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Wait for Me
Caroline Leech
Can their love survive a war?A breathtaking WW2 romance for fans of CODE NAME VERITY and BETWEEN SHADES OF GREY.It’s 1945, and Lorna Anderson’s life on her father’s farm in Scotland consists of endless chores, rationing and praying for an Allied victory. So when Paul Vogel, a German prisoner of war, is assigned as the new farmhand, Lorna is appalled. How can she possibly work alongside the enemy when her own brothers are risking their lives for the country?But as Lorna reluctantly spends time with Paul, the more she sees the boy behind the soldier. Soon Lorna is battling her own warring heart. Loving Paul could mean losing her family and the life she’s always known. But with tensions rising all around them, Lorna must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice – before the end of the war determines their fate once and for all.
First published in the USA by HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, in 2017
Published simultaneously in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2017
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
HarperCollins Publishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
The HarperCollins website address is:
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Text copyright © Caroline Leech 2017
The quotation on here (#litres_trial_promo) is reprinted courtesy of The Scotsman.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Cover images: Battle of Britain aeroplanes © Getty Images; figures, sky and field © Trevillion Images
Caroline Leech asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008213398
Ebook Edition © 2017 ISBN: 9780008220280
Version: 2016-12-12
“A delicately written love story with a gorgeously evoked setting, an intrepid heroine, and a knee-weakening romance. Not to be missed.”
—ANNE BLANKMAN, author of the Prisoner of Night and Fog series and Traitor Angels
“A sweetly engaging and richly authentic historical romance. Wait for Me charms and satisfies.”
—JOY PREBLE, author of the bestselling Dreaming Anastasia series
“Compelling, moving, and beautifully written, this extraordinary debut novel is rich with history, conflict, and tension.”
—SARAH ALEXANDER, author of The Art of Not Breathing
To my mum and dad,
Shirley and Jimmie Sibbald
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
from A Red, Red Rose
ROBERT BURNS, 1759–1796
Contents
Cover (#u3625c4b9-86ac-50d5-a986-7dcd9e6b4ae2)
Title Page (#u20d55ddd-b71c-5201-b7ce-694fa797e384)
Copyright (#u8aaa4b5c-a0a3-593f-b68b-e3e3aac67561)
Praise for WAIT FOR ME (#u8cb90ac4-1e96-56a1-9731-608fad4221a3)
Dedication (#u7c6f12b0-f24c-5f11-9ad7-1cf901206d1a)
Epigraph (#u2a81f062-4358-562b-8553-40fb1113e7a0)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Publisher
One (#u69f1a894-96a0-5325-941d-ea07400e07b2)
CRAIGIELAW FARM, ABERLADY,
EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND
FEBRUARY 8, 1945
Lorna Anderson was ankle deep in muck and milk. And she was late. Again.
She really didn’t have time to clean up yet another of Nellie’s messes and still make it to school before the bell. Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Lorna had somewhere important to be, yet here she was, broom in hand.
And to make Lorna’s morning complete, her dad was raging at Nellie.
“What in the devil’s name did you think you were doing, you glaikit girl? Can you not even carry a bucket without dropping the damn thing?”
“But Mr. Anderson—” began Nellie.
Lorna kept her head down and the yard broom moving. She tried to push the dogs away from the reeking, steaming mess, but Canny and Caddy dodged around her. They were determined to lick the spilled milk from every crevice in the farmyard’s cobblestones, savoring this rare treat, and apparently oblivious to the shouting above their heads.
“If you’d been concentrating on the matter in hand, lassie,” her dad continued, “you wouldn’t have all these accidents. Particularly when the matter in your hand is a big bucket of my cows’ milk.”
The farmer’s bulk cast a threatening shadow over Nellie, so petite even in her thick and unflattering Land Girl uniform, but Lorna wasn’t too worried. Nellie was made of stronger stuff.
Right on cue, Nellie trilled cheerily, “Oh, Mr. Anderson, you know what they say about not crying over spilled milk!”
Nellie winked at Lorna, who smiled in spite of herself. Since Nellie had been posted to their farm two years ago by the Women’s Land Army, Lorna had come to love her like the older sister she’d never had, though even Lorna could not deny that Nellie was as clumsy as clumsy came. Yet Nellie had an unshakable confidence that Lorna’s father, and indeed every other man within fifty miles, would be putty in her hands if she flashed him her most dazzling smile. And she was usually right.
Nellie picked up the pail and sauntered back into the milking parlor with Caddy trotting in her wake, the border collie puppy following like a black-and-white shadow in case of further delicious catastrophes. Caddy’s mother, Canny, gave a soft yelp, but the little dog still disappeared hopefully after Nellie.
Lorna’s dad shook his head with an exasperated sigh, and Canny sniffed at his hand, as if to commiserate with him about the youngsters of today.
Lorna’s dad gave his dog’s head a quick pat, then took the yard broom from Lorna and starting sweeping ferociously.
A screech of brakes made Lorna turn. A truck was pulling into the yard, but it was not one of their regulars from the feed merchant or the dairy. This one was painted in army green, and a dozen men in dark uniforms perched on benches in the flatbed at the back.
Lorna’s father stopped sweeping and raised his eyes heavenward. “Thank the Lord!” he said. “At last, someone to save me from all you women!”
“Dad?” Lorna said. “Who are—?”
Some of the men were looking around at the farm buildings, others stared at the floor. Some looked directly and unnervingly at her.
“They’ve sent a new man to work on the farm,” Lorna’s dad said, one hand squeezing her shoulder, “but it’s nothing to concern you just now. Anyway, don’t you have an exam this morning?”
