Songbird
Page 41
The year after the Great War, Emily and I became guest singers at the Royal Albert Hall where we sang the hymn Jerusalem together. And then for the very last time, I sang Amazing Grace, as I had decided it was time to retire.
I was twenty-one years old when I sold my baby and I was fifty-four years old when we returned to our home at Standford Park that summer of 1919. It was now thirty-four years since Brett and I had first met that sparkling September day, when he had been Karl to me and I had been Miss Isabelle Pritchard to him. As I strolled through the gardens on Brett’s arm, we talked of that time and of the subsequent tragic events that came from our ‘arrangement’.
Brett was more philosophical. “Everything has a reason for happening, my darling. Sometimes we can’t see that reason, but it still exits. Perhaps it was fate’s strange way of introducing us.”
Listening to the shouts of delight from our children and grandchildren playing cricket in the meadow, I smiled and had to agree with him.
* * * * * *
ALSO BY JULIA BELL
A Pearl Comb for a Lady
Deceit of Angels
The Wild Poppy
Broken Blossoms
If Birds Fly Low
Preview of A Pearl Comb for a Lady:
This story is a romance through time. Christabel is feisty with an overactive imagination. Aged 18 and living during the Battle of Waterloo, she is in love with a soldier who only wants to use her to advance his military career. Victoria, 25, living in the mid-nineteenth century is sweet- natured but haunted by the loss of her child. Finally there is Jenny, 35, a 21st Century career woman who is unable to sacrifice her pride and forgive the man she loves.
The pearl comb weaves its way through the centuries as though trying to find its true owner. And although these three women come into possession of the pearl comb, only one will wear it at her wedding.
Preview of Deceit of Angels:
For nineteen years, Anna Stevens perseveres with a faithless husband in a marriage that destroys her plans to go to university and follow a career. When Anna escapes to Bristol to work for Jason Harrington, the attractive and wealthy owner of Harrington Rhodes Shipping Agents, she has finally made the decision to leave her husband and make a new life for herself. But Anna has told Jason that she is a widow and when she and Jason fall in love, Anna finds herself trapped in her lies. When her estranged husband finds her, Anna must pay a devastating price for her deceit; a price that would have lasting consequences for her and the man she loves.
Preview of The Wild Poppy:
Living during the time of Florence Nightingale and the first woman doctor, Elizabeth Garrett, Melody Kinsman is determined to succeed as a newspaper reporter. But in 1864, a female reporter is unheard of and because of the prejudice of the male establishment Melody finds it difficult to persuade an editor to buy her articles.
When she accompanies her friend, Lady Celia Sinclair to London, she uses it as an opportunity to report the news and events in the capital. She finally confronts the attractive but enigmatic owner of the Cork Street Journal, Guy Wyngate who reluctantly gives her the opportunity to prove herself. But first she must face the difficult challenges thrown at her, since Guy wants to test her commitment to the newspaper business.
This commitment will have consequences on her future happiness with the man she gave her heart to when a young girl and to another who is waiting to win her love.
Preview of Broken Blossoms:
At the age of fifteen, Katherine Widcombe, the niece of a baronet, is found missing from her bed whilst visiting her maternal aunt in Bristol. She is returned to her aunt and uncle’s home, Widcombe Hall, blindfolded and with the weight of a terrible secret on her young shoulders.
Six years later, she is invited to spend Christmas with her cousin, Philippa and her new husband Conrad, Earl of Croston. She is horrified when Conrad confesses his love for her. Dismayed by the awful truth of her past, Katherine returns to the Hall and decides to accept the marriage proposal of Sir Herbert Fox, a man thirty years her senior.
But marriage doesn’t bring her the peace she craves and in fact, she discovers that her husband has secrets of his own and this will bring terrible consequences for Katherine.
These consequences will mean a perilous journey and privations that a woman of Katherine’s wealth and rank would never be expected to endure and will draw on all her strength and courage to overcome.
Preview of If Birds Fly Low:
Since her mother’s death, Charlotte Scott has been reared by her Aunt Faith. But her childhood has been plagued by strange knockings on her bedroom door in the dead of night. A summons she never answers since she fears what might be waiting for her behind the door.
Meeting Noel Chandler, a tutor at the university in Cambridge causes tension, since Charlotte thinks him prejudiced against women. Noel is actually Squire Chandler and lives at Martlesham Manor a Tudor house in Suffolk.
It is while visiting Martlesham Manor with her cousin, Adele, that Charlotte learns the story of Prudence Chandler who, in the seventeenth century, was denounced as a witch by her husband and mother-in-law and consequently hanged.
Charlotte becomes absorbed with the story of Prudence and realises there are many mysteries at the Manor. Who is the woman who moves silently around the house at night? Why is there a terrible feeling of dread that permeates the old building? And why do the birds fly low since there is always a threat of rain hanging over the Manor?
As their love grows, Charlotte and Noel start to uncover the truth of his ancestral home. But the truth will involve Charlotte more intimately than she could possibly imagine.
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for choosing to read Songbird. I love writing but having my books read makes them come alive. Until they are read, the characters are only in my imagination and they need to live and be enjoyed. So, I hope you enjoy reading all my novels and you’re able to spare a little time in telling me about it.
You can do this via email or by leaving a review on Amazon and progress can be followed on Twitter using @JuliaBellRF or via email on julia@juliabellromanticfiction.co.uk
Julia Bell