Songbird (42 page)

EPILOGUE

C
aptain
Daniel Asquith led his men over the top on the first day of July 1916.  I had
been told that the thunder of the artillery could be heard in Kent, but I knew
that the Somme offensive was a major turning point in a war that had already
lasted two years and wasted more lives than could be imagined.

Our
life before the Great War had been idyllic.  Angelique survived another three
years before passing away peacefully in her sleep in the same year I was invited
to Buckingham Palace to sing for Queen Victoria when she celebrated her Diamond
Jubilee.  The year after in July 1898 Brett and I married and I became
Viscountess Shelbrook.  We moved between Standford Park and our townhouse in
Gibson Place either rearing our Arabian horses or visiting friends and family
as often as we could.

Ruth
became the mother of two boys, Huw and Oliver and Diamond and Victor reared a
family of three girls named, Ruby, Pearl and Sapphire, much to my amusement. 
Nan never married but the House of Asquith became a great success and her
fashion shows in London, Paris and Milan were much acclaimed.  Miss Rupp also
never married and continued teaching, eventually joining Mrs Pankhurst in the
Suffragette Movement.

Andrew
was sentenced to ten years in Pentonville and paroled after seven for good
behaviour.  I wasn’t surprised when he married Martha, who had been a constant
visitor to the prison and the day they sailed for a new life in America I
wished them well.

We
didn’t hear from Jane until just before the war when she turned up on our
doorstep desperately ill with consumption.  Filled with remorse, she told us
she had left our employ after becoming pregnant; the father of her child not
only abandoning her but also absconding with her inheritance from Mrs Holland. 
Sadly, she had resorted to blackmailing Andrew as her only means of support. 
After losing the baby, she had drifted into various low-paid jobs, until
finally the workhouse beckoned.  In dire need she had knocked on the door of
number fifteen Gibson Place and we were happy to take her in.  Twelve months
later she died in my arms.

Emily
became the youngest student at The Royal Academy of Music and had a successful
career in opera as the first lady of Covent Garden and the darling of London. 
We attended her opening night in
Madam Butterfly
when she played the
fifteen-year-old geisha and I couldn’t have felt prouder.

I
went back to teaching music, but not as before.  I became a tutor at the
academy and taught students who had enthusiasm and ambition. And every year I
sat on the panel of assessors, always with a lump in my throat as I listened to
the young hopefuls.

We
believed our happy life would continue into the new century especially with
Emily’s marriage in 1909 and the two grandsons and the granddaughter she gave
Brett and me.  In his elder grandson, Brett now had an heir to the title and
estates of Viscount Shelbrook.  But the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 brought
a halt to our peaceful lives. 

I
spent my time travelling to the different theatres where I performed concerts
to raise money for the war effort.  It was touching to sing tunes such as
It’s
a Long Way to Tipperary
and
Keep the Home Fires Burning
, but the
clapping and cheering from the many uniformed young men who made up the
audience, lessened the sadness, the worry for my own son and two nephews. 

But
sorrow came in 1915 when a telegram arrived to say that Huw, the child Ruth had
been expecting that eventful year, had been killed in action at Gallipoli just
a month before his twenty-first birthday.

Danny
had survived many of the earlier battles, but when he went missing that first
day of the Somme and didn’t turn up either with his unit or at a dressing
station, Abigail decided to take matters into her own hands.  Ordering two
stretcher-bearers to follow her, she made her way onto No Man’s Land and
eventually found him in a shell hole, his left leg blown off from the knee. 
She brought him back to safety and as a nursing sister, nursed him back to
health.  I was more than grateful to her, but as she said afterwards, Danny was
her husband and she would never let her two children become fatherless if she
could prevent it.

When
Armistice finally came in November 1918, we were relieved but relief was
short-lived when Spanish Influenza spread across the country.  Diamond was the
first to be taken from us and only three months later, Gwilym fell ill and
died.  His devotion to his stricken patients and the exhausting hours he worked
eventually took their toll.

The
year after the Great War, Emily and I became guest singers at the Royal Albert
Hall where we sang the hymn
Jerusalem
together.  And then for the very
last time, I sang
Amazing Grace
, as I had decided it was time to retire.

I was twenty-one
years old when I sold my baby and I was fifty-four years old when we returned
to our home at Standford Park that summer of 1919.  It was now thirty-four
years since Brett and I had first met that sparkling September day, when he had
been Karl to me and I had been Miss Isabelle Pritchard to him.  As I strolled
through the gardens on Brett’s arm, we talked of that time and of the
subsequent tragic events that came from our ‘arrangement’.

Brett
was more philosophical.  “Everything has a reason for happening, my darling. 
Sometimes we can’t see that reason, but it still exits.  Perhaps it was fate’s
strange way of introducing us.”

Listening
to the shouts of delight from our children and grandchildren playing cricket in
the meadow, I smiled and had to agree with him.

