Always and Forever at Glendale Hall Read online

  Always and Forever at Glendale Hall

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Prologue Twelve years ago

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Epilogue

  A letter from Victoria

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Also by Victoria Walters

  Copyright

  Cover

  Table of Contents

  Start of Content

  Always and Forever at Glendale Hall

  Victoria Walters

  To everyone who loves reading about Glendale as much as I love writing about it… this is for you. Thank you.

  Prologue

  Twelve years ago

  When I woke up, I had no idea where I was.

  I could hear something beeping…

  I could smell bleach…

  I could feel softness beneath me…

  I blinked, trying to get my eyes to adjust. And then I could see three familiar faces sitting around me. My parents. And my brother. I let out a breath, relaxing a little to see them with me.

  ‘Thank you, God,’ I heard Brodie say as my mother let out a sob and reached for my hand, squeezing it so hard it hurt a little.

  ‘You’ve come back to us,’ my dad said, his voice breaking. ‘I’ll get a doctor.’ He jumped up and hurried out of the room.

  I opened my mouth but it felt dry, and my throat felt like it had a long, deep scratch down it. I tried to move my legs but I couldn’t. I turned to Brodie, my eyes widening in panic.

  ‘It’s okay, Anna,’ he said. ‘You were in an accident but you’re okay. You will be okay.’ I was shocked to see tears in his eyes as he spoke fiercely to me. I’d never seen my brother cry before. He looked across at my mother, looking for a moment like a little boy again. ‘She will be okay now, won’t she?’

  ‘Of course she will,’ Mum said, fiercely. She leaned over and brushed my hair back off my forehead.

  And then it came flooding back. The flash of two headlights coming straight for us. The force that sent me flying. The sound of broken glass. And someone screaming.

  I realised that person had been me.

  A doctor and two nurses appeared then, and the room became a whirl of activity as they checked me over and asked me questions. I was able to move my legs after a minute, to everyone’s relief, but the pain was excruciating. The doctor told me that I’d been in a coma for two weeks after a driver had ploughed into my dad’s car. I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt and had flown through the windscreen. The doctors did test after test. There was no lasting brain damage. Both of my legs were broken and I’d need a lot of physical therapy to build my muscles up again. My ribs were cracked and breathing was painful but they would heal. I had a deep gash in my cheek but they didn’t think there would be too much of a scar. They said I was lucky.

  I tried to ask my mum about the accident, about what had happened, but she kept crying, kept saying that I had survived, that was all that mattered, and my brother kept thanking God, and my dad… well, he said nothing. Soon, I learned that my family didn’t want to talk about it. And I was too scared to keep asking because I feared what they would say.

  Especially when I overheard my dad telling Brodie that the driver who had hit us had died.

  Flashes kept returning to me of that evening. Flashes that would plague me long after my physical recovery. Flashes that made me sure the accident had been my fault, and as such I shouldn’t have survived it.

  And that fear rooted itself inside my chest and refused to shift.

  It wouldn’t leave me. Not after Brodie told me he’d made a bargain with God to save me, or when I was allowed home and my parents helped me onto our sofa, the relief radiating out from them, or even when I could finally walk around the block without my legs feeling like they were going to collapse.

  The fear followed me all through my recovery.

  When the consultant signed me off from the hospital, I walked outside and sucked in the air.

  I could breathe again.

  I could walk again.

  I was alive.

  But I was terrified that I didn’t deserve any of it.

  And that fear…

  It never left me.

  Chapter One

  ‘Come on, Anna, give us one more round!’

  I leaned on the bar as Dave waved his empty beer glass at me, grinning hopefully. It was well past eleven now. I’d rung the last orders bell ages ago, but the table of Dave’s rugby mates were still here. ‘I need to lock up,’ I said, shaking my head.

  ‘So, lock the door… and then give us another round of beers. Come on, gorgeous, the boss is away, he’ll never know, will he? He’ll be glad of the money anyway. And you can have one with us.’

  I smiled, wavering. I’d worked at The Thistle pub for three months and my boss was known to be a grumpy old sod so the idea of us getting one over on him while he was away at some landlord convention was appealing. Plus, I felt like celebrating. I had just booked a flight for the end of the summer to Ibiza so I didn’t have to put up with working here for too much longer. ‘Make mine a double and you’ve got yourself a deal,’ I replied. The whole table cheered and Dave leaned over to plant a wet kiss on my cheek. I laughed along with them and slipped out from behind the bar to lock the doors. Outside, Glasgow was dark and quiet, the sky crystal clear and dotted with stars.

  Once we were locked in, their table became even more boisterous, and I busied myself getting everyone a drink, and one for myself, before joining them, sitting on the edge of the table, the only space left. ‘Here’s to Hamish,’ I said, raising my double vodka and coke up as I toasted my absent boss, tossing back my long, candy-floss pink hair.

  ‘To Hamish!’ The six big rugby lads roared back at me, their fists thumping on the table as we all took a long drink. I had been on my feet behind the bar all day, Hamish having abandoned me even though it was the day the rugby club met, making us busier than usual. So I
felt like I deserved this. And, let’s face it, breaking the rules was something I was always up for.

  ‘We need some music,’ Dave declared.

  ‘I’m on it!’ I downed the remainder of my drink, climbed off the table and went over to the CD player Hamish used with a lot of grumbling on a Saturday night, the only time he allowed music in his pub. The pub was small, situated in a quiet road on the edge of the city, frequented by locals only, some of whom had drunk here for fifty years or more. I had caused a stir turning up with my pink hair, and being well below the age of the average customer, but Hamish had been through five different bar staff in the past year alone by being infamously difficult to work for, and I’d worked in pubs and bars for years so he had begrudgingly given me the job. The reason I’d chosen to stay at The Thistle for the past three months was the job was easy, and came with board in a tiny bedsit upstairs, and was just a twenty-minute walk into the city centre, and I’d just wanted any work so I could save up to spend September in Ibiza. I longed for runs on the beach, bars that served cocktails and tourists up for a good time.

  ‘Ooh, I love this song,’ I cried as Queen started playing. Hamish didn’t think music existed after the eighties but I didn’t mind. I loved anything old school. I turned it up and jumped on an empty table to sing along.

  Dave climbed up with me and wrapped his arms around my waist. ‘You know we still haven’t gone on that date you promised me,’ he said into my ear, pulling me closer.

  ‘She’s too good for you, mate,’ a burly man they called Badger, for some inexplicable reason, yelled as one of the others wolf-whistled at us.

  ‘We could have another drink upstairs once these clowns leave,’ Dave said then, turning me towards him. He reeked of alcohol but he did have a nice smile, and his muscly arms were strong and safe around me. I let him pull me closer, tipping my face up to meet his, aware of whooping from his mates but not really caring after the vodka I’d just had. When his lips met mine, they did the thing that I kept seeking – they drowned the world out for the moment and let me just stop and breathe.

  Which was why I didn’t notice the door opening behind us or that Dave’s mates had stopped cheering. It wasn’t until Queen suddenly stopped, and the room fell into silence, that Dave pulled away from me and we turned around to see Hamish standing under the table, hands on his hips, his face bright red. ‘What are you doing here?’ I gasped in horror.

  ‘The convention finished early so I thought I’d come home rather than fork out money on a hotel…’ He shook his head. ‘More importantly, what the hell is going on here?’

  ‘Um… they were just helping me clear up,’ I said, stepping away from Dave and wiping stray berry lipstick from the side of my mouth.

  ‘Do you think I’m stupid, Anna?’ Hamish practically growled at me. ‘I know a lock-in when I see one. You could have cost me my licence! For God’s sake get down from there, and all of you lot clear out,’ he said, jabbing his finger towards the door. ‘As for you.’ He looked back up at me. ‘I want you out. Tonight.’

  I stared at him in horror. I needed this job until my flight. I jumped down. ‘Come on, Hamish, it was just once and…’

  He shook his head. ‘I went against my better judgement hiring you in the first place. I knew there must be a reason why you never stick at a job, why your CV is almost as long as my arm, why you were happy to live out here in the sticks. You need to sort your life out. But not under my roof. Pack your bags now.’

  ‘It’s midnight,’ I said, my voice annoyingly small. His words had stung more than I cared to admit.

  ‘Have a heart, Hamish,’ Dave said, hanging back as his mates sheepishly began to file out of the pub. He had the grace to look thoroughly ashamed of himself at least. But I couldn’t fully blame him; I had gone along with it after all.

  ‘Fine,’ he snapped. ‘Out first thing. I mean it, Anna. And don’t even think about getting a reference out of me.’ And with that, he spun and walked out the back furiously.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Dave said as he walked to the door. ‘You could always come back to mine?’ He looked hopeful again.

  I almost laughed but this was not funny. ‘I need to find somewhere to go. I’ve lost my job and home tonight.’ I walked over and held the door open pointedly. He shrugged and left, not even giving me a backwards glance. Why had I let him kiss me? I slammed the door and locked it, sagging against it with a sigh. It had been me all over tonight. Grasping at fun, no thought for the consequences. Even though this was a dead-end job and a pretty crap place to live, I now had neither. What would I do next? Where would I go?

  I was no stranger to moving, as Hamish had pointed out, but I’d never lost a job in the middle of the night like this with nowhere planned for me to work or live. I tried not to panic. There must be someone I’d worked for or met that would have something for me. Surely?

  I hurried upstairs to my room and pulled out my phone. I scrolled through the contacts. Exes were out, of course. I hesitated over the name Donna. I’d burned that bridge by dating her grandson. I carried on and stopped at the name of a landlord I’d worked for in Edinburgh – it wasn’t that far away. I tried not to think about how little I had in my bank account after booking my flight. Just enough for the train fare, I hoped.

  ‘Blimey, I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you again,’ Graham said after he answered. ‘I’ve got nothing, hired all my summer staff.’ And then he hung up.

  I tried a girl called Amy that I’d spent many nights out with after work in London. ‘I can hardly hear you, I’m in a bar,’ she shouted. ‘Who is it? Who?’ This time, I hung up.

  I tried a few more pubs but no luck. I hated myself for doing it, but then I phoned a man I’d been seeing last year who ran a restaurant in Manchester. ‘You told me that you didn’t do relationships; well I don’t do second chances.’

  ‘This is going well,’ I announced to the empty room. My phone rang then, making me jump. I was hopeful as I looked at the screen that someone had changed their mind but then I sighed, seeing my brother’s name flash up. ‘I can’t talk, Brodie. Something’s come up,’ I said, making my way to the wardrobe and pulling my bag out.

  ‘You sound stressed.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s been a rubbish night. Did you want something?’

  ‘I haven’t heard from you in a month, I wanted to make sure you were okay.’

  I usually brushed off questions like that but tonight frustration burned in my throat, and my eyes stung as I felt tears well up in them. God, I could not cry to my brother. ‘Not really. I need to leave my job… unexpectedly. And I need somewhere to stay. So that’s why I can’t talk. I need to sort something out.’ I felt tired suddenly. Tired of scrambling to find someone to help me.

  The fact that I knew deep down it was my choice that there was no one to call for help was really not making me feel better about the situation.

  ‘But that’s perfect. Remember the job I told you about? It’s live-in…’

  I did remember and I shook my head quickly. I’d shut him down about it more than once before. ‘No, it’s fine, I can find something…’

  ‘Anna, for once, please listen to me,’ he said, sounding pained. ‘Glendale Hall needs a housekeeper and you need a job and a place to live, why would you not want it? The pay is really good and you met them all at the wedding. They’re a lovely family.’

  I barely remembered them, to be honest. I hadn’t bothered to talk to many people at Brodie’s wedding, the one and only time I’d been to Glendale before, and I’d left as fast as I could after it was over. ‘Village life isn’t for me,’ I protested. It wasn’t only the thought of spending the summer in the back of beyond that had put me off, though: it was the fact that Brodie would be living nearby. And I knew that my brother longed to heal my life, and me. ‘And besides, I’ve booked a flight in September to Ibiza…’

  ‘That’s fine,’ he said, quickly. ‘Beth needs help this summer as she’s a wedding planner. She would happi
ly have you for any time you can give her. And it sounds like you need her as much as she needs you. I’ll come and pick you up in the morning. There’s no good reason for you to say no.’

  Ugh. My brother was too convincing for his own good. I sighed heavily. ‘I can’t think of one, no.’

  ‘Exactly. Text me the address.’

  ‘Uh, my boss needs me to leave first thing…’

  There was a short silence. ‘Fine, I’ll be there as early as I can,’ he said, hanging up. I could feel the disappointment travelling down the phone line. I flung my phone on the bed. I couldn’t quite believe what I had just agreed to.

  I was going to Glendale. A small village in the Highlands. Where nothing ever happened, and everyone knew your business. And my brother lived there.

  The brother who thought exactly the same way about me as Hamish did, and would no doubt give me a hard time all summer. After all, he was the perfect Minister of Glendale, and I was his black sheep of a little sister.

  ‘It’s only for three months,’ I said aloud before I reluctantly started packing.

  Chapter Two

  It was the first Saturday in June, but in Glasgow the morning was still chilly. I could see my breath in the air as I paced back and forth outside the pub to try to keep warm while I waited for Brodie to pick me up.

  I longed for a coffee and hoped Brodie would let us stop on the way to Glendale for one. I couldn’t stay still, and not just because of the temperature. I felt jittery about going to Glendale. Now that my moment of crisis was over, I was nervous. I wasn’t thrilled about being under my brother’s watchful gaze and spending the summer in the countryside. I was a city girl through and through. What was I going to do in a village?!

  A beep from a horn drew me from my thoughts and I watched as Brodie pulled into the road. Too late to back out now. Unless I made a dive from the moving car on the way. I decided not to rule that idea out just yet.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Brodie asked, after he’d parked and jumped out of the car. ‘Is that all of your things?’ He regarded my two bags sceptically.