A Year at Meadowbrook Manor

by Faith Bleasdale

  Meadowbrook. They inherited the house equally and it had to stay in the family as long as the family existed. It was theirs now and then it would pass to Fleur and any other grandchildren, and so on. If the family came to the end of the line, then it would go to charity. Their father had thought of everything.

  ‘I can’t believe he left you the Bentley, Harry,’ Freddie complained but with a smile. ‘I so wanted that car.’

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Harriet said. ‘I am the oldest after all.’ It was the only thing their father had stipulated. All the rest of his belongings they would divide up among themselves in whatever way they wanted. But she got the fabulous car. She almost felt she was being rewarded for what she had gone through this year, and she couldn’t wait to take it for a spin.

  ‘Well, there is one thing I would like to know,’ Gus said. ‘What are we going to do with the house?’ He stood up and moved to the desk, perching on the edge so he was facing all his siblings.

  ‘I’m moving in with Connor and, if you agree, we wanted to knock the end two cottages together.’ Gwen was going to swap cottages, so Harriet, Connor and Hilda would not only have the bigger house but they could also knock into the next, still empty cottage – the one Harriet had hidden in – to make a decent size, four-bedroom cottage. They would be on hand for the animal sanctuary and Harriet couldn’t wait to start living properly with Connor, forging their future, which looked so incredibly rosy she almost couldn’t believe it was real. They’d barely been apart since the time at the lake, but somehow it felt as if it was getting better and better every day. Harriet wasn’t suddenly romantic and whimsical but she was annoyingly in love. She was behaving the way that, if it had been a year ago, she would have found incredibly irritating.

  The funniest thing was now they had money, Harriet had no desire to go throwing it around like she used to. She was going to give her redundancy money to the sanctuary – it meant she could work on expansion plans – and as for the inheritance, she had decided to give herself an annual amount to live on. She was going to treat herself to a nice haircut in Bath, goodness knew that was overdue, but as for the ridiculously expensive beauty products, personal trainers and clothes, well they belonged to the old Harriet and she didn’t need them anymore. Although she was having all her shoes shipped back from New York now she had decided to sell her apartment.

  Harriet didn’t know she could feel this happy. She was sure she had once, probably before she ever left Meadowbrook but she couldn’t remember. Turning down the job in New York had been easy, and now she was going to fly back to sell her apartment, sort out her last belongings and say goodbye properly to her friends. She was closing that chapter of the book for good, although she resolved she would still keep those she cared about in her life, she had learnt that lesson. She asked Connor if he wanted to go with her but he didn’t want to leave Hilda – lest she think she’d been abandoned again, and he was right. Although she thought the real reason was that he’d find New York quite terrifying. Maybe one day she would get him there.

  ‘Of course,’ Gus said. ‘I think that’s a great idea. And, as I’ve said, I’m moving in with Amanda, so I’ll only be down in the village.’

  ‘So, Pip and I,’ Freddie started, ‘we need to stay at the big house for now but we have been talking.’

  ‘Really? You do surprise me,’ Harriet teased. Pippa and Freddie were still thick as thieves, they were both a bit bruised from their broken relationships, but the great thing was that instead of Freddie going off the rails, Pippa had kept him sane, pretty sober, and they were both mending. They had each other, and Harriet, having been able to fully forgive both of them, could see that they were going to be just fine.

  ‘So what have you been thinking?’ Gus asked. Her new laid-back brother was quite a revelation. They were all new people. Reborn. As was their relationship with each other.

  ‘Well,’ Pippa said. She looked more beautiful than ever. Her hair gleamed, she’d given up her politician’s wife look for a more modern wardrobe which made her look a decade younger. She said she felt free and she certainly wore it well. ‘We thought, and the details need to be worked on, this is just a very rough idea, but we thought that we could maybe turn Meadowbrook into a boutique hotel and event venue.’

  ‘Right, wow?’ Harriet was intrigued. She hadn’t thought for a moment about what they would do with the house and she was a little taken aback. A hotel? Well it was an interesting idea.

  ‘But with a difference as well. We thought that we could offer holidays, or breaks, including gardening, or working with the animals, or maybe painting with Gus. Sort of healing holidays for those who need it,’ Pippa said.

  ‘You are kidding, you’re going to bill them as “healing holidays”?’ Harriet gasped. ‘We’ll attract all kinds of crazies.’

  ‘They’ll fit in well then,’ Gus quipped. ‘I mean, we might just attract people like us.’

  ‘We’re not going to bill it like that. It’ll be a luxury hotel, small, like I said, boutique, and it’ll attract people who need a break in the beautiful Somerset countryside, but we will offer a bit extra so we can stand out,’ Pippa explained. ‘We’ll need to really come up with a great marketing strategy but we think we can make it work.’

  ‘We figured that Pip and I could move into two of the attic rooms, and we could let out eight bedrooms at a time, either for couples or single guests. We have the pool and the gym, we were going to ask Gwen if she wanted to stay on here and help out, but if she decides to retire—’

  ‘That’ll never happen,’ Harriet said.

  ‘Right, well that’s what we were hoping,’ Freddie finished. ‘She could be in charge of the food, and we’ll see if we can open a bar, somewhere, I was thinking the drawing room, offering the best in cocktails.’

  ‘So, you have thought about it a lot then?’ Harriet smiled.

  ‘But we need your help, both of you, especially your business brain, Harry. Because if we do this, we’ll need a full business plan, and we’ll have to figure out how to run a hotel.’

  ‘It’ll be nice to be involved in another project, I’ve enjoyed working with you this year,’ Gus said. ‘And I’m guessing I’ll still be needed to run the gardens.’

  ‘Of course, they’re going to be part of the attraction,’ Pippa said. ‘And we will keep going with the Meadowbrook events of course.’

