Chapter 1
ONE
NEEDY
Ella
Two months on from the drama that marked my flight from Belvedere, I lay in my bed, pondering my rescue from this very house.
How things had changed. After weeks regrouping at Castle McRae in the Scottish Highlands, James, Beth, his new wife, and I had come home to claim the place in my brother’s name. Belvedere was his, now.
Richard had shown up at my brother’s inheritance meeting and, in the presence of witnesses including the police, bled fury from every pore. My brother threw him out and we hadn’t seen anything of him since. We’d won.
It wasn’t my family’s issues that had frustration overtaking me.
“Oh, for the love of God!” I flung back my covers and jolted up in my bed, my room swimming into focus in the pale morning light. For half an hour, I’d lain awake, hot and bothered from my dreams about a certain handsome pilot.
Dreams that left me needy and breathless.
They happened almost every night and never concluded…
satisfactorily. Just like my little crush hadn’t gone away.
My attempts to relieve myself of the tension had been unsuccessful.
In fact, I hadn’t been able to get myself there for months, and my body was strung tighter than the strings on my replacement violin.
My new life had some excellent aspects to it, but this particular problem was a side effect I had no clue how to fix.
Thinking about anything Gordain-related brought on an ache in my chest.
Coffee! my brain suggested. Hmm. Plan. And something sugary for breakfast. Springing up, I crossed the polished wood floor and entered my bathroom, switching on the shower. Then I got under the hot water and scrubbed myself until some of the need ebbed.
Maybe my overreaction was due to the stream of text messages I’d received last night. All from Taylor, my ex best friend from school.
My only friend, really.
One who’d happily betrayed me all the same.
I rinsed the conditioner from my hair and switched off the shower, trying to shut down my ricocheting thoughts.
In a few weeks, I was going to university.
The new start had to help. New digs, new people.
No crush on a man who I hadn’t had the nerve to ask out.
Not that he’d given me any sign he wanted that.
After the boom of chemistry between us on the helicopter flight, he’d been nothing but polite.
Cool, even. Maybe I’d imagined the reflected spark in his eyes.
After dressing myself then drying my hair, I opened the big white-and-gold door that led to the private corridor. My brother and his wife had a separate apartment in the mansion, just along the hall, so I made my way along and knocked.
Beth, my sister-in-law, answered. She had her hand to her belly, and a wide smile. “Ella! I was just coming to find you. There’s something we need to talk to you about. Come in. Breakfast’s waiting.”
Beth and James had turned one of the rooms in their apartment into a large kitchen.
With a baby on the way, it would be easier for them than traipsing down the long halls to the mansion’s vast kitchens one floor down.
I either ate with them, or with the Hinchcliffes, our housekeepers/adopted grandparents, in their cottage.
“James and I need to take a trip,” she said, ushering me to the breakfast table in their sunny parlour. A platter of pancakes waited with a steaming pot of coffee to the side.
My mouth watered, and I grabbed a plate. “Like a honeymoon? You didn’t take one yet.” Their wedding had been weeks ago, but all the drama had left little space for fun.
“Not exactly.” Beth gazed at the food then swallowed. Her morning sickness had worsened these past couple of weeks.
My brother joined us, offering a brief smile for me, but his attention was squarely on his wife.
“I said I’d go. You need your rest,” he murmured.
“Ella was right outside the door. I didn’t even leave the apartment. If you wrap me in cotton wool, I’ll wind up so lazy you’ll be waiting on me hand and foot throughout this whole pregnancy.” She slipped her arms around him and pressed up on her toes to kiss his cheek.
“I don’t mind that.” James pulled his wife closer, his gaze soft.
So cosy.
I loved it—my brother being happy. He deserved it after the long years of abuse given to him by Richard. Where I’d been banished to a boarding school, Richard had kept James, the heir, close.
That didn’t change the fact it was oh-so awkward being around such a loved-up couple. Beth and James radiated happiness. They always made space for me, but at every meal, or every trip out, I intruded in their intimacy.
Taking up a forkful of lemony pancake, I ate. “Where are you headed?”
James’s gentle expression evaporated. He moved a chair for Beth then took a seat next to her at the table. “We’ve been looking into the money Richard spent prior to us cutting him off. The lawyers have proof he ran his businesses by siphoning cash from both me and you.”
I nodded, continuing my attack on the pancakes. This wasn’t news. We knew Richard had leeched off the Fitzroy fortune for years. He’d been both my and James’s guardian for a decade, and he’d abused the role in every way possible.
James continued, “If those businesses have any value, we could sue him for ownership. But he registered them from his apartment in Manhattan. So in a couple of days, Beth and I fly to New York to meet with a legal team there to see what can be done.”
Cold trickled down my spine. For all my yelled statements about Richard, I never wanted to see his face again. “Are you going to try to see him?”
