Leaving Everything Most Loved (30 page)

Goodbye-ee, goodbye-ee,

Wipe the tear, baby dear, from your eye-ee,

Tho' it's hard to part I know,

I'll be tickled to death to go.

Don't cry-ee, don't sigh-ee,

There's a silver lining in the sky-ee,

Bonsoir, old thing, cheer-i-o, chin, chin,

Nah-poo, toodle-oo, Goodbye-ee.

And Maisie did wipe her tears, and though they could not possibly hear her, she shouted out that she would write and so must they. The children cheered, and she saw Priscilla wave to the point of jumping. Her father put his hand to his forehead in mock salute, and she knew he would think of her constantly, stopping the postman every single day looking for her letter. And at once she remembered her new friend, Lakshmi Chaudhary Jones, and her words on a sunny afternoon over tea, as the autumn light came in shafts to reflect against the colors of her silk sari. She had told her that in leaving everything most loved, Maisie would break her own heart. In fact, she could feel it now, this much-wounded heart that she had worked so hard to protect from the dragon of her memoriesâthat she had cradled gently so it might not be broken, again, by loveâwas, as she waved and called out, being fractured by her own desire for something more, something different. But she trusted Lakshmi's counsel, her assurance that, in leaving, she would shatter this precious part of her to open it againâand in so doing, she would cast aside all fears and instead claim the colors and scents, the sounds and minds of other places that would fashion who she might now become, and fill her anew.

How long might she be away? Might she decide to linger at her first port of call, then return home? At what point would she have seen enough of the world, for now? And what would she do, come next March 31st? There was a frisson of excitement in the fact that she had no ready answers to her own questions.

Again the ship's horn sounded, and a whooping came from the throng on the dock, who, she realized, were becoming smaller and smaller with distance, faces indistinguishable until they became one. She felt the waves catch the ship, the engines roar again, and the propeller taking her forward. Gulls swooped overhead as she turned, pulling up her collar and clinging to the guardrail while trying to find her sea legs. She began to make her way along the deck, her hair catching in the wind, her face already tingling against salt air. She had no idea what might lie ahead. But she was sure of one thing: She would be back. Yes, she would be back.

About the Author

J
ACQUELINE
W
INSPEAR
is the author of the
New York Times
bestsellers
Elegy for Eddie
,
A Lesson in Secrets
,
The Mapping of Love and Death
,
Among the Mad
, and
An Incomplete Revenge
, as well as four other nationally bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity awards for the first book in the series,
Maisie Dobbs
, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel and was a
New York Times
Notable Book. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in California.

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Also by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs

Birds of a Feather

Pardonable Lies

Messenger of Truth

An Incomplete Revenge

Among the Mad

The Mapping of Love and Death

A Lesson in Secrets

Elegy for Eddie

Credits

Cover design by Archie Ferguson

Cover illustration by Andrew Davidson

LEAVING EVERYTHING
MOST LOVED
. Copyright Â© 2013 by Jacqueline Winspear. All rights
reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment
of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable
right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text
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e-books.

FIRST
EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-204960-5 (Hardcover)

EPub Edition APRIL 2013 ISBN:
9780062049629

13 14 15 16 17 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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