Day 123: 10 March 2026

 Short Story -- Monkshood Manor: Part 29

A couple of days later everyone was assembled in the Drawing Room. Teddy had reached out to each individually and offered an invitation and explained what she hoped this council and sharing of ideas might provide. This council included: Teddy, Mrs Winter, Mr Drey, Lady Genevieve, the Inspector, Charles Millings and even Mr Reed.

Teddy and Mrs Winter had assembled the furniture — a couple of settees and some arm chairs interspersed with end tables — into a circle.

‘Wow! We’re like the Knights of the Round Table!’ Genevieve said gleefully. ‘I like it!’

Of course, Mrs Winter had also laid out on a side table a spread of cheeses, meets, fruit, cakes and sandwiches, along with tea, coffee and cocoa.

After everyone was sitting, Mrs Winter said purposefully, ‘Well, Teddy, my dear, this is your meeting so you should get it started.’

Everyone looked at Teddy.

She blushed a little in embarrassment. ‘Well, um, as most of you know, there’s been a lot happening here at Monkshood recently. I officially inherited it.’ There was a whoop from Mrs Winter and a cheer from Genevieve. ‘But also, someone was watching and broke into the house, who claimed to be being paid by Lord Tottington. And then Lord Tottington disappeared only to apparently, I think, try to get a job here under an alias.’ Teddy looked around. Took a deep breath. And concluded, ‘I know all of you are invested one way or another and I thought it might be worth having an information sharing session. Maybe there’s something we’re missing as individuals that we might see as a group.’ Mrs Winter nodded approvingly.

Silence.

‘Would anyone care to start?’ Teddy asked nervously.

Lady Genevieve cheerfully raised her hand. ‘While in London recently, I took the liberty of inquiring about the character of both Lord Tottington and Arthur Wrightstone. What I learned from the genteel circles was that Arthur was a right tosser. Apparently, rumor has it that’s he’s fathered seven children! With maids, village girls and even two young ladies.’ Nodding toward Teddy, ‘Lucy Pemberton being one of them. He then refused to do anything for them. Sneered at and looked down on the women. A few, rumor has it, weren’t given a choice in their liaisons with him. He just took them in a corner and left.’

‘That’s terrible!’ Teddy exclaimed. ‘But his sister, Eve, suspected as much. And then at least one of them, Maribelle who’d worked in the house, his parents had paid off to keep quiet and leave. She’d had a little girl named Ann.’

The Inspector appeared to be taking notes.

Genevieve continued, ‘Lord Tottington’s name was met with mixed reviews. There were a few who seemed to think him intelligent and capable. But most said that he was jealous, peevish and cruel. But apparently that didn’t surprise many of them because his father was said to be an angry piece of work.’

Mr Millings nodded at that. ‘I remember Lord Maxwell Tottington. You stayed out of his way. Everyone did as much as possible. Even animals.’ Seeing the confusion on Teddy’s face, he added, ‘My dad did some work on the estate for Lady Anita.’

‘I have spent a couple afternoons going through church records of births and deaths. There doesn’t seem anything out of place with Lord Perceval Tottington’s records or anyone else’s in the village of this generation. But I did notice something unusual about Lord Maxwell’s. There were two different colours of ink used on the official record, almost as if some of the details were added later. Specifically the father’s name. But his wasn’t the only one like that when I looked closer.’ He turned to Charles, ‘Your father’s record was the same.’

Mr Millings looked at the floor, sighed, squared his shoulders. ‘That’s because my father, who is one of the kindest most hardworking men I’ve ever known, had the misfortune of having Arthur Wrightstone as a biological father.’ There were a couple of audible gasps. Even Mr Drey’s eyebrows raised a little. ‘He didn’t find out until he was an adult though. My nan met my gramps when my dad was only a year old. They married. Had more children together. For all intents and purposes, my gramps was my dad’s father.’

‘Does that mean Lord Maxwell’s biological father was also Arthur Wrightstone?’ Mrs Winter jumped in.

‘And how many others?’ Lady Genevieve muttered under her breath.

Teddy who was uncertain about inheritance laws looked at Mr Reed. ‘Could Lord Tottington actually be at all entitled to inherit Monkshood if Arthur was his great grandfather?’

Mr Millings jumped in, ‘Arthur Wrightstone never formally acknowledged any of his children.’

‘And there would be a question of who’s the eldest,’ Lady Genevieve added.

‘Legally, Lord Tottington had no standing to inherit Monkshood Manor,’ Mr Reed said. ‘Even if Maxwell Tottington was the eldest, which we don’t know, Arthur never acknowledged his children and the line of inheritance passed down through Eve.’

‘How refreshingly modern thinking,’ Lady Genevieve said.

‘It still might be worth finding out birth order though,’ the Inspector thought aloud. ‘If Maxwell was the eldest of would give motive even if not legally binding.’

Shortly thereafter, the council devolved from information sharing to social club.