“But what are you doing here? Mrs. Wright—”
“I was on my way here. I ran into Howard in London. He’d just seen you, he said you’d borrowed his motorcar, something about a letter in Sussex. I drove like a madman until I had a flat tire on the road outside Midhurst. Joel was coming back from taking one of the farmers in to see the doctor. He found me, brought me the rest of the way. I was afraid I’d missed you, that you’d turned back to London in this weather.”
Before I could say anything, in the soft light from the snow falling over us he saw the ring on my finger, dull gold and ruby red. He pulled away.
“He was Madeleine’s brother. Alain,” I said quickly. “He lost his arm fighting on the Marne, and he couldn’t bear that. He killed himself. If he’d lived, I’d have married him, Peter. He asked me, long before I met you again and fell in love with you. And I would have kept faith with him because he needed me. I wear his ring still because he was a brave and honorable man, and I was very fond of him. But this is the ring that I will keep until I am old, because you gave it to me.” I held it out in my palm, for him to see.
He took it from me and put it on my finger.
“I’ll give you another. As soon as I’ve gone to Scotland. And you’ll travel with me. I’m damned if I’m going to risk losing you again.”
I was supposed to report to the Nursing Service for duty as soon as practicable.
But QAIMNS had waited this long. They could wait another few weeks. Peter kissed me then, standing under the bare branches of the walnut tree.
About the Author
CHARLES TODD is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother and son writing team, they live in Delaware and North Carolina, respectively. Visit their website at charlestodd.com and like CharlesToddNovels on Facebook.
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Also by Charles Todd
The Ian Rutledge Mysteries
A Test of Wills
Wings of Fire
Search the Dark
Legacy of the Dead
Watchers of Time
A Fearsome Doubt
A Cold Treachery
A Long Shadow
A False Mirror
A Pale Horse
A Matter of Justice
The Red Door
A Lonely Death
The Confession
The Bess Crawford Mysteries
A Duty to the Dead
An Impartial Witness
A Bitter Truth
An Unmarked Grave
Other Fiction
The Murder Stone
Credits
Cover design by Mary Schuck
Cover photographs: woman © by Richard Jenkins; building © by Panoramic Images/Getty Images; tree © by Shutterstock
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE WALNUT TREE. Copyright © 2012 by Charles Todd. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Todd, Charles.
The walnut tree / Charles Todd. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-06-223699-9
1. Young women—Fiction. 2. Nobility—England—Fiction. 3. Nurses—England—Fiction. 4. World War, 1914–1918—France—Fiction. 5. World War, 1914–1918—England—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3570.O37W36 2012
813’.54—dc23
2012031037
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062236883
12 13 14 15 16 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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