A Woman of Our Times

A Woman of Our Times
Rosie Thomas

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.Harriet Peacock has everything. What more could she possibly want? She has come a long way. From small shopkeeper and betrayed wife, she has made herself the City's darling, her name linked in gossip columns with film star Caspar Jensen. She has come a long way from Simon Archer, the man who invented a brilliantly simple game of chance and skill in a prison camp forty years ago, a game that is the foundation of Harriet's business empire. She has come a long way from her family, friends and former lovers. But when things start going wrong, Harriet finds that in love, as in the game, the quickest way to a goal can be the riskiest…

A Woman of Our Times

BY ROSIE THOMAS

Copyright (#uc69e1da8-1c4f-5ecd-a2f5-5615abb57947)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in the United Kingdom in 1990 by Michael Joseph

Copyright © Rosie Thomas 1990

Rosie Thomas asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of 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, 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.

Ebook Edition © APR 2014 ISBN: 9780007560646

Version: 2017-07-10

Contents

Cover (#ub1860888-de74-5a07-8037-68387489918f)

Title Page (#u2f5417a5-2ba6-5c39-9705-762dd779b971)

Copyright

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

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About the Author

Also by Rosie Thomas

About the Publisher

One (#uc69e1da8-1c4f-5ecd-a2f5-5615abb57947)

London, 1985

Harriet looked at her watch.

In less than an hour, the car would come to take her to Heathrow. In a little more than twelve hours she would be in Los Angeles, with Caspar.

For a moment, she let herself think about him. She didn’t expect that he would be waiting for her in the crowd at the barrier. Of course he would not. But there would be another car, and then a suite or an apartment somewhere with a view of the ocean, or the blue on blue geometry of a pool. Caspar would be there, wearing a white shirt, with the beginnings of a tan. He would say something, nothing significant, ‘Baby, are you dead from the flight? Come here to me,’ and the resonance of his voice would make it important. He would put his arms around her.

The television reporter, sitting across the desk with her list of questions ready, saw how Harriet’s face softened and brightened. The electrician noticed it too, and glanced at his lights.