Lovers and Newcomers. Rosie Thomas

      Lovers and Newcomers

      Rosie Thomas

      

       Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2010

      Copyright © Rosie Thomas 2010

      

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016 Jacket photographs © Shutterstock.com

      Rosie Thomas asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      

      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.

      

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      

      Source ISBN: 9780007285945

      Ebook Edition © April 2016 ISBN: 9780007321513

      Version: 2016-04-20

      

       Dedication

      To Theo

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

September

One

Two

October

Three

Four

       Five

       Six

       November

       Seven

       Eight

       Nine

       December

       Ten

       Eleven

       Christmas

       Twelve

       Thirteen

       Fourteen

       February

       Fifteen

       Spring

       Sixteen

       June

       Miranda

       Acknowledgements

       Keep Reading: Daughter of the House

       About the Author

       Also by Rosie Thomas

       About the Publisher

SEPTEMBER

       ONE

      The old house has been cold and empty for so long, but now it’s stirring. A joint of the oak stair treads releases a sudden sharp snap, a window left open for air rattles in a gust of wind, and the scent of baking rises from the kitchen.

      The place is coming back to life around me.

      I am making cakes for tea, and already I have looked into each of the guest rooms at least three times in order to enjoy the sight of folded towels and the little jugs of flowers placed on chests of drawers. Meadow flowers from Mead fields; oxeye daisies, and cow parsley, which has shed a faint dust of grey pollen on the waxed wood. I reach out to sweep away the powder with my little finger, before deciding that it looks pretty as it is.

      Not that my old friends will be guests, of course.