Every Mother's Son
Page 35
ENDING
I have often found that on finishing a saga such as this, I must be careful to tell my readers all of what I think might have happened to the secondary characters who play a minor but important part in the story – important, for otherwise why would they be there?
And so with the many varied personalities involved I will begin with Maria and Dolly, Daniel’s half-sisters. Maria, having had to abandon any notion of a relationship with Stephen Hart, begins to ‘walk out’ with Adam, whose mother Betsy marries Tom Bolton, and we hope that they will all find happiness in their lives together. Dolly does as she said she would and travels to Italy where she stays with Calypso and Marco and eventually finds herself a rich and handsome Italian gentleman to keep her in the manner she has always desired.
Leo marries Sophia and brings her to meet his sister Harriet and there is much to-ing and fro-ing between Italy and England as the women become good friends.
Rosie too is persuaded to travel to Italy and with their renewed friendship in their older years she spends the winters with Marco, travelling to Vernazza escorted by Charles Hart who, after studying at an Italian university, takes up a career in art and culture. After his marriage to Calypso they make a home in Florence where they become a very popular couple enjoying the finer things in life without too much effort on their part.
Young George Hart becomes a professor, and makes an enormous contribution to the world of science. Lenny changes his name to Leo like his uncle, and with his partner Adam, his sister Maria’s husband, he becomes one of the premier pig breeders in Yorkshire. He remains a bachelor all his life.
Stephen Hart doesn’t marry until he is thirty, when he meets and marries a widow from a farming background who understands perfectly what he is talking about when he discusses the comparative prices and quality of grain in America compared with England’s.
Melissa and Christopher Hart, having given full control of the estate to Stephen and making generous allowances to their other children, decide to travel in Europe whilst they still can, considering Christopher’s age.
Elizabeth and Joseph are too young as yet to have their lives mapped out, but no doubt in time they will have their own stories to tell.
Harriet and Fletcher are content to stay at home and don’t travel far; they work with their good friend Tom Bolton, buying more land and increasing their farm stock and building on another extension to their farmhouse as Harriet had suggested they should, to accommodate their children and their children’s children when they come to stay. Harriet in particular becomes even busier, as, when least expecting to, she gives birth to another daughter who is given the name of Daisy as she was born in springtime.
And as for Daniel and Beatrice, after their marriage which was said to be the Yorkshire wedding of the year as, gossip goes, the groom is of noble birth and the bride an heiress, they steal Aaron from the Hart estate and make him farm manager of their stud farm and prepare to begin their breeding programme; two years after Flavia had been brought to England she gives birth to a foal whom they name Freya. There is no conclusive evidence of the thoughts of White Socks as he frolics with his offspring.
Beatrice gives birth to a son twelve months after her marriage to Daniel, the first of four children; he is born with dark curly hair like his father and blue eyes like his mother and is blessed with a warm and happy nature, and when he plays on the rug with Grandmother Harriet’s daughter – his aunt Daisy – he knows exactly who he is: Marco Daniel Tuke-Orsini, to be known as Marco, the first son of doting parents Beatrice and Daniel Tuke-Orsini.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Orsini is a noble Italian name and I do not intend any discourtesy in my use of it. I do not know anyone of that line and have used it as I would any English name such as Smith, Brown or even Wood for my fiction. I did, however, need an aristocratic and eminent name associated with Italian history, and on reading about the family it seemed just perfect. It is true that there are many Orsini palaces scattered around Italy; the Palazzo Orsini in Rome, which resembles a mini Colosseum and was once the Theatre of Marcellus, was for sale in 2012. The price was £26 million and if it has been sold and you were unlucky enough to miss it, then it will probably be another two hundred years before it comes on the market again.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks are due to my Transworld publishing team for their support over the last twenty-one years and for believing in each and every one of my books. The production of a book requires a dedicated team effort and I am aware that everyone within Transworld plays a vital part. To my editors over the years for their expertise and enthusiasm I say a grateful thank you, as I do to my production editor Vivien Thompson and copy-editor Nancy Webber for their innate ability to spot a misplaced comma, spelling mistake or inaccuracy, and ensure that the whole is polished and honed to as near perfection as possible.
To you all – I thank you.
SOURCES
Books for general reading:
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson, Chatto & Windus, London, 1925
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds and Horse Care by Judith Draper, Selectabook Ltd, Anness Publishing Ltd, London
And general information from various Internet sites including:
150th Anniversary of Switzerland’s Grand Tour. MySwitzerland.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Since winning the Catherine Cookson Prize for Fiction for her first novel, The Hungry Tide, Val Wood has published nineteen novels and become one of the most popular authors in the UK.
Born in the mining town of Castleford, Val came to East Yorkshire as a child and has lived in Hull and rural Holderness where many of her novels are set. She now lives in the market town of Beverley.
When she is not writing, Val is busy promoting libraries and supporting many charities.
Find out more about Val Wood’s novels by visiting her website: 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
THE INNKEEPER’S DAUGHTER
HIS BROTHER’S WIFE
For more information on Val Wood and her books, see her website at www.valeriewood.co.uk
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First published in Great Britain by Bantam Press
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Copyright © Valerie Wood 2014
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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