The River Folk (47 page)

Behind him, Susan moved out of the cottage doorway and came to stand beside her son, linking her arm through his.

Susan waved too, although she was looking not at her, Lizzie noticed with surprise, but at Dan.

Lizzie turned to glance at her father, standing with his hand resting on the tiller of his ship. His gaze, however, was not, for once, on the river ahead, but on the woman standing on the riverbank.

The smile, which lit his eyes with a happiness for so long unknown, spread across his face and, as Lizzie watched, Dan raised his hand and waved to Susan.

Born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Margaret Dickinson moved to the coast at the age of seven and so began her love for the sea and the Lincolnshire landscape.

Her ambition to be a writer began early and she had her first novel published at the age of twenty-five. This was followed by thirteen further titles, including
Plough the Furrow
,
Sow the Seed
and
Reap the Harvest
, which make up her Lincolnshire Fleethaven trilogy, and her most recent novels,
The Fisher Lass
and
The Tulip Girl
. Married with two grown-up daughters, Margaret Dickinson combines a busy working life with her writing career.

www.margaret-dickinson.co.uk

A
LSO
BY
M
ARGARET
D
ICKINSON

Plough the Furrow

Sow the Seed

Reap the Harvest

The Miller’s Daughter

Chaff Upon the Wind

The Fisher Lass

The Tulip Girl

My birthplace, Gainsborough, is the inspiration for the setting of this novel although the story is entirely fictitious. I am very grateful to the members of The Delvers Local History Group (Gainsborough) and also to the Gainsborough and District Heritage Centre, for information and help received from their publications and exhibitions.

The
Maid Mary Ann
is modelled on the keel
Comrade
, now owned by the Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society. My sincere thanks to the members of the society and, in particular, to the crew of
Comrade
for a wonderful day’s sailing on the Humber and for answering all my questions. (Any errors are mine, not theirs!)

My love and thanks to friends, Barry and Margaret Watson. Thank you for coming sailing on the Humber with me, Barry, and for not jumping ship when I was allowed to take the tiller!

I would also like to pay tribute to the book,
Humber Keels and Keelmen
, by the late Fred Schofield, formerly owner of
Comrade
. This book was a wonderful source of inspiration and information.

As always, my love and thanks to my family and friends for their loyal encouragement and support and special thanks to Zoë and Scott for setting up my web site.
www.margaret-dickinson.co.uk

First published 2001 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2011 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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ISBN 978-1-447-21753-4 EPUB

Copyright © Margaret Dickinson 2001

The right of Margaret Dickinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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