Everything seemed to come back to Willow Tree Hall, he thought. Even him, albeit temporarily, he hoped.
Hearing a commotion by the front door, he peered out of the window and smiled as he watched Rose act out her part of Cruella de Vil very convincingly. She had always been a huge personality with an incredible sense of style which belied her seventy years of age.
Rose had moved back to her ancestral home when Will’s grandmother had passed away. And then with Annie joining them and Sam returning to live there, Willow Tree Hall was beginning to feel full of life once more. But he still felt set apart from it all.
He turned away from the scene outside, his eye catching on the many photo frames along the mantelpiece. There was a lovely picture of his grandparents. Arthur had been very handsome in his youth but had remained tall and willowy even into old age. In the photograph, the late Countess was standing next to him in her wedding dress, an elegant and beautiful woman who was much missed. Her calming presence had always been the buffer between the slightly more volatile nature of his grandfather and the rest of the family, although Arthur had mellowed quite considerably in his later years. But still the thought of being stuck here for a while threatened to choke Will. There were too many memories filling each of the many rooms.
Yes, it had been a happy childhood. Right up until the moment when he came across his mother kissing another man.
It had been one of the many parties that were held in those days. An evening of music and wine, laughter and dancing. Sam and Will had been allowed to stay up past their bedtime to join in. Will could remember playing a game of snooker with his grandad and some friends. A sneaky sip of somebody’s beer had been his first taste of alcohol. The big chunks of cake that Beryl the cook had given them both to enjoy. Finally, they had been sent to bed. But whereas Sam had fallen straight to sleep, Will couldn’t settle. In the end, he had decided to sneak along the upper corridor and take one last peek at the party below.
He could still remember peering between the banisters along the upstairs gallery, crouched low so that nobody could see him. From there, he had a bird’s-eye view past the candelabra and down onto the large entrance hall. He had watched as a couple of men talked too loudly at each other, weaving drunkenly across the floor towards the drawing room. Somebody else was propped up on the bottom steps of the grand staircase, fast asleep.
Then, with a yawn and seeing nobody else appear, Will thought that it really was time for bed. He was about to go back to his bedroom when he saw his mother carrying a glass of champagne as she crossed the entrance hall. She was wearing a dress of deep red, her blonde hair piled high on her head, showing off long earrings that sparkled in the light. She looked beautiful.
A man came out of the west wing corridor and murmured something to her. Will watched as she shook her head and laughed. But the laughter quickly died as the man drew his mother to one side and abruptly kissed her on the lips.
They seemed to be locked together like that forever. Will, all of eleven years old, had been taken aback. You didn’t kiss other people like that when you were married, did you?
Finally she took a step backwards, just as Will’s father appeared from the west wing.
There was a brief murmur of conversation and the stranger wandered away, leaving Will’s parents on their own.
Will watched his mum and dad talk in low voices to each other. He couldn’t hear what they were saying. But he saw his mother lean forward and gently kiss his dad on the lips.
Will was shocked. She had kissed another man and then she had kissed his father. That wasn’t right. Couldn’t be right. And yet they had walked away together, as if nothing had occurred.
And Will had never trusted any woman he had been romantically involved with since.
He stared around the drawing room, wondering how long he had to endure staying there until he could find himself another job and get away from the painful memories that always taunted him when he was back here. Memories that he had carried himself ever since that night.
Will heard the heavy front door close and moments later, Annie wandered into the drawing room and collapsed onto the sofa, still wearing her Halloween outfit.
‘Black suits you,’ Will told her. ‘Maybe you should wear that on your wedding day.’
He liked Annie. She felt like the sister that he had never had and she cared deeply for Arthur and Rose. And she obviously had brought joy into Sam’s life for which he was grateful. Will, of course, knew that he would never find that kind of love. It only existed in fairy tales, with the odd exception, like hopefully his brother had found.
Annie sank back against the cushions. ‘They cleared us out of the all the sweets.’
Skye followed Sam into the room.
‘The pumpkins were amazing,’ said Sam, nodding his head with approval at her.
Will had seen them too, and had to begrudgingly admit that they had been carved well. ‘I was thinking that we should move the trailer down next to the lodge shortly,’ he said, heading across the room.
Annie frowned. ‘Why does it need to be moved?’
‘Presumably Skye would like access to electricity tonight,’ he replied. ‘It’ll be easier to hook it up to the lodge and not to the main house.’
Everyone turned to stare at Skye. ‘You didn’t have electricity last night?’ said Annie, looking horrified.
Skye’s cheeks grew red. ‘It was fine,’ she said quickly. ‘I managed.’
‘But it’s probably best that we get it sorted for this evening sooner rather than later,’ said Will.
‘You know, I must come and have a look at that trailer tomorrow,’ said Rose, stifling a yawn as she entered the room. ‘I haven’t been near one since the seventies. I’m sure it’s fabulously retro inside.’
Will realised he hadn’t even considered what it was like inside.
