Free A Going Concern by Catherine Aird

settlements were most commonly used in Victorian times …’
    â€˜When the Queen would not have been amused …’
    â€˜When there was a greater opprobium attached to … er … irregular liaisons.’
    â€˜Are you trying to tell me,’ demanded Amelia forthrightly, ‘that my great-aunt had a toy-boy?’
    â€˜I’m trying to tell you about precatory trusts and settlements,’ said James Puckle mildly.
    â€˜Oh, all right. Go on.’
    â€˜The mechanism behind the device is really quite simple …’
    â€˜Simple! Oh, sorry …’
    â€˜The testator would leave an appropriate sum of money to his best friend or someone else whom he could trust …’
    â€˜Best friends don’t always have a good track record for trustworthiness.’
    â€˜True. Nevertheless the testator would select a friend or member of his family …’
    â€˜Not always one and the same either.’
    â€˜In whom he felt he could repose his trust and make them legatees – often residuary legatees as this was more flexible and then …’ James Puckle paused.
    â€˜And then …?’ prompted Amelia, leaning forward in her chair now.
    â€˜And then arrange for them to be handed a sealed envelope with the Will in which the testator would explain that the money that they had been left was not actually for them at all but for the secret upkeep of the mistress.’
    Amelia sat back and said: ‘I really don’t see what this has got to do with me.’
    â€˜Quite a lot, Miss Kennerley. You must appreciate that Mrs Garamond has made you her sole executrix and her residuary legatee on the understanding – the unwritten and discreet understanding as far as the Will is concerned, mind you – that you first find this woman …’
    â€˜And then?’ said Amelia tautly.
    â€˜Mrs Garamond’s instructions require that, once found, a judgement must be made before the bulk of her estate is handed over to her.’
    â€˜But …’
    â€˜A very subjective judgement about her worthiness to inherit.’
    Amelia took a deep breath. ‘So I’m to be both judge and jury, am I? Always supposing that we can find her in the first place …’
    â€˜The precatory trust gives you total discretion.’ James Puckle rustled his papers. ‘However, should your actions be challenged at any time – although I can’t imagine by whom – then, of course, we would be very happy to act for you.’
    Amelia wrinkled her brow in puzzlement. ‘And if I don’t – if I can’t – find her, or even if she’s dead – then what?’
    â€˜The residue of your great-aunt’s estate remains yours.’
    Amelia said wryly: ‘Keeping it in the family, I suppose?’
    â€˜Just so, Miss Kennerley,’ said the solicitor. ‘The connection is there. Your late mother and the testator’s daughter, Perpetua, were first cousins after all.’
    Amelia nodded her concurrence with this statement. Puckle, Puckle, and Nunnery had really done their homework on her background.
    James Puckle was still going on. ‘The precatory words, I must remind you, are merely a private wish, hope, desire …’
    â€˜And entreaty,’ she finished for him.
    â€˜Expressed in writing in private.’ He coughed. ‘I must remind you that no Trust within the legal meaning of the term is actually established although under more recent legislation it is possible that she might have a separate claim in her own right …’
    Amelia was scarcely listening now. Her mind had wandered back to the odd disturbance at the Grange: it might be even more important now.
    â€˜And that the provisions of neither the various Trust Acts nor those of the precatory words are legally enforceable.’ He looked at her and asked, ‘Do I make myself quite clear?’
    â€˜Like Charles II saying,