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A Year at Meadowbrook Manor

Faith Bleasdale

One divided family, one life-changing year…

Harriet Singer hasn’t been home in ten years. When her beloved dad dies suddenly, she races to be there for her estranged siblings, despite the memories it brings back.

Then Harriet learns that all four Singer siblings must live together for one year, caring for their dad’s Animal Sanctuary, or forfeit their inheritance.

Living under the same roof could make or break the family, but it’s time Harriet stopped running and faced her past. Especially when her first love turns up…

A heart-warming story about love, hope and family, perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley and Heidi Swain.

Buy links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Year-Meadowbrook-Manor-perfect-feel-good-ebook/dp/B0754VMBMD

Extract 10 – Chapter 11, 118-119

It had been a whirlwind month at Meadowbrook, in many ways it had been the hardest time of her life, yet it had also been incredibly comforting. New York, not yet a distant memory, was slowly, gradually, slipping more into the past. She was allowing herself to grieve her old life, as well as her father.

She still cried to herself at night at times; she felt her father’s loss so keenly, normally when she was alone. She missed him more and more and hadn’t accepted he was gone. Nor had she quite accepted that her life in New York was over. She still got up in the morning and felt the urge to don a suit and heels, she would feel a pang of loss as she pulled on her jeans and her charity shop clothes. She knew she was a snob, spoilt, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but miss her old life.

It was funny how she barely gave Zach a thought though. She still thought he was all sorts of unmentionable names for what he did to her but she didn’t miss him. She didn’t miss their relationship in the way she missed her job. There was so much about New York she was mourning – the buzz, the smell, the cocktail bars, Mimi, her personal trainer. And most of all work. But Zach, no.

She was getting on with it. That was the best she could do. Grief was thick within her, for so many things, but Meadowbrook was also creeping under her skin. She was split in two: the Harriet who missed being a high-flying corporate woman in New York and Harriet who loved spending time with her family, being outside, growing to love the animal sanctuary. She was finding her old self, whilst not quite ready to let go of the other one.

Living with her siblings for the first time since childhood was proving interesting. It was, in many ways, as if they were getting to know each other again; they were finding their relationship with each other at the same time as finding their own feet. There were times she would look at them and feel as if she knew them as well as she knew herself, other times they felt like strangers.