Earl - 8. Earl Chapter 8

The flight over to the island was a little over 90 minutes, and the couple. Edward and Marjory, who came to collect them, Tyler learnt are Charles’s caretakers and housekeeper, who live a few kilometres down the road. After half an hour of Mary chatting to Marjory about what is happening on the island, Edward interrupted.

“His honour has made a few property purchases on the island recently, of which his latest is where we will be heading tonight, as he thinks it is best that you stay hidden for a while,” Edward said, as we they continued on the main road, “So that is why we just passed the turnoff to Elm Lane?” Mary asked.

“That would be correct, we are heading to the north end of Cranmore, on Sea View Road,” Marjory added. “The house is on 11 acres of private land, of which most of it is a forest of oak trees, with the house right at the top with view of the water to the north, and there is a small one bedroom cottage close by for you and George, and his Honour suggests that you all stay on this property for now,” Edward said to Mary.

“Sounds great, I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the morning, does George know about this new house?” Tyler said. “He will be speaking to his Honour this evening, when they arrive in Southampton, so he will be informed then,” Edward responded.

Fifteen minutes later, Edward turned left into a short driveway, with a rather modern bungalow house just to the left of the driveway, and as Edward was gathering all of the luggage, Mary and Tyler followed Marjory to the door, unlocking it then handing the keys to Tyler, which confused him for a moment.

“This is a gift from his Honour to you, your very own modern hideaway home, I hope you enjoy it. I have stocked up the pantry, fridge and freezer, and there is a casserole in the oven that just needs heating up, I will leave you to explore your new home,” Marjory said to Tyler, which left him stunned and not sure what to say.

“Close your mouth dear, you will swallow a fly or maybe a spider,” Mary said, which had Tyler snap his mouth shut, as Mary and Marjory laughed, and Tyler blushed in embarrassment. “They are so adorable when they blush like that,” Marjory said as she walked towards the car.

Tyler followed Mary inside, and they entered directly into the kitchen area, with tons of bench space on the left, a sink and bench on the back wall and an island with the cooking appliances and a dishwasher. To the left of that is a small dining area, with spectacular views of the sea, and at the front there is the lounge and formal dining area, with a view of the outside deck and the sea, and on the side is a paved stone patio with outdoor dining.

That was about all we could see of the outside, as it was getting too dark, and now lights from across to the mainland are visible. Exploring the rest of the house, Tyler found a utility room and a main entrance just behind that, with a good-sized entry hall, with a large cupboard on one side and a toilet on the other side, and big bookcase covering the whole end wall.

Leading off the entry hall is a long passageway, with a study in the back corner, a bedroom and reasonable sized bathroom, with views of the forest, further down on the right is a second bedroom with the main bathroom opposite it, and at the end is the largest bedroom, with a large wardrobe and a big ensuite bathroom, with views out to the sea, and the patio.

“Well I guess this is my room, I can’t wait to explore the rest in the morning,” Tyler commented, as Edward brought in his luggage and began to unpack it. “I will be fine to do that thank you,” Tyler said, and Edward smiled and left the room.

After an enjoyable and delicious dinner, Tyler was sent away from the kitchen area, to relax, and so the he sat outside on the patio looking at all the lights across the water, until it began to get too cold, so he came back inside, and found the wood burner was now going, and warming up the house very nicely.

Tyler food a good book to read, which he read for nearly two hours, before he started to get tired and decided to go to bed.

The following morning, Tyler woke up to the smell of baked bread, and he quickly washed and dressed, before stepping out of his room, to see the house properly in the daylight. “Holy mackerel, what a view,” Tyler exclaimed, a little too loudly, and Mary smiled.

“That it is your Lordship, and it even gets better, George and I went for an early morning stroll down to the beach and back, which is quite a hike, but there is a good wide track that provides and easy walk,” Mary responded, as Tyler opened the door from the loungeroom and stepped out onto the balcony, with its glass wall, along the edge to allow a continual view from any height.

