Angel
A captivating story of family and friends, innocence and corruption.Four friends swore eternal friendship when all they had was each other. Now their dazzling careers, their seemingly successful lives, are to be disrupted by a devastating singer – and by the shadow of their past.Rosie Madigan is the angel… an Award-winning costume-designer, she is blessed with worldly goods yet troubled by personal commitments.Gavin Ambrose is the Hollywood megastar: talented and idolized, true love has eluded him.Nell Jeffrey is the glamorous head of an international PR company: her secret love for Rosie’s brother Kevin pierces her usual shrewdness.Kevin Madigan, undercover cop, inhabits a world of danger from which he tries to shelter his friends – but evil has a way of spreading.Angel is the stunning novel of family and friends, of love and loss, of innocence and corruption: it will captivate you from the first page.
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Barbara Taylor Bradford
Angel
Copyright
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
Special overseas edition 1993
This paperback edition 1994
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1993
ANGEL. Copyright © Barbara Taylor Bradford 1993. 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 e-books.
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.
Source ISBN 9780586212841
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007401567 Version: 2017-11-14
Dedication
For my beloved husband Bob,
with whom I have always shared the many-splendoured thing.
Epigraph
The angels keep their ancient places;—
Turn but a stone, and start a wing!
’Tis ye, ’tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.
Francis Thompson
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Part One Shining Stars
One
She stood near one of the huge stone pillars, a…
Two
A blast of cold air hit Rosie in the face…
Three
Almost three hundred people had been invited to the wrap…
Four
It was a glittering day.
Five
Nothing much had changed in the apartment since she had…
Six
Kevin Madigan stood leaning with his back against the bar…
Seven
The bar was called Ouzo-Ouzo and it was located on…
Eight
Out on the sidewalk, the two detectives stood talking for…
Nine
The house stood on a high, densely-wooded hillside in Benedict…
Ten
Johnny Fortune did not like Nell’s friend.
Eleven
Rosie was mortified.
Twelve
Long after the two women had left, Johnny was still…
Thirteen
‘So, come on, ’fess up, Rosie mine. What exactly did…
Fourteen
‘I’ve been here for over twenty minutes and you haven’t…
Part Two Sacred Friendships
Fifteen
Although the traffic in Paris was heavy, it moved along…
Sixteen
Rosie looked across at Collie, and said quietly, ‘I was…
Seventeen
‘Mademoiselle Colette looks so much better, n’est-ce pas?’ the housekeeper…
Eighteen
Within the space of a few seconds, Rosie was slamming…
Nineteen
Much later, after she had bathed, redone her make-up and…
Twenty
‘What happened between your father and Kyra? Did they quarrel?’
Twenty-One
Kyra Arnaud came back to the Loire Valley a week…
Twenty-Two
There was something quite majestic about Kyra Arnaud, Rosie decided,…
Twenty-Three
Two pairs of eyes, one set blue, the other green,…
Twenty-Four
Tiredness overwhelmed Collie.
Twenty-Five
The skies of Paris were an etching in grisaille, a…
Twenty-Six
Back at his suite in the Ritz, Gavin ordered a…
Twenty-Seven
‘A man who gives a woman pearls of great value…
Twenty-Eight
Collie was desperately ill and Henri needed her.
Part Three Dangerous Relationships
Twenty-Nine
‘You’re making progress, really doin’ good, Kevin,’ Neil said. ‘You’ve…
Thirty
It was icy weather, and the drizzling rain was rapidly…
Thirty-One
Ever since Collie’s untimely death in the middle of January…
Thirty-Two
Johnny Fortune stood in front of the mirror in his…
Thirty-Three
In a funny sort of way, Johnny was relieved to…
Thirty-Four
It seemed to Rosie that Johnny Fortune had taken possession…
Thirty-Five
Johnny was waiting for her in her suite at the…
Thirty-Six
An hour later Rosie stood to attention in front of…
Thirty-Seven
Morning sunlight streamed in through the huge plate-glass windows. It…
Thirty-Eight
Henri de Montfleurie had never presumed to understand women, finding…
Thirty-Nine
Vito Carmello was so pleased he could not keep the…
Forty
Rosie felt a wave of nausea sweep over her and…
Forty-One
Gavin Ambrose sat on the sofa in the sitting room…
Forty-Two
On Monday morning Rosie and Gavin went straight from JFK…
Forty-Three
Rosie knew that Johnny was in Manhattan.
Forty-Four
Johnny was devastated.
Part Four Truest Loves
Forty-Five
‘When I get out of here, we can go on…
Forty-Six
Rosie did not notice that they had passed Trump Tower…
About the Author
Other Books by the Same Author
About the Publisher
ONE
She stood near one of the huge stone pillars, a little to one side in the shadows, watching the fight.
The woman, whose name was Rosalind Madigan, was taut with nerves. Her hands were clenched at her sides and she held her breath; then her lips parted slightly in anticipation and anxiety surfaced in her eyes.
Metal struck metal as swords clashed.
The warriors battled on. They were fencing to the death; she knew there could be only one winner.
Brilliant light, penetrating the windows set high in the castle walls, glanced off their swift and lethal swords. Gavin, the smaller of the two, was slender, supple and fleet of foot. He went on the offensive, moving with great speed, his rapier thrusting forward dangerously. He drove his opponent back…farther back across the stone floor of the vast Great Hall. Suddenly he had the advantage.