‘Come back for dinner once you’ve moved it,’ said Annie, smiling at Skye.
‘As long as it’s not pumpkin stew,’ Will told her, with a shudder.
Annie laughed. ‘I’ll make some just for you.’
Will looked at Skye. ‘Have you got five minutes to move the trailer now?’
‘Of course,’ she replied.
They left the family behind in the drawing room and went outside to where the trailer was still parked.
‘I think I’d better tow it down the track, don’t you? I know where all the pot holes are,’ he said, going around to the driver’s side of the tatty Fiesta. ‘That’s the one blessing with you hurting your foot. You probably would have taken out half the house on the way if you’d been driving.’
Expecting an argument, he was surprised to see Skye’s shoulders relax a little. Maybe she really wasn’t that confident about towing the trailer.
He glanced over to where the pumpkins were still glowing on the steps leading up to the front door.
‘You did a good job with those,’ he said.
To his surprise, Will found himself wishing that he had a skill like that. Or any kind of skill to speak of that could be useful to anyone
16
Skye’s good mood began to rapidly disappear.
She had enjoyed carving the pumpkins with Annie and Rose in the kitchen. Their chatter had calmed her as she had worked and the welcome by almost the whole family had been so warm. But now, back in the woods and by the lodge, the darkness was lowering her mood and making her feel uneasy once more.
If only she had said yes to staying in the house the previous evening. But perhaps this was the best way. Besides, she had managed to stay in the trailer one night already. Once she had electricity and a little water for the kitchen sink then she was sure that it would be better.
At least Will had driven her Fiesta carefully down the track, towing the trailer behind. She knew that she would never have managed to steer it down the narrow muddy path.
Once they had got out of the car, Will took the time to take the trailer off its tow bar and evened up the standing so it w
as level.
Standing outside, Skye could see that the fog was growing thicker once more.
Will had also noticed. ‘Right. We’d better get going on hooking up the electricity whilst I can still see what I’m doing,’ he said, heading inside the lodge.
For a second she was left alone, standing outside in the woods. She could do this, she told herself. It was the countryside. People lived here all the time. She tried to relax her shoulders and watched some birds flit around in the trees high above her.
Will came back outside with a length of thick cable.
‘The birds are nice,’ she said, trying to sound casual and to take an interest. ‘What type are they?’
‘They’re not birds,’ he replied, dragging the cable to the back of the trailer. ‘They’re bats.’
‘Bats?’ she shrieked.
‘Just in time for Halloween,’ he said, throwing her a wicked grin before opening the panel at the back of the trailer where the electricity hooked up. After fiddling with the wires for a short while, he straightened up. ‘That all seems okay. Do you want to check that it works?’
Skye went up the steps into the trailer, glad to be out of the scary bat infested woods. She was pleased to see the overhead light flicker into life when she switched it on. At least she had electricity, which was a start.
She heard a quiet step behind her and spun round to find Will peering in, the temptation obviously too great for him to ignore.
He caught Skye watching his reaction and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I thought it was going to be all pink and purple. A bit more Barbie, to be honest.’
‘Why?’
‘I dunno. I thought you liked purple. Anyway, it’s okay. Nice if you like living on four wheels, I guess.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment, coming from you,’ she said.
‘It might be the only one you get,’ he told her, with a grin. ‘What about the water?’
She brought out the large water vessel from under the seat and handed it to Will.
He took the container from her and looked surprised. ‘This looks barely used,’ he said.
‘I just like everything clean, that’s all,’ she told him quickly.
Had he guessed that she had barely stayed in the trailer? It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she had electricity and, once the water was poured into the right receptacle, the opportunity to even splash her face in the kitchen sink later as well.
She wondered about taking up Annie’s offer of a shower. In fact, she longed to have a proper wash, but that meant going up all those stairs and her foot was aching so much that she wasn’t sure she could manage it.
After Will had returned with the water and poured it into right compartment, Skye told him she would meet him back up at the main house for dinner and decided that she was brave enough to attempt a rub down with the flannel to at least help her feel cleaner.
She drew all the curtains and stood in her underwear, ready to wipe herself down with the flannel. But the tap in the kitchen sink had become skewed at some point and Skye shrieked as the shock of freezing water hit her when she switched it on. She slammed her elbow into the nearby pile of boxes which caused her to stagger and fall against the front door which burst open.
For a second she lay there, listening to the water splashing down the sink until she reached up and scrambled around with her hand before finally switching the tap off. She took a breath, first of all making sure that she hadn’t made her ankle any worse. Thankfully this time the bruising would be on the other side of her body. Then she remembered that she was lying in only her underwear, next to the front door which was now wide open in the middle of the woods. She scrambled to close the door before hopping back next to the sink and very gently turning on the tap once more. At last she was able to briefly rub herself down with the flannel and some shower gel before deciding that she was going to die of hypothermia if she didn’t get warm soon.
She quickly dried herself off with a towel and then got dressed. She decided she would definitely attempt to use the stairs in the main house the following day and have a decent shower.
