Tiny Little Thing: Secrets, scandal and forbidden love. Beatriz Williams

      

      

       Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London, SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published by Penguin Group USA 2016

      First published in the UK by Harper 2016

      Copyright © Beatriz Williams

      Cover design by Alexandra Allden © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

      Cover photographs © H. Armstrong Roberts/Getty Images (front); Shutterstock.com (all other images).

      Beatriz Williams 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: 9780008134938

      Ebook Edition © December 2016 ISBN: 9780008134945

      Version: 2016-10-27

       Dedication

      To all those who return from war not quite whole and to the people who love them

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

Tiny, 1966: Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Caspian, 1964: Boston

Tiny, 1966

Caspian, 1964

Tiny, 1966

Caspian, 1964

Tiny, 1966

Caspian, 1964

Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Tiny, 1966

       Caspian, 1964

       Mrs. Vivian Schuyler, 1966

       Tiny, 1966

       Pepper, 1966

      Acknowledgments

      Keep Reading …

      About the Author

      Also by Beatriz Williams

      About the Publisher

       Tiny, 1966

       CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS

      The first photograph arrives in the mail on the same day that my husband appears on television at the Medal of Honor ceremony. It’s accompanied by the customary note written in block capital letters. By now, I know enough about politics—and about my husband’s family, I suppose—to suspect this isn’t a coincidence.

      There’s no return address (of course, there wouldn’t be, would there?), but the envelope was postmarked yesterday in Boston, and the stamps are George Washington, five cents each. A plain manila envelope, letter size, of the sort they use in offices: I flip it back and forth between my fingers, while my heart bounds and rebounds against