Page 3 of Valentine Nook
I’m only slowed down on my mission when three of the Labradors—Hamish, Maud, and Dolly—catch up with me because they all demand I say hello to them before they follow me through the house and back outside.
“Mother!” I try again, marching over the newly mowed grass toward my first stop, the pool, which the dogs immediately launch themselves into.
Giant floats—a unicorn, a fire engine, and a dragon—bob in the center. Max, my four-year-old nephew, has clearly been here, but I only find my sister, Clementine, lying on a navy-and-white-striped sun lounger with her nose deep in a book.
Eleven years younger than me, she’s just taken her finals at St. Andrew’s, and since she arrived back home a couple of weeks ago, she’s been permanently installed by the pool.
“Where’s Mum?”
Clementine tilts her head toward me and slowly pulls her sunglasses down her nose until she’s peering at me through her Burlington-blue eyes, the ones we all inherited from our late father.
“Oh, hey, Lanny, when did you get here?”
“Thirty seconds ago. D’you know where Mum is?”
She shrugs, ignoring my snapping and lacking interest in whatever has me agitated, and returns to her book.
“Dunno, she might be in the kitchen, or I think she talked about going over to the vegetable gardens. Or it might be the rose garden. Can’t remember.”
I grunt to myself. Typical. Turning to leave, I then spin back around with narrowed eyes.
Clementine normally has her ear to the ground with anything happening around here, especially when it concerns things thatshouldn’tbe happening. If anyone knows what’s going on in the village, she will.
“You don’t know what’s happening at Bluebell Cottage, do you? There are moving vans blocking the lane.”
Clementine abruptly sits up and shifts onto her knees, which I should take as my first warning. This time, she whips off her sunglasses, and her expression—only moments ago somewhat blasé and disinterested—is wide with excitement.
Too much excitement for my liking. Especially when she gasps and claps her hands.
“Holy shit.Today? You saw themtoday? She’s here already. Oh my god!”
“What?” My brows draw together in confusion. “I asked you about moving vans.”
“Yes!” Her screech almost bursts my eardrums. “You really saw them? They were definitely outside Bluebell?”
“Saw what? Clementine, why are there moving vans outside the cottage?”
“Mum’s put a new tenant in. You’ll never guess who it is?—”
“What!”
“The new tenant, guess who she is?Guess, Lanny!” She balls her hands, pumping them in the air. “Oh my god, let’s go down and meet her now. We can take her a housewarming gift.”
My fists clench, my blood boils, and my molars are on the verge of breaking from how hard I’m clenching them. This time, my mother has gone too far, and from the look on Clementine’s face, she seems to have roped my sister in too.
“She?She?”I snap. “Un-fucking-believable.”
“Wait for me!” cries Clementine, totally misreading the way I storm off. “I just need to change. Go grab a bottle of champagne from the fridge.”
I most certainly amnotgetting champagne.
I march back over the lawns and into the house the way I came. Storming down the corridor, I briefly peer into each room I pass—my study, the library, Max’s playroom—but my mother is nowhere in sight. I’m about to take the stairs two at a time when I sense movement next to me. I know instinctively it’s James Winters, our family director of operations. The man is stealthier than a ninja.
In hindsight, he should have been my first stop, considering that anything my mother is involved with also involves him.
“Your Grace, if I may?—”
My fist tightens around the banister. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, James, there’s no one else around. You practically raised me. Drop the officiality, will you?”
