by Anne Bennett
‘Oh, Violet, I’m going to miss you so much,’ Lizzie cried. ‘We’ve been through so much together and you really are a very special person.’
‘And so are you, Lizzie,’ Violet said, and her voice was husky with unshed tears. ‘And much as I will miss you I’m glad you’re going. You’ll have a better life in America, the land of opportunity, they say, and the children can’t wait.’
‘I know. It would have been worse if they hadn’t wanted to go.’
‘Well, they do, and if we don’t get going your man will have a heart attack in the church thinking you’ve stood him up,’ Violet said.
‘He’ll know I’d not do that,’ Lizzie replied.
‘No, you’re not a fool altogether,’ Violet agreed.
Suddenly, it was too much for Lizzie. She was leaving all that she held dear for strangers, however kind they were, and Violet heard the gulping sob.
‘You ain’t crying?’
‘No.’
‘Liar,’ Violet said, and then, as the tears dribbled down Lizzie’s cheeks, she said, ‘Oh, come here, you silly sod,’ and she enfolded Lizzie in her arms. Lizzie cried out her fears and knew in that moment that no one would ever be able to take Violet’s place in her life.
They were all there that beautiful Saturday in late January when Lizzie stood at the door of St Catherine’s Church in a gown of blue satin, followed first by Georgia and then Niamh in bridesmaids’ dresses of peach. The church was full, neighbours and friends on one side and relations on the other. Lizzie tucked her arm in her father’s as the wedding march began and they walked slowly down the aisle.
And then Scott, standing beside Ben, who was his best man, turned around, and his face had such love for Lizzie she felt it wash over her in a wave. Seamus delivered his daughter into Scott’s keeping and she stood beside him just as a shaft of winter sun, shining through the stained-glass windows, bathed them both in myriad shades of light.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As Daughter of Mine is set in a period I have covered before and that is anyway well documented, I didn’t need so much help from individuals this time. However, I am grateful to the books Carl Chinn writes, which I find invaluable, and to Amy (UK Villages.co.uk) for help in finding more out about Ballintra and Rossnowlagh, both of which we visited last year, and Paul Lewis, who found out about family allowances for me. I cannot leave out either my special friends Judith Kendall and Ruth Adshead, who helped me in so many ways.
However, without the fabulous team at Harper Collins, I’m sure I would be lost, so I am giving a heartfelt thanks to my editorial director, Susan Opie, my editor, Maxine Hitchcock, my line editor, Sara Walsh, Ingrid Gegner, my exceptional publicist, Peter Hawtin, in charge of Midlands sales, and last but by no means least my agent, Judith Murdoch, who works so hard for me. I appreciate your help, advice and constructive criticism and I take this opportunity to thank all of you immensely.
My family help too through their unfailing support and the fact that they also keep my feet firmly on the ground, if ever I have a temptation to go into orbit, so thanks to my daughters, Nikki, Bethany and Tamsin, and my son, Simon. Thanks must also go to my son-in-law, Steve, my daughter-in-law, Carol, my mother-in-law, Nancy, and my own mother, Eileen Flanagan, who in many ways was an inspiration for this book.
Denis is a very special husband and my partner in crime, and without him my life would be severely curtailed and much poorer, and so I’d like to say thanks to him a million times.
Love, Anne.
About the Author
Anne Bennett was born in a back-to-back house in the Horsefair district of Birmingham. The daughter of Roman Catholic, Irish immigrants, she grew up in a tight-knit community where she was taught to be proud of her heritage. She considers herself to be an Irish Brummie and feels therefore that she has a foot in both cultures.
She has four children and four grandchildren. For many years she taught in schools to the north of Birmingham.
An accident put paid to her teaching career and, after moving to North Wales, Anne turned to the other great love of her life and began to write seriously. Daughter of Mine is her eighth novel. For information about more publications by Anne Bennett, go to the website www.harpercollins.co.uk and register for AuthorTracker.
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A Little Learning
Love Me Tender
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Till the Sun Shines Through
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Copyright
This novel is a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents described in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.
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FIRST EDITION
Copyright © Anne Bennett 2005
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EPub Edition © AUGUST 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34347-8
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