Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall Page 3

  ‘What’s that?’ asked her mum, appearing at the door.

  ‘Baby stuff,’ said her dad, beaming.

  Her mum looked briefly at Lily before sighing. ‘Dinner’s on the table,’ she announced.

  Lily put down her handbag and followed her mum into the kitchen.

  ‘He doesn’t think, sometimes,’ Celia murmured.

  ‘It’s fine,’ said Lily, crossing the room to pick up the salt and pepper from the side.

  Except it wasn’t. She had wanted a family of her own for many years. She also wanted a man who loved her, and a happy, secure, steady life. And she had none of that at the moment.

  ‘Evening, all,’ said her grandad as he came through the open back door.

  Lily smiled and rushed across to give him a hug. As always, Bert Harper smelled of earth and grass.

  It was her grandfather who had set dinnertime at six-thirty sharp every day. As his daughter-in-law, Lily’s mum had taken on the responsibility of the strict timing once he had moved in, much to her chagrin.

  ‘Good to have you back,’ he said to Lily, his eyes twinkling at her below shaggy grey eyebrows.

  ‘Good to be back,’ she replied, giving him a kiss on a cheek that had a five o’clock grey shadow of stubble on it.

  Her grandad had never been a smartly turned out man. But Lily loved him, despite his gruff way of speaking with nearly everyone who wasn’t her. She knew she was the apple of his eye and had never minded his abrupt way of talking to everyone else but her.

  ‘How was your day?’ asked her mum, as she laid the plates onto the table.

  ‘Everywhere is parched,’ said her grandad, sitting down at the head of the table. ‘The earth is so hard after all these weeks of no rain.’

  Her grandfather was head gardener at Willow Tree Hall. In fact, he was the only gardener at Willow Tree Hall, such was the depleted staff at the great house these days. He was the same age as the Earl of Cranley, whose estate both the Hall and Cranley itself belonged to. Thankfully, Arthur Harris, the earl, had kept the rent for the cottages as low as he could for the past fifty years and only rented out the sixty or so cottages to local workers. Some of the cottages had been in the same families for generations. But her grandad had given up his to move in twelve months previously.

  ‘They’re saying September should bring some rain,’ said her dad, as he came into the kitchen on his crutches. ‘That’ll freshen things up a bit.’

  Once Richard had joined them at the table, they all began to help themselves to the food laid out before them.

  ‘I hope you weren’t digging,’ said her mum in a stern voice. ‘That won’t do your back any good.’

  ‘Can’t plant onions otherwise,’ said Bert, giving Lily a wink before ducking his head back down.

  Celia’s mouth pressed into a thin line as she decided against further nagging of her father-in-law.

  ‘Where’s the butter for the new potatoes?’ asked Lily’s dad, looking around the table. ‘And how about a bread roll?’

  ‘There isn’t any,’ replied Celia. ‘The doctor said you need to lose a bit of weight, so you’ll eat them without.’

  Lily gave her dad a sympathetic smile but remained quiet. There was no point in getting involved in the constant discussion about her dad’s health. His weight was beginning to become a bit of a problem, as he barely left the house these days.

  It was quiet at the table for a few minutes whilst they carried on eating.

  ‘It’s nice to have you home,’ said Celia, looking across the table at Lily. ‘Whatever the reason. What will you do next with your career?’

  ‘It was hardly a career,’ said Lily, with a laugh. ‘You know that I can’t find any other work. Things are tight all over.’

  It wasn’t as if she had any discernible skills, either. And whose fault was that, she reminded herself. She had wasted her teenage years and ended up with a very small Business Studies qualification.

  She was just an ordinary person who had managed to drag herself a few rungs up the career ladder, mostly by chance. But now she was back at the bottom again and had no idea what to do next.

  ‘There might be a vacancy at the supermarket,’ said her mum.

  Lily grimaced, which her mother unfortunately caught sight of. ‘There’s no point in having airs and graces, my girl,’ said Celia in a stern tone. ‘You need to work and it’s possible that Audrey might leave in the next month.’

