Sneak Peek
CHAPTER ONE
Grace
I toyed with the silver ring on my right ring finger, spinning it around and around. It was looser now. Lack of food would do that to a person.
The strobes of my mom’s headlights shed the only light on the winding New Hampshire roads lined with trees for miles.
“This isn’t going to be so bad,” my mother said softly from the driver’s seat.
Wasn’t going to be so bad? My father just died, and I was being forced to relocate to Grayson Manor where my mother had been a housekeeper for over eighteen years—an hour away from my home. She might not have minded spending her week away from the common people of Coopersville. But, I was a few months shy of graduating high school. I had friends and a life in Coopersville. “I just don’t understand why I couldn’t stay with Holly until you’re home on the weekends.”
She sighed and I hated that a sigh could carry so much meaning. Hated that after everything she’d been through--we’d been through—I was still giving her grief over moving to the manor. “You and this job are all I have left,” she said. “We’re both grieving, Grace. You need me as much as I need you.” She reached over and placed her frail hand on top of mine, causing me to stop spinning the ring my father had given me. “This is what compromise looks like. We move here and you still get to graduate from Coopersville High. This way we both get what we want—at least until you leave for college in the fall.”
I heaved a sigh. I had agreed to stay at the manor as she’d done for my entire life. Though now she wouldn’t be home for weekends. She’d stay here indefinitely. I understood with my father gone she wouldn’t allow an eighteen-year-old to stay home alone for weeks at a time. I just wished she agreed to let me stay with Holly. But given what she’d said about needing each other, I understood why she hadn’t. Besides, since I’d do just about anything to stay at my old school with my friends, I agreed. But the hour ride every morning and afternoon was surely going to suck.
My mother hit her blinker which I found amusing given we were the only car on the stretch of dark road. We entered a neighborhood with high walls surrounding the properties. No houses were visible from the road, and I wondered if it was due to the darkness or if daylight would bring the same scenery. I knew my mother worked for a rich family, but from the looks of the walls, the people in these neighborhoods were beyond rich.
My mother turned off the main road and onto another road. The brick wall surrounding this property continued on for what felt like a mile. It was clear only one house sat on this stretch of road. We pulled to a stop at an entrance way blocked by an elaborate wrought-iron gate. My mother rolled down her window, and I watched her punch a code onto a discreet number pad set into a stone pillar. The gate in front of us slid aside as she rolled up her window, and she drove up the long winding drive. I peered into the darkness ahead waiting for the big reveal. Because I was certain there wouldbe a big reveal.
Grayson Manor did not disappoint.
It was as sprawling and grand as my mother had described it. She’d shown me a couple of pictures she’d snapped of the gardens or of an event they’d set up for, but never had she captured the monstrosity that was Grayson Manor. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was at Pemberley during the days of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy since the exterior appeared to be a carbon copy, transplanted from England a long time ago.
As our car moved closer, the vastness of the property became apparent. The old cobblestone façade was a thing of beauty, even in the darkness. The chimneys. The gargoyles looking down. The circular drive with elaborate angel water fountain. This home was exquisite…and a little creepy. “They’ve got this big of a place and you stay in the basement?”
“It’s not the basement. It’s the helps’ quarters.”
I rolled my eyes. “The help? You grew up with Maureen. She refers to you as the help?”
She shrugged, and I knew it had to bother her. She and “the lady of the house” were best friends growing up in Coopersville. But one lucky blind date set Maureen on a road to riches and my mother to a life of servitude. Maureen thought she’d done my mother a favor by giving her the job. But what she didn’t realize was my mother saw it as a favor to Maureen, always keeping an eye out for her once-best friend. When you had money, people used you. And my mother hated seeing that happen to Maureen. And, even when Maureen lost her husband to a heart attack six years ago, my mother was the only one to be there for her. Others were there because she’d been made an extremely rich widow, but my mother was there because she cared and wanted to be sure Maureen and her three sons were okay.
My mother pulled the car to a stop around the side of the house. There was a six-car garage set apart from the main house, but she parked beside the garage so that her car was concealed by the darkness of the nearby trees. She switched off the engine and sat there unmoving.
Silence filled the car telling me what I already knew. Our lives were going to be irreparably changed once we moved into the manor. And, there was nothing either one of us could do about it.
I pushed open my door, and the squeak of the old door broke the silence. I stepped out into the cool March night and circled to the trunk, waiting for my mother to pop it for me. I glanced to the manor, unable to believe the curveball life had thrown at us. A curtain moved in a window on the top floor, catching my attention. I squinted into the darkness but saw nothing but a shadow.
Great.
As if life hadn’t been brutal enough, now I’d be dealing with ghosts.
