COMING SOON

Now and Forever, Lydia's story will be available before the end of the month.

That makes it a nice three Bluebell Road books, but I do have plans for a fourth perhaps later this year.

In the meantime, here is an excerpt from Chapter One:

THE DOOR TO the house flew open and Lydia took a step back as the man she assumed was William stood in front of her.

He said, “You must be—” He snapped his fingers together and stared at her blankly.

She said for him, “Nicole?”

“Nicole. Yes. Nicole. But you’re early.”

“Actually, I’m not Nicole, I’m Lydia. Her cousin.” She sucked in a breath against the absurdity of the situation she’d been caught up in and explained, “There’s been a problem. A bit of a family emergency, actually. Although,” she pre-empted as his eyebrows looked to be on the cusp of rising, “not of the dead or dying kind of emergency.” It was more the ‘Lydia, please do this for me, please, Lydia, please, please, please…’ variety.

She went on, “The thing is, Nicole can’t make it and so she asked me to come in her place.”

Willian clamped his lips together, glanced down the hallway behind him, and then back at Lydia. Irritably, he folded his arms across his chest.

“Let me get this straight,” he said coolly. “I hired Nicole to work for three days and she decides, with barely any notice, that she can’t uphold her side of the agreement because there is a family emergency of which, I gather, no-one is in danger of dying, and so she sends someone else to take her place.” His gaze slid over her in a cool, assessing way. “A stranger. You.”

Lydia beamed a fake smile as her senses alternated on who to curse: Nicole for doing this to her, or herself for allowing Nicole to do this to her.

“That’s it in a nutshell,” she said, “but of course the decision is up to you as to whether you think I’m a suitable person to replace Nicole. Rest assured, I believe I am. But it is, of course, your decision.” Part of her hoped he’d say, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’ and close the door, but the bigger part hoped that whatever happened, whatever he decided, this wouldn’t go badly for Nicole. Nicole was going through a tough time and the situation with her boyfriend, Donovan, had been the straw that had broken the camel’s back, so it seemed to Lydia.

“I think I understand.” William ran his hand roughly through his dark hair. “Look, you better come in.” He beckoned for her to step inside. “Then you can appraise me some more because I had no idea Nicole was not going to be here and I was counting on it. Did she tell you I’m leaving for Glasgow this afternoon?”

“She did.” Lydia stepped inside, glanced curiously down the darkened hallway and William closed the door. She added, “The thing is that Nicole didn’t know she couldn’t make it until this morning, and she called me and asked if I’d come in her place.”

“I see.” William shoved his hands in the pockets of his black jeans, leant against the front door, and studied her. “Then given it is nothing to do with death or dying, I’m going to assume it’s the most common of reasons. As in, there’s a relationship disaster she’s having to deal with.”

He said it more with amusement than disdain, but there was a tinge of something in there that caused Lydia to think it paid not to go into too much detail.

She clasped her hands behind her back. “Pretty much, but she sincerely apologises and she hopes that I can fill her boots, although—” She cleared her throat and looked directly at William. “Although I should say up front that I do not work in a veterinary practice.”

This time Williams’ eyebrows did rise, and the first trace of alarm crept into his eyes. “You don’t?”

“No.”

William pushed himself away from the door, his gaze drilling into her. “You’re telling me that you don’t work at Geoff’s vet practice with Nicole?”

“Like I said, she’s my cousin, not my colleague. I’m not a vet nurse.”

William straightened as concern shadowed his eyes. He said, “I’m not aware how much you know but I plan to be out of town for three nights. I want someone with veterinary knowledge to be here and while I gather Nicole is still doing her training, Geoff spoke very highly of her. He recommended her.”

Lydia nodded her most soothing smile. She was good at soothing. It was a gift she suspected she’d been born with. “To be fair,” she said, “Nicole did ask one of the other assistants at the vet clinic but they couldn’t leave on such short notice.”

William narrowed his gaze at her. “And yet,” he said, “you could?”

(THE END)