“I will be frank with you,” he said, “quite frank. My brother told me a little more than a week ago that he had made a new will, and that I was his heir.”
“Where is this will?”
“I found it in the clock-case at Flint House last night, and I have since handed it to the lawyer who drafted it.”
“Your brother gave you no indication of this before?”
“No. He told me when I came that he had summoned me to Cornwall because of the great change in the family fortunes. As I was his only brother he desired my presence in the investigation of the final proofs and the preparation of his claim for the House of Lords. Nothing was said about the succession then. Robert was very excited, and talked only of his own future. I feel sure that he was not then thinking of who was to succeed to the title after his death. He looked forward to enjoying it himself. I certainly did not give it a thought, either. Who could have foreseen this tragic event?”
“Do you know anything about this peerage?”
“Not till latterly. I never took it seriously, like Robert. I looked upon it as a family fiction. I understand that the Turrald barony was a barony by writ—whatever that may be. The point is that if my brother had lived to restore it, the title, on his death, would have descended to his only daughter, if she had been born in wedlock. As she is illegitimate, the title would have descended to me, and after me to my son.”
“You were here last night when they brought you the news of your brother’s death, I understand?” remarked Barrant, in a casual sort of way.
“Yes; I did not go out again after I returned from the funeral.”
“Was your son home with you?”