‘Little sister, I name you Nellie-Rose Lee Sparrow.’
The ceremonies are over now and Nellie-Rose is carefully passed from one pair of gentle arms to another.
The guests open their picnic baskets and share stories, sandwiches, sausage rolls, sugared almonds and wedding cake, and sip pineapple punch from tiny glasses. Nobody wants to leave.
Perry squeezes into the love seat, between Nell and Jenkins. He thinks of the one small wish he made just over a year ago and all that has come of it — the dance with petticoats and posies, the Festival of Crisp Winter Glories and, today, the wedding of two of his favourite people. He sits between them and watches the guests talking, laughing and eating like one big family, and Nell is at the heart of it.
And Perry Angel knows, without being told, that the world is as it should be.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Sally Hoyle for her permission to be depicted as the celebrant in this book.
In this final book of the Kingdom of Silk series, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge Margaret Hamilton AM. It was Margaret who read the manuscript of The Naming of Tishkin Silk, the first book of the series, and who encouraged me to submit it to ABC Books. Since then Margaret has contributed to the series in more ways than are possible to mention here, not least by offering to read the final proofs of Nell’s Festival of Crisp Winter Glories whilst I was still grieving after the death of my father. For all these things and more I will always be indebted to Margaret, my dear friend and mentor.
— G.M.
Other Books by Glenda Millard
When the Angels Came
Bringing Reuben Home
The Novice
Angel Breath
Mrs Wiggins’ Wartymelons
Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle
The Kingdom of Silk series
The Naming of Tishkin Silk
CBCA Awards, Honour Book
Layla, Queen of Hearts
CBCA Awards, shortlist
Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, winner
Perry Angel’s Suitcase
NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, shortlist
WA Premier’s Literary Awards, shortlist
CBCA Book of the Year Award, winner
All the Colours of Paradise
Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, shortlist
Plum Puddings and Paper Moons
CBCA Awards, Notable Book
The Tender Moments of Saffron Silk
Copyright
The ABC ‘Wave’ device is a trademark of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is used
under licence by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia.
This edition published in 2013
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Text copyright © Glenda Millard 2013
Illustrations copyright © Stephen Michael King 2013
The rights of Glenda Millard and Stephen Michael King to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 0627, New Zealand
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Print data:
Millard, Glenda.
illustrated by Stephen Michael King.
ISBN 978 0 7333 2984 5 (pbk)
ISBN 978 0 7304 9509 3 (epub)
Series: Millard, Glenda. Kingdom of silk; 7.
For primary school age.
Families–Juvenile fiction.
Emotions in children–Juvenile fiction.
Grandparents–Juvenile fiction.
King, Stephen Michael.
A823.3
Cover design by Jane Waterhouse, HarperCollins Design Studio, adapted from a design by Margaret Hamilton
Cover illustration by Stephen Michael King