The prosecutor lifted a warning hand. “Please stick to the issue, Mr. Thorne, and we’ll take your affection for your sister for granted. Are you the proprietor of the old Thorne estate, Orchards?”
“Yes.”
“The sole proprietor?”
“The sole proprietor.”
“Why did your sister not share in that estate, Mr. Thorne?”
“My father no longer regarded my sister as his heir after she married Patrick Ives. He took a violent dislike to Mr. Ives from the first, and it was distinctly against his wishes that Sue married him.”
“Did you share this dislike?”
“For Patrick? Oh, no. At the time I hardly knew him, and later I became extremely fond of him.”
“You still are?”
The pleasant gray eyes, suddenly grave, looked back unswervingly into the hot blue fire of the prosecutor’s. “That is a difficult question to answer categorically. Perhaps the most accurate reply that I can give is that at present I am reserving an opinion on my brother-in-law and his conduct.”