Mystery and Suspense at the Cavendish Mansion

By Waldon Volpiceli

Elizabeth is a 16 years old orphan, that receives unusual new: she is the only inheritor of a mansion, situated in the Amazonian Rain Forest, belonging to an English nobleman. Together with her friend Fisto, that hides a secret she will take over the fortune, she will get involved in a series of strange events, and she will discover that she is part of a great conspiracy about human greed, supernatural and mystery. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Jun 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781507181324

Book preview

Mystery and Suspense at the Cavendish Mansion

By Waldon Volpiceli

This is a fictional work. Any similarities regarding names, dates or events are merely a coincidence.

I

––––––––

- Ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon, says a male voice.

It was morning, in Calcoene region, a small town from Amapa. They were all gathered at the Cavendish Mansion, quite far from the city, a large old house, 19th century style, that resembled the architecture of great old ranches. A great door that leads to a large living room, and, in the middle, large stairs that lead to a great hall on the second floor, that, on the left and on the right, leads to the rooms. On the right side, as you enter the door was the kitchen. On the outside, a dark colour paint, was giving the house an old look. In front of the great door there were large stairs leading outside. On top of the stairs, a roof, that covered half of the stairs, with a large central window, the second-floor window, where more rooms were situated.  Somewhat more in front of the mansion, an unpaved road. A few trees in front, but many on both sides, suggesting that there was the forest. To get to the main stairs a footpath, made of basalt stones.

- Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention please?

Who says this phrase, and the other one too, is the lawyer Adolfo Perez, that represented the mansion’s landlord. The Landlord is Henry Cavendish, an English gentleman, that recently passed-away, at 86 years old. He arrived in Brazil, in the 60’s and became rich farming cows and buffaloes, but as he got old, his business started to get worse and the only valuable thing left was his mansion, his farm’s main branch and the large plot surrounding it too. 

-His will reading is going to happen at this moment.

Dr Adolfo Perez is opening the file. His situated in front of a large round table, together with the mansion’s butler Alvaro Lopes and a few other people, house maids, gardeners, cow-herders that worked occasionally on the farm, without any other ties to the farm. Henry was single, he did have a daughter, Elizabeth Cavendish Stanton, that died of an illness when she was a child, and this event made him deeply sad. Single, old, he didn’t have anyone. A foreigner, he was kept apart of possible relatives that lived in England, which he didn’t have any contact with. It was Henry himself that redacted his will, organized by his butler.

- I will start the reading, says the lawyer Adolfo Perez.

- I, Henry Cavendish, fully conscious and mentally capable, I leave all my assets to ...

During this half time, the butler, Alvaro Lopes, smiles thinking he is the fortune’s beneficiary. 

- to.... Elizabeth Cavendish Stanton.

The butler finds it weird and starts protesting:

-It’s wrong. Elizabeth Cavendish was his daughter, but she died ages ago. Outrageous. This will is wrong.

The lawyer Adolfo Perez declares:

-I am sorry but it is true. This is the name.

The butler replies:

- But this is his daughter’s name. She died, so she cannot inherit anything. This will is not valid.

The lawyer continues the reading and declares:

- Wait. There is a number here, a CPF number. This number corresponds to the CPF number of my assets inheritor. And she should get everything I left.

- But who is this person? Asks, the butler.

- I don’t know, I must discover yet, because she is the late Henry Cavendish’s inheritor. And that is what I am going to do, I will find out who she really is.

II

- Elizabeth, wake up. It’s already 6 in the morning.

- Just a little more.

- No, no you can’t. We should start working.

The one waking Elizabeth up, was a friend, at Frei Galvao Orphanage, São Paolo capital ran by the Carmelite nuns. It was a big orphanage, the size of a city block. Each intern had a bed, but the room was big and shared. Many queued up beds, like school desks. Each girl had, besides the bed, her own clothes, simple ones, usually dresses. There were no individual wardrobes, but they could keep their clothes in suitcases beside each bed.  They were in shared beds. On the side of the large room there was a shared dining area, where the girls ate their breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There were large tables, lined up too, with chairs for every one of them. At the end there was the laundry, with industrial washing machines, where some of the interns worked. It was a large room, where there were ironing tables for the interns to iron