The Heart Beats in Secret
Jane, 1940 In a small rented house on the east coast of Scotland, a cold winter drags on and Jane faces motherhood alone. But with her husband away at war, she fears small town suspicions. She keeps secrets. Who will they protect and who will they hurt? In times of war and separation, so much is left unsaid.Felicity, 1969 Jane’s daughter chooses to emigrate to Montreal, leaving behind uncomfortable questions about her background and discovering a new political world of social unrest and undreamt-of freedoms. She settles in a commune in rural Quebec, where her own child is born just as the Apollo Mission lands on the moon.Pidge, 2006 Inheriting her grandmother’s house is a surprise. As is the wild goose who stalks into the kitchen and makes herself at home. But somewhere between the flying feathers and her own gathered confusions, Pidge pieces together fragments of her family’s history, finding surprising answers amongst the stories – and the silences – of the past.The Heart Beats in Secret is an evocative, intricate and powerful story of three generations of women. Set between Scotland and Canada, the novel explores the wilderness of the heart, the secrets concealed with every beat, and the strength of maternal desire.
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The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Katie Munnik 2019
Cover photographs © Elizabeth Ansley / Trevillions Images
Cover design by Ellie Game © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Katie Munnik 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.
Excerpt from The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine Words and Music by Harry Carroll and Ballard MacDonald © 1927 Shapiro Bernstein & Co Inc Shapiro Bernstein & Co Limited, New York, NY 10022-5718, USA
Reproduced by permission of Faber Music Ltd All Rights Reserved.
Excerpt from Basho, translated by Lucien Stryk, Penguin 1985
Excerpt from A Doctor Discusses Pregnancy, William G. Birch, Budlong Press 1963
Excerpt from Everybody’s Pudding Book, by Georgiana Hill, Richard Bentley 1862
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.
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Source ISBN: 9780008288044
Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008288068
Version: 2019-02-25
For Mike, of course.
What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow:
What are brief? To-day and to-morrow:
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth:
What are deep? The ocean and truth.
Christina Georgina Rossetti
Contents
For Columba Livia,
to be delivered after I am dead
Well, my dear, the house is yours. Regardless of what your mother might expect, I think it only makes sense. She wouldn’t really want it anyway. All the way out here on the other side of the world, isn’t it? Perhaps she might like to sell it and use the money, though I’m not sure that’s necessary. She seems comfortable where she is. And she’s never been one to look for windfalls or godsends. But maybe you could use a few, so I’m leaving it to you.
It’s a good old house. Friendly in its way. I’ve been happy here. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be offended if you sell it, and I won’t haunt you. I promise. But before you decide anything, do come and see the old place. You haven’t been out here since you were a child, and it may feel different to you now. So come and stay for a while. Long enough to get a handful of warm days – we do get them here, you know, the kind when you open the windows in the morning and leave them open all day, forgetting about them until the curtains blow in just before sunset, when the wind shifts. I have never figured out why it does that. I always meant to ask someone, but never got around to it. Does it happen elsewhere? Or is it only here in this house? Maybe you know, my dear Pidge. Does anyone call you that any more? I must say, when I was drawing up the official paperwork, I had to be so careful with the spelling of your real name. Your mother was right – it has a lovely ring to it. But I was right, too, wasn’t I? It is a strange name to saddle any child with. Yet you, my dear, wear it well. Felicity said that the other mothers wanted to use old-fashioned names, like the ones their grandmothers wore – Jean, Rosa, Edith. Or natural-sounding names like Oak and Ivy, which are only apt out there in the woods. But she wanted something distinctive for you. Oh, your grandfather laughed! It is a beautiful name, even a little fancy in the best way, though pigeons are just as common as the rest of us. But perhaps no one knows Latin these days so that doesn’t matter. I hope you haven’t found it a burden. We all burden our children, I suppose. One way or another.
I hope this house won’t be a burden for you. It’s only a house. Or a bit of money, if you want it that way instead. You would need to clear things out first, so that’s another reason to visit. There may be a few things here you would like to keep. Books or photos, or sentimental odds and ends. It is all fairly old, but it has been useful. Useful or lovely.
