Heirs of Ravenscar

by Barbara Taylor Bradford

  ‘It would be wonderful. Quite amazing, I think. I’ve always wanted to be part of a large family and, I must admit, I’ve longed for lots of children of my own, actually. But I don’t suppose I ever will have a lovely big brood. It’s not on the cards.’

  ‘You mustn’t say such a thing, Jane. No one knows what’s in store for them, what’s going to happen in life.’

  She made no response, simply gazed at him, her lovely face open and honest, her eyes clear and sincere. There was no subterfuge in her, and this pleased Harry. She was trustworthy, he was quite certain of that, and he felt a sudden lessening of the sadness as they walked on together. There was an inner peace in her which made her soothing to be with.

  ‘It helps to think about positive things – chartering a yacht, for instance. Don’t you agree?’ Harry asked as they now headed in the direction of the Louvre Museum.

  ‘Going on a yacht, taking a cruise with you and your family, is something very positive indeed. And something to look forward to, for me, Harry. Thank you for inviting me … the mere idea of it is magical. I can’t wait.’

  His spirits lifted, and a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth for the first time in days. ‘I don’t know how you managed to stumble into my life, Jane Selmere, but I’m awfully glad you did.’

  ‘And so am I.’ Jane took hold of his arm once more, more possessively this time. There wasn’t anything better than a truly loving woman to heal a man’s troubled soul. And that she fully intended to do … if Harry Turner would let her. And she would make sure he had the time of his life.

  Epilogue

  Harry Turner stood in the middle of the library floor at Ravenscar, staring up at the marvellous painting of his grandfather, the great Edward Deravenel. He had a big smile on his face, and in his arms he held his baby son. His son and heir. Born three days ago on October the twelfth in 1975.

  Jane had given him a healthy, beautiful boy, and in a few days’ time he would be christened in the family chapel at Ravenscar.

  ‘Here he is, Grandfather!’ Harry cried, talking aloud to the masterful painting. ‘My son. My heir … your heir. And he is named for you. He’s another Edward. And he’s going to be great like you, I promise you that. Another great Edward in our family.’

  Smiling from ear to ear, Harry held the child towards the painting. ‘He has Deravenel blood and Turner blood, and he’s going to rule your empire and take it to even greater heights one day.’

  Harry cradled the little boy in his arms, blowing on the little tiny tuft of red hair on top of his head for a second, kissing the bright blue eyes. In my own image, Harry thought, in my grandfather’s image. Jane did it for me, gave me what I’ve yearned for since I first got married all those years ago to Catherine.

  I’m forty-five, but I’m not too old to have more children, and I will. Jane will give me more sons, and daughters, as well. She said in Paris last year that she had always yearned for a big brood, and that is what we shall have.

  He felt a tugging on his trouser leg and he looked down.

  Elizabeth was standing there staring up at him through her bright black eyes. ‘Can I see my brother, Father?’

  Bending down, Harry showed her the baby, a tiny bundle wrapped in bunch of lacey white shawls. ‘Here he is … Edward, your brother Edward. My son. My heir.’

  Straightening, Harry stared at the painting of his grandfather again, and decided, at that very moment, to have a similar portrait painted of himself. He would do it for his newborn son. So that one day Edward could hold his son up, and tell him that here was his grandfather, the great Harry Turner. Bending over the child, Harry kissed his forehead, overflowing with love for him, this longed-for child.

  ‘Can I hold my baby brother?’

  ‘Of course not, Elizabeth. You’re only four and you might easily drop him, and then where would we be, eh?’

  ‘Please, father.’

  ‘I said no. Now go away, that’s a good girl. I’m very busy with my son and heir.’

  Elizabeth, hurt and slighted, took a step back, and then turned around and ran to Nanny, who was standing in the doorway of the library.

  When Avis Paisley, the nanny, saw the tears trickling down the little girl’s cheeks she took hold of her hand and led her away, filled with fury that Harry Turner would hurt his small daughter in this way.

  ‘Don’t cry, sweetheart,’ Nanny said, ‘Everything is all right.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ Elizabeth wailed. ‘I’m not a boy. I wish I was. Then I would be the son and heir and father would love me.’

  ‘He does love you,’ Nanny consoled her. ‘Everybody loves you.’

  ‘Do they really?’ Elizabeth said, cheering up, rubbing her eyes. ‘How many people is that … everybody?’

  ‘Why, the whole of England, Elizabeth,’ the nanny answered, improvising. ‘The whole of England loves you.’

  The red-haired child with the ebony black eyes smiled, brushed her tears away. ‘And I shall love them,’ she said; and meant it.

  Acknowledgements

  Although I have accumulated a great deal of historical research over the years, pertaining to the Plantagenets and the Tudors, when I started this series I realized that I needed to know more about the Edwardian era. That was the period in which I planned to set this series of books, from the year 1904 up to the present. In other words, I needed to know a lot more than I did concerning the early part of the twentieth century.

  Because I was busy researching the manners, mores, politics, social life, business and fashions of those early days, plus many areas of daily life, as well as the First World War, I needed help. I must now give special thanks to Lonnie Ostrow and Damian Newman of Bradford Enterprises. They helped to make my life so much easier. All I had to do was pick up my phone and ask, ‘Was the Savoy Hotel in London already built in 1904?’ or some other such question, and no matter how complicated it was I got an immediate answer almost before the words left my mouth. They pulled up all kinds of information I needed, some of it quite strange and obscure, and provided yearly calendars from 1904 up to the present time. These two wizards on their computers must have heard from me at least twenty times a day for the past two years. My gratitude for their help knows no bounds.

