Exclusive Excerpt: Winter Cottage by Mary Ellen Taylor
“When did you first reach out to my mother?” Lucy asked.
“Last year, right after your grandfather died. After she ignored all my letters, I finally got her on the phone four months ago. She said maybe you’d want whatever Mrs. Buchanan was offering and asked me to resend the documents.”
“I had no idea. This is a lot to take in, Mr. Garrison.”
“I know.”
She thought about all the glances in the diner. “Beth must have made an impression. I got a lot of stares at breakfast.”
“Your mother was hard to forget. My parents went to high school with your mother, and they remember her well.”
“Have you asked them about her?”
“My dad said everyone has a Beth story.”
She’d walked in halfway through an episode of This Is Your Life.
“What was his story?”
“She convinced a handful of students to skip school sophomore year of high school. They drove down to Norfolk and spent an entire afternoon eating ice cream and hanging out on the beach. The town sheriff, wanting to make a point, was waiting at the bridge when they drove home. With lights and sirens, he pulled them over, and everyone was scared but Beth. She laughed when the sheriff started lecturing them, and it got her a ride in the back of his squad car to jail where she sat for a while. She emerged from jail a few hours later, and all the kids thought she was cool.”
“That sums up my childhood. She was never one for the rules. Arlene said she left the day before graduation. Even I can do that math. She was pregnant with me.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know who my father is?” Now it was her turn to bore a hole in him and wait for an answer.
He didn’t blink. “I don’t know.”
Her gaze steady, she tried to peer into his brain. “Can you tell me more about Winter Cottage?”
“It was built between 1900 and 1902 and served as a hunting lodge. Mr. George Buchanan, Mrs. B’s father-in-law, built the home for Elizabeth Lawrence because they both loved to duck hunt. She was his mistress for years, but they married in 1916.”
“A hunting lodge. I’m imagining bear rugs, antlers, and lots of dark wood.”
“Not exactly. You’ll have to see it to believe it. The house also comes with three hundred acres of bay-front land that has several water access points. My family has leased one hundred acres from the estate for forty years. We run Beacon Vineyard.”
“Land and a house. Beats a Jeep and the last one hundred bucks I have in my pocket.”
Mr. Garrison flexed his fingers as if he were about to handle something unpleasant. “There are conditions to the inheritance.”
“Of course there are. What conditions?”
“All monies in the inheritance must be used to renovate and keep up the house. You can begin accessing those funds after you’ve lived on the property thirty days.”
“Did my grandfather stay in the house?”
“He lived there thirty days and then moved to the guest cottage on the property. He was good about upkeep, but he never tackled any renovations beyond putting a new roof on the house.”
“What’s wrong with Winter Cottage? Why didn’t my mother and grandfather want it?”
“It’s old. Drafty. And taking care of a house like that is a commitment.”
“And if I decide I don’t want the house, then I get nothing.”
“Correct. The property’s renovation monies would then go to the heir descended from George Buchanan’s daughter, Victoria. That’s also odd, because back in the day, inheritance usually followed the sons, not the daughters.”
“What about Mrs. Buchanan? She didn’t have children of her own?”
“She had a son, who passed away in 1974. Her heirs were not listed in the will.”
“Why not?”
“No idea.”
Beth used to say possessions only weighed you down, and Lucy was starting to see some of the logic. “None of this makes sense.”
“No, it does not.”
“Who’s the relative that gets this Winter Cottage if I say no?”
“Me.”
“You?”
“Victoria was my great-grandmother.”
She huffed out a frustrated breath. “So if I stay for thirty days in a hundred-year-old house, I then have the privilege of renovating it?”
“Yes.”
“Could I sell it?”
“No.”
“How much money is there for renovation?”
“There’s $15 million, but remember, the money will always stay with the house.”
She blinked and sat back in her chair. “One five?”
“Correct.”
“Damn.” Lucy didn’t know whether to faint or throw up.
He leaned forward, tapping the tip of a pen on the paper blotter. “I’m prepared to make you a cash offer if you’ll surrender the inheritance.”
“You want this cottage?”
“And the land around it.”
“But you’d have to use the money for the house.”
“Yes. The $15 million will always be attached to the house.”
“How much are you willing to offer?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
She’d never seen that much money all at once. But as tempted as she was to take the money and run, she’d overheard enough wheeling and dealing in Music City to know the first offer was rarely the best. “Can I see this Winter Cottage?”
“I can take you out there now. We’ll drive over in my car.”
***
Title: Winter Cottage
Author: Mary Ellen Taylor
Release Date: October 16th
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Summary
till grieving the loss of her wandering, free-spirited mother, Lucy Kincaid leaves Nashville for the faded town of Cape Hudson, Virginia. She goes to see the house she’s inherited—one she never knew existed, bequeathed to her by a woman she’s never even met. At the heart of this mystery is the hope that maybe—just maybe—this “Winter Cottage” will answer the endless questions about her mother’s past…including the identity of her birth father.
Rather than the quaint Virginian bungalow Lucy expected, Winter Cottage is a grand old estate of many shadows—big enough to hold a century of secrets, passions, and betrayals. It also comes with a handsome and enigmatic stranger, a man next in line to claim Lucy’s inheritance.
Now, as Lucy sifts through the past, uncovering the legacy of secrets that Winter Cottage holds, she’ll come to discover as much about her family history as she does about herself. In searching, she could finally find the one thing she’s never really had: a home.
A Southerner by birth, Mary Ellen Taylor’s love of her home state of Virginia is evident in her contemporary women’s fiction. She firmly believes that stories create connections. Mary Ellen also writes suspense under the name Mary Burton, and her work has appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.
When Mary Ellen’s not writing, she enjoys spending her time cooking and baking, as well as hiking and spoiling her three miniature dachshunds. For more information about Mary Ellen Taylor and her novels, check out www.MaryEllenTaylor.com.
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