London Dawn Read online

  Endorsements

  Readers everywhere are loving the Danforths of Lancashire…Praise for book one, Ashton Park…

  “The first installment of Pura’s The Danforths of Lancashire series introduces the inhabitants of Ashton Park, a centuries-old manor near the shores of northwest England. Tensions of the early twentieth century, including WWI and unrest in Ireland and Palestine, create a backdrop for a tale rife with suspense and emotional twists as the large extended Danforth family encounters its share of romance, human tragedy, and skullduggery. Sir William and Lady Elizabeth and their brood of independent-minded daughters and gallant sons have their honor tested, the bonds of family strained, and the goodness of God questioned. Amid trials and treachery, Pura draws poignant exhibitions of integrity, staunch lessons in forgiveness, and tender pictures of love and devotion…a most enjoyable introduction to an intriguing family saga.”

  Publisher’s Weekly

  “Your best writing ever! I like the way you tie in history in a clear way…Is there another one after Downton, I mean Ashton?”

  Karen Anna Vogel

  author of The Amish Knitting Circle series

  “Just finished reading Ashton Park…LOVED IT! Can’t wait for the next installment of the series.”

  Carolea from Nova Scotia, Canada

  “The book drew me in from the first page (from the first wild, carefree gallop). Really appreciate a good history lesson along with the plot. If I could just get my other work done, I could curl up and get lost in the Danforth lives yet once again!”

  Debbie from Mitton, Canada

  “This was an amazing book…It had well-developed characters, interesting story lines, and a host of well-described landscapes. The relationships between characters was complex and real, not namby-pamby. I wanted to “see” the castle and the ash trees. I could feel the breeze through them. This author is on the order of Jane Austen but for our time…I would highly recommend this book and hope to see it in a mini-series or movie.”

  Reviewer on CBD.com

  “If you love Downton Abbey you will love this book!…Set in the early 1900s in England during World War I, this book will take you on a grand adventure…You will laugh, cry, and find yourself cheering for your favorite characters.”

  Reviewer on CBD.com

  And for book two, Beneath the Dover Sky…

  “Murray Pura could write technical manuals, and I’d read them. He pours his heart into his writing. Depth comes to mind.”

  Jacqueline

  “In this second installment of The Danforths of Lancashire, the compelling story of a loving family is continued as they overcome obstacles none of them thought they would ever face. They will make you wish you were part of their family, even with all the problems they have to solve despite the odds! My favorite element in the story (besides the well-rounded characters that are absolutely memorable) is that the women are strong in their beliefs and determined to achieve their goals in life. Pura does not make his female characters swoon at the sight of every handsome man, and that is to be commended—especially with the seamless tie-in of historical facts and events.”

  Deb, Amazon reviews

  “I very much enjoyed reading this book. There were several unexpected twists and turns that literally made me gasp and of course kept me turning the pages. As always Pura’s writing touches something deep inside me.”

  Marian, reviewer on Goodreads

  MORE GREAT HARVEST HOUSE BOOKS BY MURRAY PURA

  An Amish Family Christmas

  http://bit.ly/AmishFamilyChristmas

  SNAPSHOTS IN HISTORY SERIES

  The Wings of Morning

  http://bit.ly/WingsofMorning

  The Face of Heaven

  http://bit.ly/FaceofHeaven

  Whispers of a New Dawn

  http://bit.ly/WhispersofaNewDawn

  THE DANFORTHS OF LANCASHIRE SERIES

  Ashton Park

  http://bit.ly/AshtonPark

  Beneath the Dover Sky

  http://bit.ly/BeneathDoverSky

  London Dawn

  HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

  EUGENE, OREGON

  Cover by Garborg Design Works, Savage, Minnesota

  Cover photos © Chris Garborg; Paul Wish, Alvin Gacusan, Marlene DeGrood, johnbraid / Bigstock

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  LONDON DAWN

  Copyright © 2014 by Murray Pura

  Published by Harvest House Publishers

  Eugene, Oregon 97402

  www.harvesthousepublishers.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Pura, Murray

  London dawn / Murray Pura.

  pages cm.—(The Danforths of Lancashire ; book 3)

  ISBN 978-0-7369-5887-5 (pbk.)

  ISBN 978-0-7369-5888-2 (eBook)

  1. Aristocracy (social class)—England—History—20th century—Fiction. 2. Social classes—England—History—20th century—Fiction. 3. World War, 1914-1918—England—Fiction. 4. Baptists—England—Fiction. 5. Lancashire (England)—Fiction 6. Domestic fiction. I. Title.

  PR9199.4.P87L66 2014

  813'.6—dc23

  2013028685

  All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s and publisher’s rights is strictly prohibited.

  DEDICATION

  For Sean Lougheed and Martina Halwass. I give thanks for our friendship forged in sunshine and in storm. God bless you both for your faithfulness to my family and myself.

