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A Daughter’s Courage: A powerful, gritty new saga from the Sunday Times bestseller
Kitty Neale
Her strength is all she has left…When Dorothy meets Robbie, she falls for him quickly and it’s not long before the pair are engaged. But then an unexpected pregnancy puts everything at risk, and Dorothy is left alone – with Robbie nowhere to be seen.Heartbroken, Dorothy picks up the pieces of her life as a working girl in Battersea helping to support her mother and father. But before long, things start to become difficult. Her father’s health is worsening, money is tight and worst of all, Robbie hasn’t come back for her.Can Dorothy find a way back to happiness in the face of real adversity? Will she have the courage to make it on her own – or is someone else waiting in the wings to save her?Gritty and moving, this is the perfect read for fans of Dilly Court and Maggie Hope.
KITTY NEALE
A Daughter’s Courage
Copyright (#ue6bd0719-0e0b-5e7c-8df8-ca76481c6662)
Published by Avon an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street,
London, SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2018
Copyright © Kitty Neale 2018
Cover photographs © Getty Images/ Alamy
Cover design © Debbie Clement 2018
Kitty Neale asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of 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, 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: 9780008191702
Ebook Edition © April 2018 ISBN: 9780008191719
Version 2017-11-24
Dedication (#ue6bd0719-0e0b-5e7c-8df8-ca76481c6662)
For my dad, the first man I ever truly respected.
You’ve always been there for me offering quiet strength, dependability and security.
Thank you for everything you have done for me, and for your continued support.
We rarely share soppy sentiments, but I know you love me very much and you’re proud of me. I love you dearly too, and am so proud to call you my dad xxx
Table of Contents
Cover (#u0bec0113-fee4-53e1-a9e2-9212d94aa0ce)
Title Page (#u778e730b-e2eb-5694-a41d-0051c875f51d)
Copyright (#u830f9a85-5849-5080-95e8-5b2760d22757)
Dedication (#u2ebe80e5-1df0-5ee9-a669-a2ec98660bcc)
Chapter 1 (#u002e9366-da0b-5029-83f1-fc32a204de60)
Chapter 2 (#u957cf98f-7f2a-51d6-b94b-e92301308232)
Chapter 3 (#u17e48961-378f-5c5b-8e4d-a72b57ee9a0c)
Chapter 4 (#u61fc67db-2dc0-5e3d-bcd9-428e1f52f3d4)
Chapter 5 (#ubcf3096a-1fa2-541e-8832-49344bcc29e2)
Chapter 6 (#u15f144ff-c1cc-5e5b-b64d-6f610c4bed01)
Chapter 7 (#u3d7960a3-aa58-52c7-9964-566ee65c0521)
Chapter 8 (#uf5c84312-866d-5e1f-841d-52d94ec150e7)
Chapter 9 (#u6534bcc7-ca27-52c1-9d31-b1de4ecc0c2c)
Chapter 10 (#u41a8d561-dcfd-5891-812d-3eb847ec252e)
Chapter 11 (#uad26eb9f-1afe-5b5c-aea3-c9670a5f0505)
Chapter 12 (#uc52515c3-35e6-5dc0-bb74-a425e3e7dd32)
Chapter 13 (#u757dc42d-7006-54cd-a03b-3b986523bc4c)
Chapter 14 (#ud8e1088e-7abe-5b9f-a821-3a355733291c)
Chapter 15 (#udd7a344c-85b1-5ae7-ba94-56a24f96cf18)
Chapter 16 (#u3fafb963-bf34-59e1-b1c3-4961c6d58fc6)
Chapter 17 (#ue0e0d8fa-0eff-5468-ae51-ff4499b5a387)
Chapter 18 (#u54c87857-f3f1-5ecb-a756-f2c04893298f)
Chapter 19 (#u9c63ca0a-187e-5676-b1ab-c79664869bc2)
Chapter 20 (#u5e43a921-70d6-5c2c-980e-74e2d6df771e)
Chapter 21 (#u73a42f59-68bb-514e-ab80-2cec902f9af4)
Chapter 22 (#u4c71a323-508f-5053-895f-4e4098fc5c84)
Chapter 23 (#uf4e30691-a1ae-5076-a4dd-2e1f49f44da8)
