AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
Alex took Marie to the old manor house in Sussex a few weeks after their engagement. She recognised the carefully laid out gardens and the brickwork around the massive doorway from the photographs in the book he’d made for her. She held on to his hand tightly as he showed her around.
‘What do you think?’ His brow creased a little as he asked the question.
‘It’s...okay...’
She loved the Victorian knot garden, the Elizabethan rooms with their nooks and crannies and large, deep fireplaces, the massive banqueting hall which had been turned into a sitting room, big enough to hold a beautiful grand piano at one end. The decor left a lot to be desired—it was far too ostentatious for Marie’s taste—but the house was a pure delight.
‘You love it, don’t you?’ He shot her a knowing look.
‘A house with a maze in the garden? I’m sure there’ll be lots of interest when you put it up for sale.’
It was a wonderful, magical place. But Alex had been so unhappy here when he was a child.
‘What if we live in it? The location’s perfect—it’s only an hour out of London by train. We can keep the flat for when we’re working late and make this our home.’
‘But...you don’t want this, do you?’ Marie looked around the large sitting room. She could almost see their children playing here. ‘The decor...’
‘The decor can be changed. You could make this into a wonderful room. We could keep the piano.’
That would be nice...
‘And there would be loads of space here to set up an office. We could convert the west wing and run the main charity from here.’
This place could be a wonderful family home. The kind Alex had always wanted and Marie had always dreamed of.
‘What do you say to this? We’ll bring some of our things down and camp out here for a while. It’ll give us time to go through everything, and then you can decide how you feel about living here.’
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. ‘That would be perfect. Where do you want to camp first?’
‘The summer house?’
They should start with the place he liked the best. Alex had written about the summer house as the one place where he had been able to get away from the stifling hold of his family.
He chuckled. ‘That sounds wonderful. I’ll wake up and make love to you in the morning sunshine.’
‘How do you feel about a trial run now?’ Marie smiled up at him. ‘The afternoon sunshine might do just as well?’
He grabbed the richly upholstered cushions from an ugly sofa, loading half of them into her arms.
‘I’ll race you there...’
EPILOGUE
The first weekend in February
FOR THE FIRST time in twelve years the plan had changed. Only half the group had arrived at Alex and Marie’s home on Friday afternoon; the rest were due the following day. They’d spent a relaxed evening around a roaring fire in the sitting room, celebrating the eve of a wedding.
In the morning Alex had walked to the old church in the village, surrounded by family and friends and with Marie’s mother on his arm. After Zack had left home to go to art college she’d moved to be near her other son in Sunderland, and she loved village life there and the cottage Alex had bought for her.
He sat nervously in the front pew, waiting for Marie. ‘Have you got the ring, Zack?’
Marie’s three brothers had fought over who was to give her away, and in the end her two elder brothers had been given the task, and would both accompany her up the aisle. Alex had claimed Zack as his best man.
‘No.’
‘What?’