  I must acknowledge the fascinating novel, The Sons of Adam (HarperCollins, London) by Harry Bingham. Apart from being a gripping read, I learned more about wild catting and drilling for oil in the 1920s than in any of my research books, and in the most enjoyable way. My thanks to this talented author for writing his book in the first place. It was invaluable.

  I must say a word here about my two very talented editors who are unfailing in their support of me, and ready to listen and to advise. My editor in London, Patricia Parkin of HarperCollins, has edited twenty-two of my novels and this will be her twenty-third. I am most appreciative of her wisdom, devotion and dedication to my books. In all the time we have worked together we’ve never had a cross word or a disagreement, something of a record I’m sure.

  My editor in New York, Jennifer Enderlin of St. Martin’s Press, is cut from the same cloth, and is devoted, dedicated and full of enthusiasm, and I appreciate this. Having two such great editors and such splendid support on both sides of the Atlantic is a rare gift. My unstinting thanks to them both.

  It is important to me to present a perfect typescript to my publishers, and I could not do that without the help of Liz Ferris of Liz Ferris Word Processing. She has typed many of my books for a number of years now, and my gratitude and thanks go to her for doing this so beautifully. Her finished typescripts are indeed perfect, produced at great speed, in record time, and without one complaint from her when I put the pressure on.

  I also want to give special thanks to everyone at HarperCollins in London and at St Martin’s Press in New York, all those who are involved in the design and production of my books. Behind the scenes editors, copy-editors and designers are invaluable to an author, and I am grateful for the care they put into my novel
s, and their hard work.

  I have a circle of remarkable girlfriends who are always here for me, cheering me on, asking if I need anything, wanting to help in any way they can, and keen to both cosset and protect me when I’m writing. My thanks and love to them … they all know who they are.

  Finally, last but not least, I must say that I could not write any of my books without the constant loving care, affection, devotion and ‘cheering on’ of my husband, Robert Bradford. They threw the mould away when they made him, my very patient Bob.

  Bibliography

  Edwardian London by Felix Barker (Laurence King Publishing)

  The Sons of Adam by Harry Bingham (HarperCollins)

  Henry VII by S.B. Chrimes (Eyre Methun)

  Victorian and Edwardian Décor: From the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau by Jeremy Cooper (Abbeville Press)

  Great Harry: The Extravagant life of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson (Summit Books)

  The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England by Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld Nicolson)

  Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia Gelardi (St. Martin's Press)

  The Edwardians by Roy Hattersley (St. Martin's Press)

  Churchill: A Biography by Roy Jenkins (Pan Books)

  Richard the Third by Paul Murray Kendall (W. W. Norton)

  The Wars of the Roses by J.R. Lander (Sutton Publishing)

  Queens of England by Norah Lofts (Doubleday)

  The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George (Pan Books)

  The Wars of the Roses by Robin Neillands (Cassell)

  Victorian and Edwardian Fashion from La Mode Illustrée by Joanne Olian (Dover Publications)

  The Edwardian Garden by David Ottewill (Yale University)

  Eminent Edwardians by Brendon Piers (André Deutsch Press)

  The Edwardians by J.B. Priestly (Sphere)

  Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love by Elizabeth Stevens Prioleau (Penguin Books)

  Symptoms by Isadore Rosenfeld (Bantum)

  Edward IV by Charles Ross (Methuen)

  Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey (HarperCollins)

  Consuelo and Alva: Love and Power in the Gilded Age by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart (HarperCollins)

  The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (Arrow Books)

  Tycoon: The Life of James Goldsmith by Geoffrey Wansell (Grafton Books)

  The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir (Pimlico)

  The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir (Ballantine)

  The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black Legend of the Dudleys by Derek Wilson (Constable and Robinson)

  Warwick the Kingmaker (W.W. Norton)

  HEIRS OF RAVENSCAR

  Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds, and by the age of twenty was an editor and columnist on Fleet Street. Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, became an enduring bestseller and was followed by twenty-one others, including the bestselling Harte series. In 2006 The Ravenscar Dynasty began an epic new family series around Ravenscar and the house of Deravenel. Barbara’s books have sold more than eighty-one million copies worldwide in more than ninety countries and forty languages, and ten mini-series and television movies have been made of her books. In 2007 Barbara was appointed an OBE by the Queen for her services to literature. She lives in New York City with her husband, television producer Robert Bradford. This is her twenty-third novel.

  For more information and inspiration behind the Ravenscar series, visit www.barbarataylorbradford.com

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.co.uk for exclusive information on Barbara Taylor Bradford

  Books by Barbara Taylor Bradford

  Series

  THE EMMA HARTE SAGA

  A Woman of Substance

  Hold the Dream

  To Be the Best

  Emma’s Secret

  Unexpected Blessings

  Just Rewards

  Others

  Voice of the Heart

  Act of Will

  The Woman in His Life

  Remember

  Angel

  Everything to Gain

  Dangerous to Know

  Love in Another Town

  Her Own Rules

  A Secret Affair

  Power of a Woman

  A Sudden Change of Heart

  Where You Belong

  The Triumph of Katie Byrne

  Three Weeks in Paris

  Series

  THE RAVENSCAR TRILOGY

  The Ravenscar Dynasty

  Copyright

  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.

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  This paperback edition 2008

  First published in Great Britain by

  HarperCollinsPublishers 2007

  Copyright © Barbara Taylor Bradford 2008

  Barbara Taylor Bradford 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

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  ePub edition September 2008 ISBN- 9780007279524

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