‘So why are you telling me?’ While Harry was glad Dominic had broken the news, he knew his brother well enough to know there’d be another motive behind the disclosure.

‘Jesus, Harry. Why the fuck do you think I’m telling you?’ hissed Dominic. The sound of their mother humming as she came down the hall filtered through into the room. ‘Because you’re her blue-eyed boy and nothing would make her last days happier than having you about.’

‘She said that?’

‘Of course she didn’t but everyone knows that’s true. You can’t go back to France. You need to stay here.’

Harry eyed his brother as he considered the prospect of having to stay. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to support his mother, far from it, but Conmere itself held far too many bad memories for him. Memories he had escaped from when he’d moved to France. The idea of staying at Conmere any longer than a few days filled him with a sense of unease, but the alternative – leaving his mother when she had only months to live – was unimaginable and something he knew he couldn’t do.

Chapter Six

Two Years Earlier,
Conmere Resort Centre, 10 August, 10.30 a.m.

Elizabeth took a final sip of her Earl Grey tea and, glancing down at the little dogs sitting expectantly at her feet, she picked up the croissant from her plate, broke it into three and chucked it onto the terrace. ‘You can afford to get fat,’ she said as the dogs eagerly gulped down the evidence.

She checked her watch for the fourth time. Surely the breakfast meeting Harry was attending with his mother and brothers was over by now. She looked at her phone in case she’d missed any messages from Harry, but there were none. Harry had said the meeting was primarily to discuss the sale of some land to a housing developer. The twenty-acre site on the edge of the estate was prime development land and, from what Harry had gleaned, outline planning permission for up to one hundred houses would be granted.

The land was worth in excess of 3.9 million pounds. Elizabeth couldn’t understand the hesitancy of her mother-in-law. Pru Sinclair wasn’t convinced about selling for any price, whereas both Harry and Dominic could see the potential. Naturally, pathetic little Mummy’s boy Owen had taken his mother’s side and the family were at an impasse. Elizabeth drummed her manicured fingernails on the bistro table. She hated being shut out of the business discussions like this.

‘Morning!’ came a voice.