Kathleen Tessaro - The Perfume Collector

Her shoulders relaxed, the tensions in her face eased. ‘Good, then,’ she sighed, taking another drag. ‘Oh, and this might help you.’ Reaching forward, she opened the prayer book. Inside there was a newspaper clipping folded into the front cover. She took it out and handed it to him.

It was obviously some years old, cut out from an English publication. It showed a photograph of three young debutantes, standing on a grand marble stairway, dressed in white gowns. Looking at the caption, Edouard matched the face of the first young woman with the name on the bequest. ‘Is this her?’ She was so much younger than he anticipated. ‘A lovely girl,’ he added, looking up. ‘Is she a relative of yours?’

Madame d’Orsey was quiet a moment. ‘I don’t think that matters,’ she decided.

Suddenly, a smile spread across her face, softening her features, banishing the pain in her eyes. And when she spoke, he caught the warmth of something confident and sure, like pride, in her voice.

‘The past is over,’ she decided.

Her shoulders fell, as if a great weight had dissolved.

‘What matters now, all that matters now, is what Grace Munroe chooses to do next.’

The Debutante

The Flirt

Elegance

Innocence

THE PERFUME COLLECTOR. Copyright © 2013 by Kathleen Tessaro. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 ebooks.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Harper,

an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

FIRST U.S. EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-06-225783-3

Epub Edition © MAY 2013 ISBN 9780062257857

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