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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

But then Beatrice saw the guilty look on Rosa’s face as she turned round to look at her through the flames – one shining, perfect plum clasped in her gloved hand. She saw the clockwork dragon swoop overhead, heard the terrible whir and click of its clockwork as it roared more flames down upon her precious trees. And she realised there had never been anyone else in the garden but Rosa. The shock of the betrayal was like a punch to the gut. The violet flames, and black apples, and melting ice seemed to swirl around her as the world tilted from its rightful place.

‘No!’ Beatrice gasped under her breath. ‘Oh, no! No!’ Her eyes met Rosa’s through the flames. ‘H-H-How c-c-c-could y-y-you?’

In that moment she loathed the other woman, from the bottom of her soul. The words written on her plum stone back at the house played over and over again inside her mind and she wondered if this was the moment they spoke of.

‘This … I didn’t mean for this to happen,’ Rosa said. There was real regret in her eyes, but she made no move to help, to try and put things right. Instead she called the dragon to her side and turned away. ‘For what it’s worth, I am sorry.’

And then she just walked away, her clockwork monster at her side, leaving Beatrice alone. The flames were no longer a fire, but an inferno – they did not nibble and lick at the trees, but tore along them ravenously, refusing to be extinguished even when the trees crumpled into the snow. There was no one to help and nothing that could be done, but that did not prevent Beatrice from running into the blaze.

The plum trees were already gone – nothing but piles of ash. The apple trees were stronger and had dragged themselves away from the rest of the garden so that the fire was contained, with no danger of it spreading to the delicate flowers, butterflies and other specimens on display. Beatrice ran to one of the nearby ice houses, grabbed a bucket and filled this with snow to hurl at the trees over and over again. Only it hardly seemed to do any good at all. Perhaps things would have been different if the servants had still been there, but Beatrice had made arrangements for them to stay in a nearby hotel after Half Moon House became largely uninhabitable. And one person alone was not enough.