Four Secrets Kept by H L Marsay

Author:H L Marsay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781959988151
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2023-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Lucy couldn’t sleep. The glowing red numbers on her bedside clock told her it was quarter past two in the morning. How many nights had she lain in the darkness, owls screeching outside as she watching the minutes tick by? Everyone who knew her thought of her as this happy, outgoing, bubbly blonde, but nobody knew how many things preyed on her mind. It must have been years since she’d had a decent night’s sleep.

At first, she’d worried about Rupert. Worried about what he was doing when he disappeared to London, then she worried about what sort of mood he would be in when he came home. After that terrible night when she’d hit him, she’d worried if he would ever come back again at all.

More recently, she’d tossed and turned about the thought of Guy returning to Hartwell or having to face him in court. That morning she’d heard the case was due to be heard in November, as if that cold, grey, damp month wasn’t miserable enough.

Then there was the constant worry of running the estate. It felt like she was taking one step forward, but two steps back. The success of the weddings and filming contracts was in danger of being cancelled out by the inheritance tax. Now there was this business with Max stealing from them. She’d almost been sick when she realised how much he’d stolen. No wonder the estate was in such a mess. What he’d done to her was nothing compared to what he’d done to poor Mary and Becky though.

She turned her head. The little red lights told her it was now three o’clock. It would be light before she knew it. She gave her pillow a thump and rolled on to her side. On top of everything else, there was now her mother. Jack had brought a very tipsy Sadie home at midnight, after she’d tried unsuccessfully to convince him to hold a lock-in for her and a few of the bemused young farmers she’d befriended. Lucy had finally managed to get her into bed, leaving a bottle of water and some Alka-Seltzer for her and, to be safe, a bucket in case she couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time.

When Sadie had first turned up on her doorstep, Lucy had hoped they might actually be able to have the mother-daughter relationship she’d always longed for, but she hadn’t bargained for playing the role of the mother herself. Having Sadie staying with her was like looking after a particularly difficult teenager. She never went to bed before one o’clock in the morning and didn’t surface until midday. She left a trail of dirty cups, glasses and clothes throughout the house and Lucy was constantly having to replenish the bottles of gin and vodka she kept on the drinks table in the library. What upset her most was that she seemed far more interested in what the film crew were doing than getting to know Freddie.

Lucy wasn’t the only one whose routine had been disrupted by her mother’s arrival.

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