Winner Takes It All

Winner Takes it All by
Karen Mason

Smashwords
edition

Karen Mason Copyright
2009

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Also by this
author

Summerset

Mad About the
Boy

Two Become
One

The True Tale
of Jezebel Cole

Only
YOu

Visit the author’s
website

http://sites.google.com/site/authorkarenmason

contact the author
at

[email protected]

About the
Author

Karen
Mason was born in London in 1971 and still resides there. She has
been writing since childhood and won her first accolade aged seven
when she came second in the Blue Peter ‘Write a Limerick for Goldie
the Dog’ competition. Fifteen years later she came second in the
now defunct
Me!
Magazine
, ‘Write a Blockbuster’
competition with an early novel called
Violet’s Children
. She first
published her novel
Summerset
in 2008 and has gone on to release
Mad About the
Boy
and
Two Become
One
,
The True
Tale of Jezebel Cole
and
Only You

www.authorkarenmason.wordpress.com

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Rob
Elkington for persuading me there was more life left in Sorcha and
that the story wasn’t finished with the end of Summerset and needed
a resolution. I’d also like to thank Kelly Normington for the title
(via Bjorn & Benny) and as ever Maureen Mason for her editing
and plot advice.

I’d
also like to mention Kelly Moran for her help with spreading the
word Stateside and all the people who bought and read
my other novels.

Characters

The Past

Louisa O’Connell
–
daughter of Mick O’Connell. Raised in poverty until she was
fourteen when her father was given The Cherry Tree Pub in the
Sussex village of Summerset. Beautiful and fiery Lou soon attracted
a lot of male attention but her heart belonged to Andrew McDonald,
husband of Briggy Sheridan. Seduced by Andrew, Lou became pregnant,
but after he rejected her, she married Ben Cusack from Abbott’s
Leigh, the neighbouring village. After giving birth to Andrew’s
daughter Paula (but not telling him this until Paula is an adult),
Lou went on to have three more children by Ben – Christian, Hal and
Lucy. When Lou discovered that her great-grandfather Eugene
O’Connell was the true heir of Sheridans Brewery she made it her
goal to win back the company. Using underhand tactics she bought
the company off Briggy Sheridan, passing it to Christian to run.
Although happy with Ben, Lou never stopped loving Andrew and for
this, Paula was always her favourite child. When Andrew and Briggy
split up in 1973, Lou decided to stay with Ben. Lou died of cancer
in early 2007.

Ben Cusack
– son
of Abbott’s Leigh’s richest family. A playboy until meeting Lou, he
has adored her ever since, often turning a blind eye to her
scathing and resentful nature. Ben owns Cusacks publishers, which
since his retirement, has been run by his son Hal. Ben now is
eighty five and lives in Layton House, the Cusack family
home.

Andrew McDonald
–
husband of Briggy Sheridan. Former headmaster Andrew was the love
of Lou’s life. A mild and meek man, he always felt himself not good
enough for the bold and beautiful Lou and instead remained with
Briggy – the true love of his life. Since his retirement aged sixty
five, he has run a book shop in Brighton, although in recent months
he has had to hand over the running to his assistant as at eighty
six, he is growing weak. He is very close to his grand-daughter,
Tara Eades, although she is unaware of the fact they are
related.

Briggy Sheridan
–
middle daughter of Patrick and Colleen Sheridan. Plain and
academic, Briggy never fitted into the boisterous Sheridan family,
preferring to train as an accountant and marry a relatively poor
school teacher. Single minded, insular, and often selfish, Briggy
dominated and manipulated Andrew, briefly driving him into the arms
of Lou O’Connell. When her father died, Briggy inherited Sheridans
but within a few years the company had fallen into financial
decline and she was forced to put it up for sale. When it was
bought (underhandedly) by Lou, Briggy retaliated by revealing that
she was aware Lou had always been in love with Andrew. Shortly
after this, she left Andrew and moved to Donegal where she lives to
this day.

The Cusacks

Paula Cusack
–
daughter of Lou and Andrew, but raised by Ben as his own and not
told of her heritage. Dropping out of Oxford University as a
teenager, Paula worked as a housing officer and married American
film producer Sean Steadman, having a son, Daniel. They divorced in
the mid seventies and she married Wesley Eades, a social worker of
West Indian descent and they had a daughter, Tara. Paula is now the
head of a charity for victims of domestic violence.

Christian Cusack
–
eldest son of Lou and Ben. Now in his fifties, he has been running
Sheridans since his mother bought it for him in 1973. Christian has
made a success of the company, building its global portfolio.
Married to Alison, they had three children, Michael, Alexandra and
Joanna. After Alison died, he married Julie, a much younger woman.
They live in Barnes, SW London.

Michael Cusack
–
only son of Christian. A feckless and spoilt boy. Lined up to take
over the running of Sheridans one day. He cannot cope with the
pressure and so indulges in a hedonistic lifestyle.

Alex Cusack
–
eldest daughter of Christian. Former wild child Alex, has settled
down and has risen through the ranks of Sheridans to become head of
PR. Pretty and vivacious, she feels somewhat stifled in her
relationship with student Tim and resentful of her brother’s
automatic inheritance of the family company. Alex adores her father
and grandfather Ben and is desperately missing Lou who she feels
she was very similar to.

