The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) by T. Belshaw (the best books to read .txt) 📗

During the last week of the month, Toby called, to see how his old friend had settled in. I led him down to the pasture where Bray spotted him instantly. Calling out a loud greeting, she trotted across the field to welcome him to her new home.

‘Blimey, she’s like a new animal,’ said Toby with a huge grin. ‘If I’d have known she could run like that I’d have entered her in the Donkey Derby at the Country Fair.’

The two greeted each other like the old friends they were, but after a few minutes, Bray began to back away, and after giving Toby one last, lingering look, trotted back to Bessie who was watching proceedings from her favourite corner of the paddock.

As she turned the final page of the chapter, Jess found a photograph, placed towards the top of the page, as though used as a book mark. The picture showed an aging, dappled, shire horse and a grey-haired donkey, standing side by side at the paddock gate, both baring their teeth as if grinning for the camera. On the back, in Alice’s beautiful script were the words. The Inseparables. Bessie and Bray. April 1940.

Jess suddenly became very emotional. She had heard the story of Bessie and Bray from Alice’s own lips when she was a child.

She got up from the table, opened the back door and walked between the old barn and the dirty concrete slab, that was all that remained of the milking parlour, and strolled into the meadow that once housed the old shire horse and her best friend. The stone slab was in what Alice had described as, ‘Bessie’s favourite corner of the pasture.’ Jess crouched and pulled up a clump of grass that was growing over the memorial and using the tuft to brush away a layer of accumulated soil, she read out the words that had been lovingly carved into the stone. Bessie and Bray. Together Forever.

Chapter 34

At five forty-five, Jess’s phone rang.

‘Hello, Bradley. How are you?’

‘I was better before I heard from the SRA a few minutes ago, honestly, Jess, I—’

‘Hang on, what’s the SRA when it’s at home?’

‘The Solicitor’s Regulation Authority.’

‘Okay, what did they want?’

‘They want… to investigate my legal practice, especially my dealings with you and the trust.’

‘The trust… Why? What’s wrong with the trust?’

‘Nothing is wrong with the trust, Jess. It’s just that someone… Your grandmother, I assume, has put in a complaint, alleging malpractice.’

‘Malpractice? What are you supposed to have done?’

‘Well, according to your grandmother, I am using my position to take advantage of a client by forming an improper relationship. That client is, of course, you.’ Jess could hear the anger in Bradley’s voice.

‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘Unfortunately, according to the regulations, she does have a point regarding an improper relationship. Fortunately, apart from handing over the annual allowance you are entitled to, we haven’t made any joint decisions regarding the fund. So, she will have great difficulty proving her allegations. The one thing she can prove is that our relationship status broke the rules.’

‘Do you mean I’m not allowed to have any sort of relationship with you outside of the office? That’s hardly fair, and anyway, my friend’s mother married the solicitor who worked on her behalf during her divorce. No one tried to stop them.’

Bradley sighed. ‘It’s a grey area, Jess, but your grandma has obviously done her research.’ He paused, ‘I’ve just read a few paragraphs from the SRA guidelines. My contact emailed me a copy so that I could familiarise myself with them.

‘Basically, they state that while it isn’t illegal for a solicitor to have a relationship with a client, the practice must put systems and controls in place, to assess whether the depth of that relationship might impair the solicitor’s ability to act in the best interests of the client.’

Jess listened intently as Bradley continued.

‘A Family Lawyer should not have sexual relationships with a client. Should such a relationship develop, the solicitor should immediately make it clear to the client that they can no longer act on their behalf.’

Bradley cleared his throat. ‘So, you see, Jess. She has me over a barrel. I will have to stop acting for you, at least until the investigation into my practice is over. Fortunately, I spoke to Sarah, one of our partners and she is happy to take on the role of trustee on a temporary basis, which means we won’t have to offload the trust onto another firm of solicitors.’

‘Oh, Bradley, I’m so sorry. I thought you had called to say you were going to drop round. I was getting my hopes up.’

‘I can’t do that. Sadly, our personal relationship is over. I’m sorry, Jess, but I can’t risk my career over…’

‘Over what? A one-night stand, a fling that meant nothing?’

‘Jess, you have to understand, I’ve worked so hard to get where I am, I can’t just throw it away on… Look, I don’t mean it to sound as bad as it did, but…’

‘But it does mean what it sounded like. I’m not worth the risk to your career.’

‘No… Jess, look, I like you, I really do. I wish to God that your grandmother hadn’t turned up when she did, another half hour and I’d have been back at the office and she’d have been none the wiser.’

‘And there was me thinking you were different to the other men I’ve had the bad luck to form relationships with, but you aren’t, you’re just the same. Your interests will always come first; you’re only ever going to think of yourself. Christ, Bradley, you’re as bad as Calvin.’ Jess felt tears well up in her eyes.

‘I’m nothing like him. Jess, listen. I don’t want to fall out with you over this, let’s wait until the inquiry is over. Let the dust settle. Maybe we could meet for a coffee and I can explain what I really meant to say, face to face.’

Jess’s voice began to crack.

‘I really liked you, Bradley. I thought my luck had changed.’ She wiped