“It is quite special down here isn’t it, and not as cold as London either,” Tyler said to no one in particular, as he stared out into the blue waters that separate the island from the mainland of Hampshire, England.

After a cooked breakfast, and after doing as suggested by Mary and rugging up in warmer clothing, Tyler set off down the path to the bottom of the property, and the waterway that seperates the island from Hampshire. He was surprised at how much woodland that the property had, which was a mixture of being thick in places, and thinning out in other places, opening up to small pockets of small cleared areas.

“I think, I am going to enjoy living here very much” Tyler said to himself, as he headed back up the hill, back to the house, and he had only just entered the lounge room when a vehicle came into the driveway, and he recognised the car to be George’s main car.

“Wow, what a view this is, it is incredible, you are one lucky young man to have all of this,” Lucas said after climbing out of the front passenger seat, and giving Tyler a hug. “Yeah, it is quite special eh,” Tyler replied, as he stepped out onto the decking with Lucas following.

“I learnt last night, that Uncle Charles has given me this property as my private hideaway, so this is going to be home for a while. Would you consider extending you stay for a bit longer than a few weeks?” Tyler said to his mate, “You bet I will, but I will have to clear it with my parents first, and I will have to get my visa extended for more than three months,” Lucas replied.

After Lucas had settled into his room, and had a good look around the house, the lads spent the next few hours exploring much of the woodland forest on the property, with the property having almost 300 metres of water frontage, and the boundary is marked with steel posts just above the high water mark, with no fencing along the waterfront, but steel posts and one metre high wire netting, mark the east and west boundaries of the property, and at the start of the path leading up to the house, a sign clearly states that it is private property.

Returning to the house when the lads were starting to get tired and hungry, the wood stove was burning, keeping the house nice and toasty, and Mary had lunch ready for the lads when they arrived, with hearty soup to warm them up, followed by some sandwiches.

“We are going to have to find something for us to do, or we are going to get bored very quickly,” Tyler said to Lucas, who nodded his head in agreement. “Don’t forget that his Honour has already looked at a few properties, that you might be interested in purchasing, I have the details over at the cabin, I will bring hem over in a little while,” Mary said.

“Ok, that will be great thanks. What is George doing?” Tyler replied, “He is cutting up some wood, as we have a small machinery shed, a wood shed and a chicken run, out near our cottage,” Mary replied.

Two weeks later, Uncle Charles arrived at the Sea View property, to brief Tyler about his future, as the Earl of Portland and what it entails. Over the next four days, Charles and Tyler spent many hours in the study going through everything regarding the operations of Welbeck Abbey, Welbeck Estate, Bothal Castle and Bothal Estate, plus the now growing property portfolio.

This began, under the legal name of Hunter Investments, which is an existing company that was set up by Tyler’s parents back in Australia, as Sandy Gully Farm and Pindar Farm are both listed under that name, which Charles was aware of, and he purchased a number of properties on the Isle of Wight, on behalf of Hunter Investments.

Deciding that there was no longer a need for the house in Marston, this was put on the market and sold within a few weeks, and Uncle Charles had found a property in an unexpected location, that he recommend to Tyler to purchase, which resulted in them chartering a plane and flying to the Isle of Man, to inspect the 212 acres of land that includes a five bedroom house, a variety of farm buildings, livestock and machinery, a number of staff cottages and half a mile of coastline.

The current farm manager was happy to give them a detailed tour of the farm and the house, before Tyler decided that it would make an ideal investment, and authorised his Uncle Charles to go ahead with the purchase, and the farm manager agreed to remain employed on the farm, managing the whole property.

Tyler and Charles also inspected a number of properties on the Isle of Wight, and purchased a 135-acre farming property on Rew Lane, Wroxall, that includes the 6-bedroom main farm house, 38 acres of woodland, and a few farm cottages and sheds.

They also purchased various pockets of farmland, with 205 acres North-west of Porchfield, 16 acres South-east of Locksgreen, 278 acres north of Rowridge, and 68 acres South-west of Calbourne, making a total of 750 acres of land in total now owned by Hunter Investments, including the property at Sea View.

