Chapters (51)
- Cover
- Praise for A Season for Second Chances
- Also by Jenny Bayliss
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Discussion Guide
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“Lovely. You’ll have to make one for us when you’re next down.”
“Um, yeah sure, why not.”
“Thomas said there’s a big house party staying at the castle next week. Is that your friend’s thing?”
“Yes, it is. How does Thomas know?”
“They’ve ordered all sorts of flower garlands for the staircases and arrangements for the tables, hundreds of loose blooms and greenery too. Shelley’s doing extra shifts, but you know it’s hard for her with the boys as well. I remember trying to manage you two and the business, especially at Christmas with all the castle displays. I was going to cut my hours back before Christmas, but there’s not a chance with all this going on as well as our usual orders. Thomas thought he recognized the name on the order sheet—Pippa something, I think. You used to be friends with a Pippa, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that is my friend Pippa.”
Pippa had the kind of job that would send Nory’s dad into a tailspin: She was a house stylist. People with excessive amounts of money paid her to go into their houses and create floral arrangements in every room and garnish their sideboards with the correct objet d’art to make them look effortlessly stylish. It didn’t surprise Nory that Jenna would have hired their friend to “dress” the castle. In her real life, Jenna didn’t have quite enough money to have a house stylist on the payroll—though she had aspirations for the future—but she would be pushing the boat out for the wedding.
“Will you be there? At the castle for the week? I know you’re going to the wedding, but I didn’t realize there was a holiday first.”
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make the house party. But as it turns out, I will be there, yes.”
“Oh, how lovely! Make sure you come and see us. You can’t be so close and not come to say hello, I couldn’t stand it. Will Ameerah be coming too?”
Ameerah had been “adopted” by Nory’s parents in Nory’s first year at Braddon-Hartmead when they discovered that Ameerah’s parents wouldn’t be in the country for Christmas and Ameerah would be staying at school over the holidays. That was to be the first holiday of many for which Ameerah’s parents wouldn’t be around, so she had been assimilated into the Noel household. Ameerah’s relationship with Nory’s family was far less complicated than her own.
“Yes, Ameerah will be there.”
Her mum squealed over the phone and then began to talk to her dad, while Nory hung on the phone, half listening, half watching an old episode of Midsomer Murders.