CONTENTS

  Cover

  Praise For Sally Nicholls

  Also By Sally Nicholls

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-one

  Chapter Sixty-two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-one

  Chapter Seventy-two

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  Chapter Seventy-Six

  Chapter Seventy-Seven

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  Chapter Seventy-Nine

  Chapter Eighty

  Chapter Eighty-one

  Chapter Eighty-two

  Chapter Eighty-Three

  Chapter Eighty-Four

  Chapter Eighty-Five

  Chapter Eighty-Six

  Chapter Eighty-Seven

  Chapter Eighty-Eight

  Chapter Eighty-Nine

  Chapter Ninety

  Chapter Ninety-one

  Chapter Ninety-two

  Chapter Ninety-Three

  Chapter Ninety-Four

  Chapter Ninety-Five

  Chapter Ninety-Six

  Chapter Ninety-Seven

  Chapter Ninety-Eight

  Chapter Ninety-Nine

  Chapter One Hundred and One

  Chapter One Hundred and Two

  Chapter One Hundred and Three

  Chapter One Hundred and Four

  Chapter One Hundred and Five

  Chapter One Hundred and Six

  Chapter One Hundred and Seven

  Chapter One Hundred and Eight

  Chapter One Hundred and Nine

  Chapter One Hundred and Ten

  Chapter One Hundred and Eleven

  Chapter One Hundred and Twelve

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen

  Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen

  Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen

  Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen

  Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen

  Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-one

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Three

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Four

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight

  Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-one

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-two

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Three

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Five

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Six

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Eight

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Nine

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-one

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-two

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Three

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Four

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Five

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Six

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Eight

  Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Nine

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-one

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-two

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Three

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Four

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Five

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Six

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Seven

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Eight

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Nine

  Chapter One Hundred and Sixty

  Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-one

  Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-two

  Acknowledgements

  PRAISE FOR YOURS FROM THE TOWER

  ‘I loved this book. An unputdownable friendship story told in letters so vivid and immersive that I felt like joining in with the correspondence’

  Hilary McKay

  ‘Sally Nicholls is brilliant: her writing reads like silk’

  Emma Carroll

  PRAISE FOR THE SILENT STARS GO BY

  ‘Sally Nicholls conjures another era with a miraculous lightness of touch that fills me with joy and envy’

  Frances Hardinge

  ‘Gorgeous, poignant, unputdownable. A new Christmas classic’

  Hilary McKay

  ‘Bittersweet perfection’

  ‘Books of the Year’, Guardian

  ‘A page-turner’

  ‘Books of the Year’, Telegraph

  ‘A moving unputdownable read’

  Daily Mirror

  ‘Beautifully written, paced and plotted, this bittersweet romance... will touch many hearts’

  ‘Books of the Year’, New Statesman

  ‘Feminist themes [are] explored beautifully’

  ‘Best of 2020’, Irish Times

  ‘A gorgeous winter romance to curl up with’

  The Bookseller

  ‘Immersive and gripping... another triumph from one of the UK’s most talented writers’

  The School Librarian

  ‘An engulfing historical novel’

  ‘Books of the Year’, The Times

  ‘A festive classic in the making’

  ‘Books of the Year’, Observer

  ‘A beautifully told, Christmas-set story’

  The i

  ‘This poignant novel confronts truths, secrets and the awful choices made during wartime’

  Daily Mail

  PRAISE FOR THINGS A BRIGHT GIRL CAN DO

  Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, National Book Award, Books Are My Bag Readers Award and the YA Book Prize

  ‘Nicholls has brought alive the young women of the past to empower the next generation’

  The Times

  ‘Romantic and inspiring’

  Sunday Times

  ‘Captivating’

  Red Magazine

  ‘Vivid, hard-hitting, funny and emotionally compelling’

  Observer

  ‘A perfect balm to a frustrating world’

  Buzzfeed

  ‘Relevant for every generation’

  Evening Standard

  ‘Unforgettable’

  Guardian

  ‘Sally Nicholls deftly weaves history and politics into the narrative with such a lightness of touch, it was impossible to stop reading’

  Louise O’Neill

  Also by Sally Nicholls

  All Fall Down

  Season of Secrets

  The Silent Stars Go By

  Things a Bright Girl Can Do

  First published in 2023 by

  Andersen Press Limited

  20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA, UK

  Vijverlaan 48, 3062 HL Rotterdam, Nederland

  www.andersenpress.co.uk

  2 4 6 8 1
0 9 7 5 3 1

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

  The right of Sally Nicholls to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  Copyright © Sally Nicholls, 2023

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available.