  Lily nodded. She loved her mum. She just didn’t know whether she could live and work with her twenty-four hours a day. But the fact that she needed a wage to continue helping out the family would quickly become a problem if she couldn’t find a job any time soon.

  After dinner, Lily and her grandad cleared the plates off the table before Bert headed into the front room to read the newspaper.

  Lily wiped down the kitchen table.

  ‘Thanks, love,’ said her mum, looking weary as she stood up. ‘It’s been a long day. I’m just going to go and have a shower. I need to get out of these sweaty clothes.’

  Lily and her dad watched in silence as Celia leave the room. Her dad played with the salt and pepper pots, which had been placed back in the middle of the table.

  ‘I made ten pounds today from the sale of that food blender on eBay,’ he finally said.

  ‘That’s great, Dad.’

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I try, Lily. I really do.’ He looked downcast. ‘Folks haven’t got as much money to spread around so they’re not paying so much for my stuff at the minute.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I try and do my bit for the family. Your mother works so hard. She’s even taken on extra shifts.’ Her dad’s bottom lip wobbled.

  Lily couldn’t bear to see him upset and leapt up to wrap her arms around her dad.

  ‘If only she didn’t have to work at the bloody supermarket,’ he muttered into her shoulder. ‘She trained to be a chef. That’s what she enjoys doing. It’s all my fault,’ he said, his voice almost a whisper now. ‘I should be out there earning.’

  ‘It’s not your fault, Dad,’ Lily told him, squeezing him harder now. ‘Look, don’t get upset. It’s my first night home.’

  ‘You’re a good girl,’ he said, pulling back to give her a teary smile. ‘Tell you what I did win last week. A lovely bottle of gin. Maybe you could mix us up one of your fancy cocktails later.’

  ‘That sounds like a plan,’ said Lily. ‘In the meantime, you go and watch your quiz show. I’ll bring you and Grandad a cup of tea.’

  ‘Thanks, love.’

  She watched as he slowly manoeuvred himself up from the table and onto his crutches. Richard Harper had once been a vibrant, energetic man and a skilled carpenter. The car accident had changed everything. She could still remember a time when her dad was able to work. When he could drive. When he laughed. When he wanted to leave the house…

  But the accident fourteen years ago had not only robbed him of the lower part of his right leg but also his life, it felt. Of all their lives, in fact. Nothing had been the same since.

  Lily turned to look at the garden. It was a beautiful summer’s evening and, for a second, she allowed herself the whisper of a memory of a similar night, many years previously. The sound of the river bubbling nearby. The long grass tickling her bare legs. And Jack, holding her close and kissing her.

  She abruptly turned away as other, more painful memories threatened to materialise as well.

  She had blamed Jack for such a long time but, ultimately, the fault of the accident would always remain with Lily. And she carried the guilt with her each and every day.

  4

  Lily woke up in bed with a start, wondering briefly where she was. Then the pale pink walls of her parents’ box room slowly came into view and she remembered she was living back at home.

  Lying in bed, she turned her head. The room hadn’t changed at all from when she had been a teenager. A dumping ground for all and sundry, now also filled with her own boxes and suitcases.


  Lily grabbed her phone, as she had done every morning for the past two weeks, hoping to see many text messages or emails offering her employment or even from Mark to say what a horrible mistake he had made and how he desperately wanted to marry her. But her inboxes were empty.

  She automatically opened up the Notes folder next. She loved lists. They were her life. Everything went down on one and she had separate lists for her job as well as her social life and even her next food shop. She had even made a list to remind her what to pack when she had left her rental flat the previous day.

  Then there was the list entitled Life. This one had marriage, children, all listed by the appropriate age she should be when each life event happened. She was now twenty-nine and had succeeded in none of her wishes. She didn’t know why she kept the list when it was obvious that she had failed at it.

  She quickly dismissed it from the screen and brought up another. These were her work goals. Promotion. More money. Small flat. Perhaps even enough saved up for a deposit to buy her own place. Again, a big fat zero achieved, with no happy ticks alongside the list. And definitely no money, either, in any of her accounts. She had one month’s worth of wages to live on and that was it.

