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?
“An email, this morning. They would have loved to spend Christmas with me, but unfortunately they completely forgot what time of year it was and are booked on a luxury cruise throughout the whole of December.”
“I take it that means you’ll be taking up my mum’s offer of Christmas with the Noel family. Fights and dodgy cocktails guaranteed. You know it wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Ameerah smiled. “To be honest, I wasn’t too sad my parents blew me off. I mean, it would be nice to see them, but it’s only a proper Christmas with your family.”
“It’s just as well we bloody love you, then, isn’t it?”
“You are lucky, you know. Even if Thomas does behave like a tit.”
“I know.”
“You ready to go back in a minute? I left Jenna screaming over the phone at an Italian pâtissier about ganache.”
Nory raised her eyebrows. “I thought Pippa was in charge of all that sort of thing.”
“She is. Pippa was threatening to gag Jenna when I left.”
“I’ve only been gone a couple of hours and Jenna’s become a bridezilla.”
“I think she woke up this morning and realized this is actually happening; she’s getting married on Saturday.”
“Ahh, the reality check! Okay, let’s go smooth some troubled waters.”
Eleven
It was decided that the best way to soothe the tensions beginning to simmer within the group was to have some timeout. Guy took Camille out for a walk in the grounds, and Charles and Jenna went off to their room. Jeremy had calmed down after finally being able to contact Katie. Thankfully today was her last day at the monkey sanctuary, and tomorrow she would begin the arduous journey back to England. Ameerah, Dev, and Nory had ensconced themselves in the library, where a hearty fire crackled in the hearth and the tartan sherpa blankets were plentiful.
This was the library where Nory would hide out when she was little while her mum was working. It was where she first discovered her love of botanical art, in Lord Abercrombie’s collection of old botany and horticulture books. She would leaf through the pages, the musty, slightly vanilla scent of old paper filling her nostrils. The edges of the pages were browning with age, yet the plants seemed real, almost as though they’d been pressed into the pages, breathed into life by the brushstrokes and ink-pen notes from botanists long since dead. It was like falling into history.