The Last Runaway. Tracy Chevalier

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The Last Runaway - Tracy  Chevalier


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       The Last Runaway

      TRACY CHEVALIER

       Copyright

      The Borough Press

      And imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013

      Copyright © Tracy Chevalier 2013

      Map © John Gilkes 2013

      Tracy Chevalier 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

      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.

      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.

      Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780007517312

      Version: 2015-12-09

       Dedication

      This book is dedicated to Catoctin Quaker Camp

      and Oberlin College:

      two places that shaped and guided my younger self

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Map

       Dandelions

       Woods

       Corn

       Fever

       Blackberries

       Pole Star

       Sugaring

       Milk

       Onions

       Straw

       Water

       Comfort

       Ohio Star

       Read on for an extract from Tracy Chevalier’s new novel, At the Edge of the Orchard

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       Praise

       Also by Tracy Chevalier

       About the Publisher

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       Horizon

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      SHE COULD NOT GO back. When Honor Bright abruptly announced to her family that she would accompany her sister Grace to America – when she sorted through her belongings, keeping only the most necessary, when she gave away all of her quilts, when she said goodbye to her uncles and aunts, and kissed her cousins and nieces and nephews, when she got into the coach that would take them from Bridport, when she and Grace linked arms and walked up the gangplank at Bristol – she did all of these things with the unspoken thought: I can always come back. Layered beneath those words, however, was the suspicion that the moment her feet left English soil, Honor’s life would be permanently altered.

      At least the idea of returning drew the sting from her actions in the weeks leading up to their departure, like the pinch of sugar secretly added to a sauce to tame its acid. It allowed her to remain calm, and not cry as her friend Biddy did when Honor gave her the quilt she had just finished: a patchwork of brown, yellow and cream diamonds pieced into an eight-point Star of Bethlehem, then quilted with harps and the running feather border she was known for. The community had given her a signature quilt – each square made and signed by a different friend or family member – and there was not room for both quilts in her trunk. The signature quilt was not so well made as her own, but of course she must take it. ‘’Tis best left with thee, to remember me by,’ she insisted as her weeping friend tried to push the Star of Bethlehem quilt back at her. ‘I will make more quilts in Ohio.’

      Jumping


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