Bright Hair About the Bone (45 page)

“A bargain…though she didn't at first know that.”

“She picked it up, handed it back to me, and then helped to carry the burden of it. Grumbling the while! I have a good deal to thank you for.”

“No, William. It's I who am thanking you. And not just with this…” She turned and kissed his cheek and hugged him. “There's a little gift for you in the glove box.”

He opened it and took out a brown paper parcel, holding it awkwardly.

“You've forgotten what to do with presents! You pull the end of the string like this…here, let me…”

He gasped as the contents slid into his hands. “Thoreau's
Walden
! But it's the book you took into Heffer's to sell! The very copy.” He opened it reverently.

“I just pretended to sell it. I put it away in my bag and came out flourishing three pound notes and boasting about my haggling skills. I could see that you lusted after it!…William?”

And into his continued silence: “Words failing?”

“Silently singing.”

He turned his face away from her, the salty breeze from the Channel stinging his eyes.

BARBARA CLEVERLY is the author of nine novels of historical suspense, including
The Damascened Blade,
winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award,
The Last Kashmiri Rose, Ragtime in Simla, The Palace Tiger, The Bee's Kiss, Tug of War, An Old Magic,
and
The Tomb of Zeus.
She lives in Cambridge, England, where she is at work on the newest Joe Sandilands novel,
Folly du Jour.

If you loved Barbara Cleverly's BRIGHT HAIR ABOUT THE BONE, you won't want to miss any of her award-winning novels of historical suspense. Look for the first Laetitia Talbot mystery, THE TOMB OF ZEUS.

And look for the acclaimed Joe Sandilands novels—THE LAST KASHMIRI ROSE, RAGTIME IN SIMLA, THE DAMASCENED BLADE, THE PALACE TIGER, and THE BEE'S KISS—at your favorite bookseller.

And available now from Delta:

TUG
OF
WAR

A Joe Sandilands Mystery

         

BY BARBARA CLEVERLY

ALSO BY BARBARA CLEVERLY

The Last Kashmiri Rose

Ragtime in Simla

The Damascened Blade

The Palace Tiger

The Bee's Kiss

Tug of War

The Tomb of Zeus

And coming soon from Bantam Dell

Folly du Jour

BRIGHT HAIR ABOUT THE BONE
A Delta Trade Paperback / November 2008

Published by
Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved
Copyright © 2008 by Barbara Cleverly

Delta is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Cleverly, Barbara.
Bright hair about the bone / Barbara Cleverly.
p. cm.
1. Women archaeologists—Fiction. 2. Burgundy (France)—Fiction. 3. Antiquities—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6103.L48B75 2008
823'.92—dc22
2008006629

www.bantamdell.com

eISBN: 978-0-440-33810-9

v3.0