A Year at Meadowbrook Manor Read online

  ‘Harriet, you’ve been working since you graduated, you never take holidays, you don’t seem to have a personal life, or if you do it’s not one I would approve of, so for you to take a sabbatical wouldn’t be difficult, plenty of people do. You say you have to sort out your father’s estate, which is true. But I think the break from the city, from the rat race and New York, will do you good and give you a chance to reconnect with your siblings.’

  Harriet sank back into the sofa. Her father was clearly mad and this was impossible, she couldn’t even conceive such a ridiculous idea.

  ‘Gus, I know you hate your life. You don’t like your job, your wife left you for another man.’

  ‘I’d forgotten that,’ Freddie interrupted as David sighed and pressed pause. ‘I mean that your wife went off with another man.’

  ‘My squash partner,’ Gus said, sadly.

  ‘I didn’t know people played squash these days,’ Freddie replied, looking confused.

  Harriet rolled her eyes. ‘David, can we get back to this?’ she asked.

  David nodded and resumed the video.

  ‘So, I feel as if that is my failing too,’ their father scratched his head, ‘oh, not your wife leaving you, I’m not going to take responsibility for everything, but the job. You loved painting, do you remember, just like your mother, and you showed talent but I said painting was only for vagabonds who wanted to cut parts of their body off. In retrospect, that was possibly a bit harsh, but I’m not an art expert and I only really know the story of Van Gogh, so I kind of tarnished them all with the same paintbrush. Ha! Anyway, the truth was that your mother loved to paint and we built the summer house as her studio. After she died, I turned it into a den for you and I couldn’t bear to be reminded of her in the early days so I dissuaded you from painting.’

  ‘Dissuaded? He banned me from painting.’ Harriet squeezed Gus’s hand. Gosh, she’d forgotten that Gus had the artistic gene, inherited from their mother, but it had been knocked well and truly out of him. He looked about as much like an artist as any insurance salesman did.

  ‘Of course,’ Andrew continued, ‘if I knew that would send you to work in insurance I probably wouldn’t have stopped you. I mean, insurance! Come on, Gus! You got married young, and wanted to be the man you thought I wanted you to be, and that was my mistake. I want you now to be the man you want to be. So take a year off work, I know your company is in good hands. Take time off and paint for God’s sake.’ They all jumped as he slammed his hand down on the desk. ‘Ow. Sorry, but, Gus, if you go to the attic you’ll find all your mother’s paints still there. Take them. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, son.’

  Both her father’s eyes and Gus’s were full of tears now.

  ‘I don’t know if I can bear this?’ Pippa said.

  ‘Freddie, oh my boy. You could always charm the birds out of the trees. But you like the finer things in life and you seem to have a misguided way of getting them. This party, or clubbing business, well it’s not fulfilling you, I can tell. It’s time for you to settle down, grow up and do something which satisfies you, but not just in a hedonistic, superficial way.’

  ‘How well he thinks he knows me,’ Freddie quipped, but he looked downcast.

  ‘And finally, my Pippa. You are so like your mother in many ways, not with the art, you were always totally rubbish at that, but in other ways. Not least your looks. And I want you to be happy. I didn’t care that you didn’t have the ambition of your siblings, I didn’t care that you didn’t want to work, but I did care that when I gave Mark permission to marry you that I may have made a huge mistake. In the last year I’ve seen a change in you and I don’t know what’s caused it. So, anyway, I know if you live here with your siblings for a while you’ll have some distance from him at least. I’m not saying leave him, but I am saying if you do as I ask, you’ll have options and maybe some space to think.’

  ‘God, Pip, I had no idea your marriage wasn’t great,’ Harriet said.

  ‘It is great. Dad’s wrong, our marriage is good, and I really don’t know what he’s talking about,’ Pippa shot back.

  ‘And if you want to stay with him then that’s your decision and I will respect that from my grave. Although if I can figure out how to haunt people he’ll definitely be on my list.’ Andrew laughed so hard he had a coughing fit.

  David Castle pressed pause. He looked slightly uncomfortable. ‘Are we all all right up to now?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m a little confused.’ Harriet took charge as she always did. ‘I mean, he really expects us to live here for a year, and only then will the proper will be read? Is that correct?’

