Chapter One
The car coughed to a halt then lurched as the trailer pushed it further along the dark lane.
“Shit.” Maddie thumped the steering wheel.
“What?”
She turned to see Serena rubbing her eyes; her blond hair in spiky disarray and the new tattoo on her arm peeking out from her tee-shirt.
Double shit. They couldn’t be far from Carnew. She turned the key again, but no sound emerged from the engine.
“Are we at this God-forsaken place?” Serena stretched her arms.
“Errr, no. The car has broken down.”
“What?”
“The car, it’s broken down.” Maddie’s voice fell.
“I heard that but where are we?” Serena was now sitting straight.
“Don’t know precisely, but not far.”
“Christ.”
“Mind your language.” Maddie ran her fingers over the wheel.
“Hah, fine thing to say. I just heard you swearing. What’s wrong with Christ anyway? Besides you haven’t been to church since Dad died.”
“We’ve been down this road before.” Maddie pushed aside the empty hole inside that Serena’s words uncovered again.
“No we haven’t. I’ve never been to Cornwall.”
“Don’t be pedantic.” Maddie rubbed her hands over the rigid tendons in her neck. “Serena, I’ve been driving for hours and arguing isn’t going to help.”
“So?”
Maddie pulled the bonnet release and stepped out of the car. The breeze caught her hair as she stood in the darkness and struggled with the catch.
“What are you doing?” asked Serena.
“Looking at the engine.”
“Since when do you know anything about engines?”
Maddie sighed. Serena was right. She hadn’t a clue. She pulled the phone from her pocket and the screen lit up with a picture of John. He’d been gone eight months. She swallowed.
“Are you just going to look at it?”
Maddie punched in the number for roadside assistance. No signal. Great.
“Well, what’s happening?” Serena leaned out the window.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? Even better. So we’re in the middle of nowhere with no signal and a dead car.”
“That sums it up it quite well.” Maddie looked to the black sky for answers, but all she found was the Milky Way.
“Hel-lo?”
“Yes.” Maddie placed her hands on her hips wondering why did this child have to make everything so difficult?
“What are you going to do?” Serena played with the zip on her jacket.
“Walk down the road and find a house.”
“Good luck. No light. No signs of life. You have driven us to the end of the earth.”
“Hand me the torch in the glove compartment.” Maddie pushed away the thought that it would be good if Serena tried being helpful for a change. Yes, she knew she was a teenager, but if she were honest it wasn’t the lack of assistance that hurt it was the deliberate desire to make it all harder.
Serena tossed it on the driver’s seat.
Maddie waited. “Are you coming?”
“No.” Serena thrust the torch out of the window.
“Fine.” Maddie grabbed it and walked from the car with long strides. She couldn’t force Serena to come. She couldn’t do much with her and it was getting worse not better. John was gone and Maddie’s relationship with his daughter deteriorated every day.
Finally a light flickered in the distance so she picked up pace. As she neared she could see a cluster of buildings, but only one had a light. Where was everyone? Maddie pressed the door-bell and held her breath. There was no sound. She tried again as she thought of Serena and the flack she would get if they had to sleep in the car tonight. She rapped loudly on the door.
“Who the hell…” a deep voice sounded.
Maddie looked up into brown squinting eyes.
“Sorry to disturb you, but my car has broken down and I can’t get a signal.” She looked at her mobile again then continued. “Is there any chance I may use your phone?”
***
Serena stared at the darkness. Why the hell was she here? It was Maddie’s fault, of course. Serena opened the car door. The air smelt clean; a strange concept. No noise either. Her music had died hours ago and the radio didn’t work because the car didn’t. Great. Here at the end of the earth and no music to kill the silence.
A screeching noise made her jump as a low flying object swept past her face. This place was creepy; no one here and bats or something flying around.
