Silk

Silk
PENNY JORDAN

The first in a multi-generational trilogy by mega-seller Penny Jordan is set in the decadent world of the silk industry.Dangerous liaisons…Skeletons in closets…A scandalous web of lies and deceit…The Pickfords are just your average family.1920s Cheshire. A time of great glamour and decadence, high living and loose morality. A time where anything goes - and does.Amber Vrontsky is the heiress to the wealthy Pickford dynasty, presided over by the formidable Blanche.Obsessed with social climbing, Blanche wants nothing more for her granddaughter than a titled husband - a prize which she herself failed to secure, despite her immense wealth.But free spirited Amber is intent on forging her own artistic career with the silk she loves so much. Unable to disobey Blanche, however, she moves to society London to become a debutante - and enters a world of illicit affairs, drug-taking, gambling, lavender marriages…From the lavish decadence of society London to the opium dens of the Far East, the chic boutiques of Paris to the Nazi-controlled streets of Berlin, Silk spans the depravity and the glamour of this tumultuous time.Spoil yourself with this dazzling, decadent treat by international multi-million-copy selling Penny Jordan - the ultimate read for fans of Danielle Steel and Penny Vincenzi.

PENNY JORDAN

Silk

Copyright (#ue06af8bf-ced4-5ff5-9234-e9635c824cdb)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

entirely coincidental.

AVON

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by

HarperCollinsPublishers 2008

Copyright © Penny Jordan 2008

Penny Jordan asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins eBooks.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9781847560735

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780007281480

Version: 2018-05-22

Teresa Chris, my agent who gave me hope.

Maxine Hitchcock, my editor for this book.

Yvonne Holland, for her ‘beyond excellent’ copy editing.

Everyone at Avon and HarperCollins who made the

publication of this book – which is so very special to me

– possible.

My editors at Richmond, for their long years of support

for Penny Jordan.

Tony who has always ‘been there’, to listen and research

and drive me all those places I have needed to go in

order to make this book possible.

For my readers – those who have read me as Penny Jordan for so many years and those who I hope will read this book and become as entranced by the fabric that is silk as I am.

Contents

Title Page (#u7f403961-8ea7-57de-be0f-2e20caa9fc9d)Copyright (#uc981b4b6-3660-5654-9330-64d058e28398)Prologue (#u2b6ef1b8-c3c6-58af-89cb-c032d66437c4)Part One (#ue8fdb4ef-2ba6-545c-a1bc-2d425b9cbeb5)Chapter One (#u17fbd089-10bb-5560-9581-408ef79bb516)Chapter Two (#u39b1a539-160d-5c98-810a-573376b596d9)Chapter Three (#u188bd42e-cd96-5e92-b0f3-8d84c95e86e5)Chapter Four (#ua2c39525-e7c4-5a6c-a27d-f33bd7407f71)Chapter Five (#u78fbf810-b960-53ac-9e57-ded8b71efe0e)Chapter Six (#u2d340a75-cd0b-5a61-af6e-057ac13a147c)Chapter Seven (#ud19791fb-d208-5ae0-b3e9-499bb7df18f0)Chapter Eight (#ua7ca749b-96d5-5ec5-b9d4-7d8fb532d942)Chapter Nine (#ud7f712c2-3196-55ca-a877-5099e3f3f7cb)Chapter Ten (#ud9a80509-f01e-56d4-a6b7-b7f15b44b3f1)Chapter Eleven (#uafb379cd-d56d-5036-8175-fecae0d24c82)Chapter Twelve (#u75ffbba4-1382-52f0-a947-dec246d48e9e)Chapter Thirteen (#uae23b1af-badb-571b-a85a-1676966b59b9)Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)Part Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-One (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Part Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty-Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-One (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)Part Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Forty-Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifty (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifty-One (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)An Interview With Penny Jordan (#litres_trial_promo)About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue (#ue06af8bf-ced4-5ff5-9234-e9635c824cdb)

21 November 2002

Late November always had such a haunting melancholic feel about it; the best of the autumn gone, the glory of the leaves only a memory when the wind rattled the skeletal branches of the trees. Did trees have memories, Amber wondered as she looked through the window and out into the parkland of Denham Place. Did they, like her, remember the urgent joy of spring with all its budding promise? Did they still feel in the dreary grey an echo of the heavy, heady, sensual warmth that had been summer? A reminiscent smile touched her lips, thinner now than they had been when she had been in her own summer, but her smile still lifted her high cheekbones and shone in the faded beauty of her eyes. Spring and summer; they had been so long ago for her, and autumn too, patterned with its rich colours as vibrant as her beloved silk.

Winter held her now, bare and sometimes bleak but still beautiful.

There had been frost during the night, riming the grass, showing the tracks of the muntjac deer her own grandmother had installed at Denham. She had been dreaming of Blanche recently, and all those others whom she knew would be waiting for her. Time passed so slowly now and she grew impatient to be with them.

But not today.

‘Are you really ninety years old today?’

The solemn question, from her youngest-but-two great-great-grandchild, made her smile and place her hand on his dark head.

‘Yes,’ she told him. ‘I really am.’

‘Harry! I’m sorry, Great-grandmother. He didn’t wake you, did he?’

‘No, dear. Don’t worry.’