Secrets at Meadowbrook Manor

by Faith Bleasdale

  ‘So, where shall we start?’ Pippa clapped her hands together. ‘I know, I’ll show you to your room. It was Harriet’s room, but she doesn’t live at the house anymore, so I thought I’d put you in there; it’s such a lovely room. Also, it’ll give you a feel for what the hotel might be like. God, can you imagine we are going to have paying guests here one day! I almost can’t believe it’s actually going to happen!’ Pippa was hopping around, she was so animated and effervescent, the human equivalent of champagne, Gemma thought.

  ‘I know, although of course there’s a long way to go,’ Gemma cautioned, trying to chase the blind panic away as it threatened to floor her. ‘But it’ll be lovely to see my room and get rid of my bags. Honestly, Pippa, I really want to thank you again – this is a great opportunity.’ Gemma sounded like a stranger to herself as she spoke. She needed to collect herself, to stop acting so weirdly lest she lose the job before she even started.

  ‘Oh no, thank you, I just knew that you were the one to help us from the moment I met you … no, before that, when I read your letter and CV, and I also know we are going to be the best of friends.’

  Gemma was startled as Pippa engulfed her in a second embrace.

  Settled into what was now her bedroom for the foreseeable future, she finally remembered to breathe. If Meadowbrook was to be her home for at least six months, while she helped the Singer family set up their hotel, she needed to think of it as such. She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to the luxury she found herself in, but she was going to have to try. She needed to start embracing her good fortune rather than behaving like a rabbit caught in the headlights. After all, Pippa was so welcoming; she could only hope the rest of the Singers would be the same.

  She unpacked her case; she hadn’t brought too much with her, some work suits and a limited casual wardrobe. She didn’t have far to go to the bungalow in Bristol if she needed anything else, but it felt presumptuous turning up with too much.

  She went over to the floor-to-ceiling window of the bedroom, which looked out onto the front of the house. With views over the Mendips, she was mesmerised. It was as she imagined when she looked at the photo, the woman in the window. That woman was her, it was actually her.

  She pulled all her books out of her oversized bag and put them away in the bedside table. They were text books she’d used when she took her hotel management course, and she was praying they would help her now. Because it was a dream job, yes, but also a rather big job, and she had no idea how she was going to manage … She pushed the negative thoughts away and thought about how she had got to this. Throughout her life, people had put her down, not her nan, but almost everyone else. This job was supposed to end all that, give her a new start. She was not only doing this for her nan, but she was also doing it for herself.

  She knew she was far too cautious, and always had been. Gemma took the safest option when she could, owing to her upbringing, owing to an ingrained fear that never left her. Her nan, who had brought her up, and was her only family, tried her best to bolster her confidence, but her vulnerability dominated her life.

  And now her nan wasn’t around, and Gemma felt alone. At first, the dementia wasn’t too bad. Gemma could juggle her college course and taking care of her nan, but in time it got worse. Hence the residential home.

  Missing her nan was something that would never go away. Watching someone you love slip away from you, however it happened, was the most painful thing. She wanted her nan, the woman who she knew, the one who tried to encourage her, who made her feel loved. But, unfortunately, after visiting her, she often ended up feeling lonelier than ever.

  Now, though, in Meadowbrook she was being offered a fresh start, and God knew she needed it badly. It was a gift, she thought again, as she wiped tears off her cheeks, and she needed to make it work. Those were her new mantras, and she would keep repeating them, until she believed them.

  Chapter 3

  A knock on the door interrupted her myriad of thoughts.

  ‘Hello,’ she said, and after a beat, Pippa appeared.

  ‘Is everything all right?’ she asked. She had pulled her hair back, Gemma noticed, and although dressed casually – jeans, a sweater – she still looked elegant. Gemma glanced down at her suit and wondered if she was overdressed. But then she was starting work, and her nan always said first impressions were crucial.

