Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall Read online

  The Willow Tree Hall Series

  Love Begins at Willow Tree Hall

  Summer Secrets at Willow Tree Hall

  A Winter Wedding at Willow Tree Hall

  Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

  MOONLIGHT KISSES AT WILLOW TREE HALL

  Alison Sherlock

  AN IMPRINT OF HEAD OF ZEUS

  www.ariafiction.com

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by Aria, an imprint of Head of Zeus Ltd

  Copyright © Alison Sherlock, 2019

  The moral right of Alison Sherlock to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781786694959

  Aria

  c/o Head of Zeus

  First Floor East

  5–8 Hardwick Street

  London EC1R 4RG

  www.ariafiction.com

  Contents

  Welcome Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Acknowledgements

  About Alison Sherlock

  Become an Aria Addict

  1

  ‘We’ve got trouble.’

  Lily Harper spun around to face Mary, the wide-eyed young intern who had just rushed up to her. ‘What’s up?’ she asked.

  ‘One of the waitresses has accidentally thrown red wine all down our hostess,’ Mary told her with a grimace.

  Lily glanced over Mary’s shoulder and saw a glamorously dressed grey-haired lady sobbing in the middle of the ballroom.

  ‘And that’s not even the worst of it,’ carried on Mary. ‘The band were due to come on but their lead singer thinks she’s coming down with a migraine. She’s hiding in the toilet and won’t come out, so there’s no music. Somebody’s nicked a whole heap of party bags, so there aren’t enough to give out. Oh, and the finance director is so drunk he’s climbed onto the stegosaurus and won’t come down.’

  Lily scanned the packed ballroom once more. Almost 800 people were packed into the Earth Hall of the Natural History Museum for the Forsythe & Sons annual banquet. A banner strewn across the stage read, ‘Celebrating 54 amazing years of high-density, lightweight concrete blocks!’

  ‘Where’s Julie?’ asked Lily, feeling irritated. ‘This is her event, not mine. She can sort it out.’

  ‘I can’t find her,’ said Mary, with a shrug. ‘She said something about taking a break.’

  A break? Lily pressed her lips together to stop herself swearing. When had Lily ever managed to take a break in the five years that she had been doing the job? And yet Julie was the one who had somehow survived the recent wave of redundancies at the event-organising firm where they all worked, whereas Lily would be out of a job the following week.

  ‘Help me! Please!’ pleaded Mary.

  Lily sighed. ‘Fine. Let’s see what we can sort out.’

  She walked towards where the chairman’s wife was standing, grabbing a bottle of sparkling water and a pillar of salt from a nearby table as she went.

  ‘Hello,’ she said to the lady who was staring down in teary dismay at the ugly patch of red wine across her blue evening dress. ‘Would you mind following me? We’ll have that stain gone in a flash.’

  The woman followed her to the ladies’ washrooms, where Lily quickly used the water to moisten the stain and the salt to begin lifting off the stain. She blotted and sprinkled salt over and over until the stain could no longer be seen. The woman then stood underneath the hand-dryer, which quickly dried the damp patch.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, with a grateful look towards Lily. ‘I couldn’t have coped looking like that all evening.’

  ‘Not at all,’ replied Lily, already reaching into her pocket as she headed across to where the band’s singer was hunched in a corner clutching her head. ‘Will ibuprofen help?’ she asked, bending down.

  The singer nodded. ‘Yeah, probably. Thanks.’

  Lily handed her the pills and the bottle of sparkling water to wash them down with.

  As she straightened up, she caught Mary smiling at her. ‘Wow. How’d you learn to do all that stuff?’

  Lily shrugged. ‘I’ve seen enough crises over the years to know what to do.’

  And it still wasn’t enough to keep her job, she reminded herself. After all, she hadn’t gone to university like Mary and gained a degree. She had only scraped through that business studies course at sixth form over ten years previously. Once more, she felt distinctly average in both her professional and private life.

  But perhaps that was about to change? She nervously fiddled with her bare ring finger. Maybe, just maybe, tonight was the night.

  With two of the crises swiftly averted, Lily headed back into the ballroom. She could really do with an extra hand but she couldn’t see her boyfriend, Mark, anywhere.

  As Area Manager for the company they both worked for, he was there tonight to oversee the event.

  Lily was hoping he had another, more personal reason to be there tonight as well. Especially as he had promised her a dance, which was unusual. But it was the perfect setting for what she hoped he had planned. Her heart filled with expectation, but all that would have to wait.

  She went across to where a middle-aged man had clambered across the ropes and was now swaying as he hung onto the leg of the large stegosaurus skeleton.

