by Fiona Lowe
‘You aren’t put off by my perfectionist tendencies?’
He laughed and walked around the kitchen bench until he was standing very close to her and gazing down with shining grey eyes. He smelt of shoe polish, a dash of antiseptic and the freshness of salt. A tingle shot all over her, whooshing along her skin and waking up her mothballed libido. She swallowed.
‘You’re a lot more relaxed than when I first met you.’
‘Am I?’
‘Hell, yes. The first time we met, you had me for breakfast and your staff were petrified of you. Last week I heard you crack a joke with them. And you smile more now. You laugh more. And for all the hot air you spout about being allergic to children, Teddy has you wrapped around his chubby fist and you love it.’
He slid his hand along her cheek. ‘All in all, Harriet Chirnwell, you’re very pleasant company.’
Something inside her let go and with it went a few of her anxieties. Andrew knew her foibles and yet he still wanted to be with her. ‘You’re very pleasant company too.’ She kissed his smiling mouth.
His arms went around her waist, pulling her in against his chest as he returned the kiss with a depth and intensity that made her knees sag and her body sing.
When he released her mouth, she said, ‘So this spending more time together, does it have to be golf?’
His eyes had taken on a smoky hue. ‘Do you have a better suggestion?’
‘I think I do.’ She took his hand and started walking toward her bedroom.
‘Harriet?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m not going to remind you to kill Charlotte.’
She laughed as delight rolled through her. Fifteen months ago she’d never have imagined her life as it was now. Nor that it could be good in ways she’d never considered positive. She’d finally found those nuggets of gold sparkling brightly amid the imperfections. She’d found moments of magic. It was enough.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All books rest on the goodwill of many and Daughter of Mine is no different. Many thanks to Clare Webb for her honesty and openness, and sharing with me the daily routine, the joys and the heartache of mothering a child with a disability. Thanks to David Webb Ware for letting me tramp over his farm and pepper him with questions about sheep and life on the land and a big thank you to Sarah for feeding me. Richard Anderson put me in contact with Linton Driver, who cheerfully lent me his family law expertise and helped me make a plot point work. Michael Coghlin advised me on criminal law, gently pointing out what I wanted to do wouldn’t happen in the real world and helped me come up with a more realistic solution. I appreciate all the assistance and advice. Any mistakes are mine. Noel Russell kindly took the time to explain hospital funding to me after his wife shoved her phone unexpectedly into his hand and said ‘Talk to Fiona’. My beautiful sister, Sue Peterken, a passionate educator, shared with me stories of the day-to-day life of a primary school teacher.
The Lowe men, Norm, Sandon and Barton, put up with me lurching from excitement to despair and back again as I tried to pull the longest book I’ve ever written into a coherent story. Thanks for the fun road trips around the Stony Rises and the Western District of Victoria and for happily coming to open garden days, visiting historic homes and taking all the great photos that helped keep me in the district long after we got home.
Big thanks to my wonderful agent, Helen Breitwieser, who believed in this book from the start and worked so hard to get it in front of the right people. Thanks to my publisher, Sue Brockhoff, and the great team at Harlequin Australia who work tirelessly behind the scenes. Thanks to Annabel Blay and Kylie Mason who took a raw manuscript, smoothed it out and made it into the book you’re holding today. Editing is never easy or fun and I appreciated the encouraging words during those times when I thought I’d never dig myself out of what seemed to me to be a big fat mess.
Last, but by no means least, a huge thank you to all my readers. I know the choice of books is large and your book buying budget not quite as big. I appreciate very much your choice in purchasing this book with your hard-earned money. I hope you enjoy Daughter Of Mine. If you do, please subscribe to my newsletter at fionalowe.com.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What you hold onto, holds onto you.
—John Maclean
Why is perfection so important to Harriet?
‘You lectured us on the importance of knowing where we come from so we know who we are,’ Xara says to Harriet. Do our ancestors have anything to do with who we are?
Do you think that the birth order of the sisters plays any role in their personalities?
Adult children are often challenged when their parents recouple. What issues confront them?
Edwina gave up a child in 1968 for respectability and paid a high price for keeping secrets and lies. In today’s society what are the social taboos that force families to keep secrets?
Michelle is hesitant about getting to know her biological parents. What are some of the dilemmas faced by children who experienced closed adoption?
Does society today judge single women who choose to be parents? Does age, socio-economic and educative status of the woman play a role?
Xara and Harriet have very different mothering experiences. Do they have any understanding of the other’s challenges?
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First Published 2017
First Australian Paperback Edition 2017
ISBN 978 148922058 5
DAUGHTER OF MINE
© 2017 by Fiona Lowe
Australian Copyright 2017
New Zealand Copyright 2017
Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilisation of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Author photo: Sara Taylor Photography
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