Prologue
HENDRICKS
Six years ago – Age 21
“Hen?”
At the sound of knocking, I turn to find my brother Alex standing at my car window. My eyes meet his, serious and concerned, just like the expression written all over his face as he opens the door.
“What are you doing?”
Swiping a hand under my nose, I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t bring myself to tell him because then it’ll be real. It’s too awful. I don’t even know the words to use.
“Hey, you’re shaking.” Alex gently places his arm around my shoulders and pulls me out of the car. “Come on, come inside. You can tell me what’s wrong.”
It’s only then I realize I’m outside of his cottage, because I have no memory of getting here. Two hours ago, I was in London having a conversation I never expected when I woke up this morning. Autopilot kicked in soon after, bringing me back to the village I grew up in.
Valentine Nook, my favorite place in the wholeworld.
Alex guides me up the path and inside. We go straight into the kitchen, where he pushes me into a chair. Switching on the kettle, he sets about making cups of tea and places the biscuit jar on the table. Inside, I find a packet of chocolate Digestives. I take two out and stuff them both in my mouth.
I haven’t been to Alex’s in a while, and it always amazes me how neat and tidy he is. Even without his housekeeper, everything would still be immaculate. Everything would have its place.
It’s not a word you could use to describe the cottage where Miles and I live.
It’s clean, thanks to the same housekeeper we share, but it’s only tidy for approximately an hour after she’s left. My study books and veterinary texts are spread out on the kitchen table because that’s where I like to revise. The rest of the kitchen is treated as an overflow of the mudroom, where Miles dumps any broken piece of horse tack or polo mallet that he plans to fix but never does.
It’s currently going through the longest tidy stretch it’s ever had. That’s only because Miles has been playing polo in Argentina for the past month, and I’m in London at the Royal Veterinary College four days a week. I’m halfway through my third year of a five-year course, and once I graduate, I’ll be a vet in Valentine Nook—something I’ve dreamed about since I was ten years old.
Assuming I’ve not completely fucked things up.
Alex puts a steaming cup of tea in front of me and sits down. Easing a Digestive out, he dunks it in his own cup and bites into it. He watches me while he chews and swallows, then takes a long sip. When he leans back,arms crossed, I know my time is up.
“Right. What’s happened?”
Thumping sets off behind my eyes, a pressure from the million thoughts running around and around my mind. I open my mouth to begin, only to close it again.
Fuck. Fuck.Fuck.
“Hen, it can’t be that bad . . . Is it school? Have you failed your course?” He frowns, like that’s the only thing I could have ruined. But he couldn’t possibly understand.
Six years older than me, Alex has always been sensible, for want of a better word. Cautious is more accurate. Controlled.
If I’d been a little more controlled, I wouldn’t be in this mess, one Alex wouldneverfind himself in. Alex, along with Lando, my eldest brother, has always been too focused on work to find time for anything else.
They’re a team, but where Lando has been busy running Burlington since he was eighteen, Alex is working to build overseas operations. Together, they’re the leaders of the next generation of our family, while Miles and I have been given the freedom to forge our own paths.
And the second we were old enough, we took that freedom and sprinted, much to their chagrin. But we were born without the weight of responsibilities our older brothers have, and—as we learned very early—Miles and I are also blessed with the ability to work hardandparty hard.
When we’re not partying, Miles channels his energy into becoming the best polo player in the world, while I study my arse off so that I can take over the Valentine Nook Veterinary Practice.
Lando and Alex run the world their way. Miles and Iplayin the world our way.
We have the uncanny ability to get out of any situation virtually unscathed.
Or we did.Idid.
I shake my head. “Do you remember when you were in London a couple of months ago, and the four of us went out?”
