Miss Marley: A Christmas ghost story - a prequel to A Christmas Carol

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Miss Marley: A Christmas ghost story - a prequel to A Christmas Carol
Rebecca Mascull

Vanessa Lafaye

‘Exquisite’ Veronica HenryBefore A Christmas Carol there was… Miss MarleyA seasonal tale of kindness and goodwillOrphans Clara and Jacob Marley live by their wits, scavenging for scraps in the poorest alleyways of London, in the shadow of the workhouse. Every night, Jake promises his little sister ‘tomorrow will be better’ and when the chance to escape poverty comes their way, he seizes it despite the terrible price.And so Jacob Marley is set on a path that leads to his infamous partnership with Ebenezer Scrooge. As Jacob builds a fortress of wealth to keep the world out, only Clara can warn him of the hideous fate that awaits him if he refuses to let love and kindness into his heart…In Miss Marley, Vanessa Lafaye weaves a spellbinding Dickensian tale of ghosts, goodwill and hope – a perfect prequel to A Christmas Carol.Praise for Miss Marley:‘Exquisite’ Veronica Henry, author of The Forever House and A Family Recipe‘A beautiful, warm, rich hug of a story and bittersweet reminder to embrace life and enrich others as you go.’  Liz Fenwick‘The beauty of this book is not only in the gorgeous story, the attention to detail, the flowing prose, and the tribute to the original A Christmas Carol, but in the legacy that it is.  Just perfect.’ Louise Beech‘Miss Marley has a fable-like quality that beautifully echoes the original with a directness that is both poignant and powerful.’ Rachel Malik‘Miss Marley magically captures the true spirit of Christmas. A delightful stocking filler to melt the hardest heart.’  Martine Bailey‘A warm return to some of Dickens’ greatest characters – delivered with care, confidence and a vibrant heart, but most of all, with love.’ Jason Hewitt‘An absolute gem of a story… vivid and emotional on so many levels. It deserves to be in everyone’s Christmas stocking.’ Juliet West, author of Before the Fall‘Love, disappointment, kindness and greed all play their parts in this delightful companion piece to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.’ Woman & Home

VANESSA LAFAYE was born in Florida and studied in North Carolina. She moved to the UK in 1999 (having been deported once) and is the author of two novels, Summertime and At First Light. Her debut Summertime was chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Historical Writers Award. Vanessa passed away in February 2018.

Copyright (#ulink_c618d60b-43c3-5531-9f13-435a98bbb774)

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018

Copyright © Vanessa Lafaye 2018

Vanessa Lafaye asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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, downloaded, 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.

Ebook Edition © November 2018 ISBN: 9780008306120

Author’s Note (#ulink_e29cb357-2299-5a5f-ad95-c30d65620003)

This story is one of pure invention. I have long been fascinated by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, finding new meaning and new dimensions with every version that I have studied. However, the one character who intrigued me the most, the one on whom the whole tale seems to hang, appears in only three brief scenes: Jacob Marley.

Doomed to drag his chains across the earth for all eternity, yet determined to help Scrooge avoid his fate, Marley seems to me an extremely complex character. I wondered what Marley had done to deserve his desperately severe punishment. Surely, I thought, it would take more than what he quotes to Scrooge – the fact that he neglected his fellow man and never left the counting house?

Since Dickens chose to deny us any more insight into this enigmatic figure, I started to wonder about Marley’s life story, an exercise which gradually consumed my imagination. I wanted to understand the events which shaped him, which led him to be the man he is as Scrooge’s partner – and then to regret this so bitterly that he returns from the grave to put things right.

I have invented a sister, Clara Belle Marley, to give us the answers to these questions. I confess that the idea of inhabiting Marley himself felt too much like trespassing. Through the eyes of Clara, a character purely of my own creation, I can tell my invented story freely.

That said, I was so conscious of the love and reverence felt for the original, that it was almost impossible not to be paralysed by self-consciousness as I wrote this. I hope that other devotees of A Christmas Carol, and Dickens’ work in general, will grant me license to explore Marley and his unseen, yet pivotal, role in this classic tale.

Vanessa Lafaye, February 2018

Contents

Cover (#ulink_30318620-940f-5fe7-b33b-b2e21b2c5a46)

About the Author (#u1ffe39da-27fa-5478-9058-1fdc4edd000a)

Title Page (#ulink_23ce9c7c-7a16-5916-8292-2404716e8b4f)

Copyright (#ulink_9c73de1e-6963-537d-99a9-e61b8d6e50c8)

Author’s Note (#ulink_f60ad30c-9a70-51a3-b65c-8d6692fd9b76)

PART I: The Beginning (#ulink_ccf25596-a5f7-5f8c-bc61-e28365609bad)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_42e3464b-b0b6-564a-b500-5a8369984b88)

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

PART II: The Middle

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

PART III: The End

Chapter 12

Epilogue

Afterword

About the Publisher

PART I: THE BEGINNING (#ulink_2c7a9c93-99ea-50fc-8b86-b60d167326d2)