‘It’s obvious what’s happened here, Doug. Some old tramp thought it was a good spot to rest, and he likely died from cold or something similar. It happens. All the time. Right?’
‘Right, Mr Howard.’
‘There won’t be a soul who will miss him or who cared about him when he was alive, or it wouldn’t have ended like this. Right?’
‘Right, Mr Howard.’
‘And even if there was someone out there, what’s the point in upsetting them now after all this time? Whoever he was, he’s been dead umpteen years. Let sleeping dogs lie. No good comes of raking up the past, no good at all. Now you shin up that tree and unhook the belt – I dare say some animal took it up there – and we’ll put these bits and pieces in the back of my car. You’ll find some bags in there that the wife uses when she goes shopping. And then we’ll get the men back to carry on working because nowt’s happened here of any importance. Right?’
‘Right, Mr Howard. What . . . what will you do with the—’
‘Don’t worry about it, Doug.’ It wasn’t said in an arm-round-the-shoulder way, and the foreman was quick to respond.
‘No, no, of course, Mr Howard. I . . . I’ll get the . . . the belt down then, shall I?’
‘You do that, Doug. And tell Barney Croft there’ll be an extra pound or two in his wage packet, all right? Josiah Howard looks after his own.’
As Josiah watched his foreman lever himself up the tree to unhook the decaying belt, he didn’t question the decision he’d made. Whoever this bloke had been, he was nowt to him. And he dared say he was nowt to anyone else either. You reaped what you sowed in this life, and he wasn’t going to let a few old bones spoil what he was about to reap in the way of this housing estate. When all was said and done, you had to look out for number one. It was what made the world go round, now, wasn’t it . . .
Dancing in the Moonlight
By Rita Bradshaw
As her mother lies dying, twelve-year-old Lucy Fallow promises to look after her younger siblings and keep house for her father and two older brothers.
Over the following years the Depression tightens its grip. Times are hard and Lucy’s situation is made more difficult by the ominous presence of Tom Crawford, the eldest son of her mother’s lifelong friend, who lives next door.
Lucy’s growing friendship with Tom’s younger brother, Jacob, only fuels Tom’s obsession with her. He persuades Lucy’s father and brothers to work for him on the wrong side of the law as part of his plan to force Lucy to marry him.
Tom sees Lucy and Jacob dancing together one night and a chain of heartbreaking events are set in motion. Torn apart from the boy she loves, Lucy wonders if she and Jacob will ever dance in the moonlight again . . .
Beyond the Veil of Tears
By Rita Bradshaw
Fifteen-year-old Angeline Stewart is heartbroken when her beloved parents are killed in a coaching accident, leaving her an only child in the care of her uncle.
Naive and innocent, Angeline is easy prey for the handsome and ruthless Oswald Golding. He is looking for a rich heiress to solve the money troubles his gambling and womanizing have caused.
On her wedding night, Angeline enters a nightmare from which there is no awakening. Oswald proves to be more sadistic and violent than she could ever have imagined. When she finds out she is expecting a child, Angeline makes plans to run away and decides to take her chances fending for herself and her baby. But then tragedy strikes again . . .
The Colours of Love
By Rita Bradshaw
England is at war, but nothing can dim land girl Esther Wynford’s happiness at marrying the love of her life – fighter pilot Monty Grant. But months later, on the birth of her daughter Joy, Esther’s world falls apart.
Esther’s dying mother confesses to a dark secret that she has kept to herself for twenty years: Esther is not her natural daughter. Esther’s real mother was forced to give up her baby to an orphanage – and now Joy’s birth makes the reason for this clear, as Esther’s true parentage is revealed.
Harshly rejected by Monty, and with the man Esther believed was her father breathing fire and damnation, she takes her precious baby and leaves everything and everyone she’s ever known, determined to fend for herself and her child. But her fight is just beginning . . .
BY RITA BRADSHAW
Alone Beneath the Heaven
Reach for Tomorrow
Ragamuffin Angel
The Stony Path
The Urchin’s Song
Candles in the Storm
The Most Precious Thing
Always I’ll Remember
The Rainbow Years
Skylarks at Sunset
Above the Harvest Moon
Eve and Her Sisters
Gilding the Lily
Born to Trouble
Forever Yours
Break of Dawn
Dancing in the Moonlight
Beyond the Veil of Tears
The Colours of Love
Snowflakes in the Wind
Author’s Note
Until I began my research for this story I had a general if somewhat vague understanding of the part women played in the Second World War, and much of the information concentrated on the European conflict. When I found books and other research data that focused on the women who were captured and interned in the Far East, it literally opened my eyes to a period of history that was stomach turning. Most of it was painful and horrifying to read, but one thing was paramount – through it all, women displayed a courage and resilience that puts paid to the idea that we are the weaker sex.
I decided to take the QAs (Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service) as the main focus, but of course alongside them stood thousands of ordinary women and children who found themselves caught up in the conflict and thrown into the Japanese camps. None of them could have expected the horrors that were to come. Raped, beaten, tortured, humiliated and treated as subhuman, both the women soldiers and civilians were extraordinarily courageous. Starvation and crippling disease were a daily burden, with violence and brutality always just round the corner. The Japanese forced some women to become sex slaves, whilst others were tortured to death by the sadistic Kempeitai, the Japanese military police.
Those who survived the death camps where so many died were scarred mentally, and sometimes physically, for the rest of their lives. This was real life in all its raw savagery and pain, and it is impossible for any story to do them credit.
When we look at white-haired pensioners – few in number now – who survived the conflict, we have no idea of what they went through, or the grit and selfless acts of extreme courage they displayed, because they rarely talk about it. As one veteran said to me, ‘We just got on with it, that’s all. That’s what you do.’
I hope that is what we would do these days, but I wonder. In an age when we are encouraged to put self first because ‘we deserve it’, and have-a-go heroes are in the minority, would the modern world respond with the amazing qualities of self-reliance, self-sacrifice and sheer guts those people did? We are fortunate to have known only relative peace, after all.
However much our opinions may differ about that, I hope this story shows credit to those who perished and those who survived because I am in awe of their spirit.
Acknowledgements
I drew on research from various sources for this story, encompassing, as it does, both Border farm workers and their past way of life, and also the incredible work of the British Army nurses in the Second World War, particularly the QAs who were taken prisoner by the Japanese in the Far East.
Special help certainly deserves a mention:
A Shepherd Remembers by Andrew Purves
A Nurse in Time by Evelyn Prentis
Sisters in Arms by Nicola Tyrer
All This Hell by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
Surviving Tenko by Penny Starns
The Real Tenko by Mark Felton
RITA BRADSHAW was bor
n in Northamptonshire, where she still lives today. At the age of sixteen she met her husband – whom she considers her soulmate – and they have two daughters, a son and six grandchildren. Much to her delight, Rita’s first novel was accepted for publication and she has gone on to write many more successful novels since, including the Number One bestseller Dancing in the Moonlight.
As a committed Christian and passionate animal-lover her life is full, but she loves walking her dogs, reading, eating out and visiting the cinema and theatre, as well as being involved in her church and animal welfare.
First published 2016 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2016 by Macmillan
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978-1-4472-7160-4
Copyright © Rita Bradshaw 2016
Design © www.blacksheep-uk.com
Model © Gordon Crabb
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The right of Rita Bradshaw to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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