Charnswell Park

The Act of Legal Theft

Lord Charleston and Lady Nora were in the library because Lord Charleston had called his daughter Lady Nora to him as he wanted to be the one to inform her about the death of his cousin, Mr Bradford Brandon and his son, Mr Lawson Brandon upon the RMS Titanic, "Does this mean that I will have to go into full mourning?" Lady Nora asked.

"Nora, my first cousin and his son are the most certainly dead which means we will all be in mourning," Lord Charleston informed.

Lady Nora looked down at her hands and His Lordship watched as his eldest daughter twisted the ring that was placed upon her middle finger around her finger, "No, papa I mean the other thing," Lady Nora slowly raised her eyes to make eye contact with her father, "considering that it wasn't official," Lady Nora said.

"If you mean that you do not wish to mourn Lawson as a fiancé than that is up to you," Lord Charleston said.

"Well, no one outside of the family knew about it," Lady Nora said.

"That my darling is up to you," Lord Charleston said.

"Well, that is a relief," Lady Nora said.

Lord Charleston looked away from his eldest daughter and His Lordship looked hurt by what his daughter had said about her reluctancy to go into mourning. Lord Charleston walked away from his daughter over towards his mahogany desk as Lady Nora exited the library and through into the Great Hall.

Lord Charleston sat down at his desk and stared out the window over the estate but his eyes drifted from the window and down to his black and white Old English Sheepdog, Ares which lay under the desk beside him.

footman Jeffrey Birch and his lordships valet Leopold Graves stood in the middle of Lord Charleston's dressing, the two men stood before the large wooden wardrobe, "There is some other closets in the attic for the things which His Lordship doesn't often wear such as travelling clothes," Jeffrey closed the wardrobe doors and he turned to face Mr Graves, "Mr Roberts used the wardrobe and the other closet to rotate the summer and winter clothes but I will show you that later," Jeffrey said.

Mr Graves walked over to the small wooden table which had His Lordships cufflinks displayed upon it, "What about the studs and links?" Mr Graves rose his eyes towards Jeffrey who stood beside him, "Do I choose them or does His Lordship?" Mr Graves asked.

Jeffrey pointed down to the different sets of cufflinks which sat upon the top of the counter, "You lay them out unless His Lordship asks for something in particular," Jeffrey pointed to one of the several sets of cufflinks which were spread cross the table, "these are for balls, these are for an ordinary dinner and these are only for when His Lordship is in London," Jeffrey explained.

"I will get the hang of it," Mr Graves said.

"Yes, Mr Graves, you will have to get," Mr Graves walked over and he opened the glass lid of the wooden display cabinet which was used by Lord Charleston to store his collectables which was an arrangement of small glass bottles, "those are Snuff Bottles which His Lordship collects," Jeffrey said.

Mr Graves looked down to the ten different bottles which each had its own design was deployed in the cabinet, "These are magnificent," Mr Graves smiled and looked to Jeffrey, "it is funny our job isn't it?" Mr Graves asked.

"What do you mean?" Jeffrey asked.

"How in our line of work that all these treasures are within our reach but none of it is ours," Mr Graves said as he looked up to Jeffrey from his play case.

"None of this is not ours," Jeffrey said and he walked away from the cabinet to exited Lord Charleston's dressing room where he left Mr Graves by himself to get used to the room and to lean where everything was placed. Jeffrey wondered down the gallery corridor away from His Lordship's dressing room towards the servants corridor but he stopped when Miss Callahan emerged from the service stairwell door, "I can't believe that I was passed over for him," Jeffrey said.