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www.millsandboon.co.uk
Former journalist SARA CRAVEN published her first novel ‘Garden of Dreams’ for Mills & Boon in 1975. Apart from her writing (naturally!) her passions include reading, bridge, Italian cities, Greek islands, the French language and countryside, and her rescue Jack Russell/cross Button. She has appeared on several TV quiz shows and in 1997 became UK TV Mastermind champion. She lives near her family in Warwickshire – Shakespeare country.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
ENDPAGE
COPYRIGHT
CHAPTER ONE
‘SO when do the bulldozers move in?’
Robin Lincoln flushed angrily. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Courtney! It won’t be that bad.’
‘No?’ his sister queried ironically. ‘Judging by these—–’ she swept a contemptuous hand over the pile of plans and folders lying between them on the living room table ‘—it’s about as bad as it could be. You surely can’t imagine the local people are going to stand for anything like this? Why, they’ll be up in arms as soon as the news gets out!’
‘Well, I don’t happen to share your opinion,’ Robin said defensively. ‘I admit it may take them a while to accustom themselves, but…’
‘A while?’ Courtney’s echo was derisive. ‘When they hear that Hunters Court—the house that’s been looked on as the manor all these years—has been bought up by a consortium who want to turn it into a cheap country club?’
Her brother glared at her. ‘There you go again—sitting in judgment. Just because it’s poor old Monty!’
‘Hardly an apt description—or one that he would appreciate.’ Courtney raised her eyebrows. ‘Wealthy middle-aged Monty would be more to the point.’
Robin’s mouth turned down sullenly. ‘You really dislike him, don’t you?’
‘I’ve hardly made any secret of it,’ Courtney returned crisply. ‘I think he’s a repulsive little creep, and that this—scheme he’s dreamed up is typical of him. The only thing I can’t understand is how you ever got involved with him in the first place.’
‘Oh no, you wouldn’t understand,’ Robin said savagely. ‘You don’t like success, do you, Courtney? You’re frightened of it. Ever since we lost Hunters Court and Father had that second stroke you decided it was safer to settle for this—rabbit hutch, and a dull future just ahead of the breadline, rather than make any attempt to recoup what we lost, but I’m not prepared to do that, and you don’t like it.’
Courtney sat down wearily on one of the elderly chairs which flanked the table. ‘Rob, that’s not true! Do you think I haven’t dreamed as you have of getting Hunters Court back somehow? But I’ve always known it wasn’t possible. Even before that—other business, Father was having a job to keep it going. You know that. Houses like Hunters Court eat money, and their appetite gets bigger every year.’
‘Of course I know it,’ Robin said shortly. ‘Why do you think I agreed to act for the consortium? Because it’s a way—probably the only way that we’ll ever get Hunters Court back.’
‘But we won’t be getting it back,’ Courtney argued. ‘It will belong to them. All you’ll be is the manager—a paid employee. It won’t be the same. It can’t.’
Rob shrugged. ‘Then it will have to do,’ he said. ‘I’m not dogsbodying at Carteret’s for the rest of my life. I’m sick of being treated as a charity case. Sick of the whispered remarks. “Lincoln? Lincoln? Any relation to the man whose partner embezzled all that money?” ‘
Courtney sighed inwardly. Three years ago Geoffrey Devereux had been arrested at Heathrow, after a spot audit had revealed discrepancies in the handling of clients’ money. He had been charged with embezzlement, and bail had been opposed while further enquiries were made, but he had died of a heart attack while on remand, leaving James Lincoln, the head of the firm, facing ruin, and the knowledge that his friend and partner of many years’ standing had betrayed him.
When the full amount of the liability that Devereux had created became known, James Lincoln himself had become ill, suffering two strokes, the second of which had left him semi-paralysed and hardly able to speak.
Within a matter of weeks Courtney and Robin found their world had turned upside down. Geoffrey Devereux had died without making any kind of confession, or even a hint as to what he’d done with the thousands of pounds he had stolen. But it had to be repaid somehow, and Hunters Court, which had been the Lincoln family home for generations, was put on the market.
