‘Hey,’ Edward said suddenly, ‘look at that!’
Along the edge of the trees, in and out of the dappled sunlight, came a couple walking together, her long skirt catching picturesquely on the clumps of tall grasses as she passed. Elinor bent forward to see better. She said, ‘They’re not holding hands.’
‘No. But they look pretty comfortable together.’
‘She’s holding flowers instead. She’s always done that. When we were little, we had to keep stopping on walks so she could pick something, and then she’d just leave them somewhere, on the doorstep or the table or in her gumboot, and they’d die.’
Edward said softly, ‘They actually look pretty happy, don’t you think?’
Elinor smiled.
‘Nine months ago she said he was old and boring and wore scarves to protect his throat in winter.’
‘What would she say now, d’you suppose?’
Elinor glanced up at him. She laughed. She said, ‘I think she’d say that she was mistaken!’
Edward looked out across the lawn again. He said, ‘What d’you reckon his chances are?’
Elinor turned to face him, so that she could put her arms around him and lay her cheek against his chest.
‘I reckon’, she said, her voice faintly muffled, ‘that his chances are pretty good. Marianne can’t do anything by halves, and certainly not loving.’
‘All or nothing.’
‘Yes.’
Edward put his own arms around her and laid his cheek on the top of her head. ‘All,’ he said contentedly. ‘All. I’ll settle for that.’
About the Author
Joanna Trollope is the author of seventeen highly acclaimed bestselling novels including, most recently, The Other Family, Daughters-in-Law and The Soldier’s Wife. She has also written a study of women in the British Empire, Britannia’s Daughters and ten historical novels published under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey.
Joanna was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and was the Chair of Judges for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012.
www.joannatrollope.com
Also by Joanna Trollope
FICTION
The Choir
A Village Affair
A Passionate Man
The Rector’s Wife
The Men and the Girls
A Spanish Lover
The Best of Friends
Next of Kin
Other People’s Children
Marrying the Mistress
Girl from the South
Brother & Sister
Second Honeymoon
Friday Nights
The Other Family
Daughters-in-Law
The Soldier’s Wife
NON FICTION
Britannia’s Daughters
Copyright
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
Copyright © Joanna Trollope 2013
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013
Joanna Trollope asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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.
Source ISBN: 9780007461769
Ebook Edition © October 2013 ISBN: 9780007461783
Version: 2013-10-23
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