An Extract From The Girls Of Heatherly Hall by Julie Houston

Julie Houston returns to my blog today to share an extract of The Girls of Heatherly Hall published by Aria on 6 July 2023. Over to Julie …

I never for one minute imagined that a one-off conversation I had with the lovely lady who – literally – works to keep my own village’s houses clean and tidy would lead to not just one, but a trilogy of novels centred in my mythical village of Westenbury. There I was, facing a blank computer with very little inspiration for my next novel when, over a duster and a cup of coffee she shared with me the story of her trips. I assumed she meant holidays to begin with, but was amazed to learn she’d adopted and brought up three little triplet girls – born to her sister – from their birth.

This, then, was the catalyst for creating my own triplets – Rosa, Eva and Hannah Quinn – and the first novel: THE VILLAGE VICAR was published in January this year. I found I couldn’t let these girls go, and a visit to the Stonehenge Exhibition at the British Library, and an exhibit labelled The Jet Set, had me racing back north, my head full of the idea for the second novel in the trilogy. The Jet Set, (an ancient necklace and earrings made from the famous Whitby jet) and its disappearance, was to be central to this second novel but, with so many other things going on in the lives of my girls, the jet set story ended up being made, instead, central to the third novel: A WEDDING AT HEATHERLY HALL out in February next year.

So, what on earth were my triplets up to in this second novel, THE GIRLS OF HEATHERLY HALL (published 6 July 2023) that I had to move the Jet Set story to book three? In a nutshell, all three are settling in to managing Heatherly Hall – the stately home left to their care and management on the death of their birth father, Bill Astley – and juggling old, as well as fabulously new, love lives with rather gorgeous men. The following extract from this second novel still makes me laugh whenever I read it. Rosa, the vicar, is now in a relationship with Sam Burrows, the new village dentist and, still missing and yearning for her first love, Joe Rosavina, Rosa is finding Sam’s insistence on putting a ring on her finger, frankly too much to cope with. Rosa and Sam, together with Hannah and her lover, Ben are at a dinner party when late arrivals to the table turn out to be Joe Rosavina together with a new woman.

Extract from The Girls of Heatherly Hall …

‘Marry me!’ It appeared a command rather than a proposal.

Without waiting for an answer (she could neither get a word in or out, but instead uttered a bizarre little mewling sound, which he obviously took as consent) Sam took her left hand and, with some difficulty, slid the ring onto her third finger.

‘Sam, I…’ Rosa looked down at the huge emerald. She hated emeralds.

‘I know, I know, Rosa, I’ve probably rushed this, but I also know that, like me, you’ve been terribly hurt and don’t feel you can trust anyone again. I just feel that, together, we can…’

‘Righto, everyone.’ Daisy was obviously dying to be the one to break the news that the new village dentist had just become engaged to the new village vicar. ‘We appear to have some celebration to hand…’ She trailed off as Rosa shook her head furiously at their host, glaring and elbowing Daisy in a most unvicarly manner. Rosa shook her head once more. This was ridiculous; surreal even. She had a church service to take in the morning and the last thing she wanted was any rumour going round the village before matins was even off the ground, together with the accompanying shower of congratulations.

‘So,’ Daisy went on gamely, obviously unsure where to go next. ‘So, erm, let’s raise our glasses and celebrate the fact that Rosa and Sam have erm actually… erm… made it over the garden fence.’

‘They’ve come through the gate, not over the fence.’ Hannah laughed. ‘Come on, you two, you’re wasting valuable drinking time.’ She shifted herself and Ben down the long wooden bench attached to the garden table at which they were seated and proffered the bottle of wine in the ice bucket in front of them. ‘You’re not driving, are you, Rosa? Get your Holyhead – no, hang on, that’s the place you get the ferry across to Ireland – holy head off for once, and get stuck in.’

Holy head? Oh, hell, Rosa thought, Hannah was obviously well stuck into the alcohol herself.

‘Hannah, go and sit down before you fall down.’

‘Rosa, you’re not my mother. Off for a pee… Oh… for heaven’s sake…’ Hannah trailed off as Daisy leapt forward to welcome the two newcomers who were in the throes of apologising for their lateness.