Robin’s dream of becoming a racing driver died there and then, under the necessity of earning some kind of living, and he reluctantly accepted his godfather’s offer of employment in his merchant bank.
Courtney, in the middle of an A-level course at her expensive boarding school, abandoned her plans for university, and thanked heaven for the shorthand and typing option she had taken instead of the needlework she loathed. She had to leave school because there was no more money forthcoming for fees.
The cottage, offered to them by the owner of the neighbouring estate, Colonel FitzHugh, was a godsend, even if it did seem like the rabbit hutch of Robin’s description after the spaciousness of Hunters Court. And because the Colonel was an old friend of their father’s, they only paid a minimum rental for it.
She said gently, ‘Rob, mud sticks, that’s inevitable, but it will pass. The job at Carteret’s may not be very exciting, but it’s security. Don’t throw it away for some chancy scheme put forward by a man you hardly know.’
Robin looked mutinous. ‘We knew Geoffrey Devereux, or thought we did, and a lot of good it did us. All you have against Monty is sheer female prejudice.’
There was a certain amount of justice in that, Courtney was forced to concede. She knew no actual harm of Montague Pallister and the companies with which he was associated, but instinct told her that he was a speculator, whose genial manner concealed a ruthless determination to squeeze the last penny out of any project with which he was connected, and the thought of such a man getting his hands on Hunters Court frankly nauseated her.
It had hurt when the Hallorans had bought the estate, but they were nice people and had looked after it well. Courtney was disappointed that they too were being forced to sell, but she understood that Mrs Halloran’s health demanded a warmer winter climate than Britain had to offer. She had hoped that some like-minded people would come along and buy Hunters Court, but the economic recession had made many potential buyers rethink the wisdom of acquiring a country estate, however modest, and Courtney had come reluctantly to realise that when Hunters Court was put up for auction, it would probably be bought by some commercial concern—as a small private hotel, perhaps, or a nursing home.
She had not then associated Montague Pallister’s arrival on the scene with the sale of Hunters Court, and looking back, she supposed she had been naïve.
At first she had accepted Robin’s airy explanation that he had met Monty through the bank, and that he had given him some advice over investments. Robin certainly seemed to have more money at his disposal these days, and Courtney wished she could have felt more gratefully disposed towards Monty Pallister, but it was impossible. He was too well-dressed, too opulent, and the way she had seen him looking at herself when he thought he was unobserved made her feel ill.
Because he was ostensibly a friend of Robin’s, he often visited the cottage, although it was too small for him to actually stay there, to Courtney’s relief. Instead he stayed at the local inn, which had a good reputation for its food and accommodation, and when he was at the cottage Courtney could usually find an excuse to be elsewhere. After his visits, she always imagined that there were traces of him round the place, as if he left a trail like a slug.
But there had been no clues that he wanted Hunters Court, she thought bitterly. That had been a well-kept secret, even though he must have had architects and surveyors working on the project even before the estate had been put on the market if the volume of material they had produced was anything to go by. She had sat up the greater part of the previous night reading it, trying and failing to come to terms with what was planned. The house itself would survive, in spite of internal alterations to extend the dining room, and provide at least two bars. But the stables and outbuildings would vanish, to be rebuilt as mews-style cottages to be offered for sale on a time-share basis. The sunken garden would disappear too, and be replaced by a swimming pool. The small park would be transformed into a nine-hole golf course, and the walled rose garden would turn into tennis courts.
On paper, it did not sound so bad, but Courtney had seen glossy brochures advertising other projects in which Monty Pallister had been involved. A quick financial return rather than quality seemed to be the underlying principle, and Courtney could not bear to think of the house which had been her home for seventeen years being sacrificed to that. It was a foolish thought—as if stones and mortar could bleed—but last night as she’d read the reports and looked at the plans and sketches, she hadn’t felt foolish at all, just blazingly angry.
This morning, she’d tried to explain to Robin how she felt, but she’d known from the start that it was useless. He didn’t want to understand.
