The Inheritance Read Online Free

from her
father and sister.  The story even made the local news, but when her father
asked if she knew this guy she said no, even though she felt as if a cavernous
hole had opened up inside her.  She couldn’t bear to talk about Steven to her
father.  She’d found it impossible while he was alive and the thought of
talking about Steven now when he was most likely dead just filled her with
dread.  What good would it do anyway?  It was eight years since he’d vanished. 
He wasn’t coming back.
    Sitting underneath the tree, Kate felt
tears prick her eyes.  She blinked them back furiously.  Emma would never know
about Steven, what Kate had felt for him, no one would.  She would never
understand that Kate had once had hopes and dreams, which were never realised. 
Now all she had to dream for was that one day the farm would be hers and she’d
be able to make it into an even more profitable business.  She wiped her eyes
with the back of her hand and stood up.  Lunch was over.  It was time to get
back to work.

Two
     
    Emma was perched on a hay bale in
the barn.  Green rolling hills that she’d known all her life banked up in the
distance.  She watched her sister, barely able to disguise her irritation. 
Kate was sitting on another hay bale a few feet away, attempting to untangle
her hair with her fingers.  It was a permanent mess.  Emma had the same slender
figure, blue eyes and blonde curly hair as her sister, but her hair was always
styled neatly.  Why don’t you just cut it all off and start again? Emma wanted
to say.  Kate looked up at her with a disapproving expression on her face. 
    ‘I don’t see why you can’t just
stay here and wait until you’ve decided what you want to do with your life,’
she said. 
    ‘But you would say that, wouldn’t
you?  You’ve always wanted to stay exactly where you are now, stuck on this
farm,’ Emma said.  ‘And anyway it’s all decided now.  I’m leaving.’
     ‘Yes and the reason you want to
leave is because you’re so restless.  Take your clothes for instance.  You’re
updating your look every five seconds.’
    ‘Well at least I have good taste in
clothes,’ Emma said.  ‘Look at you, Kate.  How long have you had those ripped
jeans?  No, don’t tell me, you got them when you were fifteen and you’ve worn them
ever since.’
    ‘I wear them to work on the farm. 
I couldn’t exactly wear a little black dress to muck out the cowshed, could I?’
    ‘But those jeans… you never wear
anything else.’
    ‘Maybe that’s because I bother to
work for a living instead of sponging off Dad like you.’
    ‘Go on; take the moral high ground
like you always do.  But you’re talking crap.  You know I have a job at the
pub.’
    ‘Yes and you work there… how often
is it?  Oh yeah, once in a blue moon.’
    ‘Well I’m off to London soon so
that’s irrelevant.  But at least I’ve been to university.’ Emma couldn’t help
feeling smug as she watched Kate’s face turn red.
    ‘You know why I haven’t,’ she said
quietly and sprang up from the hay bale, dusting herself down  ‘And as much as
I’d like to stick around and argue the toss about why you should damn well leave
Dad alone and not blackmail him like this, I have work to do.’  She strode off
out of the barn.
    Emma rolled her eyes and flopped
back onto the hay bales, staring up at the ancient roof of the barn.  She and
Kate had never got on well and their relationship was rapidly deteriorating. 
It was one of the many reasons why Emma wanted to leave.  But to leave the farm
and be fully independent, she needed her share of the inheritance.  Kate
thought she was lazy and couldn’t understand why she refused to get a job.  It
was easier said than done in Cornwall though.  To live the life she’d always
wanted she needed funds, a generous sum of money.  It wasn’t simply that she
was lazy: Cornwall was limited in terms of professions and Emma just couldn’t
see