  ‘It’s bloody insane,’ Gus blustered.

  ‘What about Mark?’ Pippa added.

  ‘Are you sure I can’t have a drink?’ Freddie pleaded.

  ‘Right, well, of course, as his solicitor I am privy to the exact terms, and I’ll hand them out to each of you when the video is over. But now I’ll try to make it clear thus far. Your father indeed expects you all to live in the house together for a year. It’s the first condition. It’s not the only one.’

  ‘And if we refuse?’ Harriet asked. Her life was in New York. She owned her apartment, she had a job, a highly paid, important job. She had a group of friends that she went for cocktails with at least once a week. She had a personal trainer. How could she leave all that? She couldn’t. It was impossible.

  ‘Then the estate will be disposed of as per your father’s instructions. He was serious about this – if you don’t live here, then you don’t get a penny.’

  ‘Well how about if one of us agrees or two of us and the others don’t?’ Freddie asked.

  ‘That won’t work. Either all four of you live here or none of you. There are no variables.’

  ‘And what are the other conditions?’ Harriet asked. This was ridiculous. She loved Meadowbrook, but she didn’t need the money, so she could walk away. But, on the other hand, what about the others? And what about the fact her father wanted them to do this. She’d be defying him, letting her family down. Her head started aching, it was all so confusing.

  ‘You’re about to find out.’ David pressed play and their father’s voice rang out in the room once more.

  ‘I hope you all living here in Meadowbrook Manor for a year will redefine your relationship with each other. As children you were all so close, but well, I know when I sent Harry to boarding school it started to change. I do take responsibility for that but I can’t turn the clock back. I am sorry. I want you all to find your way back to being a family and this is the only way I could think of to do that. Now, you guys know about my animals.’ David pressed pause again.

  Harriet had never seen the sanctuary, but she’d heard plenty about it from her dad. Harriet had to admit she had only shown a very cursory polite interest in it. She had sort of put it down to him going slightly mad with loneliness, if she was honest. Rescuing animals in order to rescue himself. But she never said that.

  ‘I visited Daddy’s animals all the time,’ Pippa said. Pippa probably encouraged him to get more as well, she was so soft.

  ‘Fleur loved going with Dad to see them too,’ Gus added sadly. ‘She helped out at the sanctuary quite a lot.’

  ‘Not you, Gus?’ Freddie asked.

  ‘No, unfortunately I seem to be allergic to most animals,’ he replied.

  ‘But when we were young we had dogs and cats and you were OK,’ Freddie pointed out.

  ‘I obviously developed the allergies as an adult.’ Gus was determinedly not meeting anyone’s eyes.

  ‘More likely that you just didn’t want to get your hands dirty,’ Freddie quipped.

  ‘Shut up, Fred.’ Harriet was reminded of how much the two boys bickered when they were young.

  ‘Can we please get on with it,’ David interrupted gently, looking at his watch. ‘I know it’s a lot to take in but, unfortunately, I have other appointments.’ He looked guilty as he pressed play again.

  ‘Right, so probably all of you
know how important that sanctuary has become to me.’ Andrew shifted in his chair. ‘But it’s also important to Connor, and the village and – most of all – to the animals we help. Year on year we have grown in size, had so many different animals, and as well as my children, and the house, it really is my pride and joy. So the second condition is that you run the animal sanctuary with Connor, to ensure it stays open, thrives, which also involves raising money for it; an amount that you will find specified in the exact terms.’

  ‘Oh God, no.’ Freddie put his head in his hands.

  ‘Oh yes.’ It was scary how their father seemed to hear them. Or maybe, Harriet thought, he actually knew them much better than they gave him credit for. ‘I expect you to help Connor, I expect you all to get your hands dirty – you’ve become too soft the lot of you – but more than that, you will also take over my role, which was the finances among other things. We raise money by holding village fêtes, open days and all sorts of events. It not only brings in money but it helps to involve the community of Parker’s Hollow and keeps the sanctuary profile raised. If it thrives under your management, that will also ensure you all get to share the bulk of my estate. But, of course, if you don’t raise the funds specified, then you forfeit any right to the money or the house.’ He took another drink out of his tumbler. ‘And it will all go elsewhere.’ He sat back looking triumphant.

