The Secrets She Carried
Praise for
THE SECRETS SHE CARRIED
“I read Barbara Davis’s debut novel,
The Secrets She Carried
, deep into the night—one minute rushing to discover how the mysteries resolved, the next slowing…. Adele Laveau’s haunting voice and Leslie Nichols’s journey toward understanding lingered long after I read the final page of this engrossing tale.”
—Julie Kibler, author of
Calling Me Home
“
The Secrets She Carried
is a beautifully crafted page-turner with many twists but a simple theme: No matter how far you run, you can’t escape your past. Part contemporary women’s fiction, part historical novel, the plot moves seamlessly back and forth in time to unlock family secrets that bind four generations of women. Add a mysterious death, love that defies the grave, and the legacy of redemption, and this novel has it all.”
—Barbara Claypole White, author of
The Unfinished Garden
“I was swept into Adele’s heartbreaking life and her devotion to those she loved.”
—Susan Crandall, author of
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Written by today’s freshest new talents and selected by New American Library, NAL Accent novels touch on subjects close to a woman’s heart, from friendship to family to finding our place in the world. The Conversation Guides included in each book are intended to enrich the individual reading experience, as well as encourage us to explore these topics together—because books, and life, are meant for sharing.
Visit us online at www.penguin.com.
THE
SECRETS
SHE
CARRIED
BARBARA DAVIS
NAL Accent
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014
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penguin.com
A Penguin Random House Company
First published by NAL Accent, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC
Copyright © Barbara Davis, 2013
Conversation Guide copyright © Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2013
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:
Davis, Barbara, 1961–
The secrets she carried/Barbara Davis.
pages cm
ISBN: 978-1-101-61474-7
1. Homecoming—Fiction. 2. Plantations—North Carolina—Fiction. 3. Tobacco farms—North Carolina—Fiction. 4. Family secrets—Fiction. 5. North Carolina—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.A95554S43 2013
813’.6—dc23 2013017098
Designed by Alissa Amell
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For my mother, my grandmother, and my
great-grandmother: three generations of women who
through their daily example taught me the true meaning
of beauty, strength, and love. This book is for you—
and because of you.
With a first book it’s difficult to know where to begin all the thanking. So many wonderful people have been a part of this amazing journey. From the moment the first tiny seed for
The Secrets She Carried
popped into my head until the day it finally landed on the shelves, I have had more support than I can ever properly acknowledge.
However, I must begin somewhere, and there is no better place than with Tom Kelley, the love of my life and my biggest fan, for encouraging me to chase my dream, and for holding my hand every step of the way while I did. For all the brainstorming sessions, edited pages, and long drives in the country when I found myself stuck, I thank you, thank you, thank you. You are the hero I wish for all my heroines.
I would also be remiss if I did not tip my hat to fate for leading me to my amazing and tireless agent, Nalini Akolekar of Spencerhill Associates, Ltd., who believed in the book from day one, and was never too busy to walk a first-timer through the process and, more than once, to talk her back from the ledge.
Also earning a sincere thanks are my friends and writing partners from Triangle Writer’s Group in Raleigh: Lisa Cameron Rosen, Matt King, Doug Simpson, Tara Lynne Groth, Susie Potter, Greg Welker, John Flanagan, and Jack De Veaux, who kindly contributed their time and ideas to the shaping of Adele’s and Leslie’s stories. Your support and friendship have meant more to me than you know.
Next, I must say an enormous thank-you to the entire team at Penguin, but especially to my editors, Jhanteigh Kupihea and Sandra Harding, who took four hundred pages of scribble and turned them into a
book. Words cannot express how fortunate I feel to have had you in my corner.
Last, and, as they say, certainly not least, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to every teacher I ever had and to all the teachers in our classrooms today, whose talents and dedication ensure that books will continue to be written and read. You too are my heroes.
Prologue
Adele
Peak Plantation, 1940
I
believe it’s the cold I remember most.