The Ravenscar Dynasty (61 page)

She shook her head.

‘It's called
The Brave Bess
, after you, because you are brave and beautiful, my dearest little one.'

‘You do still love me the
best
, don't you Papa?' she whispered against his cheek. ‘The heir comes first, I know, but I'm your favourite aren't I, Papa?'

‘Yes,' he whispered back, ‘but don't tell anyone. It's our secret.'

As usual, when we came home tonight, Elizabeth went
straight up to bed, and here am I, sitting with my brandy
in the library, in front of a roaring fire, thanks to my
devoted Mallet who looks after me so well. Which is
more than I can say about my wife. She's cantankerous
and difficult these days, perhaps because she is tired of
giving birth. We have had a new addition to our already
large family, another girl, christened Anne. Now I have
six children: Bess, Mary, Cecily, Edward, Richard, born
in 1916, and the latest
.

I must make allowance for Elizabeth, I keep telling
myself that. Although she has nothing much to say to
me, and isn't really interested in anything I do, she is
my ready, willing and able partner in our bed. Always
passionate, still extremely jealous, continuing to be
suspicious, and very proprietary about me. She doesn't
like to have me out of her sight for too long. But I
manage, and I go to my Jane all the time, and she keeps
me sane, gives me great happiness. Things aren't so bad
for me, not bad at all, and I really don't have anything
to complain about. The children are bright and beautiful,
my darling Bess is extraordinary and gives me
much comfort, and Jane is my solace
.

It is Friday the thirteenth of November in the year of
our Lord 1918. Friday the thirteenth is supposed to be
unlucky, but I don't believe the world thinks that tonight.
No, not at all. Two days ago, on November the eleventh,
in a railway car in the Forest of Compiègne in France,
German delegates signed an armistice ending the war.
Ever since then the world has gone mad rejoicing. I saw
jubilant workers in the Strand jumping on passing
omnibuses, waving flags and banners. Men, women and
children danced and sang in the streets of Paris, I heard,
and a huge victory parade marched down Fifth Avenue
in New York, according to the newspapers. Even in Berlin
the relieved citizens seemingly welcomed the end of this
grotesque world war.

They're calling it the war to end all wars, and I sincerely
hope that it is. A conflagration like this cannot happen
again, it just cannot. It seemed to me that the world went
mad for a while, all the fighting and the killing. And then
there was the Russian Revolution. The Czar and Czarina
assassinated in 1917, murdered in cold blood, a whole
family. I tremble when I think of that horrendous act of
brutality, an act of terrorism against a family…I think
of my own children and I tremble more
.

I've kept Deravenels safe. In fact, it's flourishing as
it never has before. War always boosts business, it's sad
to say, but that's just the way it is, and it has certainly
boosted my company. And thankfully most of my men
are safe. George didn't pass the physical, just as I knew
he wouldn't with those bad eyes of his. And Richard,
my beloved and loyal Little Fish, also has remained at
my side. His wonky shoulder made him exempt
.

As for Will Hasling, he did go to war. My dearest
friend. They sent him to the Somme, and he fought
through that entire battle. And he lived. So did my
devoted Oliveri, who did his duty in Flanders. But not
Rob Aspen and Christopher Green. I lost those two
grand men, who gave me their all, their loyalty and
devotion. They died fighting at Verdun, and now they
are buried in some far corner of a foreign field. I shall
always remember them with pride because of their
endeavours
.

My sweet sister Meg survived the war in France, stood
side by side with her husband and fought off the
Boche.

And Mama is flourishing. She's as fit as she's always
been, and just as beautiful, and her dearest friend and
companion is our lovely Grace Rose, grown up now,
and a friend to us all. She knows I am her father. I
decided to tell her in 1916, but before I got around to
it Bess explained to me one day that she and Grace
Rose knew that Grace was my daughter, and that Grace
Rose wanted to know about her mother. And so,
persuaded by the very persuasive Bess—so like me—I
did tell them both about Tabitha. Grace Rose confided
that she knew I was her father the day I first saw her
at Vicky Forth's house, the day of Lily's funeral
.

She explained that her mother had once told her
when she was very small that her father was tall and
strong like a tree in the forest, with hair the colour of
autumn leaves, eyes the shade of bluebells that grew in
the woods. And when she saw me she just knew, she
said, and that was why she had smiled at me. Ever since
then I've understood that one never knows what children
know and keep secret in their hearts
.

I can't believe this war is finally over. Four years that
seem like forty. So many dead. Eight million men who
fought to save the world have died. The flower of
English youth were felled on the blood-soaked fields of
Flanders in Northern France, and England will never
be the same without them. The world will never be the
same. It was turned upside down, and that is the way
it will remain
.

I drink a toast tonight, here in my library in my
house in Berkeley Square. It is heartfelt. I drink to those
I loved and lost, to those I love who remain, and to
those who are yet to be born
.

I am Edward Deravenel. I am thirty-three years old,
and I still have a life to live
.

This is a modern novel, told in the modern vernacular, and set in the early part of the twentieth century. However, I have to a certain extent based my protagonist Edward Deravenel on the English medieval king, Edward IV. Born Edward Plantagenet, the Earl of March, he was the eldest son of the mighty Duke of York and his Duchess. Edward's father was a prince of the blood and a royal duke, head of the royal House of York, rightful heir to the throne of England.

When Edward's father was killed in the Battle of Sandal Castle in Yorkshire in 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, Edward assumed his father's hereditary title and became Duke of York. He continued his father's fight to win back the throne from his cousin, Henry VI, Duke of Lancaster. He was aided in this struggle by his cousin, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, later known in history as the Kingmaker.

The throne of England had been usurped by the House of Lancaster from the House of York some sixty years earlier, and it was in 1461 that Edward Plantagenet took that throne back when he defeated Henry VI and became king that same year.

Apart from ‘borrowing' the exceptional good looks of Edward Plantagenet, and his height of six feet four, unusual for those times, I have used some aspects of his character and personality in the depiction of Edward Deravenel. Significant events in the life of the medieval king are used in a modern form as the basis, in part, of Edward Deravenel's story.

New York, 2006

For more information on the Ravenscar series, and the inspiration behind it, go to www. barbarataylor bradford.com.

THE RAVENSCAR DYNASTY

Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds, and by the age of twenty was an editor and columnist on Fleet Street. Her first novel, A
Woman of Substance
, became an enduring bestseller and was followed by twenty others, most recently
Just Rewards
. Her books have sold more than seventy-five million copies worldwide in more than ninety countries and forty languages, and ten mini-series and television movies have been made of her books. She lives in New York City with her husband, television producer Robert Bradford. Visit www.barbarataylorbradford.com for more information on the inspiration behind the Ravenscar series.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.co.uk for exclusive updates on Barbara Taylor Bradford.

Series
THE EMMA HARTE SAGA
A Woman of Substance
Hold the Dream
To Be the Best
Emma's Secret
Unexpected Blessings
Just Rewards

Others
Voice of the Heart
Act of Will
The Women in His Life
Remember
Angel
Everything to Gain
Dangerous to Know
Love in Another Town
Her Own Rules
A Secret Affair
Power of a Woman
A Sudden Change of Heart
Where You Belong
The Triumph of Katie Byrne
Three Weeks in Paris