Rosa placed her half-drunk glass of wine on the garden table and turned to where Hannah was staring across at the garden gate. She felt her heart pound, the blood drain from her face and her hands – the left, with its unwanted appendage, still firmly ensconced in her jacket pocket – grow sticky with sweat.

‘Sorry we’re late, Daisy.’ The woman drew a tanned, manicured hand through her short blonde hair, moved her sunglasses to the top of her head and pulled the man she was with to her side, before placing her arm through his. ‘This is Joe, Daisy. Joe Rosavina.’

Now that the latecomers had finally arrived, the guests were almost immediately ushered inside.

‘Come on, food’s ready,’ Daisy called. ‘Bring your drinks and sit where you want.’

Oh, where to sit? Rosa felt sick, thought she might be in the throes of a panic attack and, instead of sitting at the table where a basket of warm home-baked bread was already in the process of being handed round, headed for the upstairs bathroom. Once in there, she laid her burning forehead against the cold mirror and splashed water over her wrists. She tried to wrench off the damned emerald, which had now taken on the mantle of some sort of claustrophobic chastity belt, but it was mulishly going absolutely nowhere. Great stuff. Rosa reached for a bar of soap, ferociously rubbing and twisting until, miraculously, it was off, shooting like some sort of latter-day Apollo 11 into orbit through the bathroom and disappearing somewhere behind the soil pipe of the lavatory cistern.

‘Jesus… Sorry, Jesus, for the profanity. So sorry. But you know how it is. And don’t pretend you never got to swore – don’t forget how you turned over those tables in the temple on Palm Sunday.’ Rosa heard herself muttering and wondered if she was going mad. She got down on her knees, scrabbling round on the wooden floor, searching with her hands for the ring. ‘Come on, God, please, give us a hand…’

‘Rosa?’ Rosa froze and sat up as a loud knocking came at the bathroom door. ‘Are you OK? Who are you talking to?’

Rosa stood up, and unlocked the door.

‘What are you doing?’ Hannah slid through the narrow gap Rosa had allowed, before closing and locking the door once more. ‘Who are you talking to?’

‘God.’ Rosa closed her eyes briefly and got back down on her knees.

‘Rosa, I know you take this calling of yours very seriously – and that’s good – but for heaven’s sake, the food’s on the table: you don’t need to be praying to your boss, especially in the lavatory, for what we’re about to eat. Mind you, I’m not convinced Daisy would be wanting you to take grace back in the dining room; always a bit awkward when a couple of people have already dived in to the starter and then they have to put down their forks, bow their heads and look repentant…’ When Rosa didn’t say anything, but continued to scrabble about desperately behind the pipes, Hannah went on, ‘Joe, I suppose? Praying for the courage to face him? Come on, you’re going to have to come out and face him with this new girlfriend of his. She’s very attractive, isn’t she?’

‘Got it!’ Rosa’s fingers met something round and metallic and she pulled it in triumph towards her together with a ball of hair, fluff and a used tissue; it was pretty obvious Daisy Maddison didn’t rank alongside Sam in the high echelons of toilet cleaning. ‘Hell, that’s not it.’ Rosa fished out a large clip-on earring from the detritus in her palm.

‘What’s not it?’

‘Hannah, I’ve lost the ring.’

‘Which ring? Not your engaged-for-just-five-minutes ring? Not your I’m-not-really-engaged-sodding-great-emeraldring? Bloody hell, Rosa. Bit careless that, isn’t it? Looked to be worth a few bob too. Here, let me have a look. Shift over.’

Thirty seconds later, Hannah surfaced. ‘It must have gone down that hole.’

‘What hole?’

‘There’s a sort of huge mousehole in the floorboard right next to the pipe.’

‘You are joking!’

‘No, I’m not. Unbelievable you actually got it down the hole: you were always rubbish at Crazy Golf when Mum and Dad used to take us to that place in Filey.’

‘Rosa?’ Sam’s voice was at the other side of the bathroom door. ‘You OK?’

‘Just helping Hannah. She’s had a bit too much to drink.’

‘No, I haven’t,’ Hannah hissed crossly. ‘Don’t make out I can’t hold my drink. You’re supposed to be a vicar and not tell lies.’

‘I am a vicar,’ Rosa hissed back. ‘Won’t be a minute, Sam. Honest.’

