Heaven and Helen now available
From Amazon and
eBay
About the Author
Rochelle Jones was born in Los
Angeles, she moved to England
and lived for many years in
Cheshire before moving to
Cornwall
To find out more click on the photo
Heaven and Helen now available
From Amazon and
eBay
About the Author
Rochelle Jones was born in Los
Angeles, she moved to England
and lived for many years in
Cheshire before moving to
Cornwall
To find out more click on the photo
.
In the 1870's in rural England Alice and Bobby are deeply in love, but their happiness is short-lived as a cruel destiny separates them forever. But Alice never forgets him and believes that somehow, somewhere they will find each other again.
In 1960's London Charlotte meets Philip and feels irresistible attraction towards him, but Philip is married, and after a struggle of conscience he yields to temptation, admitting he returns her love.
Will their attempt to find happiness together lead to tragedy equal to that of their predecessors, Alice and Bobby? At a crises in Charlotte's life, a meeting with a mysterious gypsy might hold the key to their fate.
Alice Dalton and Charlotte Palmer live at separate times and places, and they know nothing of each other. Alice had grown up on the Dalton's farm on the Ashwood estate in the 19th century. Growing up, her greatest wish was to get a domestic position at Ashwood hall rather than labouring on the farm as seemed to be her place as the youngest daughter. Eventually her parents gave their consent for her to leave. Alice is offered a place in the kitchens and soon finds the work hard and dull but settles into the routine. The master of the Ashwood household is Lord Ross who has a notorious reputation - partly because he does little to hide his indiscretions.
Positions for work in domestic service on large estates were highly sort after because they were seen a comfortable, particularly when compared with the alternatives in industry such as in factories or in the coal mines. Although the hours in domestic service were long and the work could be hard and monotonous, work in industry was often seen as much worse, back breaking, dirty and dangerous.
Bobby is a farm hand on her father's farm. He and Alice form an immediate bond when they meet and Alice soon has her parent's blessings to marry. It is their hope to have their own home once they are married. The Ashwood estate has a number of farms and cottages where many of the locals who work the estate live. When a cottage becomes vacant Alice sees this as an ideal home where she can raise a family. As she is employed at Ashwood Hall and recently married she and Bobby know that they have a good chance of being given the cottage for a small rent. They make their wishes for the cottage known to the landlord, Lord Ross. In making a request for the cottage little does Alice realise that this will bring her closer to Lord Ross, whom she has, until then, had little reason to come into direct contact. Alice discovers Lord Ross demands an interview before deciding who will have tenancy of the empty cottage, but in their case with Alice alone without her husband. Little does Alice suspect that this encounter will change the course of her dreams and ultimately lead to life changing consequences.
Alice moves into the cottage, but the life she dreamt of is shattered when Bobby does not return home one night. On hearing of Alice's encounters with Lord Ross his sense of betrayal is too much for him. But Alice lives in hope that he will return; she is sure that when he hears that he has a son, he will want to start again. But it is not to be, for one day she hears that he has been killed in a colonial war. Alice cannot accept his loss and is convinced that she will see him again somehow, she only has to wait and one day she will see him again and once more live the life she always wanted. When her father dies suddenly and the farm has to be given up, Alice with her mother and young son move to Bristol and with what little they have move into a poor district eking out what living they can.
The years pass and Alice lives only for the day that she will see her lost love again, so much so that she neglects those around her, both her mother and growing son. Only when they are gone does she see how empty her life has been. Yet even as she must come to accept that she will never see Bobby again Alice finds that she cannot allow herself to lead a life that does not include Bobby. Other people come into her life, and they offer her new companionship, a chance for a new life and opportunities, a chance for the kind of happiness that had been torn from her and Bobby. These new chances are opportunities for her to make a better life, they are hers to take - but to do so she must give up on her lost past...
Charlotte feels that she is content with her lot, she has no job and still living with her parents, but she is young and content to live this way for the moment, such is her life in early 1960's London. Her parents hope that she will marry and settle down into family life, but their daughter is a solitary soul who feels that such things are old fashioned. She is content to go to the cinema and listen to the Beatle's music. Even when she does get a job in a local shop, she thought this only a small change, otherwise everything else was as normal, she had no reason to think life would not go on as before. . . and then one day a man walked into the shop who changed everything.
His first encounter with Charlotte did not seem to stir the same emotions in him, but Charlotte knew immediately that that they were destined to be together. She knew that there had to be a bond between them, it was clear to her that they were meant to be together. Philip already had a married life and simply did not feel the same attraction towards Charlotte, but she knew that she could not let him out of her life, such was her attraction to him. As she tries to get to know him she plans ways that they can meet and be together despite his contented married life. Charlotte is sure that once she and Philip have been together that he will realise that he has the same feeling towards her as she does for him.
After Charlotte has a chance meeting one day with Philip, she encounters a strange woman, who she assumes to be some kind of gypsy. This, itself, seems to be a meeting that came by chance, and the gypsy woman seems to see Charlotte's fate, not just in this life but in a past life where a similar fate had already been lived. The woman tells Charlotte that she can see the turmoil in her heart, and that this desire she has for the man she longs for has already been played out by her in an earlier existence. This time, the strange woman tells Charlotte, fate will allow her to take a different path, a difficult path that she must choose in order to avoid the similar fate in an earlier life. But Charlotte knows what she must do to get what she wants, yet can she see that the path she has chosen could not lead to the happiness and fulfilment that she is convinced should be hers?
Rochelle Jones brings us a story that includes the subject of Spiritualism, which became popular in the late Victorian and early twentieth century period, and the possibility of past lives being linked, reincarnation, this is a feature of the second part of the story.