***Unedited version. Subject to change. Please do not share.***
The strobes of my mom’s headlights shed the only light on the winding New Hampshire roads lined with trees for miles.
“This isn’t going to be so bad,” my mother said softly from the driver’s seat.
Wasn’t going to be so bad? My father just died, and I was being forced to relocate to Grayson Manor where my mother had been a housekeeper for over eighteen years—an hour away from my home. She might not have minded spending her week away from the common people of Coopersville. But, I was a few months shy of graduating high school. I had friends and a life in Coopersville. “I just don’t understand why I couldn’t stay with Holly until you’re home on the weekends.”
She sighed and I hated that a sigh could carry so much meaning. Hated that after everything she’d been through--we’d been through—I was still giving her grief over moving to the manor. “You and this job are all I have left,” she said. “We’re both grieving, Grace. You need me as much as I need you.” She reached over and placed her frail hand on top of mine, causing me to stop spinning the ring my father had given me. “This is what compromise looks like. We move here and you still get to graduate from Coopersville High. This way we both get what we want—at least until you leave for college in the fall.”
I heaved a sigh. I had agreed to stay at the manor as she’d done for my entire life. Though now she wouldn’t be home for weekends. She’d stay here indefinitely. I understood with my father gone she wouldn’t allow an eighteen-year-old to stay home alone for weeks at a time. I just wished she agreed to let me stay with Holly. But given what she’d said about needing each other, I understood why she hadn’t. Besides, since I’d do just about anything to stay at my old school with my friends, I agreed. But the hour ride every morning and afternoon was surely going to suck.
My mother hit her blinker which I found amusing given we were the only car on the stretch of dark road. We entered a neighborhood with high walls surrounding the properties. No houses were visible from the road, and I wondered if it was due to the darkness or if daylight would bring the same scenery. I knew my mother worked for a rich family, but from the looks of the walls, the people in these neighborhoods were beyond rich.
My mother turned off the main road and onto another road. The brick wall surrounding this property continued on for what felt like a mile. It was clear only one house sat on this stretch of road. We pulled to a stop at an entrance way blocked by an elaborate wrought-iron gate. My mother rolled down her window, and I watched her punch a code onto a discreet number pad set into a stone pillar. The gate in front of us slid aside as she rolled up her window, and she drove up the long winding drive. I peered into the darkness ahead waiting for the big reveal. Because I was certain there wouldbe a big reveal.
Grayson Manor did not disappoint.
It was as sprawling and grand as my mother had described it. She’d shown me a couple of pictures she’d snapped of the gardens or of an event they’d set up for, but never had she captured the monstrosity that was Grayson Manor. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was at Pemberley during the days of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy since the exterior appeared to be a carbon copy, transplanted from England a long time ago.
As our car moved closer, the vastness of the property became apparent. The old cobblestone façade was a thing of beauty, even in the darkness. The chimneys. The gargoyles looking down. The circular drive with elaborate angel water fountain. This home was exquisite…and a little creepy. “They’ve got this big of a place and you stay in the basement?”
“It’s not the basement. It’s the helps’ quarters.”
I rolled my eyes. “The help? You grew up with Maureen. She refers to you as the help?”
She shrugged, and I knew it had to bother her. She and “the lady of the house” were best friends growing up in Coopersville. But one lucky blind date set Maureen on a road to riches and my mother to a life of servitude. Maureen thought she’d done my mother a favor by giving her the job. But what she didn’t realize was my mother saw it as a favor to Maureen, always keeping an eye out for her once-best friend. When you had money, people used you. And my mother hated seeing that happen to Maureen. And, even when Maureen lost her husband to a heart attack six years ago, my mother was the only one to be there for her. Others were there because she’d been made an extremely rich widow, but my mother was there because she cared and wanted to be sure Maureen and her three sons were okay.
My mother pulled the car to a stop around the side of the house. There was a six-car garage set apart from the main house, but she parked beside the garage so that her car was concealed by the darkness of the nearby trees. She switched off the engine and sat there unmoving.
Silence filled the car telling me what I already knew. Our lives were going to be irreparably changed once we moved into the manor. And, there was nothing either one of us could do about it.
I pushed open my door, and the squeak of the old door broke the silence. I stepped out into the cool March night and circled to the trunk, waiting for my mother to pop it for me. I glanced to the manor, unable to believe the curveball life had thrown at us. A curtain moved in a window on the top floor, catching my attention. I squinted into the darkness but saw nothing but a shadow.
Great.
As if life hadn’t been brutal enough, now I’d be dealing with ghosts.
***Unedited version. Subject to change. Please do not share.***