‘By heck, lass, tha’s bonny.’ Bill looked at his daughter and caught his breath. ‘I hope Adam realizes what he’s got.’
Lucy smiled as the landlord from The Fleece opened the kitchen door and then rushed to help her into his coach. She made room next to her for her father, then put her dress in order and battled her nerves as Bill slapped her knee and grinned. There was no going back now – not that she wanted to. She was about to become Mrs Adam Brooksbank, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, until death did them part. And she could not be happier.
Adam turned to look at his beautiful bride on the arm of his father-in-law-to-be. Lucy looked radiant, and the parson beamed as Adam held out his hand for her to join him at the altar. Little had he known that, before the year was out, he would marry the flippant, flirty young girl he had employed as his maid. But now he had room in his heart only for her; his first wife Mary would always be with him in his memories, but Lucy was the one he loved.
As he slipped the wedding ring onto Lucy’s finger he looked across at Ivy, who winked at him. She too knew that Mary had left his life, and that Adam’s happiness now lay with Lucy. He leaned forward and tenderly kissed his maid from Black Moss Farm – now his wife. Together they would live and love and make a new life for themselves, until the day they were parted by death; and even then their love for one another might survive the grave.
Lucy walked proudly down the aisle of the church, her arm linked through Adam’s. She had got the man of her dreams, despite everyone telling her that Adam was wrong for her. She smiled as she noticed Reggie Ellwood standing in a pew near the back of the church. Next to him stood a pretty brunette lass, who obviously had eyes only for her man, as she grasped his arm tightly and whispered in his ear. Lucy was glad that he had found someone; she would never have been right for Reggie, for her heart had belonged to Adam from the first day they had met.
As they both walked out of the church and stood under the archway of the porch, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and shone down on Lucy and Adam, warming their already-flushed faces. Under a shower of flower petals and rice, Lucy looked up at her man – the man she had always dreamed of since she was young. She was now Mrs Adam Brooksbank, mistress of Black Moss Farm, and she had a husband to be proud of.
The Girl From The Tanner’s Yard
Diane Allen was born in Leeds, but raised at her family’s farm deep in the Yorkshire Dales. After working as a glass engraver, raising a family and looking after an ill father, she found her true niche in life, joining a large-print publishing firm in 1990. She now concentrates on her writing full time, and has recently been made Honorary Vice President of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Diane and her husband Ronnie live in Long Preston, in the Yorkshire Dales, and have two children and four beautiful grandchildren.
By Diane Allen
For the Sake of Her Family
For a Mother’s Sins
For a Father’s Pride
Like Father, Like Son
The Mistress of Windfell Manor
The Windfell Family Secrets
Daughter of the Dales
The Miner’s Wife
The Girl from the Tanner’s Yard
First published 2020 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2020 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Smithson, 6 Briset Street, London EC1M 5NR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-9526-7
Copyright © Diane Allen 2020
Cover images: Woman © Richard Jenkins,
background © Shutterstock.
Author photograph © Linda Nash.
The right of Diane Allen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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