The Wife's Promise

Alice looked at the young girl standing alone on the platform, sensing the same vulnerability she’d once felt entering the village she now called home. And, as the child gripped her hand tightly, she vowed she’d always protect her – whatever the cost…

England, 1939: When Alice marries kind-hearted vicar David on the eve of war, it means leaving her old life behind and moving into the draughty vicarage in the beautiful, remote village of Goswell, Cumbria. Though desperately homesick, Alice is determined to make a new life for herself and her husband.

But when war suddenly breaks out, Alice is devastated when David chooses to sign up to fight. Distraught, Alice can barely distract herself from her fear of what might happen to her husband. But everything changes when she is asked to take in an evacuee, a young girl called Vera, and Alice makes a promise to herself to protect this quiet, troubled child, no matter what…

Now: When Jane and her family move to the small village of Goswell where her husband grew up, she’s afraid she might have made a huge mistake. Their new home – in what had once been the vicarage – feels a million miles from their previous fast-paced life in New York City, and Jane struggles with empty days that seem lonely and purposeless.

But when Jane finds a small note, forgotten behind a shelf in the pantry, written during the Second World War by a woman named Alice, everything changes. And as Jane learns more about Alice’s life, her bravery and sacrifice, she realises that this woman’s incredible story has the power to change everything…

• Women Fiction
• Romance
• Literature & Fiction