The French Wife
Contents ( 57)
- Also by Diney Costeloe
- Contents
- Prologue
- Chapter 1
- Paris 1876
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 28
- Chapter 29
- Chapter 30
- Chapter 31
- Chapter 32
- Chapter 33
- Chapter 34
- Chapter 35
- Chapter 36
- Chapter 37
- Chapter 38
- Chapter 39
- Chapter 40
- Chapter 41
- Chapter 42
- Chapter 43
- Chapter 44
- Chapter 45
- Chapter 46
- Chapter 47
- Chapter 48
- Chapter 49
- Chapter 50
- Chapter 51
- Chapter 52
- Epilogue
The
French
Wife
Also by Diney Costeloe
The Throwaway Children
The Lost Soldier
The Runaway Family
The Girl with No Name
The Sisters of St Croix
The New Neighbours
The Married Girls
Miss Mary’s Daughter
Children of the Siege
The French Wife
The
French
Wife
Diney
Costeloe
www.headofzeus.com
First published in the UK in 2020 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Diney Costeloe, 2020
The moral right of Diney Costeloe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A catalogue record for this book is available frombthe British Library.
ISBN (HB): 9781789543292
ISBN (XTPB): 9781789543308
ISBN (E): 9781789543285
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Contents
Also by Diney Costeloe
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Epilogue
About the Author
An Invitation from the Publisher
Prologue
It was almost dark and she was freezing. The floor and the walls of the cell were stone, damp and slippery. She sat on the small heap of straw piled into a corner, the only light illuminating her prison filtering through a barred window high above her. She curled into a ball, her arms wrapped round her body, trying to retain some warmth, but her clothes were torn and her body was bruised and she shook with cold and fear. Then she heard it, the key scraping in the lock, and when the door opened she saw his face, lit by the candle he carried. Flickering flame showed her the black beard, the scarred cheeks, the cruel eyes, now alight with lustful anticipation.
‘On your feet!’ he ordered. ‘It’s playtime!’
She screamed then, a shrill, penetrating scream of terror, a scream that woke her and left her shivering in the dark.
Chapter 1
Paris 1876
There was a silence about the house. The curtains were drawn across the windows and the old priest lay in bed in his room attended by his housekeeper, Madame Agathe Sauze, sitting at his bedside, keeping him company in his dying hours. Father Thomas, the curate who also lived in the St Jacques Clergy House, had administered the last rites earlier in the day and now it was simply a matter of time before the old priest slipped away to meet his maker.