Chapter 24 (#u72c544cc-931f-54ff-8986-33e9e842954c)
Chapter 25 (#u7e6133d1-09a5-5cb1-ab75-9644a7b6056d)
Chapter 26 (#u2b8750ae-9c48-5f7a-9fa9-5c57b3c45a54)
Chapter 27 (#u25dec762-1039-56a2-ae8f-06b2ae40ad9f)
Chapter 28 (#u76a3bf03-caaa-5bcb-a1ee-141dc252068d)
Chapter 29 (#u960e7b12-1107-5b64-8ddc-ca9dc7fa0e18)
Chapter 30 (#u8820dd03-c0aa-56f1-be92-149b74f20681)
Chapter 31 (#u84931eb3-6e8d-5110-8aba-55cf01f6fb4c)
Chapter 32 (#u3dad5336-785f-56d0-ac68-d6a7ef77ede0)
Chapter 33 (#ud6981ec6-2c40-5048-b638-68a0f18513b8)
Chapter 34 (#u91579146-cc9e-5ce5-ad59-864b6c89f098)
Chapter 35 (#u8b07c16a-10a5-5f9d-9ffa-77959ee4f286)
Chapter 36 (#uad818709-950b-5c55-9f65-2053c174f41c)
Chapter 37 (#u2d2e9e55-e603-5e7d-8bd3-31c60839d267)
Chapter 38 (#u6bea0f91-cd3e-5750-b89f-1106f0caff26)
Chapter 39 (#u7f9ebd5d-ad99-5f15-9e55-9d30291385f5)
Chapter 40 (#u0aa96bab-6b7d-503b-879b-bbf0c342532d)
Chapter 41 (#uc90d8253-b680-568a-9121-6c06e32ce847)
Chapter 42 (#u84cf7281-0843-5a68-ad7a-6efc1aa0d618)
Chapter 43 (#uc5fbabc4-adb2-58b2-a1af-ff0432e1fc41)
Chapter 44 (#uf6282a22-c16a-5af3-be8d-e77850893899)
Chapter 45 (#u73c5ba51-4e82-5bfb-8639-208ce7286103)
Chapter 46 (#u55bc8343-f158-55ca-975a-31dac249eea0)
Chapter 47 (#ue09f0afa-3b7b-59b7-9726-25ddaebd0d29)
Chapter 48 (#ud824f090-97c0-5705-b7c6-0332b68458d9)
Chapter 49 (#u1171b385-8353-5d32-b399-0ca3afa344dc)
Chapter 50 (#u2b80bbec-4122-5b54-9851-8e371fae6e29)
Chapter 51 (#u42e27253-bcc5-5804-9d2f-f4d5fc40581a)
Chapter 52 (#ua244bb68-108a-5b64-b02c-8473dbb73e78)
Chapter 53 (#u17d5514f-2d58-5975-b0e5-13b50e0dcdad)
Chapter 54 (#u15d8a12b-3832-5486-8f47-702dfe07e8af)
Chapter 55 (#udad80fd9-f402-5522-bd1d-7279fea87cae)
Chapter 56 (#ue3efbf3b-133a-5025-8250-473f7a071949)
Chapter 57 (#ufb186e6c-3555-5a15-89e1-55df642c5085)
Chapter 58 (#u116e4ca9-a72d-575c-a1da-6c0973198926)
Chapter 59 (#u0fdeee43-e247-52d7-bfa8-8e2e660d7bff)
Chapter 60 (#uc6a930c8-a86f-5838-8e2b-5c441e846728)
Chapter 61 (#ubee5272b-3df2-53c5-b44e-68a7e16ff688)
Keep Reading… (#u4de0e1f2-bdd0-5423-a4d9-5176c68449f5)
About the Author (#ud04f7e9c-14d6-5470-ba73-f7cf3e1d36c4)
By the Same Author: (#u9d479ced-384d-5696-b898-00bb48e80a9a)
About the Publisher (#u17d15903-e103-5a32-8549-d4af5cf5caaa)
Chapter 1 (#ue6bd0719-0e0b-5e7c-8df8-ca76481c6662)
Battersea, London, 1956
Crimson nail polish was the only splash of colour in the dank kitchen as Dorothy Butler painted her nails in preparation for her date with Robbie Ferguson. It was mid-September and she was sitting at the battered kitchen table. While waiting for the varnish to dry, she watched as her mother, Alice, flicked soapy suds from her hands before wiping them down the front of her washed-out apron.
Now twenty-two years old, Dorothy had been a child when her father returned from fighting in France, a broken man, unable to resume his work as a groundsman in Battersea Park. Since then, with only a small army disability pension to live on, her mother had taken in washing, which helped to pay the rent and buy the coal needed to warm the house during the long winter months. It was all Alice could manage as her fear of going outside kept her a prisoner in her own home. However, constantly leaning over the sink and scrubbing clothes had damaged her back, and Dorothy saw her grimace as she stirred the three cups of tea she’d just made.
