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He brought no money with him when he returned, and she could s

I can say this now, she admitted to someone, years later, when she lived on her own and waited for her grandchildren to call; it was a wonderful ht months of the year And that's a lotas she said it, glancing up at the photograph of him on the mantelpiece

Her four children all had their birthdays in late September And she wondered, each time she held a newborn child in her hands, where that lost one one She wondered it with each niece and nephew and grandchild she was given to hold, saying he's a fine one to the mother as she looked into the baby's clouded eyes She wondered it as she changed and cleaned her own children's nappies, as she fed the them to sleep and sent therow into young adults, going further away to find work, bringing backback other young men and women hom they shyly held hands at the supper table She watched them marry, and she watched them make homes of their own, have children of their own, ain, and she never stopped wondering, waiting, hoping for so-lost sole across the water and tell her soone all this time

CONTENTS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR

A NOTE ON THE TYPE

part one

Eleanor was in the kitchen when he got back fro The air was daar, the s clouded with condensation against the dark evening outside He stood in the doorith his suitcase and waited for her to say hello She had her back to him, her shoulders hunched in tense concentration, her faded brown hair tied up into a loose knot on the back of her head She was icing a cake There were oven trays and cooling racks spread across the worktop, grease-stained recipe books held open underpins, spilt flour dusted across the floor

Hello, he said gently, not wanting tofor a moment

How'd it go then? she asked without lifting her head or turning around

Okay, he said, it was okay, you know The oven timer buzzed, and as she opened the door a blast of hot wet air rushed into the room She took out a tray of fruit slices, turned off the oven, and went back to icing the cake He put the suitcase down and stood behind her The creaing the rounded knife across it, chasing tiny imperfections back and forth He put his hand on the hard knot of her shoulder and she flinched He kissed the back of her head Her hair s spices, and of her, and he kept his face pressed lightly against it for adeeply