Meanwhile Charles had bought a three bedroom modern bungalow house on ½ an acre of land, on Cranbourne avenue, with a front boundary hedge as a home for Mary and George, as Tyler had mentioned that he was not happy with them living in such a small space that the cottage provides, and it is just 1.6 kilometres away from the Sea View house.

After eleven weeks in the UK, Lucas sadly had to return home to Australia, as his Visa was about to expire, and he didn’t want to overstay, in risk of being banned to enter the UK for three years, and he was hoping to come and visit for six weeks during the summer holidays each year.

Once George and Mary were settled into their new home down the road, Tyler settled down to his duties as the Earl of Portland, and it was after Tyler and Uncle Charles had visited Bothal Castle and the estate, that the first photo of Tyler appeared in the newspapers, when photographers snapped his photo while in Newcastle Upon Tyne enjoying some lunch in a small café.

“You are the Earl of Portland are you not? What have you been doing in the UK since you arrived three months ago? Will you be…” The reporters’ questions came to a sudden stop, when the café owner grabbed the reporter and photographer and shoved them out the door.

“My apologies your Lordship, if I had known, I would have made sure no scum like them entered my business, please enjoy the rest of your meal undisturbed,” the owner said to Tyler when he returned, having locked the front door and turned the sign on the door to say they are closed.

As they neared the end of their meals, Charles spoke briefly to the owner, before handing over the keys to his car, and a few minutes later after a nod from the café owner, all three of them went to the kitchen, and out into the courtyard, where, the café owner jumped over the side fence where there is a laneway.

The café owner casually walked around to the front of the building and across the road, before unlocking and climbing into Charles’s car and making sure to screech the tyres, he took off down the main street, making sure to stay on the speed limit, and sure enough, two cars were soon following him.

About ten minutes later, Charles exited the courtyard via the back gate, and walked down the back laneway for a few blocks before coming out onto the main road, and five minutes later Tyler did the same thing, and by the time they met up again, Charles had hailed a cab, to take them to the train station, where they caught a train to Newark On Trent, which is the closest station to Charles’s home, which is a 2 ½ hour train journey.

Charles had arranged for the café owner to hold onto his car for a few days, until he returns to collect it, in the meantime, Tyler would stay overnight at Hougham Manor, before going to the East Midlands Airport, and flying to London, where he would stay at his mother’s former home for a few days, until the media have slowed their search for him, before continuing on, with a chartered flight to the Isle of Wight and home.

On the morning of his overnight stay at the manor, Mrs Philips had placed a copy of two morning papers on the kitchen table, when Tyler came to breakfast, and he was not impressed with the large photo of him on the front page of both papers.

“Meet the new Earl of Portland, 18-year-old Tyler Finch, born near the City of Geraldton, Western Australia, brought up on his parents large 400,000-acre cattle station, 130 kilometres East of Geraldton, and he completed his schooling at the Geraldton Grammar School. Lord Tyler is the Great nephew of his Honour, Charles Finch, a retired High Court Judge, who resides at Hougham Manor, Lincolnshire.

The Earl is a third cousin to the 13^th Earl of Portland, and his birth mother is deceased having been killed when Tyler was young. His adoptive parents are also cousins of the current Earl, and adopted him after the sudden death of his real mother who worked for the crown.

Lord Tyler was spotted yesterday having lunch with his Honour, Charles Finch, at a café in Newcastle Upon Tyne, where the reporters and photographers located him, after been tipped off that he had been visiting Bothal Castle with his great uncle.

It is not known where Lord Tyler resides, although public records list a number of properties in London, that are owned by Lord Tyler or Judge Finch, plus a property on the Isle of Wight that the Judge owns in Calbourne, but there has been no sign of Lord Tyler visiting that property,” the newspaper article read.

“Bloody media, I wish they would just leave me alone,” Tyler complained, and although Charles and Mrs Philips dislike swearing, they let him off this one time.