The Buffer Girls (45 page)

The shock waves that ripple through the family will affect each and every one of them and life will never be the same again.

A matter of honour. A sense of duty. A time for courage.

Ruthlessly ambitious Ambrose Constantine is determined that his daughter, Annabel, shall marry into the nobility. A self-made trawler owner and fish merchant, he has only his
wealth to buy his way into Society.

When Annabel’s secret meetings with a young man employed at her father’s offices
stop suddenly, she finds that Gilbert has mysteriously disappeared. Heartbroken, she finds solace
with her grandparents on their Lincolnshire farm, but her father will not allow her to bury herself in the countryside and enlists the help of a business connection to launch his daughter into
Society.

During the London Season, Annabel is courted by James Lyndon, the Earl of Fairfield, whose
country estate is only a few miles from her grandfather’s farm. Believing herself truly loved at
last, Annabel accepts his offer of marriage. It is only when she arrives at Fairfield Hall that she realizes the true reason behind James’s proposal and the part her scheming father has
played.

Through the years that follow, Annabel will know both heartache and joy, but the birth of her son
should secure the future of the Fairfield Estate. Yet there are others who lay claim to the
inheritance in a feud that will not be resolved until the trenches of a bitter world war.

There are some things that even the closest friendship cannot survive . . .

Neighbours Edie Kelsey and Lil Horton have been friends for over twenty years, sharing the joys and sorrows of their tough lives as the wives of fishermen in Grimsby. So it
came as no surprise that their children were close and that Edie’s son, Frank, and Lil’s daughter,
Irene, fell in love and married at a young age.

But the declaration of war in 1939 changes everything. Frank goes off to fight and Irene and baby Tommy, along with Edie’s youngest son, are sent to the countryside for safety. With
Edie’s husband Archie fishing the dangerous waters in the North Sea and daughter Beth in London doing ‘important war work’, Edie’s family is torn apart.

Friendship
sustains Edie and Lil, but when tragedy strikes – and then Beth disappears – their relationship is tested to the limit. But it is Irene’s return, during the VE day
celebrations, that sends shock waves through the family and threatens to destroy Edie and Lil’s friendship forever.

A
LSO
B
Y
M
ARGARET
D
ICKINSON

Plough the Furrow

Sow the Seed

Reap the Harvest

The Miller’s Daughter

Chaff Upon the Wind

The Fisher Lass

The Tulip Girl

The River Folk

Tangled Threads

Twisted Strands

Red Sky in the Morning

Without Sin

Pauper’s Gold

Wish Me Luck

Sing As We Go

Suffragette Girl

Sons and Daughters

Forgive and Forget

Jenny’s War

The Clippie Girls

Fairfield Hall

Welcome Home

My grateful thanks to Dennis Trickett, who kindly talked to me about his life in the cutlery industry of Sheffield, and also to Alison Duce, the Collections Manager at the
Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, for her warm welcome and help on my visit to the museum. And to Kenneth and Kathryn Ibbotson of Ashford-in-the-Water for the loan of some wonderful photographs of
the village. As always, my sincere thanks to the staff of Skegness Library for their continuing help and encouragement.

A great many sources have been used in the research for this novel, most notably
Diamonds in Brown Paper
by Gill Booth (Sheffield City Libraries, 1988) and
Back to the
Grindstone
by Herbert Housley (The Hallamshire Press 1998).

Although in this novel I have used real
place names, streets and even actual buildings, the characters and events in the story are entirely fictitious.

My love and thanks to my family and friends for their constant encouragement, especially those who read the script in the early stages: David Dickinson, Fred Hill and Pauline Griggs. And never
forgetting my wonderful agent, Darley Anderson, and his team, and my editor, Trisha Jackson,
and all the team at Pan Macmillan.

Born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire,
Margaret Dickinson moved to the
coast at the age of seven and so
began her love for the sea and the
Lincolnshire landscape. Her ambition
to be a writer began early and she had
her first novel published at the age
of twenty-five. This was followed by
a number of further titles including,
most recently,
The Clippie Girls
,
Fairfield Hall
and
Welcome Home
.

Margaret is a
Sunday Times Top
Ten bestseller.

First published 2016 by Macmillan

This electronic edition published 2016 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-9087-2

Copyright © Margaret Dickinson 2016

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The right of Margaret Dickinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.

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liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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

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