The Courtyard

Published by Headline. Jacket illustration: Gary Keane

The River Avon runs off the southern flank of Dartmoor near Henry’s courtyard development.

(Photograph: Bridget Rochard)

 

A chance meeting with Augusta Merton in a teashop results in Nell Woodward being invited to spend Christmas in a country house owned by one of Gussie’s relatives, Henry Morley.

 

Gillian, Henry’s wife, as always desperate for money,  is trying to find an investor in a development being planned by her lover, Sam Whittaker, introduced to her by the architect working with Henry on a courtyard development.

 

Nell’s ex-naval husband, now running a failing estate agency, is also desperate for cash and, seeing the possibility of good returns, takes out a loan against a property he has just inherited and gives Sam the proceeds. Unknown to Gillian, Sam is a crook and Nell’s life is turned upside down when her husband, unable to accept that he has lost everything, kills himself.  

 

It is Gussie who persuades Henry to offer Nell sanctuary in the courtyard  and Gillian’s godmother who finds Nell a job. Also living in the courtyard is Guy Webster, Kate’s son, who, much to his own surprise, finds himself engaged to Gemma, Cassandra’s daughter.

 

READ AN EXTRACT