‘Well-paced … genuinely gripping’ Historical Novels
Review
Jessica is grieving for her beloved father, trawler owner Jacob
Kingdom, when a heated confrontation ends with her being cast out from the
family home and the revelation of a shameful secret. She falls upon the
kindness of strangers and meets a charismatic trawlerman, who is proud to walk
out with Kingdom’s daughter.
But with her cold-hearted brother at the helm of the family business, there is discontent rising, and being Kingdom’s daughter begins to lose its charm. With Jessica desperate to prove herself worthy to the tight-knit community, does she have what it takes to weather the storm to come, or will her secret hold her back?
Purchase Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daughter-Sea-unforgettable-families-secrets-ebook/dp/B081S2XHDG/
Excerpt
Jessica has no idea who her
birth mother is and she often fantasies about her.
All her life she’d lived by the estuary, it
was part of her soul and who she was. Her father had told her she was the
daughter of a sea fairy and in her head she heard his beloved voice saying to
her, ‘I found you on the incoming tide, a wee scrap of a bairn, wrapped in
seaweed and I plucked you up and brought you home.’
Tears misted her eyes. Was it true? Was that what Mildred referred to?
Was she an abandoned baby left on the seashore?
Snuggled in her bed, she couldn’t get the thought out of her mind and
that she was the abandoned daughter of a sea fairy. She kept the thought to
herself, locked away in her heart. That night, she dreamt of a beautiful lady
who cradled her and sang a haunting lullaby.
‘Visitor for you,’ Elsie called up the stairs to Jessica a few weeks
later. ‘Coming,’ she answered as she finished putting away her freshly ironed
garments. Going down, she wondered who it could be. Was it her friend Enid,
relenting against her mother’s wishes?
But it wasn’t.
I’ve come to take you out.’
‘Rick, this is a lovely surprise,’ she said, staring at the young man
dressed in a blue shirt and a darker blue pinstriped suit with his hair slicked
back with Brylcreem. He wasn’t like any young men she knew, who were always
stiff and formal. And then embarrassment swept over her as she remembered the
night they had first met. She gazed down at the clipped rug on the brown
linoleum.
He seemed unperturbed as he chatted away.
‘We’ll go to the flicks first and then I’ll show yer off to my mates, so get
yer glad rags on. Come on, what yer waiting for?’
She lifted her head and looked into his roguish-looking eyes. ‘Right,’
she said, dashing upstairs to change her dress, powder her face, add a touch of
pink lipstick and a dab of Evening in Paris perfume.
It wasn’t until they were in the cinema, watching a cowboy film Rick had
chosen, she realised he hadn’t waited for her answer and assumed she would go
with him. But she felt grateful he’d remembered her. It was nice to feel a
man’s protective arm around her shoulders and be escorted out, socially.
Afterwards, in the pub frequented by the trawlermen, she noticed that
his friends all wore similar smart attire. She wasn’t used to drinking and this
was her first time in a pub. And for a fleeting moment she wondered what
Mildred would think. Smoke from cigarettes filled the room and, with everyone
talking at once, she strained her ears to catch Rick’s words. The atmosphere
overwhelmed her.
Taking her by surprise, Rick grabbed her arm and drew her forward in
full view of everyone and the buzz of noise stopped, the drinkers looking like
stone statues with all eyes fixed on her. She felt like a naked mannequin on
display in a shop window and tried to edge nearer to Rick. But he kept her in
the same position, smiling as he held everyone’s attention. He announced, ‘Meet
my girl, Jessica, Kingdom’s daughter. May God rest his soul.’
For a few seconds, no one spoke and then everyone spoke at once. ‘You, crafty sod, you’ve kept that quiet,’ and ‘Are yer gonna marry her and tek over the business?’ and ‘Aye, do that and up our money.’ So the banter continued.
Author Bio
–
Sylvia
Broady was born in Hull and has lived in the area all her life, although
she loves
to travel the world. It wasn’t until she started to frequent her local
library
after World War II that her relationship with literature truly began, and
her
memories of the war influence her writing as does her home town. She has
had a
varied career in childcare, the NHS and the EYC Library Services, but is
now a full-time writer.
Social
Media Links –
Website
Links
https://sylviabroadyauthor.com/
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