Lord Edwin - 7. Lord Chapter 7

“Federal Police and Army, here to see you, my Lord,” Hunter said to me formally, which right away told me that it was official and to be careful. “Thank you, Hunter,” I said as five men entered the main living area of the homestead, and I stood up to meet them. “I am Lord Edwin Crawford, how can I assist you, gentlemen,” I said politely, “Well, Mr Crawford, we would like to…” one of the men began before Hunter interrupted.

“You may address sir, as My Lord or Sir, he is Scottish Aristocracy and should be addressed as such,” Hunter growled at the men, and one of them took a step forward towards Hunter. “Steady on now Gentlemen. My bodyguard is correct, I am Scottish Aristocracy, even if I do have an Australian accent, as I was born and educated in Tasmania, Australia. Shall we take a seat and discuss what you came here to do,” I said to try and defuse the tension.

I was informed that divers have already had a look at the yacht, and found two large holes in the centre hull of the yacht, which is where the engine room is located. I was told that several fragments of the yacht have been recovered and they will be flown to Brisbane for testing and analysis, to try and find the cause of the explosion.

We were all interviewed individually, which took a few hours and once done, we were told not to leave the State of Queensland. Once we were free to leave from the interviews, I arranged for a charter aircraft to come and collect us from Keswick and take us directly to Townsville, where we would stay at the same house as before.

It was only when we arrived there, that I remembered that I needed to call Mum, and also Cousin Robert, to let them know what has happened to the yacht. Robert was not at all happy with the situation, especially with all of the sabotaging that has happened during the construction of the project.

Meanwhile, James was contacting all of the crew members, to let them know that the yacht was no longer operational, and he started to get a list of all of their possessions that they may have lost with the sinking of the yacht. Next, he contacted a salvage company in Brisbane, to arrange for the raising of the yacht, so that any remains of the yacht, can be retrieved and disposed of properly, so as not to damage the Reef.

While the crew were spending another week on holiday and listing all of their possessions so they can be replaced, I was arranging for them to get a very generous redundancy package, since they now have no jobs to go to, which would include any accommodation and transport back to their home country, state, town or city.

Mum informed me that she would be remaining at home in Strahan, and with this news of the yacht, she had Brad come and check on her twice daily from now on. Me, I was not sure what to do now, although Robert has been insisting that I fly back to Scotland right away, to make sure that I remain safe and that this would include Hunter and James as well.

“You do know sir, that the police cannot insist or force you to remain in Queensland, you do have a diplomatic passport, so you can be free to go as soon as you please,” Hunter said to me smiling, and I chuckled at this reminder, “Thanks for that reminder, but there is one problem, you and James have also been asked to remain in Queensland,” I responded.

“Well sir, technically because I am your bodyguard, I go wherever you go, but that is not the case for Captain James,” Hunter replied. “I have an idea, let me try and work on it, and see if I can come up with a plan,” I said to Hunter and James, in the meantime we relaxed and tried to not think about what had happened overnight. Later that day, I sat down with my laptop computer and did a bit of research.

By the end of the day, I had worked out a plan, where I was able to book a grand suite and a mini-suite on deck 7 of a cruise ship departing in just two days, with a round trip from Brisbane to Fiji, with stops at Noumea, Auckland in New Zealand and Norfolk Island, before returning to Brisbane, but we would not be returning. Instead, after five days of enjoying the cruise, we would be departing the cruise ship at Auckland and flying out, heading for Singapore, Frankfurt and Edinburgh, with one additional traveller, that been James’s brother – Anton.

I know it was a bit sneaky, but I thought that we would not be stopped if we were on a round trip from Brisbane, and if we were stopped, they wouldn’t be able to hold me because of my diplomatic status. I let James and Hunter know of my plans, with Anton included in the travelling to the UK, and the following day, we went shopping for additional clothes, shoes and other items, to replace what we had lost in the yacht sinking.

Once we had washed and packed all of our new stuff, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, since we had a long journey ahead of us, with our flight from Auckland, starting with a 10.5-hour flight to Singapore, 13.5-hour flight to Frankfurt, and a 2-hour flight to Edinburgh, but I had made sure that we are travelling Business class all the way, so we travel comfortably. The following day, while in a Limo travelling to the ship terminal, to begin our short cruise, my mobile rang with a blocked number.

“Hello, Mr… I mean Lord Crawford. This is Sergeant Paula Williamson, from the AFP – Australian Federal Police. I just wanted to let you know that you are cleared to travel out of Queensland, as we have some suspects for the destruction of your yacht in custody.

