They weren’t her only company, though. There was the cluster of worker accommodations farther down the hill. Ten employees including Kant stayed on the property.

Employees who are waiting for my decision.

A distant grouping of trees, their scratchy branches barely visible against the dark sky, rocked in a dizzying loop. Margot closed her eyes.

She hadn’t been expecting to inherit a business. Certainly not one that large. Kant had offered to show her how to manage it, but she still didn’t know if she would be enough. She knew nothing about wine.

Businesses failed often and easily. Margot didn’t know if she could forgive herself if she became responsible for killing this one.

She could sell the business. But there was no guarantee it would see a better fate under someone else’s control.

My parents spent their life building this. They must have loved it more than anything. And they left it to me, probably hoping that I would continue it after their death.

A dark, bitter thought slipped in. Maybe if they’d kept me, maybe if they’d raised me here, I’d have a better chance of not ruining it.

Her throat was starting to ache again. Margot turned, putting her back to the window as she folded her arms. The frames rattled as chilled air worked its way through the cracks.

More than her own grief and guilt, she needed to think about the employees. Gallows Hill Winery was an unexpected windfall for her. She’d never factored it into her life plan, and she could have continued to live happily without it.

It was another story for the staff. They relied on its income.

Kant had said the business could pay their wages…at least for the short term. But a decision needed to be made, and sooner rather than later.

She didn’t have much else waiting for her back home since her nana had passed. The junior sales position she’d held at a city clothing store had few chances for promotion and saw a high turnover. Margot had already been there longer than she’d planned. She’d asked for a week off for the funeral, but a simple phone call to the manager would see her taken off the roster permanently.

She’d rented an apartment with two friends from her class, but one had emigrated overseas and the other was talking about moving in with a boyfriend. Margot would need to find a new place to stay eventually; why not here, in Leafell?

And then what?

Then she would live at the Gallows Hill Estate, in this enormous house. She would try to learn the business. She would give it her best attempt. Four weeks seemed fair. That should be long enough to know whether she could survive in the business, and if, at the end of four weeks, she truly hated it, she would sell it instead.