“Thank you,” she said awkwardly.

“Do you have children?”

She opened the heavy door to the porch, looked out to see that the graveyard was deserted, and then beckoned him to follow her. They walked in single file between graves where the stones were so thick with old moss and lichen that only a few letters could be seen.

“Two still living,” she said over her shoulder. “I thank God for them. My daughter is thirteen and my son is twelve.”

“And does your boy fish in his father’s place?”

“The boat’s missing too,” she said, as if that were the greatest loss. “So we can only fish with a line from the shore.”

“Our Lord called a fisherman before he called anyone else,” he said gently.

“Yes,” she said. “But at least he left the boat.”

A laugh broke from him at her irreverence, and she turned and laughed with him and he saw, again, the bright warmth of her smile. It was so powerful and so illuminating he wanted to catch her hand and keep her smiling at him.

“The boat matters so much, you see.”

Continue Reading…

Tidelands

Philippa Gregory

PHILIPPA GREGORY is the author of many bestselling novels and is a recognized authority on women’s history. Her work has been adapted for the screen in The Other Boleyn Girl movie and the critically acclaimed Starz miniseries The White Queen. Her most recent novel is Three Sisters, Three Queens. She graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent. She holds honorary degrees from Teesside University and the University of Sussex. She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and was awarded the 2016 Harrogate Festival Award for Contribution to Historical Fiction. She welcomes visitors to her website, PhilippaGregory.com.

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BY THE SAME AUTHOR

HISTORY

The Women of the Cousins’ War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King’s Mother

THE PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR NOVELS

The Lady of the Rivers

The Red Queen

The White Queen

The Kingmaker’s Daughter

The White Princess

The Constant Princess

The King’s Curse

Three Sisters, Three Queens

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Boleyn Inheritance

The Taming of the Queen

The Queen’s Fool

The Virgin’s Lover

The Other Queen

ORDER OF DARKNESS SERIES

Changeling

Stormbringers

Fools’ Gold

THE WIDEACRE TRILOGY

Wideacre

The Favored Child

Meridon

THE TRADESCANTS

Earthly Joys

Virgin Earth

MODERN NOVELS

Alice Hartley’s Happiness

Perfectly Correct

The Little House

Zelda’s Cut

OTHER HISTORICAL NOVELS

The Wise Woman

Fallen Skies

A Respectable Trade

SHORT STORIES

Bread and Chocolate

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