  ISBN 978 1 78761 262 4

  Another one for Nicola, Carolyn and Sarah.

  Bannon House

  Abyford

  Perthshire

  20th November 1896

  Dear Polly and Sophia,

  Girls, please write to me at once and tell me how you are. I am so lonely I could die. I have been at my grandmother’s house for FOUR MONTHS now and absolutely NOTHING has happened. Grandmother sees nobody, visits nobody, goes nowhere. I am expected to wait upon her hand and foot – fetch her smelling salts, take her letters to the post, read aloud to her, take dictation. I am absolutely wretched.

  I know she does not intend for me to marry. She said to me, ‘So nice to have a granddaughter to keep house. Much more suitable than a paid companion. It has been so lonely since your aunt Lucy passed on.’ I do not keep house, though. Her housekeeper, Sarah, does everything and always has done. I tried ordering food when I first came here – I got the big book of recipes down from the kitchen shelf and looked through it, trying to find interesting things to eat. But Sarah and Grandmother soon put me in my place. ‘We have chop on Monday,’ said Sarah. ‘And mutton on Tuesday. And on Wednesdays, your grandmother is partial to Irish stew.’ She went on like this through all the days of the week. And that was that! I am not a housekeeper. I am basically a chattel.

  I cannot quite believe I am saying this, but I would give anything to be back at school with you all. Even needlework class and gymnastics would be better than a small Scottish village in the middle of nowhere! Oh, to be walking down to the grocer’s with Polly on one arm and Sophia on the other. Oh, to lie in our bedroom giggling together after Lights Out. Oh, to have someone to talk to who is not Grandmother or the servants! Sixteen years my aunt Lucy lived here! I think I shall die of boredom.

  Sophia, write and tell me everything about the Season. Have you met any handsome men yet? Are you in love? How I wish I had an aunt who was an aristocrat! Please, marry a baronet for my sake and tell him you cannot be parted from your beloved Tirzah. You could employ me as your hermit. I would be perfectly happy to sit in a grotto in the grounds of your castle, spouting riddles for the visiting gentry. I would see more life there than I do here. Polly, tell me about all your brothers and sisters. How is working life? Do you go to many dances in Liverpool?

  My arm is tired with all this writing. I’ve been thinking – all this time, I’ve written you a letter apiece, and I’ve mostly written the same thing in each of them. But now you’ve gone to London, Sophia, I suppose you won’t have much time for letter writing. Why don’t we just write each other one letter apiece? I am going to put this one in an envelope addressed to Sophia, and then Sophia, when you write back, write a letter to both of us and post it to Polly in an envelope with my letter inside. Do you see? That way we need only write one letter each. I cannot separate the two of you in my head anyway. I think of us always as a trio, all cuddled up together in our little dorm at school. Oh, I miss you both so much! Please say you’ll fall in with my scheme. It will make me feel like you’re not so far away.

  Your sister in misery and exile,

  Tirzah

  12 Wimpole Street

  Mayfair

  London

  24th November 1896

  Dear Polly and Tirzah,

  Firstly – my aunt Eliza is not an aristocrat. She just married my uncle Simon, who is the younger son of a baron and therefore an Honourable – which means his father was an aristocrat, I suppose. My aunt Eliza is decidedly middle class, and she’s horribly aware of it. She is always talking about ‘darling Grandpapa’s house’, and poor Uncle Simon looks frightfully sick whenever she does so. He doesn’t like to tell her that it’s not the done thing to call your in-laws ‘Grandpapa’ or boast about your country houses. She is not very pleased about me being here in my homemade ballgowns, looking so obviously the poor relation. She keeps talking about her darling sister who made a rather unfortunate match to a drawing master. I do call it unkind. I would rather marry a pauper than Uncle Simon. And Daddy isn’t a drawing master anyway. He’s a painter. It’s not his fault his paintings aren’t the sort that sell.

