Read Online The Ely Testament by Philip Gooden - Free Book Online

man’s relish for the whole business. Maybe it was his teeth, which every time that Tom glanced at him seemed more and more to resemble old gravestones, uneven and stained and chipped.
    He was glad to escape the company of the toothy individual from Willow & Son when the interment was over. He travelled back with David Mackenzie, Mr Ashley and another junior member of the firm, a pleasant chap called William Evers, with whom Tom was friendly. The journey in one of the funeral carriages towards the smoky air and clogged streets of north London took some time. There was a general sense of release and relaxation. The mourners were looking forward to the food and drink waiting for them at the Regent’s Park house that belonged to Alexander Lye and his sister Edith. Tom said nothing of his mission to Ely, since Mr Mackenzie had stressed how confidential it all was. But he did make some comment about how Ernest Lye seemed much less, well, old than his brother.
    â€˜I can enlighten you there,’ said Mr Mackenzie. ‘I have only just discovered that Mr Lye’s father was twice married. Mr Ernest Lye was the child of his second wife, Mr Alexander of his first, as is Miss Edith. Alexander Lye is a child of the eighteenth century, Ernest is a product of the nineteenth like the rest of us. Therefore the Lyes are stepbrothers.’
    â€˜If you’ll allow me, sir,’ said William Evers, ‘I believe that “half-brothers” is the appropriate term for issue who share a parent. Those who do not share a parent are step-siblings.’
    Mr Ashley, who was a stickler for accuracy, nodded in approval. Mackenzie seemed not too put out by the correction. He added, ‘There is more though. Something else I have recently discovered. The lady with Mr Ernest Lye is not his sister but his wife. The Lye brothers have only the one sister, Edith, who we are on our way to visit now. And before you can put me right, Mr Evers, I should of course have said whom we are on our way to visit . . .’
    Tom was sitting next to Evers and he could almost feel the heat of his companion’s blush in the confines of the carriage. Mackenzie, pleased at his little victory, patted his black-clad stomach and ruminated on human behaviour.
    â€˜There was no obligation on my late, lamented partner to be clear about his family circumstances, of course, and I do not believe that the brothers – or half-brothers, Mr Evers – were close but it is strange how one may have only the sketchiest notion of people one has spent half a lifetime with.’
    As he said this, he glanced at Tom who was sitting in the opposite seat. Tom had no doubt he was thinking of the missing will.

The Wake
    T he wake at the Regent’s Park house was a quite jolly affair, even jollier than most wakes. Tom wondered whether it was because there was no one there who truly regretted the passing of Alexander Lye. As David Mackenzie said, the half-brothers had not been close. His sister Edith, who had apparently been distraught to hear of his death, now behaved like a puppet. She was guided to a chair by her half-brother Ernest and a glass of port put in her frail grasp. Tom didn’t hear her speak a word or see her take a sip. As far as she was visible, she looked at least as old as Alexander had been – which tended to confirm they were real brother and sister, with no halves or steps involved – but she remained heavily veiled. She possessed a lot of white hair, which came shooting out from under her hat. Her maid fussed about her, despite being nearly as old as her mistress. Age seemed a qualification for the other servants and, like the house itself, they had a faded, worn-out air.
    As for the general mourners, they were either those with a professional connection from Scott, Lye & Mackenzie and a couple of other law firms – although the days when Lye had been a familiar figure in the legal world were long gone – or they were