Innocence

Innocence
Kathleen Tessaro

Sunday Times bestselling author, Kathleen Tessaro returns with a stunning new novel that will be a big hit with fans of her debut success EleganceIt's 1987 and Evie is leaving home for the first time, headed for London to study acting. Along with her fellow students and roommates, Imogene (a born again Laura Ashley poster child and frustrated virgin) and Robbie (native New Yorker, budding bohemian, and very much not a virgin), Evie's determined to make her mark both on stage and off.But then life and love, in the shape of struggling rock musician Jake Albery, intervene. And everything changes.Fourteen years later and Evie's stuck. She's now a single mother teaching drama classes, her dreams long since abandoned. Robbie's dead, killed in car accident and Imo's lost touch.Then a friendship from the past comes to haunt Evie. Literally. And suddenly everything is about to change again.

KATHLEEN TESSARO

INNOCENCE

Copyright (#u49576c3d-9eec-5208-8c1b-d55534cceafe)

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.

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

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

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2005 1

Copyright © Kathleen Tessaro 2005

Kathleen Tessaro 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 e-books.

Ebook Edition © 2005 ISBN: 9780007330751

Version: 2017-12-08

For my family

‘No Coward Soul Is Mine.’

EMILY BRONTë

Table of Contents

Copyright (#u1308de3d-4a49-5c9c-bfbc-598aa1a393cc)

PART ONE February 1986 (#uc11cd76c-3f88-581e-a291-a64e0e90457a)

Chapter 1 (#u02e106a4-141c-5010-99af-8a37f05779c5)

PART TWO 21 June 1991 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 2 (#litres_trial_promo)

PART THREE 21 June 1996 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 3 (#litres_trial_promo)

PART FOUR December 1997 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

E-book Extra (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Kathleen Tessaro (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

PART ONE February 1986 (#u49576c3d-9eec-5208-8c1b-d55534cceafe)

Chapter 1 (#u49576c3d-9eec-5208-8c1b-d55534cceafe)

I’m seated next to a red-headed woman on the plane. My supper of creamed chicken royal and boiled rice sits untouched in front of me. Instead, I stare at my new Keith Haring Swatch watch (a going-away gift from my boyfriend, Jonny). It’s my first trip abroad. In only eight hours and twenty-two minutes, we’ll be landing in London and a whole new chapter of my life will begin. Who can eat chicken at a time like this?

The redhead can. She’s an old hand at foreign travel. Lighting another cigarette, she smiles at me.

‘Oh, London’s great! Great pubs. And you can have fish and chips. “Chips” is English for French fries,’ she translates. ‘They put salt and vinegar on them over there.’

‘Ewwww!’ I say, ever the sophisticate.

‘But it’s good! You have them with mushy peas.’

‘Mushy what?’

‘Peas!’ She laughs. ‘They’re sort of smashed up. You don’t have to have them.’

‘Oh, but I want to!’ I assure her quickly. ‘I want to try everything!’

She exhales. ‘Where are you from?’

‘Eden, Ohio.’

‘Is that near Akron?’

‘Actually, it’s not near anything.’

‘And what are you doing? Studying?’

‘Drama. I’m going to be an actress. A classical actress,’ I add, just in case she gets the idea I’m going to sell out. ‘I’ve been accepted into the Actors Drama Workshop Academy. Maybe you’ve heard of it?’

She shakes her head. ‘Is that like RADA?’

‘Almost.’

‘Well, you’re a pretty girl. I’m sure you’ll be a big star.’ And she nods, drumming her long pink nails against the shared armrest. ‘Yeah, London will be the making of you. It’s a long way from Ohio, kid.’