Eileen Hare-scott

The Letter Eileen Hare-scott

When widow Kathleen Merchant receives an urgent letter from Roland Perry, her late husband's solicitor she is devastated to hear that her husband had altered his will, leaving her a small bequest, but her 13 year old daughter Annabel a generous trust fund for her private school to university or finishing school. Kathleen knows that Matthew adored his stepdaughter and lavished money on her, unknowingly creating a girl to whom wealth was the main aim in her life. Kathleen knows she can never explain to her daughter the real reason for the vast difference in their lives, giving her a reason which she refuses to believe. Preferring to remain at the elite school where she has been associating with girls from aristocratic families, she cuts ties with her mother. When Lady Dorothy Chelmsford enrolls there the daughter of Lord Richard and Lady Jane Chelmsford, Annabel cultivates a friendship with her knowing that she has a brother who will get the title when his father dies. The Chelmsford family believe Annabel was orphaned when young, having a guardian for several years. It is when Kathleen reads the engagement announcement in the newspaper which states 'Annabel, daughter of the Late Kathleen and Keith Lowther...' she realizes that this is how Annabel prefers to consider her. However following her marriage to Edward she finds that not everything is what she expects. Although she is now a member of the aristocracy, it is later that she comes to know what her recurring dreams are about when she confides in Dorothy who tells Edward she intends telling their parents what she knows. But Dorothy never reaches Chelmsford Hall that night being involved in an accident during the evening, which the police believe may have been caused by the brakes being tampered with