Just Another Girl on the Road , livre ebook

Troubador Publishing Ltd - S. Kensington

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147 pages

English

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Description

Summer 1944: Stranded behind enemy lines in France, eighteen-year-old Katrinka Badeau escapes German deserters with the help of Major Willoughby Nye. Once an employee on her father's merchant ship, Nye is now part of an undercover Jedburgh operation, working for the Allies. When he offers her a job on his team, she accepts.Her work throws her together with Sergeant Wolfe Farr, the team's tough-talking radio operator, and they embark on an intense love affair. But Katrinka is not prepared to accept Wolfe's plans for the future. And her love for Nye, which has evolved from an adolescent crush to that of a young woman, still endures.With the liberation of France, both men are sent to the Far East. Realising what she has lost, Katrinka joins a small entertainment troupe, and sets out on an arduous journey around the world to find Wolfe. But when the three are finally reunited, which love will withstand the test of time?Praise forJust Another Girl on the Road:"Difficult history, abuse, war and love combine in this emotional examination of the end of World War II A deep, evocative read inventive, finely-woven and captivating." -IndieReader"Well-plotted and often exciting An informed, imaginative tale that adds some romance to a well-researched war story." -Kirkus Reviews

Sujets

Gran Londres

East Asia

Historical romance

Okinawa Prefecture

Greater London

Far East

Okinawa

Grand Londres

London

France

Informations

Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	10 juillet 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781838599355
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Praise for 'Just Another Girl on the Road'

A stellar debut...
Kensington combines multifaceted, unforgettable characters with strong, lyrical prose. The pacing of the novel never slows down despite the crucial details of the covert operations hefty on espionage plotting and blood-and-guts combat scenes...This deeply engrossing page-turner is the one not to be missed.”
- The Prairies Book Review

“The Second World War must be one of the most written-about topics in history, but every so often a new angle on the conflict comes along and turns the tropes on its head. Just Another Girl on The Road is very much in that ballpark...The dialogue and character actions are wonderfully crafted, and the intense love stories that evolve around the lead character become as much a core part of the plot as the battles and the struggles. Expect twisting history, elation, sex, tension, and a genuine respect for the subject matter.”
- James Hendicott for IndieReader

“Kensington’s breezy novel tackles a captivating aspect of World War II, the parachuting guerrilla warriors that constituted Operation Jedburgh...The sequence of events, largely between D-Day and VE Day, is well-plotted and often exciting, with the international cast fitting in seamlessly with historical events... An informed, imaginative tale that adds some romance to a well-researched war story.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“This is Kensington’s first novel. Her ability to weave such an intricate and multifaceted story of the resistance in France as a first-time novelist is to be commended...Though the story contains many memorable characters and an intriguing plot, it is Katrinka and her insatiable love of life that is the crux of this work. A strong female character who unapologetically embraces her sexuality, Katrinka is unforgettable. This book offers a fast-paced plot and romance within a historical setting. It grabs one’s attention from its very first words and never lets go.”
- Kat Kennedy, US Review of Books

“It’s only when you get to the end of this book and look back that you realise the tour de force of the plotting. It’s a masterpiece... The different threads of the story weave in and out, touching each other, sometimes explosively, sometimes poignantly. It’s tempting to second-guess how a book will work out, but there was no point in doing this with Just Another Girl on the Road . Events never worked out as I thought they would, but equally, as I read they seemed inevitable. The finale shocked me and has stayed with me for days after I finished reading...”
- Sue Magee, The Bookbag

“A creative, absorbing novel about human connection in the face of war...”
- BlueInk Review

Copyright © 2019 S. Kensington

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Matador
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Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,
Leicestershire. LE8 0RX
Tel: 0116 279 2299
Email: books@troubador.co.uk
Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
Twitter: @matadorbooks

ISBN 978 1838599 355

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

For V

and for restless women, and the men who love them.