  ‘This room is stunning,’ Gemma replied truthfully. From the king-size bed with the upholstered headboard and luxurious bed linen, which felt how she imagined lying on a cloud to be, to the en suite bathroom, this was better than she could ever have imagined. ‘Honestly, if the rest of the house is like this, people will be beating your door down to stay here.’ She smiled, trying to sound confident, to sound like the Gemma that Pippa had hired, not the scared little girl she was a minute ago.

  ‘Oh! That’s so lovely of you to say.’ Pippa flushed pink. ‘It’s so important to me to make this work. You see, it’s sort of the only real job I’ve ever had, and I haven’t even really started yet! But I need to prove that I can do this, and I know you are the person to help me. Anyway, enough about that.’

  Gemma was getting used to the idea that Pippa jumped from topic to topic. She had got an inkling of how much opening the hotel meant to her when they first met. Pippa explained how she had gone from living with her father – who had now passed away – to getting married in her early twenties to a man who had hurt her very badly. She didn’t know the full story, but Pippa was so open she assumed she probably would at some stage. And Gemma felt a huge responsibility to help her. She was determined to do so.

  Gemma stood up. She caught her reflection in the large, ornate full-length mirror and it took her by surprise, for a moment.

  She’d undergone a bit of a makeover before her job interview; a long overdue image change. Her dark blonde hair had been lightened and cut into shoulder-length layers, giving it the illusion of thickness. She started wearing make-up, only a bit, but it did brighten her up. Gemma had never thought of herself as attractive, mainly because no one apart from her nan ever told her she was. But not anymore. New job, new Gemma, and now all she had to do was to meet Pippa’s family and help them to open a hotel. How hard could it be?

  She followed Pippa down the long, curved staircase, once again marvelling at the house and almost losing her footing. She couldn’t begin to imagine how it would feel to live in it, or to have grown up here. A fantasy life.

  ‘They’re in here, the dining room,’ Pippa said as she opened the door, stepping back to let Gemma go first.

  Sitting around the most enormous dining table, she found herself looking at the rest of the family. She gulped and tried to find a smile.

  The dining room was every bit as magnificent as she expected. She was so busy staring at a huge portrait of a handsome man, a beautiful woman with three small children and a baby, which she knew must be the Singer family, that she walked into the table.

  ‘Ow,’ she said, reddening and rubbing her hip.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Pippa asked as her family, all sat along one side of the table, looked at her with puzzled expressions.

  ‘Sorry, I was looking at …’ Words failed her.

  Collecting herself, she concentrated on the siblings, who she felt she knew from her Internet research. Despite the fact that two of them had dark hair (Harriet and Gus) and one of them blonde like Pippa (Freddie), they shared familiar similarities. There was also an older woman, and another man with messy brown hair and a smile that almost put her at ease, who she assumed must be Gwen and Connor from details that Pippa had shared and she had committed to her memory.

  Gwen was the family’s housekeeper and second mum. She was semi-retired but she still pretty much ran the domestic side of Meadowbrook. Connor, her son, was Harriet’s boyfriend, and they lived together in one of the cottages she’d passed on her way here. Gwen lived in the other. Gemma was piecing it all together in her mind, trying to keep track and concentrate. She needed to make sur
e she knew and remembered everything.

  Freddie looked a bit like a male version of Pippa and was one of the most handsome men she had ever seen – he looked like a film star. The photo she had seen of him didn’t quite do him justice; he was even more gorgeous in real life. As he smiled at her, her knees buckled, but she grabbed the table to steady herself.

  Next to him sat Gus, who was handsome in a more traditional way; hair flecked with grey, dark brown eyes and a serious expression. Harriet was undoubtedly attractive, well groomed and had an air of sophistication about her – they were a good-looking family. Intimidatingly so. Especially Harriet, whose demeanour was sharper and who was still eyeing Gemma with suspicion.

  If Gemma were normal, she might have felt a stab of jealousy. Here she was, with no family except for a nan wasting away in a nursing home, and here were they, all attractive, living in luxury and having each other. But Gemma didn’t do jealousy. Envy maybe, but not full-blown resentment. It wasn’t in her nature.

