Free Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) by Shalini Boland

there was a catch - moving to the
back arse of nowhere, that was the catch. She supposed she should at least
look at the details of this place.
    She smoothed out the … well, it was practically a brochure . I mean, what
sort of house had its own brochure? Maybe, if she was lucky, it
would be in a lively part of the countryside, if there was such a
thing, or near a big town. She bounced down onto the sofa, picked
up the brochure and couldn’t believe what she was looking
at.
    It was an aerial shot of a house, but it wasn’t a house, it
was a mansion set
in what looked like acres of gardens. Shock hit Madison. She’d had
a vague image in her mind of a house like a larger version of
Trevor and Angie’s terrace. She realised how far off the mark she
was, but then if her ancestor was a millionaire, of course he was
going to live in a place like that.
    God, Trevor
would wet himself if he saw this. Madison groaned. She really
didn’t want to witness his excitement when he saw the brochure. How
was she going to deal with him and Angie?
    She turned over the page and saw the house from the front, it
was stunning. She began to read: … the
charming market town of Tetbury … ‘Marchwood‘, a period property in
excellent order … original features, nine bedrooms … games room ...
lavishly furnished … extensive grounds … woodland. She looked at photographs which showed rooms not
dissimilar to the one she was currently sitting in. Maybe it
wouldn’t be so bad to live there. All that space. Me and Ben could
get bikes. We could get a dog, maybe even a horse. We could
definitely get one of those massive trampolines, Ben would love
that.
    But one thing
she did know - she didn’t want Trevor and Angie to be there with
them, telling them what to do. Trevor acting like the Lord of the
Manor. It would be unbearable. How could she fix it so she and Ben
lived there alone? Her mindset had shifted and she realised she
might actually, really like to live there.
    Think of the
freedom. And it wasn’t as if her school would miss her. She could
just leave without telling them and then she’d never have to see
any of her teachers again. Or maybe she could go back to school for
one more day just to wind Haggis up for the pure fun of it. Now
that would be good. She could wear all her most outrageous clothes
and snog some fit bloke right outside her window. Haggis would go
even more mental than before. But then again, could she really be
bothered with all that? Probably not. It just didn’t seem that
important anymore.
    The comfort of
this room and the beauty of the house in the brochure had
completely seduced her. She and Ben could actually live like this
all the time. And, countryside or no countryside, there was no way
she was ever going to turn down the prospect of sixty one million
quid. I mean, who did she think she was kidding?
    The problem
was, she had always been so used to fighting against everything
that came her way, she couldn’t break the habit. It was an
automatic reaction borne out of years of having to battle against
the system. Now, when something good actually came her way, she was
still fighting, not trusting that anyone else could really have her
best interests at heart. But how could she have even thought for a
second about turning down this opportunity for her and Ben?
    She’d ask
Vasey-Smith how to go about sorting the Trevor and Angie situation.
If anyone knew a way, he would. And she could tell he didn’t
particularly like Trevor anyway. He’d got rid of him pretty
quick-sharpish, packed him off to the West End, no problem. Maddy
smiled, thinking of the wad of cash in the envelope - yes, Mr
Vasey-Smith knew Trevor all right.
    She spent the next hour studying the photographs in the
brochure, trying to imagine herself in the rooms or walking in the
gardens. And then she looked, fascinated, at her family tree. Even
though her relations were no longer living, it felt amazing to know
she came from somewhere . These