In unison, they both shuddered.
“God, no,” Beth said. “This is just about progressing the legal stuff. Do you want to come?” She picked up the coffee pot and poured me and James a cup. “There will be time for sightseeing as well as the dull stuff.”
Strange, the instant response my mind had to a trip—a clear and vibrant no.
I’d been to New York City many times with my school, so there was no novelty, but it was also the city where Richard owned a home.
I wasn’t ready to be anywhere near him. Not yet.
His presence had haunted my childhood, and now, I had an aversion to even being in the same time zone as him.
The lawyers were working on undoing the guardianship order he held over me. But no one could take back all the years he’d separated me from my brother, the times he’d ignored my messages, his refusal to acknowledge me.
In time, I’d come into my own, and I’d take him on. But not now.
Which meant staying alone here. Belvedere would be empty—Mr and Mrs Hinchcliffe were away. Lonely me would be on my lonesome, rattling around this empty place. Beth and James waited on my answer.
I blew out a breath. “I’d rather you two had the time together. My school arranged trips to New York a few times, so I’ve seen every art gallery. Museums. Ballet at the Met.”
Beth stared. “You did that on school trips? That place was bizarre.”
I snorted in agreement. Neglected I might have been, but my uncle had placed me in one of the top ladies’ colleges in the country. It produced refined young women, well versed in culture and exquisitely mannered.
Ack.
Whatever plans he’d had for me, he’d expected me to be dutiful. I think I broke their mould.
“There is another option,” Beth added. “I talked to Mattie. She said you could stay at Castle McRae, if you wanted. She told me to say you’d be more than welcome.”
Mathilda was Callum’s wife and Beth’s best friend. Lady McRae now.
My mind drifted to the castle and the time I’d spent there. To the McRae brothers and the kindness they’d shown us. Ally and Wasp, the twins, were boisterous and always in trouble of some kind. The oldest brother, the laird, Callum, was kind but stern and a little intimidating.
Then, of course, my mind summoned Gordain in all his tall and handsome glory.
Nng.
“Who’ll be there?” I asked, my words coming out fast. I liked Mathilda. She had a cool head and gorgeous dress sense. But staying at the castle meant perhaps seeing Gordain. Not ideal for getting over a crush.
However, there would be the added bonus that I could avoid Taylor. In her last message, she threatened to doorstep me if I didn’t reply.
“Just Callum, Mattie, and the twins. Why?” Beth cocked her head.
No brooding pilot, then.
“No reason.” I finished my plate and took a long drink of coffee. “If they are happy to have me again, then sign me up.”
Suddenly, things looked brighter.
“Deal,” my sister-in-law said with a grin. “Then tonight, pack a bag. We’ll drive up in the morning.”
After dinner, I holed up in my room, the glow of my laptop screen the only light.
Beth and I had made plans to drive to Scotland.
She would accompany me, giving me some much-needed hours behind the wheel before I took my driving test, visit with her friend, then fly home.
James had contractors to deal with, so he reluctantly had to stay.
I didn’t mind—Beth was easier to talk to than my brother.
He and I had a long way to go before we got back the close relationship we had as kids.
If we ever could.
One thing was for sure, I didn’t want him to feel he had to support me while the lawyers worked on making me independent. Luckily, I had a little money of my own stashed away.
With a few taps on my keyboard, I logged on to MusicLinkt, the site where I’d been selling pieces of composition for the past two years.
I found my profile—I sold under the name of Melody Fitzroy—and checked my sales.
Last year, I’d put forward a new piece every month or two.
Short, buzzy recordings, intended for use by advertisers or for radio or TV infill.
I’d made a little over three thousand pounds in licencing.
My own money that my uncle didn’t know about and couldn’t touch.
A glance at the sales categories quickened my pulse. Maybe in a year or two, I’d target the areas I was truly interested in. When I was better at my craft and knew what I was doing.
I bit my lip and closed down the site, the sheer distance of my dream daunting.
I had a long way to go before I was good enough, but that was the point of going to university—to have them fill in the gaps and tell me all the things I didn’t know.
Which reminded me… I took Suki, my new violin, from its case. I’d been working on a piece and needed to hack out the middle. With any luck, I could record it and package it up for sale ahead of term beginning.
My side hustle might have to become my main source of income, depending on what my brother found out about Richard’s spending.
I plucked the strings to test the tuning then drew my bow with a hiss. The benefit of living in a big house meant I could play uninterrupted for hours, so I set about my task and let my warm-up routine settle my overactive brain.
It stopped me thinking about all I’d lost.
At least I still had this. A place to live in my brother’s house, the start of a family, even if I was on the outside. If I didn’t think too much, I could pretend everything was just A-Okay.