All he knew was that at tomorrow’s auction he would be bidding for Hunters Court on behalf of the consortium, and just for a while he could pretend that he was buying it back for himself, his birthright. The reality, Courtney thought, would be very different, but then a sense of reality was not Robin’s strong point, and never had been.
He’d complained that his job at Carteret’s was a dead end, but Courtney felt that if he’d settled down to it, Philip Carteret would have seen that he was properly rewarded. As it was, over the past weeks Robin had hardly been there, and she had no idea what excuses he made for his absences, if he even bothered.
Now, she said quietly, ‘Rob, why did you never tell me what was going on?’
He shrugged, ‘I was going to tell you today, as a matter of fact, only old FitzHugh beat me to it. How the hell did he find out, I’d like to know?’
She shook her head. ‘This is a small place. A rumour doesn’t take long to get round. And he’s a friend of Frank Mottram the auctioneer. He probably mentioned that you were interested. Anyway, what does it matter? They don’t know the truth.’
She’d been on her way home from the office early yesterday because the man she worked for was going away to a conference, and had offered her a few days off while he was away to compensate for a lot of extra work she’d done recently. She had agreed with pleasure. She wanted to decorate her bedroom, and she’d bought the paper and paint several weeks before. She had stopped at the village store to buy some bread, and Colonel FitzHugh had just been coming out. He had paused smilingly.
‘Well, my dear, this is great news! The Lincolns belong at Hunters Court, and I wish Rob every success at the auction. I don’t imagine he’ll have much competition—certainly not from local people anyway.’
Courtney had said something in reply, and driven straight home, the bread forgotten. Just for a while, she had enjoyed her fantasies too. Rob was going to buy Hunters Court. They would be home again. Father could leave the nursing home at last, and come to live with them again. But the euphoria was only momentary. Then the questions began. Where was Rob getting the money? She knew that, through Monty Pallister, he had been dabbling in the Stock Market, but surely he hadn’t made enough through his transactions to meet even the quite modest reserve the Hallorans had placed on Hunters Court. Or had Uncle Philip by some miracle offered to lend him the money? It didn’t seem likely. Philip Carteret was a shrewd financier, who had once described Hunters Court and houses like it as ‘albatrosses’. He and James Lincoln had almost quarrelled over it.
She had intended to phone Rob at Carteret’s, but she didn’t have to, because he was there at home. He’d been telephoning, as it happened. He was just replacing the receiver as she walked in, and looking incredibly pleased with himself.
Courtney had stood for a long moment looking at him. She felt frightened suddenly, although she didn’t know why.
She said, ‘Colonel FitzHugh tells me you’re going to bid for Hunters Court at the auction on Friday. It can’t be true. We—we can’t afford it. You know that.’
Rob said, ‘We don’t have to.’ There was a kind of triumph in his voice. ‘Sister dear, we’re going to have all the comforts of home—and none of the expense. It’s all fixed.’
He had told her the whole story there and then, going out to the car and bringing in the briefcase full of files and plans that she had never seen before.
She had listened to him numbly, wondering how he could bear to refer to Hunters Court in such terms, her emotions in shock, rejecting every persuasive phrase as it fell from his lips.
‘A country club—leisure facilities—sauna and gym—a first class restaurant.’ His voice had risen with excitement, his hands gesticulating as he sketched out the fate Monty Pallister had designed for Hunters Court.
Her immediate reaction had been, ‘It will never work. Local people don’t go in for that sort of thing.’
He looked impatient. ‘It won’t just be for locals. Haven’t you been listening? The people who buy the cottages will use it mainly, although it will be open to outsiders. Monty opened a similar place in the southwest two years ago. It’s been incredibly successful, and this will be too. He has all the right contacts.’
Courtney’s mouth moved stiffly. ‘And he has you.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ He had glared at her.
‘So this is what he wanted. You—to act as front man for him. I suppose he thought if the word got out that he wanted the estate, the price would go sky-high.’
‘Well, naturally. And he has business rivals. He doesn’t want any of them getting ahead of him.’
‘Oh, naturally,’ Courtney said bitterly.