  ‘This is Gemma Matthews,’ Pippa said with a flourish. ‘Gemma, from left to right, that’s Freddie, Gus, and Harriet.’ She paused and smiled. ‘And of course Gwen, who’s lovely and the best cook ever; she’ll help us to design all the menus for the hotel. And finally Connor, Harry’s boyfriend who runs the animal sanctuary and is also a vet.’

  ‘Hello,’ Gemma said. She was gripping the table so tightly her knuckles turned white.

  There was a woof and a shaggy Old English sheepdog rushed out from under the table and bounded up to Gemma.

  ‘Oh, and not forgetting Hilda,’ Pippa said as Gemma bent down to stroke her.

  Well the dog was friendly at least and gave her a chance to try to compose herself. Whether she was nervous, intimidated, terrified or a combination of the three she was unsure, but she needed to pull herself together. She hadn’t yet managed to get through an hour at Meadowbrook – how would she manage six months?

  ‘Sit down,’ Harriet commanded, sounding formal.

  Gemma immediately did as she was told. She knew that Harriet used to work in investments in New York and had a reputation as quite a “ballbreaker”.

  ‘Right,’ Harriet continued. ‘Sorry to jump right in, but Pippa hired you before she actually told us she had even interviewed anyone.’ She didn’t sound delighted and Gemma felt uneasy at this piece of news.

  ‘But, Harry, you said I could take the lead with the hotel,’ Pippa objected.

  ‘Well yes, and I know we’ve been through this a thousand times, but Gemma needs to understand that it’s still a family business,’ Gus pointed out, although he smiled reassuringly at Gemma. ‘Pip, decisions this big should be shared.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Harriet added.

  ‘I agree,’ Freddie concurred. ‘The thing is, Gemma, that this is our hotel, not just Pippa’s, and I know my little sister is a little overenthusiastic about it but well, I also think that we should have met you before she offered you the job.’

  Gemma felt her heart sink. They were going to sack her before she’d even had a chance to see the whole house at this rate. Perhaps she shouldn’t have unpacked.

  ‘Hang on,’ Pippa said. ‘Of course the hotel is a family business, which is why you are all here, but I am going to take charge, we agreed, so I think that I was perfectly within my rights to hire Gemma.’

  As Gemma’s head swung between the siblings, she wondered just what was going on.

  ‘If you really believed that then why didn’t you tell us before you actually offered her the job?’ Harriet pushed. ‘Instead of just having her turn up.’ She smiled, slightly smugly, having made her point.

  Gemma would not like to argue with Harriet.

  ‘It was a surprise,’ Pippa said, but she glanced down at the table a little shamefaced.

  Gemma’s heart sank. Pippa didn’t have the blessing of the others to hire her, and she had done it without them because she didn’t want them to disagree with her. Which she had a feeling they would have done. She couldn’t imagine Harriet hiring her in a million years. Harriet would have hired someone more like herself, probably.

  ‘Oh, great way to run a business.’ Harriet’s voice was laced with sarcasm. ‘If only I’d managed to run a multimillion-pound trading desk by surprising everyone.’

  ‘Now hang on, this isn’t the same thing,’ Pippa argued. ‘And I know you wanted to be involved, but I thought as I would be working the most closely with the hotel consultant then I should have the final say.’

  ‘Well it is almost the same, because it’s our future,’ Freddie countered. ‘The future of our family home.’

  ‘And therefore we need to agree on the big decisions,’ Harriet persisted.

  Gemma wondered if she should just leave. It was as if they had forgotten she was there.

  ‘Hold on,’ Gwen said. ‘Before you all descend into a massive argument in front of Gemma, and let’s face it, we’ve been through this enough times before she got here, perhaps we should give Pippa and Gemma a chance.’ Her voice was calm and reasonable, and Gemma wanted to throw herself into her arms. ‘After all, she’s here now.’

  ‘I agree,’ Connor said, earning himself a scowl from his girlfriend. ‘No, Harry, I mean I agree with you, Pippa shouldn’t have gone behind your back, but … So how about you let Gemma show you that she’s the right person for the job?’ He leant over and kissed Harriet’s cheek as she pretended to pull away from him without actually doing so. They were clearly in love – it was written over both their faces.

