Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor by Melanie Dobson

Author:Melanie Dobson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Howard Books

CHRISTOPHER SILENTLY CHIDED HIMSELF AS he walked up the hill in the darkness, away from the streetlamps in the village. If only Heather hadn’t caught him by surprise this afternoon—he could have controlled all the mixed emotions that erupted inside him. He was no longer nineteen and naïve, but for some reason, in her presence, he still felt awkward.

Of course Heather had stopped by to see his mother. He shouldn’t have been so presumptuous to assume that she would seek him out after all these years.

And then he’d been the slightest bit disappointed that she hadn’t come to visit him.

She’d looked beautiful with her golden-brown hair tied back, wearing a simple white blouse and jeans. And she’d looked so very different from Adrienne.

He groaned again, loudly this time. He was here to put the past behind him, not conjure up old feelings, but it would help if Heather had lost some of her beauty over the years.

After Heather left this afternoon, he’d told Adrienne the truth—that he and Heather had dated, almost thirty years ago, long before he married Julianna. There was nothing between Heather and him now, just like there was nothing between Adrienne and her old boyfriends.

Adrienne said he was fooling himself.

This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to come home this weekend. Unnecessary confusion when there was nothing to be confused about. He’d tried to explain to Adrienne that his feelings for Heather died with his teenage years, but she said that anger is still a feeling. She also said he may not feel love in his heart toward his old girlfriend, but plenty of strong feelings remained.

He should have been honest with Adrienne about his reasons for wanting to postpone their visit. They could have waited to return until Heather was back in the States.

The evening with his family hadn’t been a disaster, but it was just as strained as the meeting with Heather had been. His sister started talking about Julianna twice and awkwardly dropped the conversation. Then his brother mentioned he’d seen Heather Doyle in the village yesterday. Mum shut him down, but not before his brother asked what had happened between them. When dinner was over, Adrienne feigned a headache and then locked the door to the guestroom.

Mum went to bed early as well, but he hadn’t been the least bit tired.

Away from the village, a thousand stars showered the canvas of black above him, and in the light he could see the imposing gray stone of Ladenbrooke’s towers among the trees. Its eerie presence was woven into the fabric of their town, like the River Coln and Rack Isle. One rarely spent much time reflecting on the familiar things of life—like the presence of a home that had been abandoned for as long as he remembered—but things that had once been so familiar to him felt oddly foreign tonight.

As he crested the hill, the towers disappeared behind the ivy-draped gray wall and iron gate.

In the months before Walter died, his friend talked often about his former neighbors.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.