  ‘Hi,’ she said to him. ‘How about we get you a nice glass of water?’

  The man blinked at her before breaking into a leering, lopsided smile. He slowly ran his eyes up and down her long black dress before settling on her face.

  ‘Hello, beautiful.’ His words were slurred. ‘Redheads are my favourite.’

  ‘How lucky for me,’ said Lily between clenched teeth. ‘Shall we?’ She held out her hand to encourage him away from the priceless prehistoric exhibit.

  ‘Anything for you, sweeth
eart,’ he replied.

  But, unfortunately, he used their hands connecting to pull her in towards him and press his body up against hers.

  Lily felt a flare of anger at his disgusting behaviour. She was just about to knee him in the groin and follow it with a karate chop to his neck when she remembered where she was – and who she was, these days. She was wild Lily Harper no more. These days, she had to be responsible and practical, regardless of the man’s vile actions. She had to be professional.

  So she grabbed the drunken man and manoeuvred him across the rope barricade until he was finally on the right side and the stegosaurus was safe.

  She pushed him down into a chair and went over to Mary, who was standing nearby. ‘If he goes near any of the dinosaurs again, you have my permission to beat him over the head with a large fossil,’ she whispered.

  Mary grimaced. ‘Do I have to? He looks like he’d probably enjoy it.’

  ‘You can handle him,’ Lily told her. ‘Now, about the party bags. There were some spare ones lined up outside in the courtyard. I’ll go and grab some.’

  Lily looked around the room again for Mark but couldn’t see him. Perhaps he was in the gents’, trying out his speech. She wondered what he would say. Would he go down on one knee, even in the middle of the dancefloor? She secretly hoped so. That was how she had always wanted it to be done. And now the time was finally near.

  A small frown creased her forehead. In fact, the time was actually a little overdue according to her life plan. She had wanted to get engaged on her birthday, but Mark had given her a lovely necklace instead of a ring. He knew about her plans to be engaged by the time she was thirty, so he only had until her next birthday to propose.

  But she could forgive him for the short delay, as it was such a glorious setting that summer evening and would make an amazing story to tell their children. Perhaps they would come back to the Natural History Museum when the kids were old enough to understand.

  ‘And that’s where Daddy proposed to Mummy. Right by that dinosaur.’

  Lily smiled expectantly at her reflection in the hallway mirror. She tucked a stray lock of red hair behind her ear, but her ponytail and simple makeup had remained in place. Her green eyes were framed with just a lick of dark mascara, her lips painted with a natural matte colour. Nice and neat. Nothing too outlandish.

  She allowed herself a satisfied nod as she carried on past the mirror and downstairs to the cloakroom.

  Her relationship with Mark might have been going well, but the recent loss of her job had been a massive disappointment. Even now, the panic was simmering inside her.

  She didn’t like surprises or anything unexpected occurring in her life. She hadn’t done ever since the car accident that had knocked her whole world off its axis when she was sixteen years old.

  These days, her life was mapped out so that there could be no room for hurt or pain. To be in total control was a good thing. It protected her from the very worst that life could offer. She was safe from hurt and would continue to be so, as long as everything went to plan each and every day.

  She stepped outside into the spacious Darwin Centre courtyard and took a moment to enjoy the night air.

  It was a perfect summer’s evening with a full moon shining down from the night sky above. Not that you got to see too many stars in the centre of London. She felt a brief pang of longing for her home village of Cranley, where the sky was endless and full of stars, with not a skyscraper blocking the view.

  She didn’t know why she was feeling so unsettled and homesick at the moment. It had to be about losing her job, she supposed. But she had left her home village many years ago to take the burden of having to support her away from her parents. After all, she had hurt too many people back then. The ripples of pain were still being felt to that day by her family.

  She focused back on the job in hand and spotted the spare party bags in the far corner of the terrace. As she walked away from the other partygoers, she thought she spotted movement behind the large trees lining the terrace. Lily had organised enough parties to know about all the sexy comings and goings that occurred. She would ignore whoever it was, grab the party bags and get out of there before anyone was embarrassed.

  But at that moment her colleague, Julie, staggered out from behind a large tree. ‘Easy, babe,’ she said, laughing. She looked as though she was about to dive back in for another embrace when she saw Lily.

  ‘Oh! Hi!’ she said, the blush spreading across her cheeks.

  ‘We need the spare party bags,’ said Lily in a chilly tone of voice. ‘You haven’t left enough in the main hall.’

  ‘Oh. Sure.’ Julie stole a glance at the man who was still hidden behind the tree before grabbing as many of the bags by the handles as she could.

  She almost ran across the terrace in her haste to get away.