Jo Cusack
–
youngest daughter of Christian. Studying at Exeter
University.

Hal Cusack
–
younger brother of Christian. When he retired, Ben handed the
running of Cusack Publishing to Hal. Hal is married to Valerie, and
they have two daughters, Jemima, Louisa and a grandson,
Antoine.

Lucy Cusack
–
youngest daughter of Ben and Lou. Lucy is a writer of historical
novels and looks after the rights to Lou’s books. Married to Sid,
she has two young sons, Benny and Lucas.

Daniel Steadman
–
son of Paula and Sean Steadman. Daniel is in his mid thirties and
runs a restaurant with his partner Simon.

Tara Eades
–
daughter of Paula and Wesley Eades. Tara is a shy, timid girl who
runs Claremont Hall, the former home of the Sheridan Family and now
a museum of Irish history. Tara is very close to Andrew McDonald,
not realising that he is her grandfather. She helps look after him,
feeling akin to the shy, bookish man.

The Sheridans

Sorcha Sheridan
D’Abo
– youngest daughter of Patrick and Colleen Sheridan.
Beautiful, spiteful and spoilt. Sorcha soon made an enemy of Lou
O’Connell. A proud protestant, she objected loudly to her older
sister having anything to do with the Catholic Lou. Married for
many years to Lord Rupert Montague, owner of Montague Construction,
she had three daughters, Fiona, Annabel and Georgiana (who died in
1977), however she disowned Fiona when she became pregnant by a
Catholic writer. After Rupert died, Sorcha married art dealer Trent
D’Abo and is now widowed. She lives in New York.

Annabel Pearce
–
Sorcha’s youngest daughter. Married a wealthy Australian
businessman. Has two children, Jackson and Anna.

Jackson Pearce
–
Sorcha’s grandson. Very much like his grandmother, Jackson is
spiteful, ambitious and ruthless. He currently owns an advertising
company but knows one day he will inherit Montague Construction. He
is very proud to be a Sheridan and has been raised to hate the
Cusacks and feels bitter at the thought of them running the family
company.

Fiona Montague
–
eldest daughter of Sorcha and Rupert Montague. Whilst at art
college, had a relationship with an Irish, Catholic writer who had
Republican leanings and became pregnant. The relationship ended and
Sorcha disowned Fiona, ashamed at her having a child out of
wedlock, by a Catholic. Fiona works as an art teacher and lives in
Camden.

Tom Montague
–
Fiona’s son. Tom is thirty two and lives in Fulham in a house paid
for by his grandfather who refused to entirely disown his daughter
and grandson. A drifter, Tom has never held down a full time job
and has aspirations to become a writer. He supplements his income
by renting out rooms in his house to equally unreliable people, so
he often finds himself in poverty.

One

Abbott’s Leigh – May
2007

Even though it was a
sunny May morning, the air was crisp as the Cusack family and
friends left St Matthew’s Church. Alex couldn’t help but think this
weather suited the person whom they’d just been commemorating. Her
grandmother Louisa was a warm and loving person but at times her
abruptness could be quite cutting, like the cold air biting into
their skin right at this moment. That didn’t mean everyone here
wasn’t going to miss Lou terribly. Paula had arranged this memorial
service so people could celebrate Lou’s life. Her funeral the month
before had been such a sad occasion and although four weeks was a
short time, at least the wounds had started to heal.

Alex smiled as her
grandfather waltzed around with Antoine - his only great-grandchild
- in his arms. Ben had taken his wife’s death badly and all his
children and grandchildren had feared it would finish him off too -
after all, he was now eighty-five. But somehow Ben had bounced back
and seemed to be coping well. He looked like a big, cuddly Santa
Claus with his bald head and big white beard; tickling two year old
Antoine’s tummy and making him giggle. Alex loved Ben so, and hated
the thought of losing him.

Paula, in that
schoolteacher-like way of hers, clapped her hands, getting
everyone’s attention. Amazingly, the large group of people ceased
all activity and turned to face her.

‘I thought with it being such a
lovely day, we could walk back to Claremont Hall,’ she announced.
‘Except for daddy and Andrew, and Tara’s going to drive them
back.’

‘
Nonsense,’
gruffed Ben. ‘I’m perfectly capable of walking a mile back to
Claremont Hall.’

‘
You’ll do no
such thing daddy,’ Lucy laughed. ‘We don’t want to be attending
your memorial service in a month’s time.’

Pouting like a petulant
child, Ben put down his great-grandson and made his way to his
grand-daughter’s car. In contrast, the polite and gentlemanly
Andrew, tottered over to Paula, using his stick for balance. He
took Paula’s hand and smiled warmly.

‘
Thank you for
inviting me Paula,’ he said.

Paula gave a strange nod
in response, almost as if it embarrassed her and Alex wasn’t sure
why. Andrew McDonald may have been married to a Sheridan once upon
a time, but his wife had left him over thirty years ago and from
then on he’d just been a friend of the family - like a surrogate
uncle. Tara, Paula’s daughter, adored him and Alex was aware that
she popped in to see him every day even though he had his trusty
housekeeper looking after him. It was probably because her other
grandfather was back home in St Lucia and she couldn’t take care of
him; Andrew had become somewhat of a substitute.