Excerpt: Strawberry Fields Forever

Chapter 1: A Fateful Letter

The mirror in the front hallway reflected his movements as Johnathan retrieved the mail from the catch-box behind the slot on the front door and sorted through the letters. It was the usual assortment, save for one letter which caught his attention because it was much thicker than the rest--and addressed to his wife Catherine, but with her maiden name, Harker; an odd thing, since they had been married nearly six months now this April. The return address was a law firm in Northampton; Harker & Moore. He wondered whether it was merely coincidence.

"Is the mail here yet?" Catherine asked from the kitchen as he came back down the hall.

"There's a letter for you. Looks important," he responded, and sat down at the small kitchen table. She dried her hands and came over to pull up a chair beside him, her wavy brown hair falling over her shoulder in the way he so adored as she tipped her head to the side, then brushed it back.

He handed her the letter as he looked through the rest. "Bill, bill... this one's for both of us, looks like an invitation of some sort..." he proceeded to open it as Catherine was still picking at the back of her letter, determined to work the seal loose rather than tear it open.

"Do you know what it is?" he inquired.

"No... I don't know what it could be. It's from the family lawyer, though," she answered, and he watched her work her fingernail up under the seam and finally tear the envelope open, slow and straight, the letter he'd opened forgotten on the table, unread.

She teased the teased the thick, folded papers out slowly, deliberately, and unfolded them before smoothing them out on the table and scanning the first page.

"What is it?" he asked, leaning forwards across the table and reaching for the papers, but she took them up in her hands and would not let him touch them.

"It's... I've inheirited some property, it seems."

"What? You didn't tell me anyone in your family had died recently."

She shook her head and continued reading avidly. "I didn't know anyone had," she replied as she ran a slender finger over the lines on the page. "He was... my great-uncle, it seems. My father's uncle, Aloysius. I believe I only met him once, long ago when I was a little girl. My father never talked about him much... I recall him being called a rather eccentric person, with strange ideas and habits." She fell silent, and moved to the second page, placing the first on the table. Johnathan took it up to read for himself.