Maddie’s unmistakable proper vowels broke the silence. Serena had always wondered why her father had fallen for her. It must have been the sex. Why else would he marry a tall gangly woman with wild curly brown hair and a posh accent? No other possible reason.
“The car is just in that bend.” Maddie’s words reverberated off the hedges.
“They won’t be able to access it there.”
Serena’s head shot up. A male voice? Had Maddie picked up some man in the half hour she’d been gone? Typical. Men flocked to her like flies to shit. Serena couldn’t understand it. Maddie never seemed to notice the drool as they stood staring. She was oblivious to everything, lost in her world of colours and shapes. Hell, she didn’t even shout at the tattoo. She just closed her mouth and then commented on the lovely use of blue. She wasn’t even clued up enough to know it was a fake, so much for getting under her skin. She didn’t shout. She didn’t rage. She kept on packing for this wretched move to Cornwall and whimpering on about what a Godsend it was that she had inherited this house. Well, they thought it was a house. The papers that Serena stole a look at described it as a dwelling.
“Serena, has anyone come?” Maddie stood in front of the car with a tall man who didn’t look like he was from roadside assistance. Even in the torch light Serena could tell he was good-looking in a rough sort of way. Nice body. Unfortunately drooling as they all did. Another puppy to follow Maddie around. Did she smell of sex or something?
“Are you joking? Someone come down this excuse for a road? Nothing but bats down here.”
“Excellent.” The man spoke. “They’re protected. You’re lucky to see them numbers have been declining.”
Oh great, thought Serena, this time she’s found a hunky eco geek. Maddie played the dark damsel in distress and the great eco geek rode to the rescue. Get a life, Maddie, and fix things yourself. Get a grip on pheromone production while you’re at it too. “Thanks for the endangered species update, but this place gives me the creeps. And who the hell are you by the way?
“Serena.” Maddie snapped.
“I’m Mark Triggs.”
Serena watched them stand together like a team. They weren’t a team. Maddie didn’t know him from Adam. “Have you found out how far we are from this Carnew that you insist on calling a house?”
“Carnew?” The Triggs bloke asked. “You’re going to live at Carnew?”
“Yes,” Maddie said.
She was so calm about every damn thing.
“So you’re related to Aunty Nell,” eco geek said.
“Yes, I guess.” Maddie smiled at him.
“Have you been to Carnew before?” he asked.
“No.”
“You’re planning to sleep there tonight?”
Serena sighed. His question told her all. This was going to be worse that she had ever nightmared. It was a wreck with two walls, no roof and certainly no hot and cold running anything. Brill. Wicked step-mum incarnate tearing her from London to this hell hole.
“Hey, when’s car man coming?”
“Within the next hour and a bit.”
“Rush job, huh? Two lone women stuck in a dark country lane with a strange man and they’re going to take their time about it. Good. I can see the headlines next week when the bodies are discovered by a passing shepherd.”
“Enough, Serena.” Maddie snapped.
“Enough what?” Serena asked.
“Melodramatics.”
“Is that what that was? Good. Thanks for the educational lesson.”
“Serena!” Maddie’s voice rose.
Serena pulled her legs in and slammed the door. Maddie had no right to use that tone with her. What was she to Serena? Nothing. Her father’s widow. Nothing more. That was until the court made her legal guardian until eighteen. Bloody courts.
***
The growing light revealed the outline of a bedraggled group of buildings as Maddie walked slowly towards a grey stone house. It looked sound, if cold and empty. She pulled a large key from her pocket and tried it. With a bit of force the lock tumbled over and she turned the handle. Nothing. She tried again and pushed with her free hand on the flaking blue paint. She held her breath and waited for the door to give way while something gnawed at the pit of her stomach. She had to be brave. This should be exciting. She was the owner of Carnew. What was there to be afraid of?
Plenty of things, if she was honest, but thinking about them now wouldn’t help. She should be grateful. She had a house, a car, and Serena had been asleep on the back seat since the rescue van had deposited them at Carnew. After the abuse she had been hurling at Maddie all night, it was a relief when the silence hit.
