by Val Wood
Both men gave a small smile of remembrance as Bella’s cheeks flushed and each gave an undetectable sigh, wistfully wishing that lost youth might return.
Bella moistened her lips and looked again at Reuben. ‘I’m getting married,’ she told him.
Jamie put his arm around her shoulder. ‘So am I,’ he murmured.
Reuben put down his glass and held out his arms, and Bella moved away from Jamie to bend and kiss his cheek. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. ‘There you are,’ he said huskily to his companion. ‘What did I tell you?’
Bella didn’t hear the inner door open but Jamie did, and his wide smile encompassed Sarah, who was wiping her eyes on a handkerchief, Joe, who grinned back at him, Alice carrying baby Victoria, William bringing up the rear and giving him a thumbs-up; and Henry, who first looked hesitatingly at Jamie, who signalled for him to come, ran across to him.
Bella turned and gazed round the room as a sudden beam of sunlight broke through the stained-glass etching on the door and reception screen, sending a shower of iridescent rainbow hues dancing across the ceiling and walls of the saloon. Then she saw her mother and brothers and Alice gathered together, Henry by Jamie’s side, and Jamie with his hand outstretched towards her.
She stepped to his side and, slipping her hand in his, she rested her head against his shoulder, and he tenderly kissed her cheek. This, she thought joyfully, is the beginning of yet another chapter in our lives, and she raised her head to let her lips touch his.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Innkeeper’s Daughter is a book of fiction. To the best of my knowledge there never was a Maritime Hotel, Inn or public house of that name in Hull, although during the nineteenth century, the period of this novel, there were hundreds of hostelries situated in the town. The Woodman Inn was a real place, but set in the West Riding of Yorkshire on the road between Castleford and Pontefract, where my forebears were innkeepers during the late nineteenth century. On a sentimental whim and in my capacity as an author, I have borrowed the name and transferred it to Holderness. The real Woodman Inn was knocked down to make way for the M62 motorway.
SOURCES
Books and information for general research:
Sheehan’s History of Hull
The Victorian Public House, Richard Tames, Shire Publications, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire.
Living and Dying, A picture of Hull in the Nineteenth Century, Bernard Foster
And general information from various Internet sites including:
Graham Green’s Hotmog’s Victorian Breweriana, www.victorian-breweriana.me.uk
Paul Gibson’s Lost pubs of Hull, www.paul-gibson.com
King’s College London School of Medicine from Wikipedia
The Victorian Web, The University of London and Women Students, Jacqueline Bannerjee, www.victorianweb.org/history/education/london
British Battles, www.BritishBattles.com/crimeanwar
History4, www.saperia.com/pages/history.htm#migration
BBC History, www.bbc.co.uk/history/historicfigures/nightingale_florence.shtlm
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Val Wood was born in Yorkshire and now lives in Beverley. She was the first winner of the Catherine Cookson Prize for Fiction.
Find out more about Val Wood’s novels by visiting her website at www.valeriewood.co.uk
Also by Val Wood
THE HUNGRY TIDE
ANNIE
CHILDREN OF THE TIDE
THE ROMANY GIRL
EMILY
GOING HOME
ROSA’S ISLAND
THE DOORSTEP GIRLS
FAR FROM HOME
THE KITCHEN MAID
THE SONGBIRD
NOBODY’S CHILD
FALLEN ANGELS
THE LONG WALK HOME
RICH GIRL, POOR GIRL
HOMECOMING GIRLS
THE HARBOUR GIRL
For more information on Val Wood and her books, see her website at www.valeriewood.co.uk
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THE INNKEEPER’S DAUGHTER
A BANTAM BOOK: 9780593069523
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781446497081
First published in Great Britain
in 2012 by Bantam Press
an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © Valerie Wood 2012
Valerie Wood has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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