Chapter 19

Anne tried to contemplate it. The thought of her Aunt Bertha taking everything Anne technically owned with no guilt. Was she really capable? Anne tried to swallow the shock and take action, but all she could think about was the wrong doings of her own family member. She knew her beloved George would never lie to her, especially of a thing like this. She felt the need to find her Aunt and have a domestic in public but she knew her Aunt would do anything to protect her honour, so she felt it best not to risk it.

'This is extraordinary. How dare she take my inheritance like that!' Anne yelled to George, loud enough for the world to hear it.

'I honestly believed you already owned the house, or I would have spoken up sooner. She is a treacherous woman isn't she?' George replied sternly.

'My quarrel is not with you, I believe you. This is just the sort of thing my Aunt Bertha would do without regret. I am unsure of how to go about this situation. Confrontation never ends well with her, but I have a right to what I own.' Anne explained.

'The thing is, she must have changed the will herself. That is the only possible way that she could have gotten her hands on the house and everything your father owned.' George told her.

Anne sighed and felt her legs turn to jelly. She rested her arm on the wall next to her to keep herself standing. George noticed the pain behind her eyes and wished he could take it away. He wanted only the best for his wife to be.

'I have to go and find her to settle this once and for all. I cannot stay silent on the matter, nobody would be able to.' Anne said, before impulsively storming out back into the charity event.

She asked around to see if anybody had seen her Aunt Bertha. Everybody said no until a polite old lady pointed her into the direction of an out of order room. She told her she was spotted sneaking in there with the young dashing Sheldon. Anne had no idea what she would find but she walked over to the room anyway. As she was about to enter the room, she stopped when she heard Sheldon and her Aunt Bertha talking fairly loudly. She put her ear to the door and began to listen.

'I made it perfectly clear to you, did I not? Your job was to ruin them both! Not just Wilma, she was the easy one. You must do the same to Anne! But now I hear she is marrying your graceful father instead!' Bertha yelled. Anne almost felt the door vibrate.

'You know how hard I tried with Anne, she could not be tricked into giving me her maiden head as her sister could! She was too smart and she was ruining my reputation! I cannot do anything since my horrid wife came back on the scene. I must lie low.' Sheldon explained with a hurt screech to his voice.

'Lie low?! No, you must stop this wedding! Tell your father she is a whore for all I care! Put him off her. This wedding cannot go ahead! I am not having my wretched niece marry into the Winchester family!' Berhta cried. Anne had never heard her quite so stressed.

'How do you think I feel about this arrangement? She would become my step mother! She would be able to order me around when she is younger than me! There is nothing right about this situation. But I am done. If I do anything to disrupt my fathers happiness, he will remove me from the position of his heir. I would be left with nothing.' Sheldon explained. His voice began to crack unattractively.

'Man up Sheldon! You are the heir to a great fortune, the greatest in Oxford! You must fight for it! Anne is devious, wicked and smart, she will not rest until she takes the two of us down! We need to stop her first!' A panicky Bertha yelled.

Anne couldn't hear anymore. She had heard too much. She pushed the door wide open and stood where the door was tightly shut a moment ago.

'So? That is why you pursued me, Sheldon? Because you were ordered around by a wicked old woman! You may try to destroy me but you never will. Wait until your father hears of the ways you have betrayed him, plotting against his fiancée. You are finished.' Anne said with a sophisticated and righteous tone.

'No, wait! Anne please! I will do anything! I have to be the heir to my father's fortune or I will be ruined! Surely you are not so cruel?' Sheldon pleaded.

Anne laughed a little, shook her head and folded her arms. She had never witnessed a man look so desperate and pathetic before.

'You whine like a little girl, poor Sheldon. If you are to lose your fortune, then that is your destiny. Your destiny was already sealed when you decided to lie your way through life and plot with my evil Aunt. You will have to pay for what you have done to my sister and I. Oh and by the way. You should know by now that yes, I am that cruel.' Anne told him. She smiled elegantly and walked out of the room.

The whole time that she was in there, Bertha didn't mutter a single word. She hung her head in shame and could not look Anne in the eye. Anne knew she was on the verge of winning now that she knew everything. Once the event was over and Anne had done her bit for the charity event, she collared her sister right away in Wilma's bedroom.

'Sister, I must speak with you before Aunt Bertha does.' Anne said, her breath drawn out and miserable.

'Anne? What on Earth's the matter? You look pale and quite agitated.' Wilma asked her with a concerned tone.

'Our Aunt is what's the matter. She has been lying to you and eye for months and she was the one that talked Sheldon into ruining us both!' Anne cried.

Wilma rose to her feet and began pacing the room, with the odd glimpse out of the window.

'How do you know this? Surely he would not marry me just to please her? And to what end?' Wilma said.

'I overheard them discussing their next plot. He never had the intention of marrying you, he wanted to take your maidenhead and leave you at the altar. He is so cruel! And so is our own Aunt! And that is not the only thing.' Anne explained furiously.

'There is more?!' Wilma cried.

'Yes, when she told me about the will? I was devastated. I believed father never trusted me at all but I found out through a witness to the will that father did in fact leave everything to me. Aunt Bertha changed his will illegally without anyone knowing and gave herself everything!' Anne told her sister.

Wilma began to look as pale as Anne did.

'We must confront her or find a way to defeat her! She cannot just take what is rightfully yours. Thank goodness you found out! I was in utter shock when I was told we were to have nothing of the Spenbourne name at all. We must do something, but what?' Wilma asked, she had a look of someone dreading an impending death.

'I do not know as of now, but I will think of something and when I do, we will bring her down. Especially now I have George Winchester in my corner.' Anne said confidently.

They then heard the main doors downstairs burst open and someone running in. Anne gave Wilma a confused look and trotted down the stairs, holding her dress up to avoid falling.

'Anne? Anne!' George yelled, he looked hysterical.

'George? What is it?' Anne asked with a panicked voice as she rushed over to her betrothed. Wilma stood at the top of the stairs listening to the commotion.

'It's Sheldon. There has been a terrible accident!' George said with angry tears in his eyes.

Anne waited in suspense to hear what fate had decided to do with Sheldon.