She worries that she will never pass any of the strict verification processes and that she may be charged with fraud. Pretending to be a member of the Westaway family to receive whatever small inheritance was promised to her, she now finds herself in the middle of a tense standoff between the brothers.
Harding is outraged, Ezra is bemused, and Hal is so overcome that she faints. At the reading of the will, Hal discovers that Hester has left the immense but slightly ramshackle house to her. Harding is bullish and focused only on the money. Hester’s three sons are named Harding, Abel, and Ezra. She attends Hester’s funeral and then meets the family. On the train, she researches the Westaway family and discovers they are far wealthier than she expected.
Hal spends all the money she has on a train ticket to Penzance, Cornwall. After struggling with the morality of the issue for some time, Hal’s desperation takes over. Hal knows that she could use the cold reading skills she has honed through her tarot work to trick the family into giving her the inheritance, figuring that even a small sum could hugely relieve her precarious debt and rapidly mounting bills. Hal does not know anyone called Hester Westaway and assumes that the lawyer confused her for someone with a similar name. The letter informs Hal that she has received an inheritance following the death of Hester Westaway. Feeling desperate, Hal reads a letter from a lawyer in Cornwall. The man threatens her with violence unless the money is repaid.
Hal struggles so much that she is in debt to a loan shark who sends a man to her tarot booth, warning her that she has a week to pay back the extortionate interest on her loan. The small tarot card reading business she inherited from her mother is not enough to keep up with her monthly bills. Following her mother’s unexpected death, she lives alone. Harriet “Hal” Westaway lives in a small apartment in the British city of Brighton.
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