Secrets at Meadowbrook Manor. Faith Bleasdale

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 sure 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, СКАЧАТЬ