A Wartime Friend
Page 34
EPILOGUE
Meg Malin wore a blue suit to her wedding, which she’d saved for from her clothes ration for months. Lily had persuaded her that not only did she need to buy new clothes for herself, but that Lily, too, would need a new dress if she was going to be a bridesmaid. ‘And Ellen needs shoes. Her first pair. It’s important she has shoes.’
‘But it’s a registry office wedding!’
Meg found herself outnumbered. Even John, bless his heart, was adamant she needed something new to wear.
‘New bride, new husband, new outfit. It stands to reason.’
Thanks to the war and the fact that couples were not only severed by military considerations but also because they’d found they’d grown out of each other, divorces were on the increase. In fact, the divorce courts had begun sitting during the night in order to cope with the demand.
Meg’s mother declined to attend the wedding ceremony.
Within a year of getting married, Meg was carrying John’s child. By the end of the war their second baby had arrived.
It was hard to believe that the war had finally ended, but everyone in the village talked of nothing but the surrender of Germany. Already plans were being made for a party to celebrate the event, and the church bells that had been silent since the beginning of the war rang lustily.
On their wedding anniversary, Lily babysat while John took Meg to the cinema, which he promised would be followed by a fish and chip supper. The main feature was Brief Encounter, but a newsreel came on before that. Normally the chatting and canoodling would have continued unabated, but on this occasion a deathly silence descended.
‘This is Richard Dimbleby reporting …’
Both Meg and John stood stiff as stones as the horrors of the death camps unfolded in black and white on screen. When it finally ended, Meg whispered in John’s ear. ‘We mustn’t let Lily go the cinema until they’re no longer reporting this.’
John gave her a silent nod and squeezed her hand. There was no need for words. They both knew now for sure that Lily was never going to see her parents again. It was their responsibility to see her grow up and help her become the young woman they all could be proud of.
Make sure you’ve read all Lizzie Lane’s books
Wartime Brides
The war is over …
In Bristol, three very different women wait for their loved ones to return home.
But Edna’s fiancé returns badly crippled. And Charlotte’s husband comes back a very different creature to the kind, gentle man she remembers.
And as for Polly, her GI boyfriend doesn’st come back at all, leaving her with a bun in the oven and a scandal in the making …
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Coronation Wives
It’s 1953. Coronation Year.
While Bristol is still recovering from the aftermath of the war, three very different women are counting the cost. Polly longs for an easier, more glamorous life, but with her irrepressible young daughter and her charming – if scheming – husband, will things improve?
Charlotte is trying to forget her illicit wartime romance and accept the shortcomings of her marriage. And Edna is desperate to protect her young family, even if it means keeping secrets …
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A Christmas Wish
Can her family ever be reunited?
Magda Brodie’s world is torn apart when her mother dies in the workhouse two weeks before Christmas. Her wastrel father arranges for her sisters to be sent to their grandparents, her brother to be adopted, and Magda to live with her Aunt Bridget.
But her aunt holds a bitter resentment towards her, and Magda’s dreams of reuniting her family seem hopeless …
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A Wartime Wife
Trapped in a marriage to the wrong man …
Struggling to make ends meet, Mary Anne Randall is offered no help by her drunk and abusive husband. A pawnbroking business run from the wash house at the back of her home is the only way she can hope to keep her three kids fed and clothed.
But, as storm clouds gather over Europe, can Mary Anne break free from her loveless marriage for what might be a last chance at love …?
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A Wartime Family
A scandalous woman?
Having left her abusive husband for very good reasons, Mary Anne Randall finds herself judged harshly by her neighbours, especially after she has the courage to risk a second chance at happiness.
But with the only man she has ever loved away fighting, Mary Anne is less concerned by her tarnished reputation than with keeping her children safe, as the bombs fall on Bristol – all too close to home.
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Home for Christmas
Will her soldier sweetheart make it home for Christmas?
Lydia is in training to be a nurse when she first meets Robert and, despite the differences in their class and background, they fall head over heels for one another.
Robert is the nephew of a Lord, and Lydia a mere doctor’s daughter – and a German doctor at that. While her parentage is no hindrance to their relationship in peacetime, when war is declared Robert’s family makes it clear they no longer approve of the match.
With no means of contacting Robert on the Western Front, Lydia volunteers herself, joining the Red Cross. But her love affair with Robert has had more than one consequence …
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War Orphans
“If at all possible, send or take your household animals into the country in advance of an emergency. If you cannot place them in the care of neighbours, it really is kindest to have them destroyed.”
Joanna Ryan’s father has gone off to war, leaving her in the care of her step-mother, a woman more concerned with having a good time than being any sort of parent to her.
But then she finds a puppy, left for dead, and Joanna becomes determined to save him, sharing her meagre rations with him. But, in a time of war, pets are only seen as an unnecessary burden and she is forced to hide her new friend, Harry, from her step-mother and the authorities. With bombs falling over Bristol and with the prospect of evacuation on the horizon, can they stay together and keep each other safe?
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Sweet Sisters series
#1 Wartime Sweethearts
The Sweet family have run the local bakery for as long as anyone can remember.
Twins Ruby and Mary Sweet help their widowed father out when they can. Mary loves baking and has no intention of leaving their small Gloucestershire village. While Ruby dreams of life in London.
But as war threatens there will be changes for all of the Sweet family with brother Charlie off to serve and cousin Frances facing evacuation. But there will be opportunities too, as the twins’ baking talent catches the attention of the Ministry of Food …
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Sweet Sisters series
#2 War Baby
The war has had a devastating effect on the Sweet Family with young Charlie Sweet, lost at sea, presumed dead and bombs falling on nearby Bristol.
Still there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon in the form of Mary Sweet’s upcoming wedding to her Canadian beau. But even that has failed to rouse their father from his grief.
But in London a baby has been found in a bombed out house, sheltered in the arms of his dead mother. A child to make life worth living again …
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Sweet Sisters series
#3 Home Sweet Home
Will they meet again?
Frances Sweet can’t really remember her real parents. Brought up by her uncle, her cousins Ruby and Mary have always treated her like their little sister.
As the war continues to keep her cousins separated from the men they love – Frances is growing up fast enough to catch the eye of dashing American soldier Declan. But she also has a greater longing – to find the
mother who abandoned her years before …
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Epub ISBN: 9781473529328
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Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
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Ebury Press is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © Lizzie Lane, 2017
Cover photographs: figure and dog by Head Design; background © Topfot/Getty Images
Cover: www.headdesign.co.uk
Lizzie Lane has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
First published in the UK in 2017 by Ebury Press
www.penguin.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781785034701