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Secrets Between Sisters: The perfect heart-warming holiday read of 2018
Kate Thompson
Home is where the heart is…Free spirit Rio Kinsella finds herself settled in the picture-postcard village of Lissamore on Ireland's West Coast. It's where she took her first step, had her first kiss and conceived her beloved son Finn. But now Finn's spread his wings and flown the nest, what's to keep her here? An old flame and a new prospect may provide the answer…City girl Dervla is poles apart from her bohemian sister. A businesswoman with a quick mind, a hard heart and a nose for a good deal, she has no time for love. But is there anywhere she can really call home? And will the arrival of a new client throw her glossy magazine life-style into disarray?Torn apart by a long-standing feud, the Kinsella sisters are reunited upon the death of their wayward father. But on clearing the family home, they discover a secret so intriguing it could change their lives forever…Welcome to blissfully unpredictable Lissamore. It's guaranteed you'll never want to leave…Praise for Kate Thompson:‘Sublimely addictive’ MARIAN KEYES‘Warm, witty, sexy and compulsively readable’ CATHY KELLY‘Irresistible’ DEIRDRE PURCELL‘Kate Thompson has come up trumps with this rollercoaster of a story. There are twists and turns even the most avid reader won't spot. Make sure you put some time aside, because once you start reading The Kinsella Sisters you won't want to put it down.’ RTE GUIDE‘Must-read blockbuster’ Irish Post
KATE THOMPSON
Secrets Between Sisters
Copyright (#u682b9007-c7dd-5cd7-a146-22ea122c8c61)
Published by AVON
A Division 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 HarperCollinsPublishers in 2009
This ebook edition published by HarperCollinsPublishers in 2018
Copyright © Kate Thompson 2018
Cover design © Becky Glibbery 2018
Cover photographs © Shutterstock 2018
Kate Thompson 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: 9781847560995
Ebook Edition © May 2009 ISBN: 9780007329021
Version: 2018-02-06
Dedication (#u682b9007-c7dd-5cd7-a146-22ea122c8c61)
For Padraig
Epigraph (#u682b9007-c7dd-5cd7-a146-22ea122c8c61)
The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.
W. B. Yeats
Contents
Cover (#u16e292b0-fc3d-5be8-8778-11aae2535b73)
Title Page (#uf10632ac-4bdf-502e-a463-0b94b76070c5)
Copyright (#u78b523d9-2e94-561f-872c-9ff19479394f)
Dedication (#u97c00a77-9c1b-56f0-ac60-d2c3d9465d1a)
Epigraph
Prologue: Summer 2001 (#u27e42c0e-7406-57cf-9e85-a3822abdc1e8)
Chapter One: Several Years Later (#u0409da28-f230-5a31-ac8a-bce08365f8f5)
Chapter Two (#u887a71bd-f3b1-525f-a2f3-838f25915e60)
Chapter Three (#udf3f4001-3b81-5a06-a6a8-08c20959856d)
Chapter Four (#uf5111d2d-8e6c-5179-bfe3-64c53c5e9c15)
Chapter Five (#u61cb6edf-72cb-5fc5-adb2-3b354a375d74)
Chapter Six (#u2a4ebe59-3b28-591e-96f2-b993380767d1)
Chapter Seven (#ufed224d2-86ce-5f34-986c-e133a82f56b3)
Chapter Eight (#u63340323-a6d4-5a31-ac36-2053166aecaa)
Chapter Nine (#u5f4fb8de-98cf-5bca-9e7c-3e908fd84c49)
Chapter Ten (#ufe2c9ca6-0ea4-5216-8402-cc3092326d02)
Chapter Eleven (#uf08f8f4a-d84c-5466-9701-96182e64fd68)
Chapter Twelve (#u84f6a26c-0adb-5285-8f63-39bee48427ee)
Chapter Thirteen (#u1e338f31-bd31-50fb-8c09-223735220d98)
Chapter Fourteen (#u7a5c4444-9a7e-519f-85ae-5199d99565db)
Chapter Fifteen (#ubab46e6a-24c2-5295-86b4-ce4f41de4684)