“The journey itself is my home.”
– Matsuo Basho

Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Acknowledgements
Reading Group Questions

1
France, 1944
Screams shattered the late afternoon air, causing Sergeant Farr and Corporal Valentine to dive for cover at the base of a small rise. Topping the rise was a derelict farmhouse, its roof and walls half covered with creeping ivy. A door slammed back as a German soldier and girl hurtled down the steps and into the bramble-covered yard.
The man was bare-chested except for an empty shoulder holster; his uniform trousers hung beltless and unbuttoned around his waist. He grabbed the girl’s hair, yanking her toward him. Something silver glinted in her hand. She slashed at his leg and the man cried out.
Farr and Valentine crouched behind the cover of a short wall. The two men were checking the area for a possible drop zone. They were out of uniform, dressed in farm-laborer clothing. Farr tensed as another soldier appeared in the doorway. He was smiling. Christ, what was going on? He didn’t want to be watching this.
The man grabbed again. Dragging the girl up the steps, he threw her against the wall of the house. The girl’s head hit wood with a loud crack and her legs crumpled. He shoved her upright, knocking the knife away. Pushing himself onto her and fumbling with his trousers, he lifted her shapeless dress with one free hand. The girl kneed him hard in the groin, and the man jolted back on his injured leg, cursing. She wrenched free and tumbled down the steps, falling off-balance into the dirt. The man swore again and plunged down the steps after her.
Valentine pulled out his gun and hissed, “We ought to teach those bastards something.”
Farr grimaced. They’d been ordered not to engage.
Valentine persisted, “We ought to teach them something.”
The girl was having trouble getting back up.
Farr nodded curtly. “Right, let’s go.”
The men broke cover, firing their pistols. Too late, the surprised Germans scrambled for their weapons. The men worked their way up the hill, covering the building in a hail of bullets as their opponents fell. It was over in a matter of seconds.
Sprinting to the barn, Valentine dodged a tethered horse that reared back in fear. The girl was now half-sitting, one hand pressed against her shoulder, the other groping in the dust.
Farr ran up the steps to the house, gripping his pistol with both hands. He inspected the dead soldier sprawled behind the railing, then kicked open the door, stepping over the other dead body. Walking cautiously into the adjoining room, he froze in the doorway. A tumbled bed with blood-soaked sheets occupied one corner, severed ropes dangled from its bedposts. The body of a half-naked German soldier lay dead on the covers. His uniform tunic was drenched in blood, and his groin mutilated. Strewn across the floor were a few tubes holding small tablets. Farr picked one up. The word ‘Pervitin’ was printed across its red-and-blue label. “What the hell?” he muttered.
A shout brought him running back outside. Valentine grappled with the girl on the steps as she twisted frantically to get away.
Farr gripped the man’s shoulder. “Let her go.”
“She cut me.” His hand was bleeding.
Valentine dropped the girl’s arm; the retrieved knife clenched in her fist. She stumbled into the yard staring at them, and the men stared back. Her shoulder trickled blood, and there were rope burns on her wrists and lower legs. Splotches of bruising marked her body. A knife sheath protruded from her partly laced, high-top shoes.
She was silent now, trembling violently. Dark hair rumpled past her shoulders, half covering her face. She wore a summer frock, but the sash was torn and the dress hung from her, sack-like. Farr judged her to be between sixteen and eighteen years of age.
Valentine started forward, and she fell back a few steps, raising her knife.
“Let her be,” Farr said quietly, not taking his eyes off the girl. “Stand back.”
The girl looked up at him, and their eyes locked briefly. Something flickered in those dead eyes, giving Farr an unexpected flush of warmth. The horse’s high whinny broke the stillness, and in a moment the girl whirled, darting away.
Farr leaped forward. “Get her!”
The terrified horse reared, its forelegs chopping air. Throwing a glance at the approaching men, the girl grabbed the horse’s mane, managed to swing a leg over his back, and slashed down on its tether. The men scattered as she guided the skittish animal, snorting and prancing in a nervous semicircle, out into the yard. Leaning low and clinging to its mane, she dug her heels into its sides. Barely under control the horse lunged, taking a shortcut across the fields, and headed hell-bent for the fence. The main road lay just beyond.
Farr clenched his teeth. “She won’t make it.”
The horse rushed the fence at a full gallop. Gathering himself, he sailed over, with the girl clinging to his back. The sound of hooves faded as they cantered down the road and disappeared.
Farr realized he’d been holding his breath, and let out a harsh sigh.
From the opposite end of the road, two men on a battered Norton motorcycle sped toward them, swerving suddenly into the cover of thick brush. Farr watched his team officers, Major Nye and Lieutenant Raphael, scramble from the bike.
Nye scanned the area, then approached. “All clear, Sergeant?”
“Yes, sir. There was a—”
The major cut him short, striding up the hill toward the house.
R