THE WEALTH OF BATH IN TEN RED BOOKS

…Marcus guided him into his study. He went to the large bookcase lining the longest wall and unlocked its glass door. At his direction, Ian unfolded the library steps and climbed up them.

‘My Bath Bibles, I haven’t taken them down for a few years. All ten with the red bindings on the top shelf,’ Marcus instructed.

Ian handed down the large leather-bound books, each one bearing a Roman numeral on its spine. Rose arranged them on the large desk, opened the first and handed it to Ian.

THE LUNDY ESTATE

VOL. 1: FIFTY-ONE CITY CENTRE FREEHOLD

AND LONG LEASEHOLD PARCELS OF LAND

‘How on earth…?’

‘The Lundy trustees. They wanted me to buy the whole estate when the second Earl died in the forties. I spent months and a lot of money exploring the angles, but it was all to no avail. The first Earl’s bar on any disposal for fifty years was unbreakable. Now that’s ended, I don’t see why you shouldn’t have the benefit of all my hard work, expense and experience twenty years ago.’

Ian was staggered by the detail in his perusal of the tome. Until now he had only the management department’s rent cards to work from. But here there was tenure, coloured plans, dimensions and even the allowable use shown, as well as a value for every holding.

‘Keep them in the library, and as always, you can come and go as you please, but please don’t disclose their existence to anyone and never remove them without my permission.’

‘I won’t, and thank you very much.’

Marcus looked at the calendar on his desk. ‘Remember this day Ian, I give you five, no four years, I bet by the twenty-first of February 1966, you will have your own business. The sooner we get started the better, and there’s one site that demands our immediate attention.’

Ian noticed the ‘we’ and ‘our’.

An extract from chapter fifty of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles