Winter Magic at Pennycress Inn

Chapter 1

She’d killed her. That’s what she’d done.

Or as good as anyway. Scarlett Wynters turned back to the small cage lying on its side on the floor and spun wildly on the spot, taking in the scene inside the Peugeot Boxer she’d transformed into a home on wheels, or a stealth camper as some would call it.

The duvet was thrown on the floor, the pillows heaped on top.

The cupboard doors beneath the tiny sink and work surface area were wide open, their contents strewn across the stripy purple and green rug.

There just wasn’t anywhere else Stinky could be hiding, so the only logical conclusion was that she’d somehow escaped through the dodgy window or the skylight.

Could guinea pigs climb? And she just wouldn’t survive, not outside in these freezing temperatures, and that’s if a fox or an eagle or some other wild animal didn’t take her for their prey first.

Or someone ran her over.

Scarlett’s stomach churned. She’d begun this journey down from Manchester to her cousin’s place in the Cotswolds with such high hopes.

This was supposed to be her chance to discard the crap she’d been carrying around with her for the last four months, her chance for a new start. Or at least a temporary reprieve.

And now she’d gone and lost her only companion, the kind little soul who had listened to her hopes and rants these last few hours, the one whom Scarlett had promised to give a better life to.

Poor Stinky would have been better off cooped up in that impossibly, inappropriately tiny cage and stuck at the back of the junk room in Tyler and Donna’s house.

Stinky had been there for Scarlett – yes, for only a few hours but still, the small bundle of fur had been going to be her companion, someone she could talk to, who needed her to feed and care for her, a reason to power ahead, to change what had become of her static life.

And now she was gone, and so was any fight Scarlett had left.

Sinking to the floor, Scarlett drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees. This was supposed to have been a happy day. As she’d joined the motorway at Junction 7, for the first time in months she’d actually had a plan. She’d actually had the motivation to make a plan.

Or the beginnings of a plan. She still wasn’t sure what she’d do after visiting Laura and Jackson, much less where she wanted to settle – or if she did – but it was something.

And she’d needed to get away, to escape the confines of the life she’d built around herself.

She’d needed to for a long time now. And discovering Stinky was still being kept in a tiny cage filled with her own filth in the dark recesses of Tyler and Donna’s junk room had given her the slap in the face she’d needed.

It had given her the mother of all wake-up calls and the reason to leave her old life behind right then and there.

Huh, maybe she’d just stay here in the potholed car park of the motorway service station.

She could live off food she scavenged from the fast-food restaurants and watch the constant flow of cars carrying people to work, on holidays or to family celebrations.

In four weeks’ time, she’d have the joy of witnessing hundreds of people filtering through the services on their way to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones, boots stuffed full of presents and hearts full of Christmas cheer.

Yuck.

Lifting her head, she dragged the back of her hand across her tear-stained cheeks.

This wasn’t her. She was strong, she was capable of keeping her emotions in check even during the toughest of times.

When her mum had passed away and later when her dad had left for the peace and serenity of the Highlands with his new wife, her stepmum, she’d assured him, assured everyone, she was fine and happy for him to have the new start he deserved.

So why had this, the discovery of Tyler’s other family, knocked her so off-kilter?

Because for the first time in her life she’d allowed herself to believe in happy-ever-afters, that’s why.

And she’d let herself believe that she was just as entitled to one as everyone else.

She’d let her guard down, let Tyler into her life, and believed his every word.

Not once had she even dreamt that he had another family squirrelled away, a wife, a daughter.

Her stomach churned again, as it did every time she thought about it.

How hadn’t she realised? Why had she believed every single one of his lies? His promises?

She’d almost blown a family apart, and she knew how that felt.

She knew what it was like to lose a parent, and yet she’d almost done it herself.

Yes, her mum had passed away, but the end goal would have been much the same.

Poor little Kimberly would have lost her two-parent family; she would have grown up without her dad.

Closing her eyes again, she took a deep breath in, filling her lungs with the cold air of the camper.

Poor Stinky. She’d had a rubbish life and now a worse end to it.

Shortly after Tyler had been exposed and the truth had come out that he had been seeing her behind his wife’s back, Scarlett had discovered he had been living with his wife and daughter and had turned up to confront him.

That’s when she’d stumbled across poor Stinky.

Of course, she hadn’t been able to just take her, Tyler hadn’t allowed her to, despite it being clearly obvious the poor little thing wouldn’t be missed.

Another one of his power games, Scarlett had assumed.

But when she’d decided to take her camper on the road to the Cotswolds rather than staying in the car park behind her workplace, she’d broken in and rescued her.

Although now it seemed the poor mite might have been better off at Tyler and Donna’s.

Just as she took another shuddering breath in, she felt something small and furry nuzzling up against her hand, and she opened her eyes and held her breath before breaking into a grin.

‘Stinky! You’re alive!’ Scooping the small brown and white patched guinea pig up from the floor of the camper, Scarlett turned her back on the mess she’d created whilst looking for her and placed her carefully back into the small cage, making sure the door was clipped properly shut this time.

‘I can imagine you don’t like being cooped up in that dirty cage.

The size of it isn’t fit for a hamster, let alone you, and it stinks to high heaven, but it’ll have to do until we get to Meadowfield and I can find a pet shop. ’

The small guinea pig disappeared into the heap of bedding in the corner of the cage.

‘Let’s pop you on the front seat and then at least I’ll be able to keep an eye on you while I drive, little Houdini.

’ Gripping the cage, Scarlett slipped through the heavy curtain separating the front of the camper from the living space behind and placed the cage on the passenger seat before taking her place behind the wheel again.

‘Another hour or so and you’ll get to meet Laura and Jackson.

’ Scarlett pulled the sun visor down before checking her reflection in the small mirror and plastering a grin across her face.

There was no way she was going to turn up looking as though she’d been crying.

She was Scarlett Wynters, and she was tough.

But there was one more thing she had to do before arriving in Meadowfield, and that was to let down the only person who had stood by her these past few months.