A Daughter's Inheritance
A Novel
by
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Violet slipped on the mud, dropping to the wet ground. She picked herself up and cried inwardly. Everything was going wrong.
Amanda felt ashamed. Why is Mama making such a scene? she asked herself. Why was she behaving like this, she who was always kind and loving, and why were they making this journey?
“Let’s go back to the inn and go home,” she pleaded.
“We cannot go home.”
“Why not? What is wrong with you, Mama? Why are you doing this?”
“Be off,” the gatekeeper shouted angrily through the gate he had just closed.
“Why have we come? I’m soaked, hungry, and miserable, Mama.” Amanda burst into tears and started walking away, back toward the inn.
Violet ran after her, calling out, “I’m only doing it for you, my darling child. You deserve better than I can give you, and I want to get you away from the kind of life I lead.”
“But I don’t want to leave you.” They were walking fast in pelting rain.
“I love you so much and I thought the lady of this house would take you in.”
“Why should she?”
“Because her son was your father.” Violet put her hand to her mouth, aghast. “But you must promise never to tell her you know.”
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About the Book
This epic novel, which spans six generations of mothers and daughters, begins in 1815, during Britain’s war with Napoleon, and ends after World War II. These life stories, knitted together into an ongoing family saga, show the vast changes to English society. These women were witnesses, participants, and survivors through the Regency Period, the Victorian Age, the Industrial Revolution, and on into the twentieth century, with its world wars and social reforms.
At the heart of the novel are the lives, loves, and social causes of six strong women—Violet, a kitchen maid; Amanda, her illegitimate daughter who marries an aristocrat; Felicity, a pianist who dreams of marrying a duke; Norma, the battered wife of a wealthy scoundrel; Prudence, a women’s suffragist and social reformer; and Christine, a World War II photojournalist.
As different as each of these women is from the others, they all remain true to the motto coined by Violet, who wished a better future for her daughter: “Grasp every opportunity that life offers you.”
About the Author
Geraldine Boyce is a British American playwright and the author of the novels Homefront and Here and There, both published by Fithian Press/Daniel & Daniel. She lives in Marin County, California.