on the slopes of one of Gwynedd’s smaller peaks. The property lies at the boundary of your estate. Your father felt that its remote location among his holdings would represent no great sacrifice to the overall Westbrooke estate and had in principle agreed to the sale
.
I can assure you that my plans would in no way encroach on your future privacy as Viscount Lord Snowdon. My access would be gained by a right of way eastward through public lands from the road between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Dolgellau
.
I would purchase whatever amount of land you would graciously consent to part with up to a thousand or more acres. However, if a transaction of such size is impossible, I could carry out the plans for my small cottage with as little as twenty. Your father and I had not yet settled on the number of acres of my purchase or a price per acre, though I am prepared to be as generous in an offer to you as I would have been to him
.
As you and I will be colleagues and will enjoy a long future together, it strikes me as best under the circumstances if I conduct these arrangements with yourself in confidentiality without involving your mother, whom I understand is at present trustee over your father’s estate. I am hoping you and I might come to some arrangement relatively soon, even perhaps before you officially inherit your father’s title. If we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement, being a wealthy man, I can assure you that I would make it worth your while. I would be in a position to forward you a sizeable advance payment as an earnest pledge toward the final purchase price
.
If you feel you would be interested in pursuing this matter in your father’s stead, I will put an offer together for your consideration, which, as I say, would include a cash advance to yourself
.
I am, Mr. Westbrooke,
Faithfully yours,
Lord Coleraine Litchfield
Courtenay set the letter aside with a sigh filled with emotions it would have been difficult to identify. His first impulse was to set pen to paper immediately. His hand quivered to do so. But he realized it would be foolish. He was no businessman, but he was certainly knowledgeable enough in the ways of the world to know that one could not appear
too
eager.
He tried to pretend he was spending the following days thinking through the pros and cons of the thing before arriving at a well-reasoned decision. In truth, he was simply waiting for enough time to pass to make the fellow Litchfield, whoever he was, squirm just enough anticipating a reply.
His mother and sister noted the difference in his countenance instantly, the subtle smirk, as if he knew something he was not telling. Katherine suspected him of having something up his sleeve, which he did. But she was the last one to whom he would divulge what he was thinking.
After six days, Courtenay judged that enough time had gone by. He sat down at the writing table in his room and began to write the letter he had been composing in his mind since the moment his eyes had fallen on Litchfield’s words, “cash advance to yourself.”
Lord Coleraine Litchfield
, he wrote.
My Lord
,
I am in receipt of your letter and have been giving the matter a great deal of thought. Though as you note, I will not be in control of the estate’s affairs for another year and a half, I would be amenable to the idea of setting in motion before that time the preliminaries for a transaction such as you have outlined
.
I will entertain any reasonable offer you would make. The size of the acreage I would be willing to sell would entirely depend on the price per acre offered. The total sum would weigh most heavily in the balance as there have been inevitable strains placed upon my finances as a result of my father’s death and my eventual assumption of his title and estate
.
I will of course need to know the exact location in question. With that information and some idea of the specifics of the offer you are prepared to make, we will be in a position to
.
I can assure you that my plans would in no way encroach on your future privacy as Viscount Lord Snowdon. My access would be gained by a right of way eastward through public lands from the road between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Dolgellau
.
I would purchase whatever amount of land you would graciously consent to part with up to a thousand or more acres. However, if a transaction of such size is impossible, I could carry out the plans for my small cottage with as little as twenty. Your father and I had not yet settled on the number of acres of my purchase or a price per acre, though I am prepared to be as generous in an offer to you as I would have been to him
.
As you and I will be colleagues and will enjoy a long future together, it strikes me as best under the circumstances if I conduct these arrangements with yourself in confidentiality without involving your mother, whom I understand is at present trustee over your father’s estate. I am hoping you and I might come to some arrangement relatively soon, even perhaps before you officially inherit your father’s title. If we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement, being a wealthy man, I can assure you that I would make it worth your while. I would be in a position to forward you a sizeable advance payment as an earnest pledge toward the final purchase price
.
If you feel you would be interested in pursuing this matter in your father’s stead, I will put an offer together for your consideration, which, as I say, would include a cash advance to yourself
.
I am, Mr. Westbrooke,
Faithfully yours,
Lord Coleraine Litchfield
Courtenay set the letter aside with a sigh filled with emotions it would have been difficult to identify. His first impulse was to set pen to paper immediately. His hand quivered to do so. But he realized it would be foolish. He was no businessman, but he was certainly knowledgeable enough in the ways of the world to know that one could not appear
too
eager.
He tried to pretend he was spending the following days thinking through the pros and cons of the thing before arriving at a well-reasoned decision. In truth, he was simply waiting for enough time to pass to make the fellow Litchfield, whoever he was, squirm just enough anticipating a reply.
His mother and sister noted the difference in his countenance instantly, the subtle smirk, as if he knew something he was not telling. Katherine suspected him of having something up his sleeve, which he did. But she was the last one to whom he would divulge what he was thinking.
After six days, Courtenay judged that enough time had gone by. He sat down at the writing table in his room and began to write the letter he had been composing in his mind since the moment his eyes had fallen on Litchfield’s words, “cash advance to yourself.”
Lord Coleraine Litchfield
, he wrote.
My Lord
,
I am in receipt of your letter and have been giving the matter a great deal of thought. Though as you note, I will not be in control of the estate’s affairs for another year and a half, I would be amenable to the idea of setting in motion before that time the preliminaries for a transaction such as you have outlined
.
I will entertain any reasonable offer you would make. The size of the acreage I would be willing to sell would entirely depend on the price per acre offered. The total sum would weigh most heavily in the balance as there have been inevitable strains placed upon my finances as a result of my father’s death and my eventual assumption of his title and estate
.
I will of course need to know the exact location in question. With that information and some idea of the specifics of the offer you are prepared to make, we will be in a position to
Similar Books