‘Your ex is obviously wondering where you are.’ Rosa could almost see the pleasant, questioning smile Sam always adopted whenever Joe Rosavina was mentioned and she and Hannah pulled scary faces at each other from the safety of their position on the wooden bathroom floor, behind the locked door. ‘And actually, Rosa, I wanted to say you appear to be hiding the ring I gave you. Look, if it’s a problem, if you don’t want to wear it, just hand it back and I’ll put it somewhere safe. Really, not a problem, darling. It’s just that it was actually my grandmother’s and probably worth quite a bit…’

‘Shit!’ Hannah mouthed.

‘Holy shit,’ Rosa mouthed back.

‘Passive-aggressive,’ Hannah mouthed sagely.

‘What?’ Rosa mouthed back.

‘I said, “he’s obviously a passive-aggressive.”’ This time Hannah said the words out loud and she clamped a hand over her mouth.

‘Sam, I’m just helping Hannah. Won’t be a minute.’

‘Do you want me to get Ben?’

‘No, Sam, I’m fine, really. All tickety-boo,’ Hannah sang gaily. There was silence. ‘Has he gone?’ Hannah mouthed.

‘Dunno. Right, I’m going to have to confess what’s happened.’ Rosa rubbed tiredly at her face. ‘We’ll have to get a plumber in or something.’

‘Or a joiner? It’s not the pipes, it’s down the floorboards…’

About the author – Julie Houston

Julie Houston’s first three novels GOODNESS, GRACE AND ME, THE ONE SAVING GRACE and LOOKING FOR LUCY were all Amazon Humour #1 best sellers both here in the UK and Australia. LOOKING FOR LUCY hit the #1 best seller overall in Australia. A VILLAGE AFFAIR was the seventh most downloaded book of 2019 and has sold over 300 000 copies in ebook and paperback. She is published by Aria/Head of Zeus and book number eleven, THE VILLAGE VICAR was published in January 2023. Her twelfth novel, THE GIRLS OF HEATHERLY HALL, from which the above extract is taken, was published on Thursday, July 6^th and the final book of the trilogy A WEDDING AT HEATHERLY HALL in February 2024.

Her seventh novel, SING ME A SECRET won the Sapere Books Popular Romantic Fiction Award in 2021.

Julie lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where her novels are set, and her only claims to fame are that she teaches part-time at ‘Bridget Jones’ author Helen Fielding’s old junior school and her neighbour is ‘Chocolat’ author, Joanne Harris. After University, where she studied Education and English Literature, she taught for many years as a junior school teacher. As a newly qualified teacher, broke and paying off her first mortgage, she would spend every long summer holiday working on different Kibbutzim in Israel. After teaching for a few years, she decided to go to New Zealand to work and taught in Auckland for a year before coming back to this country. She now just teaches when the phone rings to cover an absent colleague, and still loves the buzz of teaching junior-aged children. She has been a magistrate for the past twenty-three years. Julie is married, has a twenty-eight-year-old son and twenty-five-year-old daughter. She runs and swims because she’s been told it’s good for her, but would really prefer a glass of wine, a sun lounger and a jolly good book.

She hates skiing, gets sick on boats and wouldn’t go pot-holing or paddy diving if her life depended on it.

She is published by HeadOfZeus/Aria and represented by Anne Williams at KHLA Literary agency.

You can contact Julie on Twitter @juliehouston2, on Facebook Julie Houston author, Instagram Juliehoustonauthor.

About THE GIRLS OF HEATHERLY HALL

Fans of Katie Fforde, Phillipa Ashley and The Vicar of Dibley will love this heartwarming and witty audiobook from Julie Houston.

Three devoted sisters… One complicated family.

After the untimely death of their biological father, triplets Eva, Rosa and Hannah find themselves the unlikely owners of Heatherly Hall, the vast manor house overlooking their home village of Westenbury. But the beautiful house comes with almost as much baggage as it does land, not least high running costs and expectations. It’s up to the sisters to find a way to keep Heatherly Hall going and, most importantly, in the family.

But with drama in their private lives and secrets about to emerge, can the sisters stick together to focus on the task at hand?

Published Thursday July 6^th 2023 by HeadOfZeus/Aria

Buying Link : https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Girls-of-Heatherly-Hall/dp/B0C62KXR5Q/ref=s

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