That night, Ess discovered that Miss Van Hastings or her
brother had been practicing forging her signature. The worst part was that the
forgeries were rather good. Whoever had covered ten sheets of paper with her
name, growing closer to Ess's scrawling penmanship with each try, had a future
as a counterfeiter.
Ess didn't have nearly enough copying paper and spray to
copy all the sheets to prove someone was learning to forge her signature, but
further searching negated the need for proof. She found a master copy of a
letter, purportedly from her, to go to Endicott, Lewis and MacDonald. Supposedly
she was so utterly wounded by the loss of her grandparents that she wanted Miss
Van Hastings to become her guardian. All communication would go through her. The
lawyers were to transfer all authority over her grandparents' estate to Miss
Van Hastings. By the end of the month, she would arrange to empty out the
house, dismiss the staff, and sell the house and grounds.
The vision of Walter Van Hastings coming into her
grandparents' home and emptying it of the rooms and rooms of books and
archeological treasures and all the clever gadgets her grandmother had
invented, the shelves and shelves of archives her grandfather kept for his
scholarly friends…
it sickened her. Infuriated her. Frightened her.
She
couldn't think for several moments. The meeting of the Resurrectionists would
be at the same time as the Van Hastings planned to loot the Fremont home.
Likely Resurrectionist sympathizers would be recruited to conduct the operation
-- and their cause would profit. Ess needed to notify Endicott, Lewis and
MacDonald now of the deception being
perpetrated on them. She needed to go home before the meeting and hopeful raid
and looting, and arrange to hide her family treasures.
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