The Wilt Inheritance Read Online Free PDF

dragged in,’ he said, fetching another chair from the shack.
    ‘I feel like it,’ said Wilt, sitting down. ‘My wife …’
    ‘Don’t tell me,’ said Robert, and lit his blackened pipe. ‘I know all about them, don’t I just? You’re damned lucky yours hasn’t any sisters. Look at me, stuck with a pair of them. Unmarried hell-cats is what they are. What’s Eva been up … beg your pardon … been down to this time?’
    Wilt told him, pointing out for good measure that despite his lack of sisters-in-law, he was lumbered with four diabolical daughters.
    ‘The wages of sex,’ Robert told him. ‘I reckon the amoeba has the right idea. Lives on its own, completely single, and when it feels like having some offspring, it simply discards part of itself and lets the other half get on with its own life. The perfect solution. No responsibility, no hassle, no nagging – and, best of all, no sex. Certainly no jobs in the holidays tutoring some young oaf whose father is an earl – or whatever this blighter is up to in North Fenland.’
    ‘Added to which the old fellow went to Porterhouse and Eva’s told his wife I was there too.’
    ‘What’s porterhouse? Sounds like a steak to me.’
    ‘A Cambridge college, and about the worst example you can find. Full of hearties with big bank accounts and no brains. I don’t even see why this moron thinkshe needs A-level history to get in. Sounds like he more than meets the entrance requirements already.’
    ‘Thank God I never went to university,’ said Robert. ‘I went straight into carpentry as an apprentice, and made what money my wife hasn’t spent yet creating “antique” furniture and flogging it. Did kitchens too, and parquet floors when things got tight.’
    By the time Wilt went home an hour or so later he was feeling decidedly better. Old Robert had his priorities right. He did his own cooking on a Primus stove, heated the shack in winter with a paraffin burner, used an oil lamp to see by, and generally kept himself to himself. Nobody disturbed him because few people knew he was there, and the neighbouring allotment holders were grateful to him for keeping an eye on their vegetables and ensuring no one nicked them. No nagging wife, no awful daughters, and no bloody job to worry about either.
    Wilt wondered what the waiting list for allotments was like.

Chapter 4
    In North Fenland Lady Clarissa dropped off the young man she’d spent the night with at the Black Bear, popped his chauffeur’s uniform into the boot of the Jaguar and then drove the two miles to the Hall to announce her good news to Sir George.
    ‘You’ve done what?’ he demanded, annoyed at being woken from his afternoon nap.
    ‘I’ve arranged for Edward to pass his A-level,’ she said. ‘And I’ve also found a really good old people’s home for Uncle Harold. It’s called the Last Post.’
    ‘Very suitable. And damned expensive, I expect. Well don’t forget I’m the one coughing up for the old devil’s keep, though Christ knows why. He’s your confounded uncle, not mine.’
    ‘There’s absolutely no need for you to pay,’ she said icily. ‘I will.’
    Sir George almost smiled.
    ‘Fat chance of that. But anyway, that’s all right. For half a moment I thought you were going to say you were bringing him here. That was what you implied when you left.’
    ‘Oh, you’re always so pessimistic, and you think I’m just a fool.’
    ‘In some respects …’ He gave a sigh. ‘Well, never mind. What’s this about getting your blasted son educated?’
    It was Clarissa’s turn to sigh.
    ‘He’s your son too. In name, at any rate. You may not like it much but the fact remains that Edward is your step-son’
    ‘I know. Just as I know your first husband died on an ungated level crossing … and I for one don’t blame him for it.’
    ‘And what precisely do you mean by that? Is it another of your beastly cracks about Edward?’
    ‘Not about dear little Eddie, as you like to call