Page 104 of The Clockmaker's Cottage
Horace looked around them all. ‘It wasn’t like that,’ he muttered. ‘None of you understand?—’
Arthur cut him off again, his voice firm. ‘Then explain it, Horace. Because for seventy years you’ve let everyone believe Andrew stole something he didn’t, and you’ve let his family suffer because of it.’
‘I didn’t have anything to do with anything.’
‘You stole that commission.’
‘I did not,’ Horace said angrily.
The silence that followed was total.
But Arthur didn’t stop. Pippa could tell he had decades of frustration to get off his chest. ‘You decided to set up offices in London and take Andrew with you because then Walter wouldn’t discover that it was Andrew who was the genius. Andrew didn’t say anything at first because he was glad of a decent job that paid well, and he liked the fact that his name would go down in history.’
‘For all the wrong reasons,’ murmured Theo.
‘He didn’t have the confidence to go out as a designer on his own so he kept working for you, and you kept promising that one day you’d give him credit. He just got fed up with waiting.’
Pippa could feel her pulse in her ears.
Theo’s hand found hers without looking.
Pete stared at them all.
‘The Vale Brothers’ brand would not have even existed without Andrew, and Walter didn’t even know,’ added Arthur.
Horace pressed both hands to his knees, his shoulders sinking a fraction.
‘I had nothing to do with Andrew getting arrested, and I have no clue where the commission is.’ Horace’s eyes glistened with tears. ‘I trusted Agatha and I believe she let me down. She double-crossed me.’
‘How?’ asked Theo.
‘I confided in her. Our relationship went back to childhood. We were friends long before she ever showed an interest in my brother, and even after they married, I still believed I could trust her. But I was wrong. When it came down to it, greed and money can make people do things you’d never expect.’
‘Do you mean you told her it was Andrew that had designed this commission?’
Horace nodded. ‘I told her he was claiming that the idea of the design was his, and she was furious that he was blackmailing me and trying to take the credit. She knew our business reputation was on the line, and I knew he had taken things from the office. Mementos.’
‘Didn’t we all,’ added Arthur.
‘I mentioned that to her,’ Horace continued. ‘Then the rain came, and the forecasts said it would last for weeks. With the water levels rising, the causeway was going to close, and the island would be cut off. There was one last bus off the island, and Andrew– and you, Arthur– were on it. By the time Andrew got home, his house had already been searched.’
He shook his head, looking tired. ‘It had to be Agatha who alerted the police, saying the commission was missing. Walter thought I’d taken it, but I’d handed it over to Agatha. That’s why we fell out. He believed Agatha over me.’ He paused, his voice tightening. ‘And as for this letter… I don’t know anything about it.’
‘But it’s here in ink… You were in cahoots with Agatha,’ Theo pressed.
‘I was not.’
Theo leaned forward. ‘And the commission has never resurfaced? Not even on the black market? No sightings at all?’
‘Nothing,’ replied Horace.
Pippa was thinking. ‘If this commission is still out there then someone must know something.’
‘He’s in this room,’ claimed Arthur, staring Horace down. ‘You need to come clean. I have journalists knocking on my door at all hours of the day. They won’t give up. They’ve been wanting to know for decades what the feud was about, and now someone has leaked what the commission is, people will put the pieces together. If you come clean that you set Andrew up?—’
‘I didn’t!’
‘Then we can all move on.’
