Winner Takes it All - Part 1

Winner Takes it All by Karen Mason

Karen Mason Copyright 2009

ISBN 978-1-4452-0152-8 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without prior permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Also by this author

Summerset

Mad About the Boy

Two Become One

The True Tale of Jezebel Cole

Only YOu

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.