Teena Thyme Read Online Free

for you. Any doubts were quickly dispelled.
    'We've searched all the relevant records,' he continued, 'and though there are a few gaps here and there, the law only requires that we search what exists to be searched and that we also advertise in the proper quarters for any other possible claimants, which we did last year.
    'None,' he said, with suitable gravity, 'have been forthcoming. There was a Nigel Spigwell from Cumberland, but if he ever did have any connection with our Spigwells, then it would have to date from well before Amelia's birth, so it wouldn't count.'
    'I thought you said eldest surviving female relative?' I demanded. I don't miss much, as you'll see. Mr Swann nodded. He nodded as efficiently and neatly as he peered.
    'Yes,' he said. 'Nigel Spigwell has a daughter, Hayley.'
    'Ah.'
    'But don't worry,' Mr Swann assured me, smiling again. 'As I say, any claim in that direction couldn't possibly hold up, so you, miss, er, Teena - with two "e's" - are the rightful heir, or heiress, perhaps I should say, to the entire estate of Amelia Jane Spigwell.'
    'Wow!' I said and let out a long breath. I hesitated. 'And?'
    'And you'd like to know how much,' he said, reading my mind. Not that it took much reading, I suppose. After all, anyone would have been wondering the same thing, wouldn't they? He did some more peering, some more nodding and then peered again.
    'There's a cottage,' he said.
    'Lavant?' I guessed. He shook his head, which made a change from all the nodding.
    'Rowlands Castle,' he said. This time I nodded.
    'Nice,' I said. 'Pretty area.' Pretty expensive, too, or at least it was in those days.
    'The cottage is called Rose Lea ,' he continued. 'That's Lea spelt with an "a", nothing to do with Gypsy Rose Lee. It has three bedrooms, two reception rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. Oh yes, and a quarter of an acre of garden.'
    'Full of roses?'
    'Quite possibly.' He peered over his half moons and smiled at me and I could tell that he liked me. Actually, it might just have been my short skirt and the several acres of black tight clad thigh I was displaying when I first entered his room. My legs have that effect on men - unless they're gay, of course.
    'There are also shares in several companies,' he went on, 'plus you now own the freehold on four other cottages, though there are sitting tenants in all of those. Ah, and you also own a one third share of The Ploughman's Respite . It's a public house, I believe, on the road between Rowlands Castle and Havant.'
    Double wow! A pub! I love pubs. I mean, not that I was an alcoholic or anything, but I was prepared to practise and learn. Mr Swann did yet more peering and finally laid his sheet of paper down.
    'All in all,' he summarised, 'the current valuation of your inheritance, including the money on deposit in various bank accounts and allowing for death duties, etcetera, etcetera...' he paused, '...the current valuation, which isn't strictly current as it takes no count of interest accrued on deposits since it was calculated three weeks ago, is a grand total of four hundred and eighty-nine thousand pounds and seventy-three pence.'
    My previous self-control, kept together mostly by my slightly obtuse sense of humour and my ability to treat most things as if they aren't really happening to me anyway, collapsed. And I collapsed with it.
    'Wh-what?' I managed to gasp, eventually. 'How much?' He repeated the figure and I held my hand to my head, as if it might fall off at any moment. My head, that is, not my hand.
    A moment here, for explanation and expansion. Nearly half a million quid - pounds to you overseas readers - a lot of money. A real lot of money. Not many eighteen-year-olds get that sort of thing thrown into their lap. But wait - there's more.
    This was nineteen seventy-five we're talking about. Nearly half a million pounds in the mid-seventies would equate to something like three million in today's money, give or take the odd hundred thousand here and there! I felt