Chapter 3. Graham leaves the hotel as Linda to see his solicitor.

Making it out of the hotel I looked around me, I was still in my small town, I knew my old house was just a half a mile from here.

I walked down the high street and went into new coffee shop, it was a Costa I think. I hadn't been in a decent coffee shop for years since my doctor told me I had to give the stuff up.

Five minutes later I was sitting in a comfortable chair and sipping my first cup of real black coffee in years. It was heaven, things tasted and smelled better than they had for years. It wasn't until I went to put my cup down that I realised my hands were shaking.

It suddenly hit me I had walked down the street dressed as a woman and no one had taken any notice. It felt weird, part of me wanted to hide in a corner and not be noticed but another part of me was screaming "Look at me I'm beautiful!"

I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up. I felt my heart pound as I looked at the most gorgeous creature I have ever seen.

The woman that had entered the café was a little taller than me and very slender, I would guess just under six foot tall. She had the most amazing copper coloured hair I have ever seen, a sweet almost triangular face with a sharp chin but her face was dominated by large striking green eyes.

I flushed and looked down at the table. God I wish my heart would stop pounding.

I gulped down the rest of my coffee and quickly gathered my stuff. I really had to get out of there before I made a fool of myself. As I made my way to the exit I could see her sitting with some friends at a table near the door.

I tried hard to keep my eyes down on the floor, I couldn't cope with looking into those eyes. I was trying so hard not to look at her that I bumped into a guy walking into the café.

I went flying and landed on my rump with my handbag falling onto the floor.

The next thing I knew a cool hand was offered to me to help me up off of the floor. I took the hand sputtering my apologies to the man's back as he made his way to the counter.

I felt a touch on my shoulder, turning I was face to face with the breathtaking beauty I had seen earlier. I could feel my face burning as she looked at me.

"Here's your bag, are you ok." Her musical voice asked.

"Um yes, yes thank you."

"Good, you want to be a bit more careful you know." she laughed and I could almost feel my heart stop for a second.

"Thank you. I'm so sorry to bother you." I gasped, I must of looked such a fool but I couldn't keep my eyes from her face.

"Well I'm glad you're ok. Bye." she said cheerfully as she turned and rejoined her friends.

Face burning I stumbled out onto the street. Once I had moved away from the café I took a quick look at my watch, twenty to eleven, I had better get moving.

Walking to the solicitors I could see her face floating before my eyes, very distracting. I knew the way to the solicitor easily enough, after all they had been my solicitor for years and years.

I entered the offices and had to wait for about ten minutes to see the senior partner Eric Bain. To my shock as I was shown into his office he came around the desk and took my hand. Eric had dealt with my affairs for years and had never done this before.

"My condolences on your loss my dear lady." he said and kissed the back of my hand. I almost snatched my hand back, my stomach churned as I tried to respond.

"Thank you." I muttered trying to keep the ice from my voice.

"Please take a seat and we can get the formalities out of the way." Eric said moving back behind his desk.

"Before we proceed I will need to confirm your identity." He smiled at me, I think he was trying to be charming but he needn't have bothered he had all the charm of a wet frog as far as I could see.

"I have my driving license here." I said pulling it out of its compartment in my purse. Behind it I found a folded birth certificate, I handed both over the desk.

Eric spent a few moments examining both items and referring to a folder on his desk.

"That seems to be in order. Now as to your inheritance. Unfortunately we have had to deduct taxes from the cash balance as the value of the house and investments took the estate well over the threshold for inheritance tax."

"Um you receive the title to the house, um several investment funds which were valued for tax purposes at just under a million pounds. Um and there is quite a bit of cash as well, um the current balance is around three hundred thousand."

I was startled, I never kept that much cash in the bank. After all I spent a lifetime working with money, I knew where to put it to work for me.

"As much cash as that?" I asked

"Well you have to understand there have been dividend payouts and the monthly income payments for the last few years since your Uncle died and very few withdrawals except for the usual rates and things. The trust managers have been sweeping most of the cash balance back into the trust fund once a year to re-invest it, in the meantime it does grow slowly."

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realise, I never had much contact with my Uncle. When did he pass away."

"Um. Mr Pearce passed away on, let me just check, yes 16th November 1995."

I went cold again, that was the night of my last walk. I know I now had a nice young heart but I was really thinking that all these shocks were putting it through a bit of a workout today.

"Can, can you tell me what happened?" I asked in a quavering voice.

"Mmm, I gather Mr Pearce had been in the habit of taking long walks on the moor at night to help him sleep. Apparently he was found on the moor in the morning. The coroner decided he had suffered a heart attack. It would have been very quick, he probably wouldn't have felt a thing."

That was certainly true, I hadn't felt anything. I had thought I had trudged back home that night and went to bed. There was something that occurred to me.

"Could you tell me why I was only informed on the 14th of April this year when my Uncle died what, nearly eleven years ago!" I didn't have to act to appear confused on this point at least.

Eric looked surprised for a moment then referred to the file on his desk.

"Uh, now let me see, You were in the care of the local authority as an orphan at the time of Mr Pearce's death. Ah, your social worker, ah, a Mrs Pritchard was informed on the 21st of May 1996, it took some time for us to locate you."

"Why you were not informed at the time I can't say, as to why we ourselves have not been in touch until now, it comes down to the terms of your Uncle's will." that was a surprise to me as I didn't even leave a will, there was no one to leave it too.

"Your Uncle gave instructions for the creation of a trust fund to manage the estate until you reached the age of twenty five, which I believe was some three weeks ago. So I have to start the process of wrapping up the trust fund and handing the estate over to you."

We talked for maybe half an hour more as the details of the trust and the estate were discussed. Eric also told me he had some people into the house about a week after my "Uncle" had died to clean out the kitchen and put the house into storage so to speak as they knew I wouldn't be able to make a decision as to its disposition for some years.

He also said that when it had been arranged for me to come up to see him he had the house opened up, services reconnected that sort of thing so that I would be able to move straight or put it on the market depending on how I would like to proceed.

I felt it was very thoughtful, until I got home and had chance to read through the details of his charges for maintenance over the last eleven years. But then, I had a young body and a whole new life ahead of me and most of my finances were still intact, I felt it would have been churlish of me to complain about it.

I left the solicitors with a thick folder containing all the documents I would need to transfer my "Uncle's" funds into my name and a set of house keys.