  She bit her lip. It was all a disaster. Not knowing what else to do, she slowly got up. Smacking her elbow against the wall as she shuffled around the tiny space, she briefly wished she was in her old bedroom, which was a good size. But that was her grandad’s now. The box room would have to suffice.

  She wandered downstairs in her pyjamas and found the family in the kitchen having eaten breakfast already.

  ‘Are you going up to Willow Tree Hall today, Grandad?’ asked Lily, making herself a large coffee. ‘I’ve got nothing on until later this morning when I’m meeting Megan, so I can always drop you up there, if you’d like.’

  Bert shook his head. ‘Got to sort out a few bits in the shed first, so I’ll cycle up there this morning. But thanks, love.’

  The wedding ring on his finger glinted as he drained his mug of tea.

  Her grandmother, a stern woman, had passed away five years previously. Lily’s main memory of her was as a somewhat distant woman who had never smiled.

  Her grandad could be as equally stern as his late wife had been. But on the quiet, when he thought nobody was looking, he had secretly handed her toffees and sweeties when she was younger. Sometimes, it would even be a bunch of cut flowers from the allotment. But mostly it was vegetables from the large walled garden that he tended at Willow Tree Hall.

  It was only the previous year at the age of seventy-two that he had finally admitted he was struggling to live on his own and had moved in with his son and daughter-in-law.

  ‘So, what will you do with yourself today?’ asked her mum, who was batch-cooking at the stove. She had become very skilled at making cheap cuts of meat stretch to feed the family.

  ‘Look for a job,’ said Lily, with a sigh. ‘I’m not sure how many event management jobs there are around here, though. Oh, I’m popping in to see Megan later this morning to catch up.’

  ‘Such a shame about the redundancy,’ said her mum, shaking her head sadly as she chopped up some garlic. ‘And now single again as well. No children either. The only thing you had going for you was your career.’

  ‘Gee, thanks a bunch, Mum,’ said Lily, rolling her eyes.

  ‘I didn’t mean it like that, darling.’ Her mum took a chopping board over to the sink.

  Lily took the criticism and tried to ignore it. In her younger years, she and her mum had fought and argued to the point that she had been desperate to escape from her home. But these days, there was too much pain and, anyway, all their petty rows over nothing were in the past.

  She was still feeling pretty low, so was glad she still had her visit to Megan next door later in the morning.

  *

  ‘Come on in,’ said Megan, as soon as she opened the front door. ‘My mum is babysitting the kids at her place, so it’s safe to enter.’

  ‘How is the family?’ asked Lily.

  Megan groaned. ‘Exhausting, and we’re only four weeks into the summer holidays. God help me.’

  Inside, the cottage was a mirror image of Lily’s own home, but whereas hers was fairly dull, Megan’s was packed with toys and life, and, as it turned out, Annie, Megan’s best friend.

  ‘Hi,’ said Annie, giving Lily a hug as soon as she went into the lounge. ‘Lovely to see you. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your gossip session. I was on my way home from the doctor’s.’

  Annie had gone to school with Megan and, along with their other friend, Eleanor, the three of them had been as thick as thieves throughout their lives. Recently reunited as they all now lived in the village, Lily had heard that they were as close as ever.

  Annie had been in the year above Lily at school until her parents had moved away. However, she had returned to Cranley a year and a half ago where, to the amazement of everyone in the village, she had fallen in love with and eventually married Sam Harris, Arthur’s grandson. With Sam first in line to inherit the earldom from Arthur, Annie was suddenly elevated from housekeeper to future countess.

  ‘It’s great to see you, too,’ Lily told her. ‘I haven’t seen you since the wedding, anyway.’

  It had been a beautiful ceremony and reception at Willow Tree Hall. Lily remembered making mental notes about the decoration for her own future wedding to Mark. How could she have been so blind?

  ‘You’re really starting to get big now,’ said Lily, looking at Annie’s baby bump.

  Annie smiled a little wearily. ‘I know. But I think my swollen ankles are showing worse.’

  She was dressed in leggings and a baggy T-shirt. Hardly countess material, but certainly comfortable-looking.