  Harriet didn’t know how to describe the emotions that she was feeling. Just what was her father thinking? They had barely been able to keep a goldfish alive between them as children. How on earth were the four of them supposed to run an animal sanctuary? As well as live together at Meadowbrook? It was utter madness.

  ‘Can I just summarise?’ Pippa asked. ‘Not only do we have to live here for a year, without my husband, but we also have to run an animal sanctuary, raising money to keep it open?’

  ‘Yes, that’s about right,’ David replied, his face expressionless.

  ‘I supported Dad’s rescue centre, I really did, but I didn’t expect to have to work for it!’ Pippa looked terrified. ‘And how on earth am I supposed to explain all this to Mark? I mean it’s not as if we need the money.’

  When they were younger, it was clear that although the loveliest, Pippa wasn’t the most academic of the siblings. Harriet was academically gifted, everyone said from the minute she started school really. Gus, not quite so, but he worked hard and got very good grades. Freddie was also cleverer than he liked to make out, though he was lazy, but Pippa, well, she was terrible at school. She just got by, but because she tried hard she was never in trouble, but you could see the teachers scratching their heads. How could the Singer siblings have a Pippa among them? Of course, when it was discovered she had dyslexia that explained why she found some things so difficult and it did become easier with the right help; Harriet had spent hours trying to help her with homework back before she went away to boarding school. But Pippa was beautiful, she was sweet, she was kind, and she wasn’t interested in school. Harriet remembered being jealous when Pippa begged her father not to send her to boarding school and he agreed. But she felt guilty when she confronted Pippa about this and her little sister admitted that she could cope with being near the bottom of the class at home, but only just. She didn’t want to go to Harriet’s school and be in the shadow of her clever sister.

  When Pippa left school, she embarked on a number of courses. Cooking, flower arranging, she took a childcare course, typing, just about everything available, but she told Harriet nothing felt right. And, of course, being the only child still at home, Andrew was happy to let her carry on doing what she wanted. Soon after, Pippa told Harriet she had met someone and was in love. And that someone was Mark and they had a fairytale wedding. So why did her father seem to think he was bad for her? From what Harriet had seen, admittedly in a very short time, he seemed to take care of her, protect her, which was what their father would have wanted. Surely?

  ‘Right, kids, I am sure I have given you more than enough food for thought,’ her father’s voice interrupted her. She still couldn’t get used to seeing him, hearing him, yet knowing he was gone for good. She wanted to reach out and touch the screen, just to be able to one last time, but she knew it was him but not him at the same time. The voice, the confident, loud, slightly booming Somerset lilt that was so familiar, would soon be gone. She almost couldn’t bear it. ‘But to conclude. If you agree the terms, the final will will be read in a year’s time and you’ll all be rich. As for other provisions, Gwen gets her cottage, a sum of money, and she has a job for as long as she wants one, and that certainly includes this year. Yes, she is your housekeeper, but she’s there to check on you all, make sure you are all right, take care of you all. And Connor, he gets his cottage, some money, and I expect you to support his work. I’ve set up a trust fund for Fleur. But I can’t stress enough, the animal sanctuary must flourish, it’s so important to me and I hope it will become important to all of you too. How you divide the labour is up to you.’ There was another pause but no one dared speak.

  ‘In conclusion, my children, I love you. I miss you, but I hope that by doing this I will have given you the best gift that a father can give. You might not think so now, but mark my words, the animal sanctuary helped me, maybe even saved me when I was lost, and as you, my children, are all lost in your own ways, I fully believe it will do the same for you. And at the same time you are getting your family back. And trust me, it might be too late for me, but it’s not for you. You will see what’s important, I truly believe that, and I will never stop loving you.’

  There was a pause as their dad stared straight ahead of him. Harriet looked across at her siblings who all had shocked expressions, which hers probably mirrored.

  ‘Was he of sound mind?’ Gus asked.

  ‘Clearly not,’ Freddie said.

  ‘He was. I think your father has made his intentions clear,’ David stated, gently. ‘He was unorthodox, you know that, but he was your father and those are his wishes.’

  ‘And if we want to contest this?’ Harriet said.

  ‘There would be no point. Your father was sane, he was very certain of this plan, which I hope you will all respect.’