A blast of musty air greeted her as she stepped across the threshold. The disturbance caused dust to swirl and a sigh seemed to emerge from the walls. Maddie wrapped her arms around herself tightly.
“Do you think there’s electricity?” Maddie turned to their new neighbour, Mark Triggs. She was extremely grateful he had stayed with them through the car ordeal. It had been a long night.
“Should do. Auntie Nell managed to live here and not many people survive without electricity these days.”
She flicked the switch in the hall. “Did you know her?”
“Yes. Everyone did. Lovely lady.” He was close behind and she could feel his warmth. She suppressed a shiver and stifled a yawn while pulling herself up straight.
A single bulb hung from the ceiling and cast a dull glow on the floral wallpaper. The mass of colour almost obscured the pictures which hung on the walls, but a faded photograph of three women standing in front of the house stood out from the rest.
“Is Nell Pendragon in this?”
Mark moved closer and peered at the photo. “I think Aunty Nell is the one in middle. They say she was a beautiful woman in her youth and broke many a heart.”
“I can see that. Was she married?”
“No.”
“I wonder why?”
“I had heard that she lost her fiancé in the war.”
Maddie studied the women. They were not smiling but somehow she felt their welcome. Her finger traced Nell’s outline while she tried to guess her age in the photo. Was her heart still whole at that point?
“Shall I see if I can rustle up some coffee?” Mark asked.
“That would be wonderful.” She watched the tussled brown hair, broad shoulders, and tapered waist disappear down the hall. He would make a fabulous nude study. He must be younger than her, maybe thirty-four or thirty-five and very fit. Maddie hadn’t seen a wedding ring or any signs of a woman in his house when she used the phone. A girl could fall for him, not that she could be called a girl any more, as her aching back reminded her. To be young again. She rubbed her sore muscles. Would she do things differently if she was? She knew the answer, but unfortunately there was no going back.
Here she was eight months after John’s death and still struggling with the consequences of their choices. Maddie sighed. It all seemed so simple when everything was focused on keeping John alive. With each new drug they had hope which quickly vanished and now she was left without a husband, virtually bankrupt, and a fifteen year old child to support.
She returned to the photograph and a chill ran down her spine. The solicitor had said that Maddie was Nell’s closest blood relative on the Pendragon side. Maddie’s birth mother was a Pendragon and it must have taken him a while to track her down as Maddie only used Pendragon for work and had become Hollis by marriage. Before that she had been legally Smith most of her thirty-eight years thanks to two wonderful people. She still missed them, but she knew her life now would distress them. Maddie pushed her hair back and smiled at the women in the photo silently thanking them for their gift.
She and Serena had a new start. She had Carnew. She looked down the hallway then bent to feel the solid slates beneath her feet hoping that having some security would provide her with the space to find inspiration again. While John was ill she had longed to paint – to paint her pain, her hope and her love, but time didn’t permit and now that she had time she was empty. She didn’t know what she was going to do.
As she walked to the kitchen, she wondered when the house was built and if the Pendragons were here then. Her eyes strayed to the massive mullioned window that dominated one end of the kitchen. It looked Tudor. Pale light streamed in, turning the whitewashed window frame to pale lavender which reminded her of the rinse on her mother’s hair. Her fingers twitched.
“You’ve been incredibly kind. You didn’t have to stay.”
Mark rolled his eyes. “Leave two damsels in distress. My reputation would be ruined forever.”
“You have a reputation then?” Maddie studied him again. His cheek bones were high and his lips full. Not classical but the combination with that smile was quite devastating.
“So some might say.” He smiled.
“You don’t agree.”
“Now that would be telling.” His voice became very quiet.
“Yes, it would.” Maddie laughed. “But should you come with a warning label?”
He turned away and Maddie thought she heard him say, “Maybe.”