Charles Hargreaves was renowned for having the very best of everything, his entitlements procured through tireless hours of toil and dedication to his work. At fifty-four, he was the most successful antiquities dealer in Essex, with eight outlets scattered around the county, and plans for a further two stores in the challenging market of London well-advanced. The portly, balding man was also a known drinker and gambler, but his frequent losses on the horses were well covered by the business of antiques; Charles was the undisputed expert at sourcing a rarity, purchasing it at the market bottom then re-selling it at the top. His business acumen and revered deal-closing abilities made him the envy of the antiques world- by other traders at least; customers were ignorant to just how much extra out of pocket they were when they left a Hargreaves store.
Though no-one but Charles was counting, his fortune included a twenty room mansion near Walton-on-the-Maze, two holiday villas (one in the south of France and another in a secluded Italian valley), and a collection of priceless watercolours by several distinguished artists. He also owned a substantial portfolio of land throughout Europe and the Americas which he held for no other reason than to sell when the market peaked. But Charles' pièce de résistance was his new wife Anne, a twenty-two year old blonde whom he met just a week after the finalisation of his divorce...