  Megan brought in a packet of biscuits and three mugs of coffee.

  ‘When are you due?’ asked Lily.

  ‘Tenth of October.’ Annie automatically touched the bump. ‘It’s been a bit grim, actually,’ she said, her pretty face screwing up into a grimace.

  ‘Grim is an understatement. It’s been like something out of The Exorcist up at the Hall,’ said Megan, sitting down. ‘Poor thing’s got the worst morning sickness.’

  Annie nodded. ‘It’s true. And it didn’t stop at twelve weeks, either. I don’t know when I’m supposed to look radiant and blooming. I just feel tired and sick most of the time.’

  ‘How awful,’ said Lily. ‘Poor you.’

  ‘Here, I got you some ginger biscuits,’ said Megan, leaning forward to pass the packet to Annie.

  ‘You’ve lost a bit of weight,’ said Lily, studying Megan.

  ‘You think so?’ said Megan, blushing as she picked up her mug. ‘I have been trying to, haven’t I? Plus I’ve been running around like a loony since beginning to help out Eleanor with her business.’

  ‘It’s still going well?’ asked Lily.

  Eleanor had started up a natural beauty business in the stable block of Willow Tree Hall.

  Megan nodded. ‘It’s really taken off, so I help her out when little Sam’s at nursery. Apart from today, that is. Thankfully, she’s up in London with Tom today.’

  ‘Tommy King?’ asked Lily, her eyes widening. She had heard the rumours, of course.

  Tommy King was a global superstar who had arrived in the village the previous summer to record his new album. Annie’s husband, Sam, was his manager and had built a recording studio in the grounds. Eleanor and Tommy were now living in the old forge in the village.

  ‘I think they’ll be shopping for an engagement ring before too long,’ said Annie, grinning.

  ‘Wow,’ said Lily. It seemed as if everyone was settling down and partnered up except her.

  Something must have shown in her face, as Annie suddenly said, ‘I was sorry that you broke up with your boyfriend.’

  ‘I blabbed,’ Megan added. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘That’s OK.’ Lily shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘Was he really cheating on you?’ asked Me
gan.

  ‘Yup.’

  ‘Tosser,’ muttered Annie.

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Megan, nodding her head in agreement. ‘You’re well shot of him, if that’s what he’s like.’

  ‘You’ve had a tough time recently,’ said Annie, looking at her in pity. ‘Between that and losing your job.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m living the dream being back in my parents’ box room,’ said Lily, with a grimace.

  ‘What will you do now?’ asked Megan.

  Lily shrugged her shoulders. ‘There aren’t too many event management jobs around here. And that’s all I know. Or, rather, that’s all I’ve been doing for the past five years. Really, it was just the paperwork, mainly. And coordinating staff, invoices, the lot. I love a good mess, me.’

  ‘You should come up to the Hall then,’ muttered Annie. ‘It’s in chaos at the moment.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked Lily. ‘I thought all the renovations were finished?’

  ‘Almost. But it’s not that. There’s just so many of us to keep track of these days,’ said Annie. ‘You heard Sam’s younger brother is back for good now? And he got married, so there’s both Will and Skye around all the time. Which is lovely, don’t get me wrong. But everyone likes to eat dinner together in the evening and I just haven’t got the effort in me to plan and cook meals at the minute.’

  ‘Arthur doesn’t make too much mess though, does he?’ said Megan, with a smile.

  ‘Of course not,’ said Annie, her face softening.

  ‘Is his sister, Rose, still living at the Hall?’ asked Lily.

  ‘Yes. Do you know her?’

  Lily nodded and smiled. Everyone knew Rose Harris. A warm, friendly pensioner of extravagant fashion sense with a wicked sense of humour. Married four times, she had been around the world but had come home to Willow Tree Hall when Arthur had been widowed a few years ago.

  ‘So there’s Sam and me,’ carried on Annie, counting on her fingers. ‘Will and Skye. They live in Willow Tree Lodge, which is in the grounds. Eleanor is always popping in with Tom. And Arthur and Rose.’

  ‘Sounds nice,’ said Lily. ‘A place filled with life.’