Drained by the effort of it all, she sank onto the bed. It didn’t matter, she reminded herself. It was only for a week. Then she could continue up to Liverpool to stay with her sister. It was only whilst her ankle was mending.
It didn’t matter at all that she was in the middle of dark and creepy woods with someone that disliked her.
Skye realised that it was just like the script from a horror movie. And unfortunately, it was actually Halloween as well.
She shuddered as she opened up the front door and looked out into the darkness. She was grateful to escape the scariness of the woods and head back to the cheerful and warm hall for dinner. She tried not to think about the fact that she would be out here all alone later that night.
*
Will was deep in thought over dinner.
Despite the number of boxes taking up a lot of the space inside, he had been quite surprised at how attractive the interior of the Airstream had been. He had been braced for it to be various shades of pink and purple. A bit of a mess, if he was honest. But it wasn’t. Instead it was soft, in muted shades of cream and green. Flashes of silver on the wallpaper and soft furnishings kept it fresh and yet cosy. It could even have been borderline luxurious.
It was now obvious that Skye had a flair for design. Perhaps her thoughts on how the interior of the lodge could be styled would surprise him as well.
He looked across the table at Sam who was spooning more pasta onto his plate.
Arthur had always been harder on his elder brother, he had thought up until recently. There had been many battles over the years as their grandad had desperately tried to get Sam to accept the responsibility of the estate that he would inherit much sooner than he would have had their father survived that car accident. Then, suddenly, Arthur had broken his hip in an accident and Sam had had to come home. To everyone’s surprise, not least Sam’s own and Will’s, Sam had stayed on and begun to take on the role of the future Earl of Cranley. He had worked hard to get the hall up to a habitable condition for the rest of the family and had even converted one of the barns into a recording studio to try and bring some money into the floundering estate. Everyone had been helping out. Everyone, that was, apart from Will.
He knew that he hadn’t really played a part in the regeneration of Willow Tree Hall so far. Surely that didn’t matter when Sam was now doing so much.
But the guilt rankled at him, night and day.
Contrary to his own gloomy feelings, Skye seemed positively buoyed up by the family dinner and contributed to the lively conversation around the table.
Afterwards, they went back into the woods.
‘Isn’t it lovely about the wedding?’ she said. ‘It all sounds very exciting.’
‘Huh,’ he grunted. ‘More fool them.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘I mean, getting married isn’t a recipe for happy ever after.’
‘Nice attitude,’ he heard her mutter, as she carefully manoeuvred herself around a large puddle with the crutches. ‘Are you going to use that line in your best man’s speech?’
He hadn’t even thought about his speech yet, although he wasn’t going to tell her that. What could he possibly tell his brother about love? Will didn’t know anything about it except that it involved lying and deceit.
All these years of being told what a marvellous marriage his parents had had. A love that endured, they had said. Even after their fatal accident. And yet it was all a lie. It had been a sham. He had seen it with his very eyes.
So he had shunned love. Every girlfriend he had was only ever temporary and he intended to keep it that way. Even Maria. He thought briefly of her unhappy marriage. More proof that marriage wasn’t a recipe for anything other than heartbreak.
They continued to walk on in silence until the lodge and trailer finally came into view.
Skye sighed wit
h relief as she leant back against the side of the trailer for a moment. He realised that she was still in quite a bit of pain.
‘How’s the ankle?’ he asked, trying to sound more polite.
‘A bit sore,’ she told him. ‘I’ll need to take some painkillers to get to sleep.’
‘Will you be okay in there?’ he asked, nodding at the trailer.
‘I’ll be fine.’
He thought he could detect some hesitation on her part. Perhaps she was concerned about moving around in such a small place with her injured foot.
‘We’d better make sure the electricity is definitely working,’ he said, bending down to check the cable. ‘It can be a bit temperamental around here.’
‘It’s not the only thing,’ she said, under her breath.
As she turned around to face the door, he realised that she had actually pulled out a key from her pocket.
‘You locked the front door?’ he said, thoroughly amused.
‘Of course I did,’ she told him, putting the key into the lock.
‘You really think someone’s going to steal that thing out here?’ He waved his hand around the clearing. ‘I mean, the foxes are rather clever, but I’m not sure they’ve worked out how to use a door handle.’
Skye glanced nervously at the surrounding gloom. ‘I always keep it locked. In the city anyway.’
‘Well, could you test the electricity for me before the burglars arrive?’ he asked.
She unlocked the front door and climbed awkwardly inside. Will followed her. A light went on inside so at least he knew the electricity had been hooked up correctly.
She also switched on the tap and let the water flow briefly. As she spun round, Skye was suddenly much closer than he had anticipated.
For a second, the walls of the trailer seemed to contract. It was quite tight in there and with both of them standing next to the tiny kitchen, he was standing very close to her. He could even smell her sweet perfume which muddled his senses. He stared down at her skin and wondered why it was so pale and smooth.
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