Mr. Kittredge, and he assures me that there is jewelry and plate to the value of four thousand pounds at present, and your grandmother has purchased more lately, all to be held at Coutts' Bank under her new name in the vault, so your father can never touch it or place lien on it in your name. And Mr. Kittredge has dealt with the bank to make sure that you shall receive the sum of two hundred pounds in annuity for life.'
'Holy shit on a biscuit,' Alan said, having trouble breathing for a moment. 'I'm rich. I'm as rich as Croesus. Goddamme, but I'm rich!'
'Well, perhaps not strictly wealthy, but as well-off as a squire's son back home. With your prize certificates, your new naval pay, and the annuity, you shall get by more than comfortably, better than a post-captain, really,' Cheatham said. 'There will be money enough to set yourself up in fashionable lodgings in London once the war is over. And still enough left to provide a house and some land when you find the perfect girl to make your wife, with enough money to assure you a comfortable existence, as long as your taste does not aspire to emulate a peer's son, or you let your pleasures rule your purse. It's more than a middling income, though. And should you marry well—and all this allows you entrance to a better sort of selection in young women—you could do very well indeed.'
'My God, it's a sight more than what I had half an hour ago.' Alan laughed in relief and joy. 'To my lights, I'm rich.'
'Aye,' Cheatham agreed heartily.
'I'm legitimate. I'm not the sorry bastard I was always told.'
'True again,' Cheatham rejoined.
'And if this letter from Pilchard is correct, if my father doesn't honor his half of the agreement about my banishment, then I no longer have to honor mine,' Alan speculated. 'By God, I'm free of the old fart. I
'Once again, true,' Cheatham said. 'In fact, that is what your solicitor is suing your father for. Pay the annuity or you come home.'
'I'm suing my father?' Alan gaped, breaking into laughter once he saw the irony of it. 'My God, this is lovely. I love it, I truly do!'
'Kittredge could not represent you, since you would be a plaintiff when your grandmother passes over, but he is paying your legal expenses. He found you a younger solicitor, a Matthew Mountjoy, to represent you. He has made presentation that you signed away all hopes to the Willoughby and Lewrie estates and cannot be considered a source of money for Sir Hugo's creditors to fall back on if he does not have enough to clear his debts.'
'Sir Hugo's in trouble with creditors?'
'More and more. Evidently, the Cockspur estates are as empty as his own by now, and he's sold off most of the country property to keep going in proper style, and your Gerald and Belinda must be expensive little darlings, too, quite a drain on his resources. It seems Gerald and Belinda are also suing your father for wasting and mismanaging their share of the Cockspur estates.'
Alan whooped and kicked his heels against the keg on which he sat, utterly floored by this turn of events. 'Serves the bastard right!' he crowed in a joy that almost transported him to ecstasy. 'Confusion to his cause, and may he get what's due him at long last. He could go to prison, couldn't he? Debtor's prison at the least, and real confinement as a felon if there is a just God in Heaven! I love it! I love it!'
'To victory,' Cheatham proposed, raising his glass to Alan's.
'And revenge, Mister Cheatham. Don't forget sweet revenge!'
'And revenge on your foes,' Cheatham said. 'Now, I hope you do not mind, but you are now a depositor with Coutts' Bank in London. It seemed a good way to help repay my brother Jemmy for all his research and investigative work. Coutts' is a solid bank, near as good as the Bank of England, even if it is privately held. Your annuity shall be remitted you within the month, less fifty pounds which Jemmy had to spend for postage, travel expenses, and hiring some hungry young lawyers to do the discovery of all the background material. I hope you do not mind.'
'Mister Cheatham, that's better than what my father would have sent me. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm fifty pounds to the good. I can't thank you enough, you and your brother James, for doing all this for me. You went to so much trouble to determine my heritage, and got what was due me. You believed in a scoundrel, and I'll find a way to repay you for your kindnesses.'
'Well, before you do that, you should reflect on the fact that the Lewrie estate was worth fifty thousand pounds in freehold and copyhold lands, and between the home-farm, the rents and returns on investments, provided over three thousand pounds a year income. You'll not share in that,' the purser told him with a shrug of commiseration.
'Hang the money, I'm still delighted,' Alan vowed. Hold on, did I just say that? I must be deranged to think something like that. But, I'm due double what I would have gotten from Sir Hugo, and there might be eight or ten thousand waiting for me when my grandmother dies. And I still have my two thousand from
'Remember what I told you about having friends in this world, in the Navy, who care about you with genuine affection,' Cheatham said, his eyes moist with emotion. 'You could not have earned that affection unless we thought you worthy of it, no matter what you thought of yourself. Oh, Mister Lewrie—Alan—when you expressed your disgust with yourself months ago, pronounced yourself so unworthy of any love or real friendship in this world, my heart went right out to you. Treated so badly by your father, with the word 'bastard' branded into your soul as a cruel lie all these years, no wonder you thought yourself base and unworthy. Now you know the truth about yourself. You're legitimate, with a fine name that anyone in England could be proud of. Forced to naval life or no, you've done well at it, whether you loved it or not, and have the beginnings of a fine career in the Sea Service, and that's a gentlemanly calling a thousand lads would sell their souls to have. Do not let what you thought of yourself in the past color the rest of your life. Reflect on what you have gained and how a truly just God has brought the wheel of righteous retribution full circle until you may come into your own. Not just the money, but this new beginning, this clean slate upon which you may… oh, devil take it, I…' Cheatham wept.
'I shall, Mister Cheatham. I promise you I shall,' Alan said in all seriousness. He set down his wine glass and the men embraced and thumped each other on the back.
'Well,' Cheatham said, stepping back to fetch out his handkerchief and blow his nose and wipe his eyes. 'There is a power of correspondence for you in this packet from Jemmy. Legal bumf explaining all the particulars, word from your solicitor Mr. Mountjoy with reports of the progress of your suit, and a letter from your grandmother,
