BooksBarbecue
Back The Family Secret
Chapters (51)
  1. The Family Secret
  2. Copyright
  3. Praise for Tracy Buchanan’s novels
  4. What readers loved about Tracy Buchanan’s last novel, The Lost Sister …
  5. Dedication
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Prologue
  8. Chapter One
  9. Chapter Two
  10. Chapter Three
  11. Chapter Four
  12. Chapter Five
  13. Chapter Six
  14. Chapter Seven
  15. Chapter Eight
  16. Chapter Nine
  17. Chapter Ten
  18. Chapter Eleven
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-One
  29. Chapter Twenty-Two
  30. Chapter Twenty-Three
  31. Chapter Twenty-Four
  32. Chapter Twenty-Five
  33. Chapter Twenty-Six
  34. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  35. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  36. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Chapter Thirty-Two
  40. Chapter Thirty-Three
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Letter to my readers
  43. Acknowledgments
  44. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  45. With the loss of her mother, Becky aches to find her sister. She knows she cannot move forward in her life without answers…
  46. A girl has gone missing. You’ve never met her, but you’re to blame…
  47. You’d kill to protect your child…Wouldn’t you?
  48. Everything you’ve built your life on is a lie. And no one has been telling the truth for a very long time…
  49. How far would you go for the one you love the most?
  50. Also by Tracy Buchanan
  51. About the Publisher

‘Won’t mind? It’ll make their Christmas. Come on.’

He hauled my overnight bag over his shoulder and I followed him back to the house, the twinkle of its golden lights and the sound of laughter within warming me up. When we stepped inside the house, Oscar was walking through the hallway with a tray of steaming mulled wine.

He paused, his face lighting up. ‘You changed your mind?’

‘Her car wouldn’t start,’ Dylan explained.

‘Ah, well then, it’s fate!’ Oscar declared, approaching me with the tray and gesturing for me to take a glass.

‘If it’s okay though,’ I quickly said. ‘I don’t want to impose. It is Christmas, after all.’

‘What did Mairi say about the candles in the window?’ Oscar said, gesturing towards the triangle of candles that flickered in the living-room window. ‘It’s Christmas, a time for welcoming guests into the house. It’s the McClusky clan way and frankly, we’ve been sorely missing being able to fulfil that tradition in recent years, this place is so remote. And now we have the most wonderful of guests, a beautiful documentary-maker. So come in, make yourself at home. Consider yourself an honorary McClusky.’

Dylan gave me an embarrassed smile at his dad’s speech. But as I took a quick sip of the delicious mulled wine, I felt a bit overcome at the generosity of Oscar’s words. There had been so many Christmas Days spent alone, or working, over the years. Sad memories too of that first Christmas in the hotel, yearning for my parents as I served Christmas lunch to guests, the feel of the delicate bracelet they’d sent me upon my wrist. ‘Christmas is a religious festival, Gwyneth,’ my aunt had barked when she’d noticed me crying. ‘Are you religious? No. So it’s just another day, another day to work and make money. The sooner you wrap your head around that, the better you’ll feel.’ So from that moment, I had wrapped my head around it. And I thought I was okay with it.

Until now.

I smiled up at the two men. ‘Thank you.’ Then I looked out at the loch, glistening beneath the moonlight. How strange to think nearly losing my life in that frozen lake had brought me here.

Chapter Six

Amber

Winterton Chine

13 December 2009

‘A lake. A frozen lake!’