  ‘But if we do, respect it, as you say, we have to all live here together and run an animal sanctuary?’ Pippa looked distraught.

  ‘Yes. I know it sounds unusual, but, well, that was what your father wanted. I’ve got it all typed up here, a document for each of you with the exact terms.’

  ‘Right, I don’t care what you say, I bloody well need a drink now,’ Freddie stated, getting up and pouring himself a large whisky.

  Pippa rubbed her temples as everyone began speaking at once.

  ‘SHUT UP,’ she heard her father’s voice say from the screen. As it had gone quiet, they forgot the video was still running. They all obeyed once more, perhaps for the last time. ‘You can do this, you will do this; I have every faith in you. I didn’t do this for my own enjoyment, if that’s what you’re thinking. But if you can undertake my wishes, then you will make me very proud. More importantly you will make yourselves very proud, and that is what I want more than anything.’

  The four of them stared, open-mouthed, at the screen.

  ‘Gwen, did you get all that?’ Andrew Singer asked, standing up. He was tall, like Gus and Freddie, his grey hair was neat and he was wearing a V-neck sweater and chinos, his favoured casual wear.

  ‘I did, Andrew,’ Gwen replied.

  ‘And how was I? Was I all right?’

  ‘Just as good as any Hollywood actor, Andrew,’ Gwen replied before the screen went black.

  Chapter 5

  ‘What do we do now?’ Gus asked, waving a copy of the document that David had handed over to them before he scarpered. He promised a meeting as soon as they’d had a chance to digest things. But after what they had just experienced, Harriet wasn’t sure they would ever digest it. The feeling of unease that her father’s video had left her with sat heavily on her stomach, and she couldn’t se
em to order her thoughts. Lost, she poured and handed out brandies for them all. After all, it was supposed to be good for shock and they were definitely in shock.

  ‘Go and muck out some pigs, I am guessing,’ Freddie joked, but he wasn’t smiling. ‘Do we even have any pigs?’ He stared into his glass.

  ‘Daddy did love that sanctuary,’ Pippa mused. ‘Oh God, Mark is going to be so upset about this.’ She chewed her bottom lip, a habit she’d had when she was anxious since childhood.

  ‘But, Pip, what Dad said about him?’ Freddie started.

  ‘I don’t know what he was talking about,’ Pippa replied. ‘Mark and I are very happy. I just don’t understand where that even came from.’

  ‘God, are we grasping what he’s asking? Run a rescue centre for animals, fundraise and live here, all together? For a whole year!’ Why did their father think that they would, or should, give up their lives? It made no sense. Even his explanation didn’t add up. And Harriet felt guilty, but she knew there was no way she could do it, no matter what the consequences were. Oh yes, she could take some time out to sort out her father’s estate, but if it was more than a week or two, some hungry younger person would be snapping at her heels to take her place at work. And she would never, ever give up her beloved job. Never.

  ‘It’s so much, so so much.’ Gus’s face was ashen.

  ‘Look, we need time to think. Pip, you need to talk to Mark, so I suggest that we all take some time and I’ll go and see Gwen and tell her we’ll have a family dinner tonight to talk about it.’

  ‘Still the same old bossy, Harry,’ Freddie said.

  ‘And thank goodness – someone needs to be,’ Harriet bit back before leaving the room.

  She found Gwen in the kitchen, pulling a freshly baked cake out of the Aga and then she saw Connor, sitting at the kitchen table nursing a cup of tea. The large kitchen was the only room which didn’t have her father’s stamp on it. It had, as long as Harriet could remember, been Gwen’s domain and she had made it her own. It felt like a proper country kitchen. Huge pine table, the largest Aga they could get; it was always warm and welcoming, filled with the aroma of delicious food. But the main difference was that Gwen had filled the two ancient dressers with her personal knick-knacks as well as the crockery and dinner services that they used. The array of china chickens, pigs and her extensive egg-cup collection had been growing ever since Gwen had moved into the kitchen. There was something so charming about it. Not least that her father found it horrific, but he quickly learnt not to interfere in her kitchen. Harriet remembered her chasing him out once with a wooden spatula when he tried to tell her what to do. No one messed with Gwen’s kitchen.