  ‘A probation period then,’ Harriet said.

  Gemma groaned inwardly. It was like being given sweets and then having most of them taken away again.

  ‘That’s a good compromise,’ Gus reasoned.

  ‘One month.’ Harriet stared at Gemma, who looked at the table.

  ‘I’m OK with that.’ Freddie shrugged.

  ‘I guess that’s fair,’ Gus added.

  ‘Well, I suppose I don’t have a choice.’ Pippa didn’t sound very keen.

  Nor was Gemma. She thought about the fact that she had left her job for this, and the fact that her nan’s bungalow would be sold soon and she would have nowhere to live. Not to mention the care home fees that needed paying. She needed this job. She had no choice but to do whatever it took to keep it. She decided to take a chance, to seize the day, something she had never done before, but something she vowed she would do from now on.

  ‘Can I just say,’ she started, trying to ignore the wobble in her voice, ‘I have given up a full-time job to come here, and I was overjoyed at the idea that I would get a chance to help you to set up a brand-new hotel, but if you aren’t able to agree with each other, I’m not sure how this is going to work.’ She paused as she felt all eyes on her. ‘I mean it is a family business as you’ve pointed out, and the future of your family home, so before we start, everyone needs to be on the same page.’

  ‘Good point, Gemma,’ Gwen said. ‘Don’t worry, love, they bicker a lot. You’ll get used to it, but when the chips are down they all support each other. Don’t you?’ Gwen glared at each of them in turn.

  ‘Of course we do,’ Pippa mumbled. ‘Gemma, will you accept a trial period, just to keep the peace? After all, I knew as soon as I met you, you were right for Meadowbrook, so therefore I have every confidence in you, even if my siblings don’t in me.’ She folded her arms.

  Gemma felt sick. She had to resist holding her hands up and saying she wasn’t sure she could do it after all. But then again she thought of her nan, before she got ill, telling her that she was capable of so much, that she needed to aim for the stars and start taking risks. It was one of the last, most lucid conversations they’d had. She needed to take her words on board. She owed her that much.

  ‘Of course. I’m confident in my abilities and am happy to prove it to you all,’ she replied, feeling her leg shaking under the table and hoping she was a good liar, because she clearly needed to be.

  ‘Right, well that’s all decided.’ Harriet finally smile
d. ‘So, welcome to Meadowbrook, Gemma, and perhaps we can now all go to the kitchen and have a nice cup of tea and some of Gwen’s famous cake.’

  ‘Great, thanks.’ Gemma felt relief pumping through her veins, although she also felt a bit faint.

  ‘Or I could make a cocktail?’ Freddie suggested.

  ‘Fred, it’s only three o’clock,’ Gus said.

  ‘All right, all right, tea it is then.’ He rolled his eyes.

  Gemma felt as if she had jumped, or rather stumbled over the first hurdle. Hilda sat at her feet and thumped her tail against her leg. She had won over Pippa and Hilda, Gwen and Connor seemed supportive, so just the other three to go then.

  The rest of the afternoon passed in a pleasant blur. Harriet was a little warmer towards her – slightly south of Siberia anyway, as they sat in the largest kitchen that Gemma had ever seen, apart from on Downton Abbey. Gwen put the most sumptuous-looking cake in the centre of the kitchen table, Connor and Gus made tea, and as they all sat around the less formal table, Hilda settled herself by the Aga and promptly fell asleep. It was such a family scene, Gemma thought, but one that drew tears to her eyes, as she had never had a family like this. Visions of Sunday afternoon tea with her nan and her, sat alone around the small Formica table, illustrated her childhood. Her granddad died before she was born. Her father left days after her birth, followed four years later by her mother. She hadn’t seen either of them since. Her nan took over Gemma’s care with a devotion that she knew she was lucky to have.

  Gemma loved her nan and she couldn’t have wished for more love in her childhood. She hated to sound as if she were ungrateful, but she often wondered what would have happened had her parents not left. When she was younger she fantasised that they hadn’t, that they had stayed together and given Gemma siblings. Pure childish fantasy.