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Back The Winter Garden Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. COVER
  2. About the Author
  3. ALSO BY ALEXANDRA BELL
  4. DEDICATION
  5. Prologue
  6. Part One
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. Part Two
  15. CHAPTER EIGHT
  16. CHAPTER NINE
  17. CHAPTER TEN
  18. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  19. CHAPTER TWELVE
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. Part Three
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. Acknowledgements
  54. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

‘Who are you?’ she whispered. ‘Where did you come from?’

‘I told you,’ he said. ‘I live here.’

You know full well what I want, Eustace’s voice spoke inside her head. An heir.

‘I live here,’ the boy said again.

I’m going to be a duchess one day … Rosa had told her parents.

‘I live here,’ the boy said. ‘Not you.’

Perhaps you saw the future, after all, her ma had acknowledged on Rosa’s wedding day.

My mama doesn’t want me. She tells me every day …

Rosa closed her eyes briefly, horrified by the idea that had suddenly occurred to her. She looked right at the boy and forced herself to say the words aloud.

‘You’re not … you’re not my son. Are you? The son I’m going to have – in the future?’

He looked at her like she was mad. ‘My mama’s name is Beatrice,’ he said. ‘The Duchess of Chalkley.’

Rosa stared at him. ‘But … Beatrice didn’t marry Eustace. I did.’

The boy hunched over a little further. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘Maybe not. It depends who wins the competition.’

Another firework lit up the sky above and the red sparks were reflected in the boy’s eyes when he looked at her. ‘If my mother wins, then she’s the one who lives at Raven Hall. Not you. And not Ada.’

Rosa’s head began to ache. ‘That can’t be right. Beatrice doesn’t want to marry Eustace. She would never use her wish for such a thing.’

‘Wishes are complicated,’ the boy replied. ‘It’s so easy to make the wrong one.’

It is h-human n-nature to l-look in all the wrong p-places …

‘You need to win,’ the boy went on. ‘Please. I don’t want to be here in this horrible house any more. It’s always cold. And everything aches.’

He looked so small and alone that Rosa reached out a hand to comfort him, but her fingers passed right through him, like he was a ghost. She gasped and snatched her hand back.

‘H-How?’ She stared at him. ‘You were solid before.’

She realised she had never actually touched him, but she had seen him pick up the Winter Garden book, hadn’t she?

‘You’re closer to winning the competition than Mama is right now,’ the boy replied.

A great bang echoed through the sky for the grand finale and everything around them glowed bright red for a moment. Although she had designed the fireworks herself, Rosa had not expected them to be so loud, and the sound startled her. Her eyes flicked to the sky through the trees. She could hear the delighted murmurs from the crowd beyond the pines. And when she looked back down, the boy was gone, as if he’d never been there to begin with.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE