Welcome to the final day of my Christmas Kindle Countdown Deal on my historical romance, Gipsy Moth. Each day I've been publishing a Christmassy excerpt from my novel to whet your appetite, but if you would like to buy a copy, do it soon as the price returns to normal tomorrow at 8am GMT!
Christmas has arrived at last and Kathy can't wait to see Ben again.
Ben was due back on
Christmas Eve, but it was Boxing Day afternoon before he could manage to escape
from his family. Every time someone came to our door or the telephone rang I
thought it was him. But, I didn’t dare telephone his house, or turn up at his
front door for fear of what his parents would say. At last, however, there he
was at ours, muffled with a long red scarf, and stamping the snow off his feet.
We clung to each other like two children lost in a blizzard.
‘Happy Christmas, Kathy. I’ve been waiting for this
moment for so long.’ His kiss was soft, warm, desperate. And that faint smell
of engine oil on his clothes made me feel safe and reminded me of all the good
times we’d had before I got pregnant and he’d gone away.
‘I’ve missed you too.’ I could hardly speak.
He touched my tummy. ‘There’s definitely a small
bump.’
‘Yes, but it doesn’t show too much yet, does it?’ I
held in my muscles and smiled.
‘No, but it will soon.’
‘I know, but it would be a lot easier if we could get
married. Have you talked to your parents yet?’
‘I haven’t had a chance. You know what it’s like at
Christmas. They’re so busy with the visitors, I’ve hardly spoken to them at
all.’
‘Oh, Ben, you said you were going to, and I’ve been
hoping and hoping that you would. Don’t you want to marry me?’ I made a puppy
face with doleful eyes.
‘Of course!’ He kissed me again.
‘Oh, Ben, can’t you get them to change their minds?
Then I could come up to Lincolnshire and be near you all the time.’
‘Look, I’ve got your little black bead here on my ID
chain.’ He dug it out to show me. ‘It brings you to me, any time I’m lonely.’
‘I know, but I want you, Ben,’ I said, kissing him
back.
Voices rose in the front room, and the door opened.
I let go of him. ‘Mother’s sisters are here with their
families,’ I whispered.
‘Let’s go for a walk then,’ he whispered back,
smiling.
Making excuses and getting disapproving looks from my
aunts, we escaped into the sparkling wintry wonderland. I’d had a black fur
muff as a present, and we held hands inside it, keeping our other ones warm in
our pockets.
Putting
my worries behind me, I squeezed his hand, deciding to make the most of having
him here. ‘Did you have a nice Christmas?’
‘No, of
course not without you. Everyone was so boring; Great Uncle Peter, Great Aunt
Jane, cousins I never see from one Christmas to the next. I’m not sure who half
of them are. Even the table was groaning under the weight of all the food.’ He
made a snowball and hurled it at a tree. ‘What about you?’
‘How could I have a nice Christmas, knowing that you
were just a hundred yards away over the road, and I couldn’t see you? If I’d
had my own aeroplane, I would’ve flown by and carried you off to, I don’t know,
the Northern Lights, so we could fly round amongst all the shimmering colours.
That is, if your parents would have let you come.’ I aimed a snowball fair and
square in the centre of his. ‘Bullseye!’
‘Should you be doing that, er, in your condition?’
‘I’m blooming like a Christmas rose now you’re here.
Never felt better.’ I gathered up some more snow and threw it at him.
‘Hey, Kathy!’ He seized my hand, then kissed my icy
blue fingers. ‘I’m so sorry about this awkward business.’
We walked on in silence, through deep drifts of snow
which stretched across the river meadows like frozen waves on the Arctic Ocean,
and the winter sun shone through our cloudy breath and turned it into rainbow
colours.
‘What do your parents say?’ he asked.
‘You know, don’t you? They want us to be married, but
if we can’t, Mother wants me out of the way. She doesn’t want the neighbours to
gossip.’
‘I’ve
been thinking, she might be right to send you to Devon. I don’t want people
saying awful things about you. You’ve got to be strong, Kathy.’ He ducked under
a branch which hung heavy with snow, and created a little snowstorm of loose
flakes. ‘When are you going?’
‘The day before New Year’s Eve.’ I brushed the
snowflakes off his shoulder. ‘I used to love those New Year’s Eve parties at
your house. We were so happy then, when your parents weren’t afraid that I
might marry you.’
He kissed
me on the forehead. ‘I won’t be there either this time, and Abigail’s going to
Maureen and Hilda’s party, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, so everything’s changed.’
Ben stopped, and faced me. ‘Listen Kathy, I’ve got to
go back tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow? But I thought you were going to stay a few
days.’ I held him tight. ‘I’ve only just got used to having you here.’
GIPSY MOTH
It’s 1929, and Kathy’s greatest wish is to fly a Gipsy Moth like her childhood sweetheart, Ben. But when his parents find out she’s expecting his baby, they forbid them to marry, and Kathy is dispatched to her aunt’s in Devon in disgrace, whilst Ben is sent to Lincolnshire for his RAF officer training.
How can their love survive when they’re so far apart? Especially now that Kathy has met her aunt’s stepson, Paul, who encourages her to take some flying lessons at Haldon Aerodrome, despite her pregnancy, and her imagination has been captured by Amy Johnson who is proposing to fly solo to Australia.
But when Ben’s plane is lost at sea, Kathy is torn between raising her baby alone and being frowned upon by society, or giving it up for adoption and pursuing her dream of flying. On top of this, she uncovers a disturbing family secret which makes her decision all the harder.
If you have enjoyed this you can download the rest of the book, here on
Amazon. (Offer available UK only)
Remember, it goes back to its full price at 8am GMT tomorrow!
