The threat of a possible snowstorm did make Mrs. Trask decide to start for Peewee Valley rather earlier than a dinner party usually breaks up and at last Josie was free to read the letters to Ursula.
Poor Teddy must wait until morning to find out what was in them, as Josie was dropped at Miss Lucy Leech’s, while he dutifully drove his mother home.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CLUE IN THE FILM
The letter was from Uncle Bob Benson to Ursula. Josie felt justified in reading it, in order that she might get all the light possible on the doings of Cheatham. It was a sad little letter, evidently written by a very sick man. The writing was shaky and dim, with many words almost illegible, but Josie managed to make them out.
Uncle Ben was deeply contrite at having left his sister and her children when no doubt they needed him most. He had just learned of his sister’s death and showed much feeling and distress. He wrote:
“But soon I may join her, dear Ursula, if one so unworthy as I can hope to join a saint in Heaven. I have not many weeks to live, but am hoping I can reach Louisville to die, if I can but muster enough strength to start on the journey. In the meantime I am instructing my lawyer to put my affairs in order and am making a will leaving what small fortune I have amassed to you, my dear niece. I am not including my nephews in my will, as I think it best for boys to have to hustle for a living and not have things made too easy for them. I am sure they are well provided for by the estate your father left.
“I am writing you all this although I am hoping to spend my last days under your tender and forgiving care. I am hoping also that that man who married your mother has left Louisville, now that he can no longer control that poor, sweet, misguided woman. I cannot forgive myself for having left her to his merciless power. I shall be with you in a few weeks now and, in the meantime, love me if you can and try to forgive me.”
That was all. Josie found herself weeping over the letter. Her rage knew no bounds when she thought of Cheatham’s keeping such a communication from Ursula. No doubt it was on receipt of this letter that he had sent Miss Fitchet to spy upon his stepdaughter in Dorfield.
The more bulky letter was from Toler & Smith, a firm of attorneys at Kimberly. Ben Benson was dead and Toler & Smith had been appointed administrators of his last will and testament. They enclosed a copy of his will, in which his whole estate, amounting to about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, had been bequeathed to Ursula. Toler expected to arrive in Louisville during the month of January, or perhaps earlier. Cheatham deliberately kept the knowledge from Ursula and no doubt his game was to say he had either not received the mail or had forwarded it to the girl.