away. Harriet was her maid of honour and, at that time, not wanting to be married, had enjoyed her sister’s happiness.
‘So, Pip, you’re a yes?’ Harriet couldn’t believe it. ‘Not more than a few hours ago we were all saying Dad was mad.’
‘Well we still think that, but this doesn’t seem to be so much of a hardship,’ Freddie said. ‘In fact, perhaps Dad was right, it’s a gift. I mean, we all get to spend time together, re-evaluate everything, and as has already been said, we should do all we can to keep Meadowbrook in the family. So, Harry, that just leaves you …’
Harriet sighed, this wasn’t exactly how she thought it would go. ‘Look, guys, I get that it’s all or nothing and I don’t want to take it away from you, but I have quite a job, as you know. I’m not sure I can just take a year off, I’m not sure they’ll let me. It’s complicated.’ She hoped she didn’t sound too self-important.
‘But you will see if you can, will you try?’ Gus asked. ‘Look, I’ve never been after Dad’s money.’ Gus looked down at his nearly empty plate. ‘But you know, he wanted us to have it. And, of course, there are our families to think about. Not just Fleur, but your future kids, if you have any. I’m happy to give as much as needed to the animal sanctuary, I don’t need a lot to live on, but I don’t want to lose all the family memories and that means keeping Meadowbrook. And it also, to me, means honouring Dad’s memory and doing what he wanted us to do.’
‘It’s all we have left of Mum and Dad,’ Pippa said, another tear rolling down her cheek. ‘I don’t want to lose it but, more importantly, like Gus, I want to do what Daddy wanted us to do. Because he might not be here, but he’s still our father.’ Pippa’s voice was full of emotion and something Harriet had to respect; passion. As her three siblings all nodded in agreement, she felt guilty, wretched. She didn’t have such a straightforward decision. If she said yes, she would kiss goodbye to her job, oh and her relationship, or whatever it actually was. If she said no, then she would lose her siblings and Meadowbrook. It was a lose-lose.
‘I need to check in with work.’ Harriet stood up, she needed to get out of here, have some time to think. She had mixed feelings; panic, anxiety. She loved her siblings, she loved her job; she was sleeping with her married boss. They had had an on/off affair for about five years now; something she hadn’t planned but more fallen into. She wasn’t proud of that, but Zach, successful, powerful, was a difficult man to resist. And as much as she enjoyed being with him, she loved her job even more.
‘Gwen’s left an apple crumble in the Aga,’ she said, collecting herself, refilling her wine glass, as, heart thumping, she left the room.
She made her way upstairs to the first floor. There were five bedrooms here and five on the second floor. The first floor housed the family’s bedrooms, the top floor the guest rooms, but, as far as she knew, her father didn’t have many guests. As children they used to play upstairs, but then they pretty much ran around everywhere in the enormous house. They were fairly wild at times, various nannies tried to tame them, Gwen too, but they didn’t quite manage it.
Harriet opened her computer. She knew the drill; it would be easier to email Zach, who never took his eyes off his mailbox, and get him to call her urgently. She needed reassurance from him that this was a terrible idea and that there was no way she would be able to stay at Meadowbrook for even a month let alone a year.
Zachary Matthews, the man she had walked into the interview room ten years ago with a desperate need to impress. He was tall, with curly brown hair, dark eyes, and a presence so commanding she was drawn to him like a magnet. She was so focused on the job, nothing would stand in her way of the much-wanted move to New York. She and Zach worked closely together and at some point they ended up in bed together. It hadn’t happened overnight, it had taken almost five years before anything happened. A work trip to Washington, too much wine with dinner, and then up to his hotel room. He didn’t sugarcoat anything, romance it certainly wasn’t, but that was what Harriet wanted, needed, understood. No strings, nothing to detract from her job, no emotions. Harriet didn’t even know if she had emotions anymore. They were the same person; driven by making money, excited by the deal, obsessed by work, by succeeding.
She didn’t focus too much on the fact that she was sleeping with a married man. And every time her moral compass seemed to right itself and she decided to end things, Zach would smile at her and they’d end up in bed. Was she the only one? She doubted it. But there was something powerful about him. And something safe. Harriet certainly didn’t worry about him falling in love with her and she didn’t need to worry about falling in love with him. She had let that happen once and it didn’t end well.
But now her father had died. Which made her question what the hell she was doing.
She took a deep breath as she opened up her email and, scanning through the spam, she noticed an email from work. It was from the director of HR, with Zach copied in. As her thumping heart slowed to a dull thud, she felt bile rising in her stomach as she read it.
A knock on her bedroom door roused her back to the present.
‘Can I come in?’ Pippa asked, tentatively, as her head poked around the door.
‘Sure,’ Harriet replied, quietly.
Pippa made her way over to the king-size bed and sat down. Harriet was still at the dressing table, staring at the screen in front of her. Shock, fear, hatred all fighting to dominate her emotions.
‘So, did you call the office?’ Pippa asked. Harriet turned her head to look at Pippa. ‘Harry? Are you all right?’
‘I just checked my emails.’ She could barely believe what she’d just read. ‘And look.’ She picked up her laptop and took it over to the bed, sitting next to her, so Pippa could read the email. Harriet needed her to do so, because she still hoped she imagined it. It was as if she was in a nightmare.
‘It says that they’re making you redundant?’ Pippa said, eyes wide in shock.
‘Yes. Paying me off. Restructuring my department.’ Harriet shook her head. Zach hadn’t even sent a personal message. Her boss, the man she had been sleeping with on a semi-regular basis, had used her father’s death as an excuse to get rid of her.
‘But I don’t understand, they can’t do this, I mean you’ve come home for your father’s funeral.’
‘I think they must have been planning it, even they couldn’t come up with this in twenty-four hours.’ She paused to think. ‘Actually they could.’ Redundancy packages had been put together in a matter of hours. She should know, she had been behind some of them. Her stomach plummeted even more.
‘That’s terrible and surely not even legal.’ Pippa was outraged. ‘Surely you could threaten to sue them.’
‘I could, but I won’t.’ Harriet felt her body deflate.
‘Why not, Harry? That’s not like you. Why won’t you at least threaten them?’
‘Because, Pip,’ Harriet’s eyes swam with tears, ‘I’m not proud, but I’ve been sleeping with my my married boss.’
Pippa’s mouth gaped open. She shook her head and shut it. ‘But, I don’t understand, if you’ve been sleeping with him, why is he getting rid of you now?’
‘I don’t know.’ She really didn’t. But she did know that she would never walk onto that trading floor again. Feel that exhilaration of anticipation of the day ahead. Hear the buzz of the phones ringing, computers beeping – her favourite music. How on earth was she supposed to live without that?
‘What a bastard. To do it just after you buried your dad. And not even tell you himself. I mean, I can’t condone you sleeping with a married man, Harry, that was wrong. Oh goodness, what a mess.’ Pippa sounded distraught. Harriet looked at her. She was no longer the kid that Harriet felt so maternal towards.
‘Exactly, without my job I’m nothing.’ She felt tears threatening her, and she was almost ready to welcome them.
‘Oh,