  Contents

  Endorsements

  More Great Harvest House Books by Murray Pura

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  The Characters

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  About Murray Pura

  About the Publisher

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  London Dawn marks the seventh book I have worked on with Nick Harrison. The longer we work together the smoother it goes and the stronger the novel that results. Thanks for everything, Nick. Thanks also to the team at Harvest House—Barb Gordon, Kim Moore, Gene Skinner, Shane White, Katie Lane, Laura Knudson, and many others.

  Cheers to my family and also to my cat Kokomo—she sits by my side day after day and watches every story come into being on my Mac.

  And special thanks to the many veterans, living and dead, whose words I took to heart as I researched this novel, delving into book after book and watching interview after interview on YouTube. Men like Robert Stanford Tuck, whose tale is found in Larry Forrester’s Fly for Your Life; Douglas Bader, immortalized in Paul Brickhill’s Reach for the Sky; Geoffrey Wellum, who wrote his memoir in First Light; Brian Lane, who penned his personal account in Spitfire! before being killed in action; and many others whose stories are included in histories of
the Battle of Britain, such as Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop and Stephen Bungay’s The Most Dangerous Enemy. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

  THE CHARACTERS

  Lord Preston (William Danforth)—husband to Lady Preston, father, and Member of Parliament (MP); head of Ashton Park, the family estate in Lancashire, as well as Dover Sky, the summer home in the south of England, and Kensington Gate, their house in London

  Lady Preston (Elizabeth Danforth)—Lord Preston’s wife and mother to their seven children

  Sir Arthur—Lady Preston’s father

  Lady Grace—Lord Preston’s mother

  Edward Danforth—the eldest son, a Member of Parliament, and a former Royal Navy officer

  Charlotte Danforth—Edward Danforth’s wife

  Owen—their eldest son

  Colm—their youngest son

  Kipp Danforth—an RAF pilot and the middle son of Lord and Lady Preston

  Caroline Scarborough Danforth—his wife

  Matthew—their son from Kipp’s first marriage

  Charles—their son from Caroline’s relationship with Tanner Buchanan

  Cecilia Printemp—their daughter

  Robbie Danforth—the youngest son, who serves in the British army in Palestine

  Shannon Danforth—his wife, from Dublin

  Patricia Claire—their daughter

  Jeremy Sweet—Anglican clergyman

  Emma Sweet—his wife and the eldest of the Danforth daughters

  Peter and James—their twins

  Billy—their youngest son

  Albrecht Hartmann—German professor and theologian

  Catherine Moore Hartmann—his wife, widow of Albert Moore, and second Danforth daughter

  Sean—their son from Catherine’s first marriage

  Angelika—their daughter

  Terrence Fordyce—officer in the Royal Navy who serves on HMS Hood

  Libby Fordyce—his wife, widow of Michael Woodhaven, and third Danforth daughter

  Jane—their adopted daughter

  Ben Whitecross—an RAF pilot and Victoria Cross winner

  Victoria Whitecross—his wife and the youngest of the Danforth daughters

  Ramsay—their eldest son

  Tim—their youngest son

  Harrison—groundskeeper at Ashton Park

  Holly—his wife, the Ashton Park manager, and the youngest sister of Lord Preston

  Skitt—butler to the Fordyce family

  Montgomery—his American wife and a maid to the Fordyce family

  Paul Terrence William—their son

  Tavy—butler to Lord and Lady Preston at Kensington Gate in London

  Norah Cole—maid to Lord and Lady Preston at Kensington Gate

  Mrs. Longstaff—cook at Kensington Gate

  Baron Gerard von Isenburg—German acquaintance of the family and also a high-ranking member of the Nazi Party and the SS

  Eva—his daughter

  Tanner Buchanan—Member of Parliament and nemesis of the Danforth family

  Lady Kate—his consort

  Wolfgang von Zeltner—German pilot and lifelong opponent of Kipp Danforth and Ben Whitecross

  1

  April, 1934

  Ashton Park

  “There you go! There you go!”

  Lord Preston threw the ball as far as he could. The three Belgian shepherds raced after it, yipping with excitement, and vanished among the tall ash trees. The leaves were fully open after two days of rain followed by two days of sunshine.

  “Top of the morning, m’lord.” Harrison lifted the fedora off his head. “Those three are hard at it.”

  “Good day, Harrison. They need a strong run. I’ve been absent for weeks and I’m not sure old Todd Turpin ever gets the fire out of them. Too many parliamentary sessions tie me down in London. Well, if they catch scent of a hare I shall not see them again in a fortnight.” He put his hands behind his back. “I have renamed them, you know.”

  Harrison shifted his staff from one hand to the other. “I’d heard that.”

  “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. From the American poem.”

  “Very good. How are they responding?”

  “Badly. If at all. But I shall keep it up. Something had to be done to address the baron’s treachery.”

  “Yes, m’lord.”

  “The dogs and I needed a fresh start.”

