![]() ![]() Hal's "aunt" Maud, Ezra's twin, left home twenty years ago never to return. The dysfunctional Westaway "uncles" consisted of Harding, who interrogated Hal military style, Abel, the friendly sort and Ezra, who was often uncommunicative. Threats of bodily harm included broken bones and teeth if the loan was not repaid, with interest, within the week. In addition, she was being stalked by loan shark, Mr. She was certain she received the solicitor's letter in error. These skills would come in handy because Hal was about to perpetrate a fraud. She could read the secrets people hid in plain sight, on their faces or by the clothes they wore. ![]() "Madame Margarida"-specialist in Tarot, Psychic Readings and Palmistry. ![]() By necessity, Hal had taken over her mother's kiosk, a little booth on Brighton's West Pier. "The person she was now was not the girl she would have been". Upon the death of her mother three years ago, the once confident twenty-one year old was now pale and skinny, always hungry. The gloomy, eerie manse was crumbling and aggressive magpies were frequent inhabitants of the homestead. After the funeral service, the Westaways traveled to Trepassen, the family estate in the English countryside of Cornwall. Having received a mysterious letter from solicitor Robert Treswick, Hal as the "assumed granddaughter" of the deceased needed to pay her respects as well as claim her bequest. On a cold stormy day, inadequately dressed for the weather, Harriet "Hal" Westaway stood at the gravesite of Hester Westaway at St. ![]()
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