“What are you looking for? Do you think he'll come back?” Royal stopped and met my eyes, shifting uncomfortably. “What? What's going on that you don't want to tell me?”
“It's not that I don't want to tell you,” Royal admitted, “it's that I'm not sure if I'm right, and if I am no one is supposed to know, including me.”
“Can we get out of here? On our own, I mean.”
Royal leveled a heavy glare on the closed trapdoor. “Unlikely.”
“Then you might as well tell me why we're here. I can keep my mouth shut.”
“Fair enough. I'll tell you over wine and cake.” He glanced up at the beamed ceiling a good ten feet above our heads, then to the increasing rain outside. “At least the roof doesn't leak.” Royal cracked one of the smaller windows and a gust of damp, clean air swirled through the watchtower.
I cleared the small table, wiping off the thin layer of dust covering it. Royal set out a plastic container holding two generous slices of cake along with a corked bottle of white wine, two plastic, stemless wine glasses, two forks, and two linen napkins. Before he sat, he lit the oil lamps, and a golden glow spread through the watchtower.
“I like a man who comes prepared.” I sat, taking a sip of the crisp, sweet wine.
Royal winked. “Oh, I'm prepared for all sorts of things.” I liked the sound of that. He glanced at the trap door again. “Except for that.”
“About that…” I prompted.
“Yeah, about that. You've heard about my father's will, right?”
“Hope told me a little. That he put all of your inheritances in trusts with Griffen as trustee, and you have to live at Heartstone for five years before you can get the money.”
“That's part of it. We can't sleep away from the house more than a few nights a year. Prentice created a separate trust for the house. That's where the bulk of his assets went. Houses like Heartstone are a bitch to keep running. Impossible without a truckload of cash. If we don't follow his rules, the balance of our trusts is put into the trust for Heartstone, and we're barred from all family property, including our places of employment if we work for the company. Which all of us do.”
“That's…” I tried to think of a word for it. On one hand, forcing his children to live in the family mansion wasn't the cruelest thing Prentice could have done, especially if the reward was a big chunk of cash. On the other, threatening to take both their home and their livelihoods for not doing as they were told… “That's weird. Could you contest it?”
Royal let out a laugh tinged with bitterness. “That was the 'stinger', as Prentice called it. If we contest the will, everything goes to Bryce.”
I stared back at him in shock. “Everything? Did your father like Bryce?”
Another laugh, this one more than tinged with bitterness. “Hell, no. He thought Bryce was as much of an asshole as the rest of us. Prentice knew we wouldn't follow his bullshit rules for his sake, but we'd do almost anything to keep Bryce from getting the Sawyer estate. Bryce would burn through every cent before we could stop him.”
“But as long as you don't contest it, everything is safe from Bryce, right?” I was more convinced than ever that Prentice Sawyer had been a major bastard, but I still didn't get why his will would drive Bryce to lock us in the watchtower.
“Based on what the family lawyer told us, yes. But after he was done reading the will to the rest of us, he sent us away and kept Griffen and Hope for a second, private meeting. No one but the three of them knows what was said, but when they were done, Griffen and Hope were married, and they haven't been apart since.”
Royal didn't elaborate on what that might mean. He leaned in and took a hefty bite of cake, leaving me to work out the puzzle on my own.
Clearly, there had been further stipulations on Hope and Griffen. Hope had been closed-mouthed about the whole thing with me, at least about what had driven her to marry Griffen so quickly. I hadn't pressed because she'd been so happy, and Griffen clearly doted on her.
Almost as an afterthought, Royal added, “When Griffen got run off the road, West thought it might have been me. Hope spilled that I wasn't in the line of succession anymore. If anything happens to Griffen before he has an heir, Bryce inherits. Though Harvey—our lawyer—swears he hasn't told him anything about that part of the will.”
“Good thing Hope is pregnant then,” I said, the implications spinning in my brain. Suddenly a puzzle piece clicked into place. “You think there's a stipulation about Griffen and Hope being together. Like with the rest of you and living at the house.”