Act of Will
From the internationally bestselling author of A Woman of SubstanceThree generations of beautiful women and their journey from rags to richesAudra is an impoverished children’s nanny from Leeds who sacrificed everything for her only daughter.Christina is a talented art student who won world renown as a fashion designer – yet who has known pain and heartache.Kyle is a rebellious young woman who chafes against her mother’s success – and in whom her grandmother’s spirit of duty and sacrifice is reborn.Moving from the bleak Yorkshire Dales, through London, to the glamorous world of haute couture, this classic novel sparkles as it entertains.
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Act of Will
Barbara Taylor Bradford
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
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Previously published in paperback by Grafton 1987
First published in Great Britain by Grafton Books 1986
Copyright © Barbara Taylor Bradford 1986
Barbara Taylor Bradford asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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 e-books.
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2010 ISBN: 9780007363728
Version: 2017-10-30
‘Happy Birthday to You’, words and music by Mildred J. Jill and Patty S. Hill.
Copyright © 1935 Birch Tree Group Ltd, Princeton, N.J. Used by permission.
Dedicated with love to the memory of my parents, Winston and Freda Taylor. She gave me the greatest gift a mother can give a child, the desire to excel. He taught me to be strong of heart and to stand tall.
It is also for my husband Bob, whose love and support has equalled theirs, with all of my love.
Table of Contents
Audra, Christina and Kyle
1978
Audra Crowther sat on the sofa in the living room of her daughter’s Manhattan penthouse. She held herself tensely and clenched her hands together so hard that the knuckles shone white as she looked from her daughter Christina to her granddaughter Kyle.
The two younger women stood in the middle of the room, their faces pale, their eyes blazing as they glared at each other. Their angry words of a few minutes ago still reverberated on the warm afternoon air.
Audra felt helpless. She knew that to remonstrate with them, to attempt to make them see reason, was a waste of time, at least at this moment. Each was convinced she was right, and no amount of persuasion would make them reverse their positions or endeavour to understand the other’s point of view.
Even their clothes were like uniforms, underscoring their intrinsic differences, further separating them. Blue jeans and sneakers for Kyle, the white Swiss voile shirt her only concession to style, the combination giving her an oddly vulnerable, childlike look, with her scrubbed face and long hair hanging loose. And for Christina, an expensive, beautifully cut dress and tailored jacket of matching raw silk, without doubt bearing her own couture label; the silver-grey of the silk the perfect foil for her chestnut hair shot through with reddish-gold lights, the grey also emphasizing her lovely smoky eyes which had always been her best feature. She was slender, impeccably groomed, and not showing her forty-seven years in the least.
Tycoon versus student…role model versus rebel…mother versus daughter, Audra thought, smothering a sigh. Well, it wasn’t the first time a mother and daughter were at odds with each other; that was an age-old conflict.
Suddenly Kyle broke the protracted silence when she snapped, ‘And there’s another thing, Mother. You had no right to drag poor Grandma into this débâcle, drag her all the way from England, especially since-’
‘I didn’t!’ Christina shot back. ‘It was your father who telephoned my –’
‘Oh yes, go on, blame Dad,’ Kyle cut in, her voice scathing.
‘But it was your father who phoned my mother,’ Christina protested. She appealed to Audra. ‘Isn’t that so, Mummy?’
Audra focused her attention on her granddaughter. ‘That’s quite true, Kyle.’
Kyle tossed back her mane of black hair, then thrust her hands in the pockets of her jeans, her movements brusque, defiant. Her huge brown eyes, usually doe-like and soft, flashed rebelliously. ‘I suppose he thought we needed a mediator. Well, we don’t…there’s nothing to mediate –’ She brought herself up short, swung her long-limbed body towards Audra and gave her a wan half smile. ‘Sorry, Grandma, I don’t mean to be rude to you, but you shouldn’t have been forced to travel half-way around the world just because my parents have discovered they can’t
