The time on the clock that hung on the wall of Charlotte's hospital room inched closer to nine o'clock in the morning. She sat in a chair, dressed and ready for the day. A plate waited on a table in front of her, with the remains of her toast and jam still there.

The muffled sound of the television was the only noise in the room. Charlotte's attention switched from the screen to the door, and then back again as she waited for her parents to arrive, and at five minutes past the hour, Mr and Mrs Greyson walked in. Her father held a brightly coloured bouquet of pretty flowers in his hand, and her mother carried an overnight bag. Charlotte smiled at her parents, but the second she noticed the bag it quickly faded.

"Mum?" She said, looking at the bag, "what's that?"

Mum placed the bag down on the end of her daughter's bed, "a change of clothes for you. You don't want to come home in your nightclothes."

"You mean I can go?"

Mum nodded, "why don't you get changed while we speak to the doctor?"

A sudden wave of delight came over her, finally, she was allowed to leave. Although the pain still lingered in her arm, and her head still ached a little, it didn't take Charlotte long to change. After brushing all the knots and tangles out of her long dark hair, she finally felt ready to go. She carefully packed away the pyjamas she'd worn during her stay back inside the hold-all, as a few minutes later her parents walked back into the room.

"I've got your prescription." Said Mum, as she carried a little paper bag which she placed inside Charlotte's bag.

"Have you got everything?" Dad asked, "phone? Phone charger? Toothbrush?"

"Yes Dad, I've got everything."

"Yes, right, let's go."

***
Dad placed Charlotte's heavy overnight bag in the boot of his car, as Mum opened the back door. Charlotte climbed into the back seat and sat down. Mum reached forward into the car, and pulled her daughter's seatbelt forward, making sure she had enough.

"Mum, I can manage." She said as she pulled more of the seatbelt. With an audible click, she managed to do it up securely without causing too much pain to her broken arm.

A cold wet Scottish drizzle leaked from the miserably grey skies. Damp condensation tricked down the windscreen and clouded the window. Charlotte sat in the back and sighed. Strange thoughts entered her mind, and the vision from that night still clung to her memory. But no. Charlotte needed to focus on one thing at a time and at that moment her attention needed to be on recovering. All the drive and ambition inside her screamed not to let go of her dream to become an Olympic rider. It was something she'd wanted to do ever since she could remember. But no rider jumped fences with a slight concussion, migraines and a broken arm.

She reached inside the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her phone. Instead of checking her social media accounts, or messages from her friends, she put on her wireless headphones and turned the music on ready for the long journey home. Her eyelids felt like each lash contained a lead weight, pulling them down and making them close. As the music played softly, it didn't take her long to drift off to sleep.

But as she slept the memories from the previous night flooded back into her mind and it felt as if she was there again back in her hospital bed, talking to... what was her name again...

"Charlotte."

The girl blinked, and carefully sat up into a more sitting position. She pulled her sleeve down over her hand which she used to get rid of the condensation clinging to the back window of Dad's car. Charlotte rubbed her eyes and shifted her lengthy fringe away so she could see clearer. Mum stood in the doorway, the girl's overnight bag in her hand. As she peered out of the window, a brilliant sight came into view and for the first time in a while, Charlotte felt she could finally relax. Castle Stone may have been a lot of things, but one thing was certain, it began to feel like home.

Mum held out her hand, which Charlotte took to help her out of the car. She moved out of the back seat and walked a few paces towards the front door. Dad put the key into the lock to let his wife and daughter into the castle, but as he opened it a fraction, loud voices escaped through the gap.

They sounded almost hysterical, loud piercing shrieks echoed loudly from within. Swear words and bitter insults flew around the castle followed by heavy noises as ornaments crashed to the ground.  Dad stood for a second. With a single hand, he pushed the door open. The middle-aged police officer's face contorted with rage and sternness as he followed the noise into the drawing room. His wife and Charlotte followed behind.

"You bitch" the first voice screamed, "look what you've done to my car! You've written it off!"

"I've written it off? How the hell do you work that out? Maybe if you'd picked a better car then maybe it wouldn't have been so crap then!"

Charlotte, being the younger of the three Greyson sisters, had heard arguments between them several times before and one was always more trivial than the last.  Bethany and Bella were never close. Close in age, they may have been but as sisters', certainly not. As a child Bella liked Barbies, and boys, but Bethany preferred football and Lego. Instead of sitting there listening to their crap, she headed upstairs to her room. They never really argued for too long, and anyway, it would blow over soon enough. She carried her bag upstairs and opened the door to her room. The sweet smell of fresh flowers drifted up her nose as she stepped into her sanctum. She placed her bag down on the floor and walked across to the large windowsill where a brilliantly bright bouquet stood in a vase. Still aching all over, Charlotte lay on her bed. But the voices downstairs grew louder and louder by the moment. All she could hear was the furious row between her sisters, which made her wonder if it really would all be forgotten about tomorrow.

