Page 20 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

‘Did you go on a few dates?’ asked Annie.

Lily shook her head. ‘We met in secret for around six months. You know how uptight Mum is. She would never have approved of him. Besides, I was getting into trouble at school, so there was so much else going on at the time. But we might have shared a kiss or two.’ She blushed at the memory, even now after all these years.

‘He was your first love,’ said Annie, smiling. ‘I get that. Mine was a bad boy as well.’

‘Seriously?’ Lily was surprised.

‘But he turned out to be a total loser.’ Annie shrugged her shoulders. ‘I thought Jack seemed nice.’

‘I thought so too,’ said Lily, frowning. ‘He was kinder and softer than I first thought. More gentle than he initially appeared. And when he asked if he could be my date for the prom, I jumped at the chance. I had all these visions of walking in with this great guy in his tux. Me in my purple dress. King and Queen of the prom!’ She laughed bitterly.

‘What happened?’ asked Annie.

‘He picked me up,’ said Lily, relishing the memory. ‘And then he met my parents. The whole awkward meet-up thing. He turned up on his motorbike! Can you imagine Mum’s face?’

‘Oh my God,’ said Annie, agog. ‘How did you get on the back of the bike in your long dress?’

‘With difficulty,’ Lily told her, rolling her eyes. ‘I wasn’t impressed. Moaned a lot on the way. But then he pulled over halfway to the Hall and told me that he’d changed his mind about going out, full stop. That he couldn’t take me to the prom after all.’

She gulped at the memory, of how hard his eyes had been as he’d told her that he had never cared for her.

Annie looked confused. ‘Why did he bother picking you up if he was going to dump you?’

Lily shook her head. ‘I have no idea. I don’t know if it was because I was moaning about the bike and my dress. I thought he’d been in a funny mood when he’d picked me up, but figured it was because of meeting my parents. Anyway, I stropped off to the prom on my own. Told him to get lost.’

‘That’s terrible,’ said Annie. ‘What did you do? I hope you carried on without him at the prom and had an amazing time.’

‘I wish,’ said Lily, with a grimace. ‘You know what utter bitches sixteen-year-old girls can be. It was my fault. I had told them all about my hot date, and when he didn’t show up they thought that I had made it all up. After all, they’d never seen him with me. Nobody had. So I spent the evening being laughed at and ended up going home early in tears.’

‘Poor you,’ said Annie, shaking her head.

Lily closed her eyes. Her mum had been so cross that she had never told them about her bad-boy date. But her dad had held her close and told her that it would all turn out alright.

But it hadn’t.

If only she hadn’t made such a big drama out of getting dumped. If only she had picked herself up and not been a bitter, sobbing wreck the whole of the next day. Perhaps then her dad wouldn’t have suggested that they all go out for pizza that night as a treat. Then they wouldn’t have been on the roads at the same time as that stupid young lad who had stolen a car and gone for a joyride. And then the car accident wouldn’t have happened…

She lived with the guilt every second of every day. The harm she had caused her family was so overwhelming that she would never get over it.

Annie reached across the table and squeezed her hand. ‘There’s something else, isn’t there?’

Lily gulped away the tears. ‘The car accident happened the day after. You know, the one that injured my dad so badly.’

Annie’s eyes widened as she realised. ‘Oh no! How awful for you all.’

But it had been a turning point as well. Lily had decided over that wretched, sad, awful summer that her life was not working being left to chance. That fate had had its opportunity and had failed miserably. She had decided there and then that she needed to be in total control in order to stand a chance at happiness in the future.

‘So, you need a temporary housekeeper,’ she said, trying to look more cheerful. ‘I promise I won’t break down in tears every day.’

Annie nodded, recognising the obvious change in subject. ‘Look, we just need someone to sort everything out. To give us a bit of a hand, really. What do you think? Do you want to help us out? We can pay.’ Her face dropped. ‘Not an awful lot, unfortunately, because we’ve used all our money to get the house straight.’

‘I just need to know what kind of things we’re talking about job-wise,’ said Lily. ‘I’m good at paperwork.’

‘That would be great. I can’t seem to keep track of the household stuff. Even the groceries. There’s so many of us coming and going. It’s hard to keep a handle on it all. Sam pays the household bills but there’s so much else involved with running such a massive place. I was completely useless at it.’

‘It didn’t work out so badly, as it turns out,’ said Lily, smiling.

Annie gave her a rueful grin as she rubbed her baby bump. ‘No, it didn’t. Look, I know it’s not very glamorous. Not like those fancy parties you were used to organising.’