  I suppose I should be grateful to Aunt Eliza for paying my school fees and letting me come and stay with her for the Season (though my cousins Mariah and Isabelle rather sneer at me for having gone to school – they had governesses, of course). And it is fun – all the balls and tea parties and so forth. The other girls are rather jolly, even if they are fearful snobs. Isabelle and Mariah certainly are. I think it’s being brought up by Aunt Eliza that does it. They all treat me rather as a hired monkey – ‘Sophia, fetch me my slippers, would you?’ ‘Sophia, tell Langton to get the coach ready for seven.’ I think your grandmother and my aunt would get along, Tirzah!

  Mariah and Isabelle are just jealous because the men like me more than them. I danced every dance at Lady Frances’s ball on Saturday, and weren’t they green? They cannot understand it – a plain little thing like me. But men like a girl who makes them laugh.

  No, I have not fallen in love yet – though I certainly intend to be married before the end of the Season. I won’t get more than one Season, so I shall make the most of it.

  Tell me, Polly – how are you coping in that orphanage of yours? Do you still like being a schoolmarm?

  Your dear friend,

  The not-yet-titled Sophia

  45 Park Lane

  Liverpool

  27th November 1896

  Dear Sophia and Tirzah,

  It feels very strange to be writing to you both at once like this – it’s so queer to be copying all my questions to Sophia onto your letter, Tirzah. But I do rather like it. I miss you both enormously, although I like being at home too. I love my home. It isn’t as grand as Sophia’s aunt’s house in Mayfair. The carpet is flapping off the top of the stairs, and there are greasy fingerprints all along the walls, and it’s draughty and shabby, and the windowpanes rattle in a high wind. But I love being here with Mother and Father and Betsy and the little ones. Even Michael sometimes, when he comes home for the weekend. It’s very funny to think of my big brother as a university student. ‘We’re growing up, little sister,’ he says to me, although I don’t feel grown-up in the slightest. Do you? I hardly recognise myself in the looking glass, with my hair up and my skirts down. I still feel like a little girl inside.

  Working life is good. The orphanage is a wonderful institution. We take little children who would otherwise be sent to the workhouse or end up starving on the streets. It really is so sad – there are far more children than we can ever help. We get so many women in trouble coming to the doors, begging for our help. And most of them we have to send away. Sometimes it is women who are not married and have no way of supporting an infant. And sometimes they simply cannot feed or house another child. Miss Jessop says very often the babies we cannot take are abandoned in the street or given to baby farmers to raise, and many of them die.

  The youngest children go out to foster families in the local area. They come back to us at five, which is when they start in my school. I am teaching the smallest children, and the little ones are so sweet. They are always wanting to climb onto my lap and put their arms around me. I wish I could take them all home! They leave us at fourteen, the girls mostly to domestic service, the boys to the navy.

  Your industrious friend,

  Polly

  P.S. Do you think your grandmother would let you come and visit us, Tirzah? Could you come for Christmas again? You know we would love to have you. Mother still talks about that Christmas when you dressed up as Judith for the charades and chopped off Michael’s head into the basket.

  45 Park Lane

  Liverpool

  27th November 1896

  Dear Sophia,

  I know Tirzah said to write one letter to you both at once, and I have (I sent it to Tirzah, who I suppose will pass it on to you), but I felt I must add a few short lines just to you, Sophia. Do you think her grandmother really is as awful as she says, or is it just Tirzah being Tirzah? I showed Mother her letter, and she said that some women do very well as housekeepers for their relations, but Tirzah is a girl who needs a bit of a life of her own. I think she’s right. I can’t imagine what her parents are thinking letting her stay with that awful woman. Couldn’t she go out to India with them?