The Luck of the Vails by EF Benson (1901)

What a lovely thing. This book is your classic Christmas confection, or two-part BBC number on consecutive Sunday nights. I had it cast within the first few chapters and it played out brilliantly. Harry Vail starts out as a serious young man, in his early twenties, and newly master of Vail, his sizeable country house somewhere between Marlborough and Bath by the way Benson describes it. His only other near blood relative is his aged Uncle Francis, who is living there in some reclusion, as much earlier in the century he was involved in an accidental shooting, from any culpability in which he was absolved, but socially suspicion has lingered. Harry also has his very good friend Geoffrey, his own age and a schoolchum of long standing, who knocks around with him. As Harry is deciding what he'll do with Vail, he comes up to London on occasion and sees an old family friend, Lady Oxted. Soon from overseas she also welcomes Evie, the young and just out daughter of a good friend, to stay. The problem is that Evie's mother is the sister of the young man who was shot in Uncle Francis' accident all those years ago, and her mother is one of those who believes insistently in Uncle Francis' guilt. Needless to say, at Lady Oxted's Harry and Evie meet and fall in love. But the idea of anyone in Evie's family being even friendly to a Vail is horrifying. However, the worldly Lady Oxted manages very carefully and strategically to calm the waters, and, with reservations by Evie's mother, their marriage date is set. Meanwhile, in organising and tidying at Vail, Harry discovers, tucked away in an attic in a disused part of the house, an extraordinary kind of large jewelled cup. His Uncle Francis perks up enormously and takes him to a portrait of a forebear, explaining that he has found The Luck, as it has been known, which had been assumed lost. There is a legend that goes with it, which gives the warning that the owner shall go through three ordeals, by fire, rain and frost. They clean up the piece, and are amazed by its beauty - it is made of glowing gold, and elegantly encrusted with jewels of extraordinary value. Their attention is grasped by it and it begins to sit on the table every time they dine. To cut a long story short, Harry goes through three accidents at Vail very soon after, associated with those three same elements, but he and Geoffrey scoff at the idea of the legend and regard it firmly as a coincidence, or at least Geoffrey does. After this, Harry and Evie's marriage is announced, and she and Lady Oxted come down to Vail for a visit. While out on a walk with Uncle Francis, Evie thinks she sees Harry canoodling with a local lass, and Uncle Francis, instead of pooh-poohing the idea, asks her to be forgiving toward Harry. It turns out that it isn't Harry, but a groom who looks a lot like him, and it is our first proper uneasiness about Uncle Francis, who seems, despite all his wide-eyed bonhomie, to be angling for the marriage not to take place. Soon all are swept up into a melee of suspicion and disbelief, involving the visits of a suspicious doctor and the possible truth of the old accusations against Uncle Francis, who would inherit the estate and, very importantly, The Luck, if Harry were out of the way. Other 'accidents' take place, each more worrying than the last, in each of which Uncle Francis is obliquely involved, or, as Geoffrey soon believes, not so obliquely. Finally, after much manoeuvring, the scene is set with the sun setting and a heavy mist drifting over the estate all round the house; our fingers are crossed that the now co-opted and believed doctor is who he says he is, and will do what he says he'll do, to prevent Uncle Francis, whom he claims is mad and trying to kill Harry and secrete away The Luck. Will he be successful in his complicated plan, with the help of Geoffrey and the groom? Well, I can say the payoff is good. This is a classically managed tale of great entertainment value, and Benson, when he's on form, is the equal of many a writer with a better reputation.