  ‘So, it’ll be a break with the added extra that you can garden, paint, or work with animals?’ Harriet clarified. Her brain began to whirl – if they did this, along with the animal sanctuary, she could see that perhaps she would be occupied, challenged enough. She knew that being with Connor was the most important thing but she still needed to work, it was part of her.

  ‘It’s kind of going to be like Meadowbrook: the hotel that mends broken hearts,’ Pippa said.

  ‘Please tell me you’re not going to call it that?’ Gus said.

  ‘It’s a bit of a tall order,’ Harriet pointed out, she was partly amused and party excited at the prospect. ‘We might get sued if people’s hearts don’t actually mend.’

  ‘Well, that might not be the exact name, but you get the gist.’ Pippa held her hands out, exasperated. Out from under Mark’s shadow, Pippa was finding her assertive side again. ‘After all, in its own way Meadowbrook mended all of our broken hearts.’

  ‘It did but it broke them too though,’ Harriet said. ‘Pip, Fred, it’s got the bones of being a very good idea, you know. Although we do need to put more thought into it. And do research, I mean none of us knows much about the hotel business, do we?’

  ‘Exactly, bossy. And now can I pour us all some of Dad’s good brandy?’ Freddie asked.

  ‘Yes, I think we need a drink, but shall we get Gwen and Connor to join us,’ Harriet asked. She knew they were both in the kitchen, waiting for news, and she wanted them here, after all they were both such a part of the family.

  ‘I’ll go,’ Gus offered.

  Gwen and Connor ente
red the office as Freddie was pouring and handing out drinks.

  ‘So,’ Gwen said, ‘I’m guessing you know everything now.’

  ‘Did you know all along that we couldn’t sell the house?’ Pippa asked, eyes narrowed at Gwen as she gave her an affectionate hug.

  ‘I was sworn to secrecy. But I also knew there was a lot of money and I couldn’t have lived with myself if Mark and Loretta had got their hands on it.’

  ‘Did you know?’ Harriet turned to Connor.

  ‘’Course not, Mum didn’t breathe a word.’ He put his arm around her and she felt the familiar tingling of warmth that she was getting so used to. It was funny how alien having someone around full time was, but how normal it felt too.

  ‘I’m not sure I can get used to seeing you two together,’ Freddie said.

  ‘It is weird,’ Pippa added.

  ‘I knew they’d end up together,’ Gus finished. ‘I remember when we were young, she mooned after him all the time …’

  ‘Did not.’ Harriet gave Gus a playful swipe.

  ‘You do know your girlfriend is rich now.’ Freddie pointed his glass at Connor.

  ‘Fred!’ Pippa chastised.

  ‘I don’t care about that,’ Connor said, flushing slightly.

  ‘Oh, mate, he’s only teasing, we all know that you care less about money than anyone we know,’ Gus laughed. ‘If you had your way you’d give it to the animals, anyway.’

  ‘Although perhaps Harry can use some money to buy a new Elton,’ Freddie suggested.

  ‘We can’t replace Elton.’ Pippa was wide-eyed.

  ‘No, but we are looking to get David some company, I think if he had a friend, it would make it easier. He is still missing him so much,’ Connor explained. ‘Poor thing is really, really in mourning.’

  ‘And, it made it easier on all of us, didn’t it?’ Pippa said. ‘I mean we wouldn’t have coped with losing Dad without each other.’

  ‘When I think how close we came to losing that though,’ Harriet said. Both Freddie and Pippa looked shamefaced. ‘I’m not blaming you, not anymore anyway,’ she teased.

  ‘Yes, Harry, it might be time to let them forget it now,’ Gwen said, assertively. Harriet grinned at her. This woman knew her too well.

  ‘A toast,’ Gus said.

  ‘To surviving the year at Meadowbrook?’ Harriet suggested.

  ‘To coming out of bad relationships?’ Pippa suggested.

  ‘To some of us finding love?’ Gus beamed.

  ‘To us all being together again, a proper family,’ Freddie said.

  ‘To Dad, who might have known what he was doing after all,’ Harriet admitted.

  As Connor kissed her, she said a silent thank you to her father. It turned out he did know exactly what he was doing, but then, he always did.

  Acknowledgements

  It was such fun to write this, so I want to thank everyone who helped me along the way. To my lovely agents at Diane Banks Associates and to all at Avon, especially Victoria for a great editing process and to Helen who listened to me over a lovely lunch when the idea for this book was born.

  Thanks to my mum for all her help with childcare and ironing when I was busy writing away, and also to Helen and Becky and all the Langmead family; knowing my son has such great people in his life is invaluable.

  A huge thanks go to Jenny and her sister Claire for letting me visit her lovely animals.

  Inspiration as always comes from Jo and Keith, especially with the animals in this book. I am always grateful to have both of you in my life.

  Thanks as always to my friends for maintaining my – sort of – sanity and ditto my family. But a special big thanks goes my son, Xavier, who I simply love with all my heart.

  I hope that you enjoy reading this book as much as I did writing it.

  About the Author

  Faith Bleasdale lives in North Devon with her eight year old son and her cat. She studied history at the University of Bristol, has enjoyed a wide variety of jobs but is now lucky enough to write full time. Having lived in Bristol, London and Singapore, she now enjoys the countryside and seaside life in Devon, happily swapping the city for wellington boots, although she dusts the heels off frequently to visit London. She has previously written six fiction books and one non-fiction.

  If you enjoyed A Year at Meadowbrook Manor, then you’ll love this stunning new series from Phillipa Ashley.

  Escape to the Little Cornish Isles this spring.

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  Loved your year at Meadowbrook Manor?

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  Join Billie Summers as she gives her life a much-needed makeover.

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