All I ask is that you keep in contact with us, and remain in Australia,” a female voice said when I answered the call, and I chuckled a little at what she had said. “That is good to hear, not that it would matter, as I am a holder of a Diplomatic Passport, so you would not have been able to stop me from leaving anyway,” I replied. “Oh, I was not aware of that, so you are planning on going somewhere soon?” the federal officer asked me.

“Yes, but I am not giving you any details of when or where, due to security and my safety. You can contact me via email on my business card, which I gave to the Federal Officer on the Island. Goodbye,” I responded before ending the call. “Looks like that we don’t need to sneak out of the country after all, but I am still looking forward to this short cruise,” I commented to James and Hunter.

“Anton is very much looking forward to this trip to Scotland, and he said he wishes to thank you for the opportunity to travel with us,” James said to me, “You did make it clear, that he was still working for me, but under Hunter’s supervision?” I asked James, “Yes, he is so glad to be able to continue to work for you, as am I,” James replied. “But there is one slight difference, you no longer work for me. As my boyfriend, you have the luxury of having to never work ever again, if that is your wish,” I said to James.

“Really? Well, I am not sure about that, I want to be able to do something to keep me occupied, apart from keeping the bed warm for his Lordship,” James said smiling, which made Hunter laugh and I just smiled. “I might be able to come up with something to keep you busy,” I commented, deciding not to give any more details on a growing idea.

I had informed Robert, that we were heading back to Scotland, arriving in about a week, and that we are travelling with my boyfriend James, and his younger brother Anton. He emailed me back, informing me that he had alerted my staff at Fordell Castle, Aled and Edna. Letting them know that I was returning from Australia, and to prepare for me, Hunter and two guests, and that Aled would collect us from the airport in Edinburgh.

Since deciding to return to Scotland, I had begun to think about what to do while there, and I decided to do some more work on restoring some old castles that had fallen into disrepair, and I had already identified two locations and I have already contacted Heritage Scotland, to look into beginning to restore these two castles.

I also had planned on what James and Anton can do while in Europe, with it to be based in Zurich, Switzerland, which I hoped would keep them both busy and happy, and I had already put into action those plans, which is the purchase of a 65-foot Neel Trimaran sailing yacht, and having already sold my apartment in Horgen, I was now looking for a new home close to the water, in Western Europe.

After a very little searching, I found the perfect new home in Switzerland, in the suburb of Cologny in Geneva, with it being only a 200-metre walk down to Lake Geneva and the Geneva Yacht Club. The home itself was a little large for my needs, but it was the location that I liked about the property, so I went ahead with purchasing the home.

The Tuscan-style home has a total of 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and sits on just over half an acre of land, with high walls and steel fences around the boundary, providing excellent security, the property also has a heated outdoor swimming pool, a covered entertaining patio, double garage, beautifully kept gardens, a two-bedroom staff quarters, and awesome uninterrupted views of across the lake.

The bonus was that the house came fully furnished, so it was ready to move into as soon as the sale is finalised, which I was extra pleased about, and I was looking forward to seeing it as soon as possible, and I made additional plans, to alter our travel plans if need-be from Frankfurt.

Although the cruise was very short, it was very relaxing, and we had no problems with any media or anyone recognising me, as we were just ordinary people having an ordinary holiday, with everyone keeping it very informal, so as not to reveal who I am.

On arrival in Auckland, we were booked into suites at a hotel that I had arranged, as we have a four-day stay before Anton joins us and we head off to the airport to start our long journey to Scotland, via Singapore and Germany. The only thing that I was not looking forward to, was dealing with the media when we arrive in Edinburgh, I just hoped that they are caught snoozing and don’t find out that I am back in Scotland.

The first leg of the trip would be with Air New Zealand on a Dreamliner 787-9, with a seven-hour layover, and the second leg will be with Lufthansa on a 747 H Jumbo, with a four-hour layover. I was not too keen on long layovers but there was not much I could do about it, and to lessen the boredom of the layover, I had booked a two-bedroom suite in a hotel close to the airport in Singapore, so we could rest in comfort.

While at the Singapore Hotel, I made some enquiries to Robert to see if he had heard any media chatter about me returning to Europe unfortunately, he had heard some whispers from a media contact, so I decided to stay out of the UK for now and settle into my new home in Geneva.

I was hoping that the sale of the house would be finalised by the time we arrive there the following day, if not we would stay in a hotel until it is ready. When we did arrive in Frankfurt, I made two changes to our travels, and I decided to take the less obvious journey to Geneva, via train travel, which would take us five hours.