CHAPTER ONE
RUBYPENNINGTONDROVEup the long hedgerow-lined driveway of Rothwell Park with a flutter of moth wings in her belly. Coming ‘home’ to the grand Yorkshire moors estate always triggered a mixture of emotions. Never more so than when she knew Lucas Rothwell was in residence. And, as much as she longed to catch up with her grandmother over the long weekend, it was Lucas she really needed to see.
Thick, bruised-looking clouds scudded across the sky, with the sun appearing weakly between them again and again, as if still deciding whether to call it quits for the day. In the distance, rain was sweeping in from the moors in slanted grey sheets, and the wind was whistling and howling like a siren announcing impending doom.
Ruby brought her car to a stop near the old stables and turned off the engine.
Don’t be nervous. Don’t be nervous. Don’t be nervous.
Her mentally chanted pep talk was falling seriously short. The moth wings in her belly had turned into bats. Hundreds of frantically flapping bats. It was impossible not to be a little jittery around Lucas Rothwell. How long had it been since she’d seen him face to face? Years. She never usually came home unless she knew he wasn’t there.
But this time was different.
Shehadto see him.
As soon as Ruby got out of the car the biting wind whipped her hair around her face and needles of ice pricked her skin. Just as well the wild and capricious weather of the Yorkshire moors was exactly what her American celebrity client wanted for her wedding. It would be the highest profile wedding Ruby had done so far, and she owed it to her best friends and business partners, Harper and Aerin, to secure this venue. Their business, Happy Ever After Weddings, was making good progress, but this wedding would lift their profile way more than they could have dreamed possible when they’d first brainstormed a business plan on the back of a napkin in their favourite coffee shop.
Ruby brushed her hair away with her hand and walked towards the imposing front entrance of the castle. The centuries-old estate was a spectacular setting for a fairy tale wedding. The gothic-style castle with its multiple turrets and grandly appointed wings could house numerous guests, and the industrial-sized kitchen was perfect for catering for a crowd.
Pulling off this celebrity wedding gig would be her way of proving she had what it took to rise above her hardscrabble beginnings and being viewed as nothing more than the unwanted kid of a drug addict. Ruby didn’t allow herself to think of failing once she set out to do something. Failure had been modelled to her by her mother, and Ruby was determined not to follow her example. Besides, her friends and business partners were relying on her.
And when people relied on her she delivered.
Before Ruby could put her key in the lock, the door opened a crack.
‘Ruby, lass, what you are you doing here?’ Her grandmother’s shocked expression wasn’t exactly the welcome Ruby was expecting. It had been months since she’d been to Rothwell Park. And, although her gran wasn’t the overly effusive sort, surely she could summon up a teensy bit of enthusiasm?
‘I told you weeks ago I’d be here for the Bank Holiday weekend.’
Her grandmother cast a furtive glance over her shoulder and then, keeping the front door only just ajar, whispered, ‘Now’s not a good time. The master’s here and he doesn’t want visitors.’
Ruby mentally rolled her eyes at her grandmother’s old-fashioned habit of referring to Lucas Rothwell as ‘the master’. Clearly her gran had been watching too many period dramas. And as for Lucas being in residence—that was the whole reason for Ruby’s visit. Her gran had mentioned a few weeks ago about his planning to be in Yorkshire this weekend, after spending months flitting between Greece and Italy for work. Ruby wouldn’t have travelled all this way from London if he wasn’t going to be home.
‘Why? Has he got one of his supermodel girlfriends here?’
It wouldn’t be the first time Ruby had come across Lucas entertaining one of his glamorous partners. She had spent her childhood and adolescence pretending not to notice his brooding good looks and the way his lovers gazed up at him adoringly. She had pretended not to be jealous that he never looked at her the way he looked at those beautiful women. But then, as the homeless ten-year-old waif who had come to live with her housekeeper grandmother after the imprisonment of her mother, Ruby had been practically invisible to him.
Her grandmother pursed her lips, but still kept the door half closed. ‘He’s alone, but—’
‘Great—because he’s the one I really need to see.’ Ruby smiled and, pushing the door open a little further, bent down to give her gran a smacking kiss on the cheek. ‘Not that it isn’t always lovely to see you,’ she added.
‘Get away with you, child.’
Her gran brushed Ruby away as if she was an annoying insect but there was no malice in it. After a rough upbringing herself, her gran had trouble showing and receiving affection, and even while Ruby had longed for more kisses and cuddles growing up, she didn’t feel any less loved. Her gran had taken her in and raised her, and for that she would be for ever grateful. Rothwell Park had been the first stable home she had experienced. The castle and its grounds had provided her with security and shelter, which had been the complete opposite of the chaos of moving from one flea-infested bedsit to another while her mother tried to outrun her debts.
Ruby stepped past to enter the castle and her grandmother closed the door behind her with a soft click, her expression still troubled. ‘I shouldn’t have mentioned he’d be home this weekend.’
Her gran’s stage whisper echoed eerily through the large entrance hall and made the fine hairs on the back of Ruby’s neck stand up at the roots.
‘He expressly told me to keep out all visitors.’
‘I’m hardly a visitor.’
Her gran wrung her hands in an agitated manner, her eyes flicking towards the grand staircase as if she was expecting to see Lucas come striding down to fire her on the spot for disobeying his orders.
‘You can’t stay. He won’t allow it.’
Ruby scrunched up her face in scorn. ‘Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Gran. Of course he’ll allow it. This was my home for years. Besides, I have important business to discuss with him. Where is he?’