They had argued all evening, and she’d sat up for most of the night going through the file over and over again, trying to derive some crumb of comfort, but in vain.
And it looked no better in the pallid sunlight of a February morning.
She said, ‘What are you going to tell Daddy?’
‘I’ve already told him.’ Another flash of triumph.
She looked at him helplessly. ‘And how did he react.’
Robin shrugged. ‘Generally in favour. He knows what it will mean for all of us. And he’ll get out of that damned nursing home. On the salary I’ll be getting for managing the country club, I can afford a live-in nurse for him.’
Courtney said drily, ‘It all sounds too good to be true.’ And it did. What did Rob know about managing anything that could justify the kind of salary he was talking about? ‘And when you say “all of us”, please don’t include me. I don’t want any part of this, or anything else that Monty Pallister has dreamed up.’
He gave her an impatient look. ‘Don’t be a fool! Of course you’re included. There’ll be plenty of secretarial work once it gets started—reception too, if you fancy it.’
‘The hostess with the mostest,’ Courtney said ironically. ‘But I don’t fancy it, Rob. I don’t want any of it. I like my job, and I’ll stick to that, thanks.’
He stared at her. ‘You can’t be serious!’
‘What makes you think that?’ She gave him a straight glance. ‘I’d have been against this scheme if a complete stranger had been involved, and the fact that it’s you makes no difference at all. When the news gets out locally, everyone will be against you. Don’t you realise that?’
He said savagely, ‘If you think I’m going to stay a loser all my life just to please the neighbours, then you can think again. Where were they when we needed them?’
‘That’s not fair,’ said Courtney in a low voice. ‘We’ve received a lot of kindness—this cottage, for example. And although he’s not a neighbour, Uncle Philip …’
‘Uncle Philip!’ Robin was derisive. ‘You sound like a child! I suppose if Geoffrey Devereux were to walk in through that door now, you’d call him “Uncle” too.’
Courtney sighed. ‘I probably would at that. I can’t just shake off the habit of a lifetime. And he always was like an uncle to us, after all.’
There was a trace of malice in Robin’s smile. ‘And his nephew who was such a constant visitor in the old days. How would you greet him? As Cousin Blair?’
For a long bleak moment a disturbing image rose in Courtney’s mind—a lean, tanned face cast in bitter lines, hard hazel eyes, glittering with anger and contempt, and on one high cheekbone, a trickle of blood. Just for that moment it was as if Robin’s words had evoked him, and he was there in the room, a physical presence rather than a figment of her imagination. And just for that moment she was back in the study at Hunters Court, her father slumped greyfaced in the chair beside her, while she screamed, ‘Get out of here! Get out! Leave us alone. Haven’t you done enough harm? Can’t you see he’s ill?’
And his voice—not the faintly amused drawl she had always hated, but harsh and raw. ‘He deserves to be ill—and more.’
It had sounded like a curse, as if he was predicting some future vengeance, and it had frightened her. And when James Lincoln had collapsed with his first stroke not long afterwards, she had always remembered.
She controlled a shiver. Why had Robin had to remind her of him now? It was a long time since she’d allowed herself to think of Blair Devereux.
Aloud she said coolly, ‘I think not. I was never prepared to go to those lengths, even in the old days. I dislike Blair Devereux more than I do your friend Mr Pallister, and that’s saying something.’
It had always been there, she thought, ever since Blair had come into their lives. Not so much dislike at first as a bewildered resentment. Geoffrey Devereux had been a childless widower, and over the years he had become a close part of the family. He came and went at Hunters Court as if it was his own home, and Courtney in particular saw him as a surrogate uncle.
Blair’s arrival on the scene had been a shock and a disappointment. She’d been used to thinking of Uncle Geoffrey as being alone in the world, and now it seemed he had a nephew with a prior claim on his time and attention, because Blair’s parents were dead.
If he’d been a child like herself, she could have understood, perhaps, but he was already a man, ten years older than herself, seven years older than Robin. An attractive man, she had come unwillingly to realise as time passed, tall and slim with thick tawny hair which curled slightly, and hazel eyes mocking under heavy lids.
