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?
Her family still living and working down in the village of Hartmead meant Nory was a fairly frequent visitor to the area, unlike her friends, for whom this house party would be a trip down memory lane. But she hadn’t ventured up to the castle for a couple of years, and despite her initial reticence, she had to admit that she was looking forward to seeing it again.
To be staying as a guest was the kind of thing that child Nory had always dreamed about. She would get to sleep in one of the four-poster beds she used to sneak peeks at when the housekeepers were changing the sheets. And spend a week eating food that didn’t come in a foil tray. She would have access to the library! All those musty books without pictures she hadn’t appreciated when she was a kid were calling to her now. She bet there were some cracking first editions hiding in those shelves. And then there were the gardens, a world unto themselves, hidden gates in high walls which led to fanciful spaces where plants ruled and every season was allowed to shine. Yes, she was looking forward to going back.
Four
Ameerah pulled off the country lane they had been driving down for some half an hour—ten minutes of which was spent crawling behind a bouquet of pheasants running panicked along the center of the road—and passed the old gate house that marked the beginning of the castle’s drive.
After several twists and turns, which led them through a varied landscape of orchards and large open spaces with heavy-coated sheep roaming freely, they emerged from beneath the skeleton canopy of an avenue of lime trees. Robinwood Castle rose up before them like a mirage. Nory’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of it, and the sharp intakes of breath from both Ameerah and Dev showed that the feeling was unanimous.
“I’d forgotten how beautiful it was,” said Ameerah.
“I hadn’t,” replied Nory.
Her eyes roamed lovingly over the sand-colored stone, which was mottled with age and scarred by the many climbing plants that had tried to claim its walls through the decades. Chimneys cluttered the roof and the smoke spiraling out from them spoke of fires roaring in hearths within.
“I think I’ve been here before,” said Dev, squinting out of the back window.
“Wouldn’t you know if you’d been here before?” Nory asked. To her mind, Robinwood Castle was a place that, once visited, was never to be forgotten.
“I’ve been on a lot of photoshoots in places like this. After a while they begin to meld into each other. But I thought the landscaping looked familiar as we drove through. The glossies like an old building as a juxtaposition to the cutting-edge modernity of fashion.”