Dad's voice became louder, and Charlotte was certain it dropped to a slightly deeper tone.
"What's going on here?" He said, "who threw that?"

No longer did he sound like their lovable father, but like a police officer and one that failed to take crap from anyone, including his daughters'.

"She's trashed my car." Bella screeched, "not only did she think it was okay to take it in the first place without asking, but she's also gone and trashed it as well. You only need to look at her to see she was pissed. Granddad brought me that for uni before he died. How the hell will I get there now? It's miles away! She could have killed someone, she nearly killed my sister, for fucks sake!"

"Bethany didn't mean to trash your car, Annabelle. I'll buy you a new one when you go back to uni."

"Yeah?" Sarcasm tinged through Bethany's voice as the vitriol flew in her sister's direction, "Poor Annie, boo-hoo! Nasty Beth broke her car, now Daddy's gonna buy her a new one. Shame you were such a gold-digging arsehole in the first place. Ha! Admit it, sis, you only took an interest in gramps when he was so old and gaga. No one in the right mind would buy you a car."

"Seriously Dad, send her back, please! I can't possibly deal with her immature backstabbing behaviour. I can't believe she's still here, not with the stuff she kept snorting up her nose. I bet she still does it!"

"Bethany? Is this true?" Dad sighed, "I thought you'd left this behind. You promised me Beth, no more drugs. You know what will happen if I find any more of that filth in your room again. You'll be out, my girl! Out! You hear me! I will not have that stuff picking the brains of my daughters'"

Hold on? What? Drugs? What drugs? Surely they were Bella's, no? Charlotte sat up in bed. Her heartbeat pounded and her breathing quickened as she listened to every nasty word the sisters' directed at one another. She thought back to the day Bethany told her about the move and how she said it. According to her, drugs had been found in Bella's room and her boyfriend was a druggy. Well, that part Charlotte could easily believe. Out of all the partners her sisters had brought home over the years, Jase was the one she disliked most of all. She hated his clothes and the way he dressed. His tacky leather jacket and the heavy gold chain around his neck gave her the impression that he was either a pimp or a drug dealer, or maybe, if he wanted to impress people, he could have been both. With his pockmarked skin, a goatee beard, slicked-back hair and the overpowering smell of weed that clung to him, Charlotte would never understand what Bella saw in such a chap.

For hours the fighting continued and by late evening it still didn't look like it was ending. By now Charlotte had changed for bed and pulled the covers around her. Finally, she was at home, surrounded by the familiar sights and smells of Castle Stone. Having felt alone and trapped inside the hospital just like she had several years earlier, the fact that she was out after one night, brought a smile to her face and joy to her heart. Time ticked by, and silence filled the castle. No more shouting and no more hysteria, finally Charlotte found herself drifting off to sleep...

Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs, and the door to Bethany's bedroom opened. Charlotte awoke, as a deafening thud of a door being slammed, filled the silence. She sat up in bed and reached across to the bedside table as she switched on the lamp.

"You can't behave like this, Bethany." Dad's loud and booming voice echoed like thunder through the walls. "No Greyson in the history of this family has ever taken a banned substance."

"Yeah!" Bethany shouted, "but I'm not a Greyson, am I, Charles?"

Charlotte, having heard every word, just lay there. What else was she supposed to do? Her family assumed she was sleeping. She didn't feel like she could participate in a heated argument between her father and her sister. Sister. Now there was a word, but if Bethany wasn't a Greyson, then who was she? Mum and Dad were childhood sweethearts with twenty good strong years of marriage under their belts. So for Mum to have an affair was out of the question.

One thing Charlotte had wanted for as long as she could remember was a more interesting life. Her previous school bored her and her family life felt the same every day. Up, school, home, food, bed. Even her riding stable wasn't as fun as it could have been. Now that was all behind her, and now, more than anything, she wished her life was as plain and as dull as it once had been. Life at Castle Stone was exciting and dramatic, but nothing would prepare her for the change and sorrow that headed in her direction. Life at Castle Stone as she knew it wouldn't stay the same for long...

___________________________________

A/N
I'm really pleased with how this story is coming along. I started writing this on the 27th November 2022 and we're now nearly in March and I can say I'm currently writing chapter twenty.

Thank you to agroad daniavons Azcozy I know how much you like this book. Enjoy this new chapter