Page 48 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

For a second, she thought about a stolen kiss with Jack by the river one balmy summer evening. How he had leaned in and how she had felt as their lips met. That rush of desire. That feeling that nothing else would ever match that feeling.

But Lily quickly dismissed the thought. To dwell on the past meant to face it all, and she still couldn’t face the untold harm she had done to her family.

So she went back to her to-do list, still worryingly long and it was already dinnertime.

19

The day before the summer fete was extremely busy. Not only did Lily have her hands full with so many guests to cater and keep the house tidy for, but Annie was becoming more and more reliant on her for help with the fete, which, as future Countess of Cranley, was her responsibility to organise.

‘Look, it was a huge success last year,’ Lily found Sam telling Annie over breakfast. ‘It’ll be just fine. Try not to make yourself ill over it.’

‘But what if it’s the last ever fete?’ said Annie.

‘It won’t be,’ said Sam. ‘Everyone is saying that we’ve got nothing to worry about regarding the bypass, so try not to worry.’

‘But what if it is?’ urged Annie.

Sam sighed. ‘Then we’ll make sure it’s the best it has ever been.’

Lily had been busy at work the previous year and had been unable to make the summer fete. At the time, she had been with Mark. She still wondered whether she should be more heartbroken than she really was. She didn’t think about him much at all.

But then she barely had time to think about anything these days.

‘Have you got any spare towels?’ asked Howard the drummer, as she walked up the main staircase and found him walking the other way with only a towel wrapped around his waist. ‘I’m sharing a bathroom with Mick and that bugger has nicked all of mine so that he can dye his hair. Natural mahogany my eye.’

‘Of course,’ she told him briskly, averting her eyes from the topless woman that he had tattooed across his chest.

There was a linen cupboard next to the small staircase leading up to the staff quarters, which she opened up and drew out two more bath towels. She handed them over to Howard.

‘Thanks,’ he said.

Lily made a note to wash the towels in the guest bathroom quickly if Mick had covered them in hair dye.

But as she went to walk back along the east wing corridor, she noticed Lauren with her ear pressed up against the door to one of the guest bedrooms. This one just happened to belong to Mick, the main singer.

Lauren was so engrossed in eavesdropping that she didn’t hear Lily approach and jumped away in shock when Lily came into view.

‘I didn’t do nothing,’ she spluttered as she straightened up.

Lily swiftly took her by the elbow and led her away, into the doorway of the master bedroom, which she knew to be empty.

‘Look, I know that the guests are famous but we have to be professional,’ she said, in a hushed tone of voice.

‘It’s just that I grew up listening to their music,’ said Lauren, with an excited gleam in her eyes. ‘My nan’s a huge fan. And now they’re here in the same house as me! It’s so awesome.’

At that moment, the door to one of the guest bathrooms opened. From their nearby position, they watched as Mick wandered across the corridor to the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

There was a short silence as Lauren turned to look at Lily with huge eyes.

‘It’s none of our business what they get up to,’ Lily told her in a firm voice.

‘But—’

‘We just have to turn a blind eye and get on with our work.’

‘But—’

‘They are the guests of the Earl of Cranley and we must respect their privacy.’