The Girls (34 page)

Authors: Lisa Jewell

BOOK: The Girls

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‘Wow,’ said Clare, ‘that’s amazing. What a beautiful thing to do.’

Adele shrugged. ‘I always wanted four,’ she said, not for the first time and not entirely truthfully.

‘You see,’ said Clare, understanding blooming across her face, ‘that’s the difference between you and me. And that’s why a communal garden is the right place for you to live. Because you’re not scared of other people’s problems. Because you’re happy to leave the door open and let those problems just walk straight in. I remember, Adele, I was very rude to you that night of the party. I was drunk and out of my comfort zone. I felt judged and on show. And you were so hospitable, just like you always were, and I threw that back in your face and I’ve been wanting to say sorry, all these months. To say sorry and to tell you: Leo is a very lucky man.’

Adele touched Clare’s hand.
No!
she wanted to say.
Please don’t say sorry. Please don’t say sorry!
But then Willow appeared, whirlwind in girl form, long hair spread all about her, words tumbling from her, eyes shining and Adele didn’t know what she was saying, what she was talking about. She wasn’t really listening, but she knew that her conversation with Clare was over.

They said goodbye, and then they walked away from each other, a small, blonde woman in cream, a tall, dark-haired woman in black; they walked between the sugar-spun cherry blossom and the sluggish river, in opposite directions, towards different lives, all their secrets buried safe and sound.

Acknowledgements

Behind every book there lies a sea of wonderful, talented and loving people. But I think it’s fair to say that the people behind mine are by far the best! I’ve been feeling a bit paranoid lately that maybe the people who do all the work behind the scenes on my books don’t really know how much I appreciate them and everything they do, day in day out. Worried that maybe they think I take them for granted. And I want them all to know that this is so far from the truth. I may not be one for grand gestures, for gifts or for thank you cards, but trust me, I am aware from the tiniest email interaction to the grandest marketing campaign how lucky I am to have you all and what an amazing job you all do. Not to mention what thoroughly lovely people you all are!

So thank you writ large to:

Selina Walker, Kate Raybould, Beth Kruszynskyj, Georgina Hawtrey-Woore, Najma Finlay, Jen Doyle, Jenny Geras, Richard Ogle, Aslan Byrne, Andrew Sauerwine, Susan Sandon, Rose Tremlett, Chloe Healy and everyone at Arrow.

Jonny Geller, Kirsten Foster, Lisa Babalis, Melissa Pimentel, Camilla Young, Mairi Friessen Escandell and everyone at Curtis Brown.

Richenda Todd for copy-editing.

Jenny Colgan for early reading and reassurance.

Darren Bennett at DKB Creative for the beautiful map.

Further afield and equally amazing, I would like to thank:

Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider in the US.

Judith Kerr, Sarah Branham, Anne Badman, Kitt Reckord Mabicka and everyone at Atria in the US.

Pia Printz and Anna at Printz Publishing in Sweden.

Everyone at Ucila International in Slovenia, Novo Conceito in Brazil, Wydawnictwo Zysk i S-ka in Poland, Cappelen Damm in Norway, Mondadori Arnoldo in Italy, Blanvalet Verlag in Germany, Presses De La Cite in France and Otava in Finland.

Thank you to the booksellers and librarians I meet every year who are too numerous to mention here but who I know I could not possibly do without. And of course to my readers. God, yes, my lovely readers. All the people in the list above would be wasting their time if it wasn’t for you lot. Thank you so much for buying and for reading and for turning up to events and writing me lovely messages on Facebook and Twitter. What would I do without you?

The character name of Adele Howes in this book was a winner of the Get In Character charity auction raising funds for CLIC Sargent. The ‘real’ Adele Howes has been a loyal reader of mine for many years and has an adoring and very generous husband called Dan who bought her the name as a birthday gift. CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people, and their families. They provide clinical, practical, financial and emotional support to help them cope with cancer and get the most out of life. They are there from diagnosis onwards and aim to help the whole family deal with the impact of cancer and its treatment, life after treatment and, in some cases, bereavement.
www.clicsargent.org.uk

Away from the business end of things, my thanks go, as ever, to my family and friends, those on the internet, those In Real Life and of course those on The Board. And also in this case to the friends who share my own version of the Virginia Crescent Gardens in the real world. So thank you to Helen, Chris, Joe, Jo, Sian, Bernard, Erica, Cassie, Patrice and all the other lovely people I live amongst who are the nicest neighbours a girl could possibly ask for.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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