Tracy Chevalier - The Last Runaway

The Borough Press

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2013

Copyright © Tracy Chevalier 2013

Map © John Gilkes 2013

Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

Cover image © Shutterstock.com

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: 2019-06-07

This book is dedicated to Catoctin Quaker Camp

and Oberlin College:

two places that shaped and guided my younger self

Contents

Cover

Title Page The Last Runaway TRACY CHEVALIER

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Map Horizon Quilt Bonnets Silence Appliqué 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 By Tracy Chevalier About the Publisher The Borough Press An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2013 Copyright © Tracy Chevalier 2013 Map © John Gilkes 2013 Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019 Cover image © Shutterstock.com 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: 2019-06-07

Dedication Dedication Dedication Map Horizon Quilt Bonnets Silence Appliqué 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 By Tracy Chevalier About the Publisher This book is dedicated to Catoctin Quaker Camp and Oberlin College: two places that shaped and guided my younger self

Map

Horizon

Quilt

Bonnets

Silence

Appliqué

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

By Tracy Chevalier

About the Publisher

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 over thoughts of the journey itself, Honor tried to fix her mind instead on its end at the clapboard house her future brother-in-law had sketched for Grace in his letters from Ohio. ‘It is a solid house, even if not of the stone thee is accustomed to,’ Adam Cox had written. ‘Most houses here are made of wood. Only when a family is established and unlikely to move do they build a brick house.

‘It is situated at the end of Main Street on the edge of the town,’ he had continued. ‘Faithwell is still small, with fifteen families of Friends. But it will grow, by the grace of God. My brother’s shop is in Oberlin, a larger town three miles away. He and I hope to move it when Faithwell has grown large enough to support a draper’s. Here we call it “dry goods”. There are many new words to learn in America.’