Lady Ursula, indeed! I was straight up to see her that very afternoon. And they went to see her and started weeping and crying, and said they wouldn’t do it no more.’ He clicked his tongue. ‘Just found somewhere else to do it, that’s all.’ He sniffed, and looked around. ‘No wonder they ended up in America.’
Marcus wasn’t listening. He was staring at the fireplace in front of him. If it was, as he suspected, an Adam piece, then it would add, what, maybe fifty thousand to the value of the house. If not, then he could already discount the value by that amount. His hands trembling slightly, he scribbled in his notebook ‘attractive fireplace.’ He looked at the words for a moment, then briskly added a full stop and looked up. Albert nodded approvingly.
‘That’s a fine fireplace,’ he said disconcertingly. ‘Must be worth something on its own, that.’
‘It’s an attractive piece,’ said Marcus in an off-putting voice.
‘I was watching the Antiques Road Show once,’ added Albert. ‘Fireplace just like that one got a hundred thousand pounds!’ His voice rolled lovingly round the words and he looked impressively at Marcus. ‘Think that one’s worth the same?’
‘I doubt it,’ said Marcus crushingly. He tried to think of some impressive jargon which would shut this man up. ‘The medallions at the corners are all wrong, for a start.’ He mustn’t mention Adam. ‘And the scagliola work looks completely inauthentic to me,’ he added for good measure.
‘Is that so?’ said Albert. ‘Fancy.’ He looked beadily at Marcus, who felt a sudden urge to hit him.
‘Anyway, let’s move on,’ he said briskly, moving towards the door.
‘After you, sir,’ said Albert, moving aside with an air of deference. Marcus eyed him suspiciously. In his state of unease, he was almost prepared to believe that this Albert character was a plant; that he would report straight back to the authorities; that the way was being paved for a sudden arrest; a fraud charge; dismissal and disgrace. Perhaps he had been sent as a spy from the district surveyor. Oh Christ. Marcus gazed at Albert and felt a cold shiver run down his spine, even though Leo had assured him that there was nothing to worry about on that front.
‘The district surveyor’s an old school chum,’ he’d told Marcus smoothly. ‘He’ll rubber-stamp anything I put in front of him.’ And Marcus had felt a stupidly naïve shock, followed by a feeling of astonishment that this sort of thing really did happen. ‘What else?’ he’d wanted to ask Leo. ‘What else goes on in this town that I don’t know about?’ Now he rather felt as though he didn’t want to know any of it. Albert was striding confidently down the corridor ahead of him. Marcus suddenly imagined him turning round and looking at Marcus with an appraising, knowing gleam in his eye. Oh shit. How much of this scam was obvious? How much had he given away already?
‘Something wrong, sir?’ Albert turned around, and Marcus jumped. He hastily adjusted his facial expression, and took a deep breath. He had to carry this off. He had to appear convincing.
‘So,’ he said, following Albert down the corridor, his voice bouncing off the acres of polished wooden floor. ‘Lady Ursula lived here for many years, I believe.’
‘Lived here all her life, more or less,’ replied Albert knowledgeably. ‘Grew up here, moved away, inherited the house and moved back. Eighty years or so, she lived here.’
‘And she never thought of selling?’ Marcus kept his voice light and casual, but listened carefully for Albert’s reply. It would be awkward if she had had a recent valuation made—although one could always blame everything on the market.
‘Never,’ said Albert, in shocked tones. ‘Saw it as a family house, she did. Would have liked one of those daughters to come back and live in it, too. But they weren’t interested.’ He paused. ‘I suppose they’ll do very nicely out of the sale, though.’ His eyes, gleaming with speculation, swivelled to meet Marcus’s.
‘Well, it’s hard to say,’ said Marcus discouragingly. ‘The property market’s taken a tumble, you know. Particularly among large estates. They’re actually worth much less than you might imagine. Much less,’ he repeated with emphasis. The last thing he needed was for Albert and his cronies to start bandying stupid prices about the village.
‘Oh,’ said Albert, with an air of slight disappointment. ‘But still, they’ll do nicely.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Marcus, reassuringly. ‘They’ll do nicely.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I don’t want to keep