Page 28 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

She picked up a soap from the dish and took an appreciative sniff. ‘This is lovely. Is it from Eleanor’s workshop?’

Annie beamed with pride. ‘Oh, yes. We wouldn’t stock anything else! She’s done so well with her business. I’m so pleased for her.’

As they walked back to the gallery landing overlooking the entrance hall, Lily typed yet more details into her phone, thinking that the list was already getting quite long.

By the time she had finished, she realised that Annie was looking out of the large sash window at the back of the landing. Lily joined her and saw that the window overlooked the grounds at the back.

They both looked down into the walled garden, where Lily saw her grandad digging in the large vegetable plot, which was packed with every conceivable type of vegetable to feed the ever-expanding Harris family.

‘Bert works so hard,’ said Annie. ‘I don’t know how he keeps going at his age.’

‘I honestly don’t know what he would do if he didn’t work here,’ said Lily. ‘He’s spent his whole life working at the Hall.’

But she noticed that, beyond the vegetable plot, the remainder of the garden was terribly overgrown. The huge lawn was long and hadn’t seen a mower for a very long time.

‘How far back do the grounds go?’ she asked.

‘Way beyond those trees,’ Annie told her. ‘There’s even an ancient apple orchard all the way back there. The river is the boundary on the other side.’

Lily had enjoyed playing in the woods when she was younger. In fact, she had always been outside growing up. But, once she had moved to London, she had left all that behind.

She looked again at the vast space and wondered whether the huge grounds were beginning to be too much work for her grandad.

‘Did you want to see outside?’ asked Annie.

‘Is there anything out there that I need to be aware of?’ said Lily.

Annie shook her head. ‘Not really. Will’s the estate manager, so he deals with all of that as well as all the cottages and the stable block. Now he’s trying to do up one of the barns as well. I’m not sure how much time he’s got, though.’

Everyone appeared to be overworked, thought Lily. But that didn’t bother her. She had spent her whole adult life racing through lists and on to the next ones. Hard work kept her sane.

They returned to the kitchen. Lily had not been able to study it earlier due to the gathering of people in it, but now that the room was empty she could appreciate the vast amount of cupboard doors that had been painted baby-blue and the long oak worktops. In the middle was a large island in matching colours.

When Annie wandered off to find Sam a little later, Lily took advantage of being alone in the huge but welcoming kitchen. She sat down at the oak table and made more notes on her phone. She began to type up rough schedules for the various chores. She would probably need a map of each room as well, until she could learn it all off by heart.

The first thing she needed to get organised was the cleaning schedule. Megan’s niece would apparently be starting work the following week, so that would be a good place to begin. Lily quickly typed up what needed cleaning, washing, stock-refilling. The lists were looking quite long, but it didn’t bother her.

She had noticed that, despite everything appearing brand new, the skirting boards were dusty, as were most of the table tops. All the smooth plaster and wood everywhere meant that any lack of housekeeping was highlighted tenfold amongst the perfect edges.

But that would be fine. Dusting and cleaning she and the maid could handle. Yes, the rooms were large but it was nothing that she couldn’t deal with.

Despite a few jangling nerves, Lily broke into a wide smile as she looked up from the long list on her phone. Oh, yes. This was going to be such an easy job!

She couldn’t wait to get started.

12

The following morning, Lily went downstairs, dumping a pile of folders at one end of the kitchen table.

‘What’s all this?’ asked her mum.

‘Just my organisation for the house,’ Lily told her. ‘I had some left over from my last job.’

Her mother raised her eyebrows. ‘Won’t they have all this stuff already sorted?’

‘I doubt it,’ said Lily, shaking her head. ‘It was all a bit haphazard with everyone being so busy and all.’

‘Well, I suppose you’re used to organising lots of things,’ said her mum, pouring out a cup of tea. ‘They’ll be grateful to have you.’