Chapter Sixteen (#u42b31e09-5d85-585b-a666-30cce5a0ca28)
Chapter Seventeen (#u0a037bdd-1c7e-57ba-a93e-3ecb07aaabc1)
Chapter Eighteen (#uc1acebe3-033f-5be5-ac3d-4e31d6fc0536)
Chapter Nineteen (#u5ec56450-933f-57c3-a5b6-b5a40e5dcf32)
Chapter Twenty (#u058e1850-3652-519f-acbc-2c7cdfd07715)
Chapter Twenty-one (#ub1bc715a-e01c-5a9e-bf0a-d92775253b6b)
Chapter Twenty-two (#u05743d2e-db62-5fc1-b4e6-33cf7f39d9f1)
Chapter Twenty-three (#u7b610981-0eb7-52b8-af41-783894676dba)
Chapter Twenty-four (#u036147c1-d82d-5ff1-a282-5e1542bb487b)
Chapter Twenty-five (#ub11b8922-b648-5067-845d-319718941be8)
Chapter Twenty-six (#ufc5023e1-4252-59a1-9577-b857d24b1b41)
Chapter Twenty-seven (#u08077f29-0870-5505-ad90-685e8379af61)
Chapter Twenty-eight (#u7f027413-4667-506a-a2eb-a535d5c76798)
Chapter Twenty-nine (#u2808a925-411b-5bb7-81dd-bca151557ed8)
Chapter Thirty (#u0586c2b2-8c12-5063-b318-e0c1dae3bd1c)
Chapter Thirty-one (#u8f36b573-2aa4-5354-b7ef-f52fa46abd1f)
Epilogue (#u601d6d79-0a7b-5833-907e-3dc29b779ab4)
Acknowledgements (#uc43aa053-f3d4-52e0-950d-dabf92929c90)
About the Author (#uc19c8a1a-e0f9-50ad-8ca0-7c3ecbce099f)
About the Publisher (#u3e445c39-32ea-5635-bc61-ddb29b658817)
Prologue Summer 2001 (#u682b9007-c7dd-5cd7-a146-22ea122c8c61)
‘Hey, you! What do you think you’re doing?’
It was a girl’s voice, brittle as cut crystal. Rio, daydreaming amongst sea pinks, wondered if the words were directed at her. Lazily, she turned over onto her tummy, pushed a strand of hair back from her face, and leaned her chin on her forearms. From her vantage point atop the low cliff she had a clear view of the shore, picture-postcard pretty today, with lacy wavelets fringing the sand. Below, on the old slipway that fronted Coral Cottage, a girl of around twelve years old stood, arms ramrod stiff, hands clenched into fists.
‘You!’ said the girl again. ‘Didn’t you hear me? I asked what you were doing.’
The boy squatting on the sandstone glanced up, took in the blonde curls, the belly top, the day-glo-pink pedal-pushers, the strappy sandals, then resumed his scrutiny of the rock pool that had been formed by the receding tide. ‘I’m looking for crabs,’ he told her.
‘Smartarse. I didn’t mean that. I meant – what are you doing on my land?’
‘Your land, is it?’ murmured the boy. ‘I don’t think so, Barbie-girl.’
‘You may not think so, but I know so. That’s my daddy’s slipway, and you’re trespassing. And don’t call me Barbie-girl, farm-boy.’
Río smiled, and reached for her sunglasses. Bogtrotter versus city slicker made for the best spectator sport.
‘Shut up your yapping, will you? There’s a donkey up in the field beyond trying to feed her newborn. You’ll put the frighteners on the pair of them.’
Río saw the girl’s mouth open, then shut again. ‘A donkey? You mean there’s a donkey with a baby?’
‘Yip.’ The boy rose to his feet. ‘I’ll show you, if you like.’
The girl looked uncertain. ‘I’m not supposed to go beyond the slipway.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘I’ve got new sandals on. I might get them dirty’.
The boy shrugged. ‘Take ’em off.’
‘Take my shoes off’
‘They’re not nailed to your feet, are they?’
From the field beyond came a melancholy bray.
‘What’s that?’ asked the girl.
‘That’s Dorcas.’
‘Dorcas is the mother donkey?’
‘Yip.’
‘What’s her baby called?’
‘She doesn’t have a name yet.’
‘What age is she?’
‘A week.’
‘A week! Cute!’