When Blair was at Hunters Court, together with her father and Geoffrey Devereux, he seemed to complete a charmed circle from which she and Robin were excluded as children. Courtney didn’t want to feel excluded. Because she and her brother were at boarding school, their time at Hunters Court was limited, and Blair’s visits during the holidays always seemed to cast a shadow over her happiness.
Nothing seemed to work—either behaving outrageously in order to attract attention, or pretending that he didn’t exist. Whatever she tried made little difference. The most reaction she ever got from him was a bored, ‘Don’t be more of a brat than you can help, Courtney.’
She simmered with loathing of him, and it wasn’t helped by Robin undergoing a type of adolescent hero-worship for him, making her feel more isolated than ever.
That passed, of course, and as she herself moved through her own adolescence towards womanhood, she found reluctantly that her feelings towards Blair were becoming more ambivalent. But his abrupt arrivals were always a shock, setting her at odds with herself, overturning her fragile girl’s poise. She had come to think of him as a kind of bird of ill omen, hovering and dangerous on the corner of her life, and later, as that life had crashed in ruins about her, she had realised how accurate that perception of him had been.
But he had been the sole shadow in the last golden summer before everything had slid so suddenly and frighteningly away. She’d been having such a wonderful time. She’d been reckless with invitations to stay and Hunters Court had been filled with her school friends. Patterson who looked after the grounds had fixed up a badminton net on the lawn at the side of the house, and they’d played desultory matches in the heat, then lounged with cold drinks beside the small lake, talking about everything and anything—their forthcoming examinations, their dreams and aspirations.
Then Blair had arrived, and all that closeness and empathy had been shattered. She saw it happen, saw the other girls looking at him, sidelong glances at first and then quite openly. Saw the focus of attention slip away making them all not so much friends as rivals. Saw him spoil everything.
Once again she felt that she was the outsider, and she hated him for it. It made no difference that he never actively encouraged any of them. He was civil, but aloof, and not even the most blatantly flirtatious advances did anything to penetrate the wall of reserve he seemed to have built round himself. One by one they all tried to get through to him and failed, and were resigned or sulky or despondent according to temperament.
Courtney didn’t know which side she despised the most, or even why. She sat miserably listening to the electric silence which descended whenever Blair appeared, watching them watching him, and realising that charmed circle of girlhood had gone for ever.
Then she found they were watching her and speculating, and that was the worst of all.
‘You never mentioned him,’ Anna Harper said one afternoon, when they were all by the lake. ‘Not once.’
Courtney shrugged, feeling awkward. ‘It never occurred to me.’ She tried to explain several times that to her he was simply Blair, Uncle Geoffrey’s nephew, and a thorn in her flesh, but she knew they hadn’t believed her.
‘He behaves as if we’re invisible!’ someone else wailed.
Kate Lydyard, who was trailing her fingers in the water, smiled, her eyes going slyly to Courtney. Kate was the oldest in the group, already eighteen, with an extra confidence and self-assurance. Courtney had always admired her, and her cool blonde good looks, but since Kate had been at Hunters Court, she had discovered she didn’t really like her very much.
Now Kate moved her hand sharply, sending a spray of glistening droplets into the air. She said softly, ‘That’s because he’s waiting for Courtney.’
They were all looking at her, suspicious and envious at the same time.
She said sharply, ‘Then he’ll wait for ever.’ Her voice rang clearly through the warm afternoon. She saw a movement on the terrace and shading her eyes realised that he was there. She could have screamed with vexation, but consoled herself with the reflection that he was too far away to have overheard the entire conversation, so that her final comment, if he’d picked it up, would have been meaningless. At least she hoped so.
But later when they met in the drawing room for tea, she wasn’t too sure. Each time she glanced up, Blair seemed to be watching her, and while there was amusement in his eyes, there was speculation too, which she found frankly alarming. She was beginning to wonder whether her words of angry refutal to Kate hadn’t lit some kind of slow fuse, and ask herself what she could do to evade the inevitable explosion.