  Lily decided not to confirm the existence of the man who was probably one of the guests. It was just so unprofessional, she thought. Once more, she wondered why Julie should have been chosen for the job and not her. Because she didn’t mess up her life and went to university, unlike you, whispered her inner voice.

  But as Lily reached down for the bags, she glanced back at the man’s feet, which were sticking out from behind the tree trunk, and was struck by the familiar blue of the shoes. That is odd, she thought. They look just like…

  And then the man stepped forward.

  Lily drew in a shocked breath as she stared up at Mark. His immaculate navy suit was covered in tiny little leaves that had fallen from the tree. At least he had the grace to look embarrassed whilst they stood there in stunned silence.

  ‘You have lipstick on your face,’ she finally blurted out.

  He brought out a handkerchief and wiped away the traces of scarlet from his lips, the silence stretching out between them as she watched.

  After he had put his handkerchief back into his pocket and finally made eye contact with her, she exploded.

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ she told him, reeling from what she had witnessed. ‘Two years of going out and I can’t believe you chose tonight of all nights to cheat on me. I thought we were happy! I thought you were going to propose!’

  ‘I wasn’t,’ he suddenly snapped, coming back to life. ‘You thought I was going to propose.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘And God forbid we should step away from your wretched life plan!’

  She gave a start. ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘I mean, our whole lives have been mapped out according to you! When we get engaged, married, kids… It’s exhausting!’

  Lily was shocked. How had this become her fault?

  ‘I thought you loved me,’ she told him, the pain causing her words to thicken in her throat.

  ‘You don’t give anyone a chance to love you,’ he told her. ‘You’re so busy organising everyone and making them feel insecure that you don’t give anyone a chance. Especially when they muck up and make a mistake. If they’re not perfect, you shut down on them.’

  ‘I’m not like that,’ she told him quickly.

  His handsome face was staring stonily at her now. ‘It makes you cold, Lily. Ice cold. You’re like some kind of robot on automatic pilot.’

  Tears stung her eyes. He really thought she was that bad? Surely he understood why she had closed her emotions off for so long? That the pain in her past had made her the way she was?

  She struggled to hold herself together. ‘Well, I can see now that I was sadly mistaken in thinking that we even had a future together,’ she said, in a wavering voice. ‘I shall post your front door keys through the letterbox tomorrow on the way into work.’

  He rolled his eyes. ‘That’s right. Go on with your planning.’

  She wanted to ask him how long he had felt like that – how long he had seemingly hated her for.

  But she couldn’t bear it. She didn’t want to know how he felt any more. She was wounded and so very upset.

  She shook her head, as if dislodging an annoying insect rather tha
n watching her dreams of marriage burst into flames and die before her.

  ‘We must get back to the party,’ she announced. ‘We both have a job to do.’

  ‘Of course,’ he drawled. ‘The show must always go on, eh?’

  She watched him walk away, leaving her alone in the corner of the terrace away from the other partygoers. To her horror, she felt a tear roll down her cheek. She angrily wiped it away.

  Not now, she reminded herself. She didn’t have time to show weakness. She had a job to do. At least for another week, that was.

  What she really wanted to do at that precise moment was to kick and scream and wail. Her younger, wilder self would have thrown a drink in his face, like in the movies. For a second, she relished the dream of Mark standing there dripping and miserable. To be free enough to do something that daring, it was so tempting…

  But she reminded herself that part wasn’t her any more. The wild, emotional side of her was long since buried beneath the guilt of what she had done to her family with her selfish actions.

  So Lily straightened her back and strode back towards the main hall as if she didn’t have a care in the world and her heart hadn’t just been broken into a thousand pieces.

  2

  Jack Carter doodled on his notepad whilst his colleague continued to drone on about something next to him.

  Meetings. He seemed to spend his whole life in them.

  He glanced out of the window at the blue skies high above the skyscrapers of the city of London. A glorious summer day. A perfect day to be out on his motorbike, he thought with a pang of longing. The urge to break free of the homogenised air-conditioning and smog of the city and hit the leafy country lanes on his bike was never stronger than on beautiful days like today.

  He frowned to himself. Not that he could ride his motorbike at the moment. He had let the road tax lapse whilst he had been abroad in Dubai for the past three years and had yet to sort it out, despite having been home for a couple of months.

  Good thing he had his luxurious company car to use. But the thought gave him no pleasure. He drew his gaze back indoors to the executive meeting room and the row of men seated opposite him. All were dressed in sharp designer suits like him, but Jack knew that they would never give up their beloved BMWs and Mercedes for a Ducati motorbike like his. After all, that was what they bragged about most of the time anyway – who had the quickest 0–60mph times and all that.