Carla Burgess - Meet Me at Willow Hall - A perfectly charming romance for 2019!

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018

Copyright © Carla Burgess 2018

Annie Lyons asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

E-book Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008271565

Version: 2018-06-27

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page Meet Me at Willow Hall CARLA BURGESS

Copyright HQ An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018 Copyright © Carla Burgess 2018 Annie Lyons asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. E-book Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008271565 Version: 2018-06-27

Dedication For Fifi, the super fan

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Extract

Dear Reader

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by Carla Burgess

Endpages

About the Publisher

For Fifi, the super fan

Rachel,

I’ve been thinking a lot about us recently and I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not working. As you know, I was never looking for long-term commitment, and I really think now is the time to part ways. We had four great months together, but since my accident I just don’t feel like carrying this on any longer. You know I don’t love you. I will never love you. I need to be alone. I’m sorry to be writing this in a letter instead of telling you face to face, but I thought it would be worse for you to drive all this way to visit me here in hospital, only to have to drive home again knowing you’d had a wasted journey. It’s been good of you to visit me, but the truth is that seeing you exhausts me. I’ve told the nurses I only want to see close family, so please don’t come again. I don’t want a big discussion about this. Please, just accept that it’s over and move on.

Goodbye and good luck.

Anthony

One year later

‘ Make Willow Hall the stage for your love story! ’ I made my voice dramatic as we bounced along the narrow country lane towards the hall in Elena’s little car. Turning slightly in my seat to face her, I cleared my throat and adjusted the glossy brochure in my hands. ‘ Set in the green, rolling hills of the Shropshire countryside, and with a past steeped in history and romance, Willow Hall is the perfect venue for your wedding … Oh, please!’ I broke off. ‘Steeped in romance! Honestly, what a load of rubbish! You can tell Anthony’s had nothing to do with this!’ I laughed and looked again at the photograph of the Georgian manor house on the front cover. I couldn’t deny it was a beautiful house and would make an ideal wedding venue, but the fact that it belonged to my ex-boyfriend’s family made me ultra-critical. It was unbelievable that Anthony’s family home was going to be hosting weddings when he was so against any sort of commitment himself. ‘I bet he’s horrified by it all. He hates weddings.’

Elena gave me a sidelong glance, pushing her long dark hair behind her ear. ‘Are you sure you want to do this? What if Anthony’s there? What will you do?’

‘He’s not going to be there,’ I stuffed the brochure into the glove compartment and slammed it shut, feeling jittery all of a sudden. ‘He hates Willow Hall. He never once visited his mum there when we were together. She always came to us. He didn’t even want to tell me about it.’

‘I know, but things might have changed since the accident.’

I stared silently out of the window for a moment, watching a buzzard hover over a field. ‘He won’t be there,’ I repeated, with more assurance than I felt. This morning I’d been positive this would be the case, but as we drew closer to Willow Hall, doubt curdled my stomach and I was suddenly nervous. I wiped my clammy palms down my bright-red, halter-neck sundress, suddenly wishing I’d worn something a little less conspicuous. Usually I was happy to stand out in a crowd, but I’d rather keep a low profile today.

What if he was there? What would I say?

A surge of nerves set my heart racing and I swallowed hard. Lifting my sunglasses, I examined my winged eyeliner in the tiny sun-visor mirror, relieved to see it hadn’t smudged in the heat. A few tendrils of my red hair had escaped from my bun, but it still looked okay. Sitting back, I reopened the glove box and pulled out the brochure for Willow Hall once more. It was a wedding fair, for goodness’ sake! Everyone was welcome. We had every right to be there, and with Elena getting married in a few months’ time we had the perfect excuse. Nobody needed to know Elena had almost everything organised already and that we were just going to be nosy.

I couldn’t believe it when I’d seen the advertisement for Willow Hall in one of Elena’s wedding magazines. I thought there must be a mistake, or perhaps another country house of the same name. But after a bit of sleuthing on the Internet, I found it was the same house and still seemingly owned by the Bascombe family. It seemed ironic it was now being used as a wedding venue when Anthony had been so against marriage and commitment of any kind.

Still, like Elena said, maybe things had changed. A year had passed since I’d last seen him. He could have had a whole attitude change since then. He could have met someone who’d changed his mind about commitment. He might even be married himself by now.