Page 61 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

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Lily felt tired and tense at breakfast the following morning.

She had been on edge knowing that Jack was staying in the house and had endured a spectacularly rubbish night’s sleep.

And her jitters seemed to set everyone else off as well.

‘I’m not sure I finished that cup of coffee, actually,’ said Alex, taking the half-full cup from Lily that she had just picked up from the table.

‘Oh!’ She blushed furiously. ‘Sorry. I’m not sure where my mind is this morning.’

‘Must be post-fete blues,’ said Alex.

But Lily knew it wasn’t that. It was Jack’s presence in the kitchen, the way he was staring at her from across the table. She could feel his cool eyes watching her as she moved around. It was awful.

Even when she went to empty the kitchen bin outside, she found that Jack was sitting on the bench with Arthur, who was feeding small bits of toast to the dog.

‘It’s getting a bit chilly in the mornings now,’ Arthur was saying. ‘I must get my big coat out before autumn arrives.’

‘Then let’s head indoors,’ Jack told him, standing up.

But Arthur shook his head. ‘Our good lady housekeeper here says that Dylan can bring in a bit of a mess. So it’s probably best we eat out here.’

Jack frowned. ‘It’s your house,’ he said, flicking a hard stare at Lily.

In the end, it was all so awkward that Lily made her excuses and went to find Lauren to start cleaning up after all their house guests. The trouble was that there were so many people staying over she was tripping over them.

The drawing room was full of musicians lounging around. Sam’s and Arthur’s studies appeared to have an open-door policy and everyone was just coming and going. There was no routine and nothing that she could get a handle on. Her to-do list was raging out of control and her stress-filled stomach made her feel worse than ever. There was so much pressure on her that she thought she would explode very soon. But she kept her feelings to herself, as usual, and soldiered on.

She was somewhat grateful when Alex and the band left. But that still left Jack hanging around, although she didn’t know why.

On the stairs later that morning, she watched Will walk across the entrance hall with Jack, having come from the grounds at the back of the house. Wiping down the balustrade, she could hear every word.

‘The stables are now almost full with small businesses,’ she heard Will say. ‘That definitely needs rewiring. And then there’s the barn on top of that.’

Lily peeped through the staircase and saw Jack nodding thoughtfully.

‘We can’t pay you loads,’ added Will. ‘You’ve seen how tight things are around here. But we could pay the going rate.’

‘You know what? Don’t pay me at all,’ said Jack.

‘I don’t know about that,’ began Will.

‘I do.’ Jack folded his arms across his chest. ‘Listen, I’ve done alright for myself. I’ve got more than enough to tide me over for a while. Savings and all that. Let me do this for the family.’

‘Then you must stay here for free, if you’d like to,’ Will told him. ‘We can’t let you do the whole lot for free.’

‘I’ve got a house just down the road, you know,’ said Jack, grinning. ‘That’ll do just fine.’

This surprised Lily. She didn’t think he even used the place from what she’d heard.

‘None of this is your fault,’ Will replied. ‘If you hadn’t come here, it would have been someone else. You were just doing your job. I’m sorry you lost yours, though.’

‘I’m not,’ she heard Jack say. ‘This whole episode has made me rethink my priorities.’

Will smiled. ‘I had a similar thing happen to me last year. So, what do you say? Would you like to help us out?’

Jack nodded. ‘Yeah. Just until the job is done.’