* * * * * *

ALSO
BY JULIA BELL

A Pearl Comb for
a Lady

Deceit of Angels

The Wild Poppy

Broken Blossoms

If Birds Fly Low

Preview of
A
Pearl Comb for a Lady
:

This
story is a romance through time.
Christabel
is
feisty with an
overactive imagination.  Aged 18 and living during the Battle of Waterloo, she
is in love with a soldier who only wants to use her to advance his military
career. 
Victoria
, 25, living in the mid-nineteenth century is sweet-
natured but haunted by the loss of her child.  Finally there is
Jenny
,
35, a 21st Century career woman who is unable to sacrifice her pride and
forgive the man she loves. 

The
pearl comb weaves its way through the centuries as though trying to find its
true owner. And although these three women come into possession of the pearl
comb, only one will wear it at her wedding.

Preview of
Deceit
of Angels
:

For
nineteen years,
Anna Stevens
perseveres with a faithless husband in a
marriage that destroys her plans to go to university and follow a career.  When
Anna escapes to Bristol to work for
Jason Harrington
, the attractive
and wealthy owner of
Harrington Rhodes Shipping Agents
, she has finally
made the decision to leave her husband and make a new life for herself.  But
Anna has told Jason that she is a widow and when she and Jason fall in love, Anna
finds herself trapped in her lies.  When her estranged husband finds her, Anna
must pay a devastating price for her deceit; a price that would have lasting
consequences for her and the man she loves. 

Preview of
The
Wild Poppy:

Living
during the time of Florence Nightingale and the first woman doctor, Elizabeth
Garrett,
Melody Kinsman
is determined to succeed as a newspaper
reporter.  But in 1864, a female reporter is unheard of and because of the
prejudice of the male establishment Melody finds it difficult to persuade an
editor to buy her articles. 

When
she accompanies her friend,
Lady Celia Sinclair
to London, she uses it
as an opportunity to report the news and events in the capital.  She finally
confronts the attractive but enigmatic owner of the Cork Street Journal,
Guy
Wyngate
who
reluctantly gives her the opportunity to prove herself. 
But first she must face the difficult challenges thrown at her, since Guy wants
to test her commitment to the newspaper business.

This
commitment will have consequences on her future happiness with the man she gave
her heart to when a young girl and to another who is waiting to win her love. 

Preview of
Broken
Blossoms:

At
the age of fifteen,
Katherine Widcombe
, the niece of a baronet, is found
missing from her bed whilst visiting her maternal aunt in Bristol.  She is
returned to her aunt and uncle’s home,
Widcombe Hall
, blindfolded and
with the weight of a terrible secret on her young shoulders. 

Six
years later, she is invited to spend Christmas with her cousin,
Philippa
and her new husband
Conrad, Earl of Croston
.  She is horrified when
Conrad confesses his love for her.  Dismayed by the awful truth of her past,
Katherine returns to the Hall and decides to accept the marriage proposal of
Sir
Herbert Fox
, a man thirty years her senior. 

But
marriage doesn’t bring her the peace she craves and in fact, she discovers that
her husband has secrets of his own and this will bring terrible consequences
for Katherine. 

These
consequences will mean a perilous journey and privations that a woman of
Katherine’s wealth and rank would never be expected to endure and will draw on
all her strength and courage to overcome.

Preview of
If
Birds Fly Low
:

       Since
her mother’s death,
Charlotte Scott
has been reared by her
Aunt Faith
. 
But her childhood has been plagued by strange knockings on her bedroom door in
the dead of night.  A summons she never answers since she fears what might be
waiting for her behind the door.

Meeting
Noel Chandler
, a tutor at the university in Cambridge causes tension,
since Charlotte thinks him prejudiced against women.  Noel is actually Squire
Chandler and lives at Martlesham Manor a Tudor house in Suffolk.    

It is
while visiting Martlesham Manor with her cousin,
Adele
, that Charlotte
learns the story of
Prudence Chandler
who, in the seventeenth century,
was denounced as a witch by her husband and mother-in-law and consequently
hanged.

Charlotte
becomes absorbed with the story of Prudence and realises there are many
mysteries at the Manor.  Who is the woman who moves silently around the house
at night?  Why is there a terrible feeling of dread that permeates the old
building?  And why do the birds fly low since there is always a threat of rain
hanging over the Manor?

As
their love grows, Charlotte and Noel start to uncover the truth of his
ancestral home.  But the truth will involve Charlotte more intimately than she
could possibly imagine. 

A NOTE FROM THE
AUTHOR

Dear Reader,

Thank you so
much for choosing to read
Songbird
.  I love writing but having my books
read makes them come alive.  Until they are read, the characters are only in my
imagination and they need to live and be enjoyed.  So, I hope you enjoy reading
all my novels and you’re able to spare a little time in telling me about it.

You can do this
via email or by leaving a review on Amazon and progress can be followed on
Twitter using @JuliaBellRF or via email on
[email protected]

Julia Bell