The Weir Legacy (Working title)

42:Frying Pans and Fires

Herbie's SatNav still had the Norwich address stored in its memory banks. The destination was the same. It was only my passenger who was different. It only took a minute to tell Herbie where to go this time. Although Jenny was dead to the world, I still took my time making the trip to Norfolk's most populous city. Jo and Aaron were already home by the time we arrived. Jenny headed straight into the spare room near the front hallway. If I'd been worried for her before we arrived, it wouldn't improve until the morning. She'd barely said a word on the journey and spent most of the trip laid across the back passenger seats. I watched her curl up foetal-tight and silently closed the door. Indoors both Jo and Aaron walked like zombies

"We're bushed, Adam." Aaron was taking charge. It was his house anyway. "That was a hell of a day. You couldn't have been expecting that? How are you coping?"

Apart from being stunned, confused and in need of a coffee, I was doing fine. I stumbled into the kitchen. Meanwhile, Jo wandered back into the room from putting Harry down. She had spare blankets and sheets in her arms. One of the blankets and a spare sheet was for me.

"I'm sleeping in the spare room with Mum tonight. Iʼm not doing so good, either."

She'd enough energy to get Harry into bed, but not much more. It didn't take long before she and Jenny were fast asleep. I told Aaron to get some sleep too. He was happy to stay up with me and chew the news and make more coffee, but one of us had to take charge in the morning. I was damn sure it wasn't going to be me. With all the beds taken, Aaron had found me some pillows.

"Your choice, "he said. "Sofa or floor. I'll leave it up to you."

With that, he left.

Three hours later it was his wife, Jo, who woke me up. I felt her touch, heard her worried words, and the sleep in her voice.

"Go to her, she won't stop crying. I don't know what to do, but I do know that I need Aaron."

Jo covered the backs of my hand with her own and squeezed firmly. Hard enough to show her concern, soft enough to show her confidence. I was surprised to see Jo awake, she must be worried that she had to wake me. I hadn't slept at all, I doubted that she had either. I might have dropped off between sips of coffee but when Jo found me, her white face was devoid of the tears and anger I'd expected to see. Yet she showed no redness either.

What to do about Jenny had me worried. I tried to remember my own experience but I had been a child when my father died. I was never present when my father's Will had been read either, and I never really understood what my mother had lost. I was too young to know so I hung onto my Mum and learned from her. I didn't really know what it meant to grieve until I lost Gillian and Ameina. That broke me.

Jenny's experience was different. Not knowing what had happened to her parents for over two decades must have been one hell of a burden to carry. Then, after she'd been rushed halfway across the south of England, she was told the hows and whens, and the news shocked her. I had held her then, I wanted to hold her now. Her mother had died on their cruise ship when it ran aground in New Zealand. Her father was cared for by natives but the craving for technology was never as great as it was in the developed world. Cranston lived on for almost twenty years before he finally died. He and Primrose are buried in the hills of South Island above Roslyn Island. The news broke Jenny. Try as I might I couldn't fix her there and then. All I could do was get her away from there. I didn't have to be stone dead to sense the crushing blow the news inflicted on her and Jo.

What could have been a social get-together the previous afternoon, had been anything like it. Aunt Alice and the solicitors had decided to split the reading of the Will into two events. Immediate family first, then family, and what they billed as interested parties. These others were all mentioned in the Will. We hadn't been told who they were or when the third event would be held, but it would be within the next four weeks. At the second event, we would be better able to cope. led by the four of us: which meant Jenny, Aaron, Jo and myself sitting down with Sanja and Allysonne and giving them the bad news. Thomas was no longer part of the family and he would be invited to the third event but I was sure that he would be told by Sanja before that. We would all have to be at that second reading. We would all have to endure the heartache again, but at least we would be ready. This time there had been no such luck. I'd realised before I turned up that I would have to be the rock for the others to hang on to. What I hadn't realised before the reading started was exactly how strong I would have to be simply to keep the others standing. The news was tough for me to hear, and to understand, or the effect it would have on us all. All those tears held back for so long. Her children never meeting their grandparents, never the family get-togethers of the generations. The turmoil never relented. Before we departed Raventhorpe there was one last seismic blow to be imparted. Something Cranston had added before he first left for the USA. Jenny had to be married when the second reading was given, otherwise, Thomas Ings would be entitled to half of the value of everything Jenny inherited. In addition, he would be given four estates of his choice. However, with Cranston, there was always a condition. Thomas had to prove that at the time of the second reading that he was an honest man. Nothing in the past would matter if he could prove his honesty.