  “I expect you did.”

  “I saw him, you know, Harrison. On a newsreel from Berlin. Hopping and stomping in a black SS uniform with Herr Hitler and his stooges. Ghastly. I thought I knew the man.”

  “A chance at power changes many a good soul.”

  “Is that what he considers power? I suppose it is power after a fashion. The way a freak windstorm knocks off chimney pots and tears brick walls to pieces and hurls trash bins down an alley—raw force, out of control, of no benefit to man or beast.”

  “Have you heard from Lady Catherine or her husband, the theologian? Are they well?”

  Lord Preston listened a moment to the distant barking of the dogs. “I believe they have caught the scent of something. No ball ever rolled that far.” He began to stride into the ash forest. “No, Harrison. Not a word. You might pray about that, please.”

  Across the English Channel in Germany, Catherine was well aware she was behind in her letter writing. She had finally finished one to her sister Victoria, who was living in Africa with her husband Ben and their two sons. Now she felt guilty she hadn’t sent so much as a note to her mother and father in more than a month. She pulled a fresh sheet of paper toward her and lifted her fountain pen.

  Dear Mama and Papa,

  You will wonder at my long silence, and you have, I suppose, fretted a good deal over it. I apologize. Life has been a mad rush here in Tubingen. But let me set your minds at rest about your grandchildren—Sean is doing very well indeed at school, and baby Angelika has never been better.

  A soft knocking sounded at the front door.

  Catherine was seated at the dining room table on the ground floor. Albrecht was upstairs chatting with Sean and Angelika while he worked on his university lectures for the next day. She knew she should be the one answering the door, but she hesitated. It was past nine o’clock and dark, and she was not expecting anyone. Clutching her pen, she waited.

  The knocking sounded a second time.

  “Are you going to get that?” Her husband’s voice came down the staircase. “Please?”

  “Ja, ja, Albrecht,” she replied. “I was just working on a letter to my parents.”

  She got up and went to the door, continuing to hope the knocking would stop and whoever it was would walk away. Risking Albrecht’s annoyance, she stood facing the door but did not open it. The knocking came a third time—soft but rapid. Certain her husband would call from his office again, she took hold of the door handle.

  “I have it, Albrecht. You needn’t worry.”

  A smell of rain on pavement rushed in as she swung the door back, surprising her. She hadn’t noticed any drops against the windowpanes.

  “Ja?” she asked the figure on the sidewalk.

  The man slipped into the house and shut the door behind him.

  “Was?” exclaimed Catherine. “What are you doing? Get out of here!”

  The man took off his hat.

  “Baron!” She didn’t know what to say next. “Of all people I did not expect to see you!”

  “Where is Albrecht?”

  “Upstairs.”

  “The children?”

  “They’re with him. He’s working at his morning lectures.”

  “There will be no morning lectures. The Gestapo will arrive here at two in the morning. You must be well gone by then.”

  Cold air seemed to fill the room, pouring off his trench coat.

  “The Gestapo! Gone where? Where can we go?”

  “My plan is to get you to France or Switzerland. But first we must get you into a hiding place outside of Tubingen. If t
hey don’t find you here they will go to all of your friends’ homes. They will go to the university professors. Comb the city from one end to another. I have a car around back. You have half an hour, and then you must be in it and we must be gone.”

  “We can’t be ready in half an hour. Angelika is only four. There is so much we must prepare.”

  “Half an hour. We cannot take the risk they may come earlier.”

  “This is mad. You can’t come raging in here and demand we load our children into a car with you. Why should we trust you? You betrayed us once.”

  “I saved Albrecht’s life. He would have died in that house with the others.”

  “You’re SS.”

  “It’s just as well I am. Otherwise I would have no idea of the movements of the police. If you don’t trust me, you will die here just as Albrecht would have died in that house with the Brotherhood of the Oak. Last time I used a gun on Albrecht to work my will. If you force my hand I will do so again.” He patted the pocket of his trench coat. “Get your husband. Get your children. Get what you need and get in the car.”

  Catherine started up the staircase, her face whitening. She turned her head. “You can say what you want about the Gestapo. It’s you I don’t trust.”

  “I’m fine with that so long as we drive away from here at ten o’clock.”

  “You could have been followed.”

  “I wasn’t followed.”

  “They could be watching you.”

  “Then we’ll all die together. Will you trust me if that happens?”

  Albrecht stood at the head of the staircase. “What are you doing here?”

  “He says the Gestapo are going to arrest us,” said Catherine.

  “Arrest us? Because of my lectures?”

  The baron looked up at him. “Your lectures. Your protests against the firing of Jewish professors. Your refusal to join the Nazi Party. Most of all, your books. Oh, yes—they know you are the author of those anonymous books and pamphlets popping up all over Germany.”

  “How do they know that?”

  “The SS found the men who do your printing last night. Smashed the presses. Shot them in the street.”