Dangerous Inheritance Read Free

countries in the world in gems and semi-precious stones, and the Count had acquired an estate that he had named after an old family property in the Crimea, Olenevka, in the jewel-mining area. Being a ruthless man who had inherited the views of his less humane forbears that serfs existed only to produce wealth for their masters, he had driven the Ceylonese natives he employed into making his mines pay an unusuallyhigh dividend. But after a few years he had ceased to write and de Richleau had no idea what had happened to him.
    From the solicitor’s letter it emerged that he had died in 1937 and, having no close relatives, was presumed to have left Olenevka to his estate manager, a Mr. Ukwatte d’Azavedo, who, like many middle-class Ceylonese, claimed Portuguese descent. The will had been witnessed by one Pedro Fernando, the Count’s butler-valet, another native who had inherited a Portuguese name from some remote progenitor, and his wife Vinala, who had been the Count’s cook. In consequence d’Azavedo had entered unopposed on his rich inheritance.
    But a few months previously Pedro, on being told by his doctor that he had only a few weeks to live, and being a Roman Catholic, had confessed to his local priest that he had known the will to be a forgery, and witnessed it only because d’Azavedo had bribed him and his wife to do so with a sufficient sum of money to keep them in comfort during their old age.
    The priest had persuaded him that it was his duty to leave a signed statement to that effect, which he had done; and on his death the priest had sent it to Count Ivan’s solicitors. The senior member of the firm had then recalled that the Count had some years previous to his death made a genuine will leaving everything to his cousin the Duke, in recognition of de Richleau having saved his life during the Revolution.
    Now, the writer of the letter suggested that his firm should start proceedings on the Duke’s behalf to claim his inheritance, and that he should come out to Ceylon to see the valuable property which would be his after the legal formalities had been observed.
    It was a long time since de Richleau had travelled outside Europe and over thirty years since he had visited Ceylon. He remembered the island as an exceptionally beautiful place, so the idea of going there again appealed to him. Still toying with the idea, he dropped off to sleep.
    Meanwhile Trusscott and Fleur had settled themselves in a belvedere at the far end of the garden, where its walks, bordered with flowering shrubs and orange and lemon trees in blossom, ended in a steep slope of rocky outcrop. Below them lay theIonian Straits, an almost unbelievable blue. For many centuries they had been the scene of naval battles between Christians and Turks, for Corfu had been the last great bastion held in turn by the Knights and Venetians against the Infidel hordes in their attempts to conquer southern Europe; but now the placid waters were broken here and there only by the spreading ripples in the wake of half a dozen fishing vessels. Across the Straits, some ten miles away but in the clear air looking far nearer, lay the rugged coast of Albania. Beyond it rose the lofty snow-covered peaks of the Epiros mountains, their chain falling away to lesser heights towards the south where the tip of Corfu curved in almost to meet the coast of Greece.
    The town of Corfu was about five miles to the north, but could not be seen from the villa owing to the high wooded peninsula of Kanoni that lay between them. Yet the view from the belvedere in that direction was breath-taking in its beauty. Far below, from the blue waters of the bay there rose two small islands on which stood ancient monasteries and tall cypresses; and the peninsula itself had the appearance of another, larger island, for, on its landward side to the south of the town, the sea formed a wide, mile-long lagoon.
    As Trusscott had arrived only just before lunch it was the first