by Karen Swan
‘You’re a good man, Joel Inkham,’ she said quietly.
A beat skipped between them. ‘. . . Not that good.’ And she saw his leg lift as he stepped onto the chair.
Oh God! He was going to do it again. ‘There is a door you can use!’ she laughed, slapping her hand over her mouth in excitement and fright as she saw him brace for the leap.
A sudden dazzling smile enlivened his face, his white teeth gleaming against his tan and stubble, his eyes dancing with mischief. ‘I know,’ he winked. ‘But where’s the fun in that?’
Epilogue
HYDRA GAZETTE
Births
Mr and Mrs Fournier are delighted to announce the safe arrival of their baby girl, Liberty Poppy Chloe Fournier, weighing 7lb 4oz on 21 February. A treasured first child.
THE TIMES
Marriages
The marriage is announced between Clarissa, Lady Hungerford, of Chelsea, SW3 and Pelham, Lord Hungerford, of Belgravia, SW1, on 21 February at Kensington and Chelsea Register Office, following a whirlwind engagement.
THE TIMES
Engagements
The engagement is announced between Rupert Oliver Valentine, elder son of Mr and Mrs James Cranmer of Painswick, Gloucestershire, and Lucy Clementine, youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs David Yorke of Fleet, Hampshire.
CRAIGSLIST, NEW YORK
For rent
Fifth Avenue, Greenwich Village, Downtown Manhattan.
1 bed. 1 bath. 1,000 sq. ft.
Doorman. Elevator. Pre-war. Hardwood floors. Laundry in unit.
$5,700. Couple preferred.
Acknowledgements
It’s not often the humble donkey is considered a muse, but this book started for me with memories of some long-ago holidays to the island of Hydra and the sound of cowbells chiming as they plodded through the cobbled streets. Revisiting Greece last summer – albeit a different island – I fell in love all over again with the historic olive groves and modest stone houses and knew I wanted it to be the location for my next book, so I do hope you now feel you’ve been there too.
As ever, getting a book to publication is like bringing a ship to launch – so many different teams and specialists are involved. Amanda Preston, my agent, is my rock and sounding board, giving me the courage to ‘go for it.’ Caroline Hogg, my editor, is endlessly encouraging when I feel panic setting in, and the entire team at Pan Mac makes producing bestsellers look easy when it’s really not. (They also host fabulous parties and our meetings always involve champagne!) Thank you guys, hard work is such fun with you all.
And to my family, I know having a writer for a wife/mum/daughter/sister isn’t easy and that I always seem to be working at the wrong times. But no world I ever create and no love I ever depict, could come close to the life we share. You make everything perfect.
Christmas
UNDER
THE STARS
by
Karen Swan
Worlds apart. A love without limit.
In the snow-topped mountains of the Canadian Rockies, Meg and Mitch are living their dream. Just weeks away from their wedding, they work and play with Tuck and Lucy, their closest and oldest friends. Meg and Lucy are as close as sisters – much to Meg’s real sister’s dismay – and Tuck and Mitch have successfully turned their passion for snowboarding into a booming business.
But when a polar storm hits, tragedy strikes. Alone in the tiny mountain log cabin she shares with Mitch, Meg desperately tries to radio for help – and it comes from the most unexpected quarter, a lone voice across the airwaves that sees what she cannot.
As the snow melts and the friends try to live with their loss, the relationships Meg thought were forever are buckled by tensions, rivalries and devastating secrets. Nothing is as she thought and only her radio contact understands what it is to be truly alone. As they share confidences in the dark, witnessed only by the stars, Meg feels her future begin to pull away from her past and is forced to consider a strange truth – is it her friends who are the strangers? And a stranger who really knows her best?
The
CHRISTMAS
SECRET
by
Karen Swan
When the lies stop, can love begin?
Alex Hyde is in demand. An executive coach par excellence, she’s the person who the great and the good turn to when the pressure gets too much – she can change the way they think, how they operate; she can turn around the very fortunes of their companies.
Her waiting list is months long, but even she can’t turn down the highly lucrative crisis call that comes her way a few weeks before Christmas, regarding the troublesome – and troubled – head of an esteemed whisky company in Scotland. Lochlan Farquhar, CEO of Kentallen Distilleries, is a maverick, an enigma and a renegade, and Alex needs to get inside his head before he brings the company to its knees.
It should be business as usual. She can do this in her sleep. Only, when she gets to the remote island of Islay, with the winter snows falling, Alex finds herself out of her comfort zone. Memories she would rather forget come back to haunt her. For once she’s not in control, but with Christmas and her deadline fast approaching, she must win Lachlan’s trust.
Yet as she pulls ever closer to him, boundaries become blurred, loyalties loosen and Alex finds herself faced with an impossible choice as she realizes nothing and no one is as they first seemed.
The Rome
Affair
by
Karen Swan
A love that can’t be stopped. A secret that can’t be kept.
1974 and Elena Damiani lives a gilded life. Born with extreme wealth and beauty, no door is closed to her, no man can resist her. At twenty-six, she is already onto her third husband when she meets her love match. But he is the one man she can never have, and all the riches in the world can’t change it.
2017 and Francesca Hackett is living la dolce vita in Rome, leading tourist groups around the Eternal City and forgetting the ghosts she left behind in London. When she finds a stolen designer handbag in her dustbin and returns it, she is introduced to the grand neighbour who lives across the piazza – famed socialite and Viscontessa, Elena. Elena is overjoyed: the bag contains an unopened letter written by her husband on his deathbed, twelve years earlier.
The two women begin to work together on the Viscontessa’s memoirs. As summer unfurls, Elena tells her sensational stories, leaving Cesca in her thrall. But when a priceless diamond ring is found in an ancient tunnel and ascribed to Elena, Cesca begins to suspect a shocking secret at the heart of her new friend’s life . . .
The Greek Escape
Karen Swan is a Sunday Times Top Five bestselling writer. She is the author of twelve other novels. She previously worked as an editor in the fashion industry but soon realized she was better suited as a novelist with a serious shopping habit. She is married with three children and lives in East Sussex.
Come to find her at www.karenswan.com, or
Instagram @swannywrites, Twitter @KarenSwan1 and
Facebook @KarenSwanAuthor.
Also by Karen Swan
Players
Prima Donna
Christmas at Tiffany’s
The Perfect Present
Christmas at Claridge’s
The Summer Without You
Christmas in the Snow
Summer at Tiffany’s
Christmas on Primrose Hill
The Paris Secret
Christmas Under the Stars
The Rome Affair
The Christmas Secret
First published 2018 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2018 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-3812-7
Copyright © Karen Swan 2018
The right of Karen Swan to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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