A Daughter's a Daughter
Page 20
And in that moment Sarah shed the last vestige of her childish dependence on Ann. She was a woman now who could stand on her own feet and make her own decisions.
With an odd instinct of reassurance Sarah said quickly:
‘I shall be all right, Mother.’
And Gerry, beaming, said: ‘I’ll look after her, Mrs Prentice.’
An air official was approaching to herd Gerry and Sarah in the way they should go.
Sarah said in the same inadequate idiom:
‘You’ll be all right, won’t you, Mother?’
And Ann answered:
‘Yes, darling. I’ll be quite all right. Good-bye – God bless you both.’
Gerry and Sarah went through the door towards their new life and Ann went back to the car where Basil was waiting for her.
‘These terrifying machines,’ said Basil, as an air-liner roared along the runway. ‘Just like enormous malignant insects! They frighten me to death!’
He drove out on to the road and turned in the direction of London.
Ann said: ‘If you don’t mind, Basil, I won’t come out tonight with you. I’d rather have a quiet evening at home.’
‘Very well, darling. I’ll take you back there.’
Ann had always thought of Basil Mowbray as ‘so amusing and so spiteful’. She realized suddenly that he was also kind – a kind little man and rather a lonely one.
‘Dear me,’ thought Ann – ‘What a ridiculous fuss I have been making.’
Basil was saying anxiously:
‘But Ann, darling, oughtn’t you to have something to eat? There won’t be anything ready at the flat.’
Ann smiled and shook her head. A pleasant picture rose before her eyes.
‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘Edith will bring me scrambled eggs on a tray in front of the fire – yes – and a nice hot cup of tea, bless her!’
Edith gave her mistress a sharp look as she let her in, but all she said was:
‘Now you go and sit by the fire.’
‘I’ll just get out of these silly clothes, and put on something comfortable.’
‘You’d better have that blue flannel dressing-gown you gave me four years ago. Much cosier than that silly neglijay affair as you call it. I haven’t ever worn it. It’s been put away in my bottom drawer. Took a fancy to be buried in it, I did.’
Lying on the sofa in the drawing-room, the blue dressing-gown tucked snugly round her, Ann stared into the fire.
Presently Edith came in with the tray and arranged it on a low table by her mistress’s side.
‘I’ll brush your hair for you later,’ she said.
Ann smiled up at her.
‘You’re treating me like a little girl tonight, Edith. Why?’
Edith grunted.
‘That’s what you always look like to me.’
‘Edith –’ Ann looked up at her and said with a slight effort: ‘Edith – I saw Sarah. It’s – all right.’
‘Of course it’s all right! Always was! I told you so!’
For a moment she stood looking down at her mistress, her grim old face soft and kind.
Then she went out of the room.
‘This wonderful peace …’ Ann thought. Words remembered from long ago came back to her.
‘The peace of God which passeth all understanding …’
Giant’s Bread
A MARY WESTMACOTT NOVEL
Agatha Christie
‘A satisfying novel.’
New York Times
Vernon Deyre is a sensitive and brilliant musician, even a genius. But there is a high price to be paid for his talent, especially by his family and the two women in his life. His sheltered childhood in the home he loves has not prepared Vernon for the harsh reality of his adult years, and in order to write the great masterpiece of his life, he has to make a crucial decision with no time left to count the cost …
‘When Miss Westmacott reaches the world of music, her book suddenly comes alive. The chapters in which Jane appears are worth the rest of the book put together.’
New Statesman
ISBN 978–0–00–649945–9
Absent in the Spring
A MARY WESTMACOTT NOVEL
Agatha Christie
‘The one book that has satisfied me completely – the book I always wanted to write.’
Agatha Christie
Returning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedly alone and stranded in an isolated rest house by flooding of the railway tracks. This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself. Looking back over the years, Joan painfully re-examines her attitudes, relationships and actions and becomes increasingly uneasy about the person who is revealed to her …
‘I’ve not been so emotionally moved by a story since the memorable Brief Encounter … Absent in the Spring is a tour de force which should be recognized as a classic.’
New York Times
‘Very readable indeed.’
Times Literary Supplement
ISBN 978–0–00–649947–3
The Rose and the Yew Tree
A MARY WESTMACOTT NOVEL
Agatha Christie
‘Quiet and intelligent, with class distinctions which motivate its characters.’
Books
Everyone expected Isabella Charteris, beautiful, sheltered and aristocratic, to marry her cousin Rupert when he came back from the War. It would have been such a suitable marriage. How strange then that John Gabriel, an ambitious and ruthless war hero, should appear in her life. For Isabella, the price of love would mean abandoning her dreams of home and happiness forever. For Gabriel, it would destroy his chance of a career and all his ambitions …
‘Miss Westmacott writes crisply and is always lucid … much material has been skilfully compressed.’
Times Literary Supplement
ISBN 978–0–00–649948–0
The Burden
A MARY WESTMACOTT NOVEL
Agatha Christie
‘Sometimes you haven’t the right currency. And then someone else has to pay …’
Agatha Christie
Laura Franklin bitterly resented the arrival of her younger sister Shirley, an enchanting baby loved by all the family. But Laura’s emotions towards her sister changed dramatically one night, when she vowed to protect her with all her strength and love. While Shirley longs for freedom and romance, Laura has to learn that loving can never be a one-sided affair, and the burden of her love for her sister has a dramatic effect on both their lives. A story of consequences when love turns to obsession …
‘Very much the art of story-telling that would be at home in the woman’s magazine.’
Times Literary Supplement
ISBN 978–0–00–649950–3
Come, Tell Me How You Live
AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MEMOIR
Agatha Christie
‘Perfectly delightful … colourful, lively, occasionally touching and thought-provoking.’
Books & Bookmen
Agatha Christie was already well known as a crime writer when she accompanied her husband, Max Mallowan, to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s. She took enormous interest in all his excavations, and when friends asked what her strange life was like, she decided to answer their questions in this delightful book.
First published in 1946, Come, Tell Me How You Live gives a charming picture of Agatha Christie herself, while also giving insight into some of her most popular novels, including Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death. It is, as Jacquetta Hawkes concludes in her introduction, ‘a pure pleasure to read’.
‘Good and enjoyable … she has a delightfully light touch.’
Country Life
ISBN 978–0–00–653114–2
About the Author
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was written durin
g the First World War and introduced us to Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective with the ‘Little Grey Cells’, who was destined to reappear in nearly 100 different novels or short stories over the next 50 years. Agatha also created the elderly crime-solver, Miss Marple, as well as more than 2,000 colourful characters across her 80 crime books.
Agatha Christie’s books have sold over one billion copies in the English language and another billion in more than 100 countries, making her the best-selling novelist in history. Her stories have transcended the printed page, also finding success as adaptations for stage, films, television, radio, audiobooks, comic strips and interactive games, and her many stage plays have enjoyed critical acclaim – the most famous, The Mousetrap, opened in 1952 and is the longest-running play in history. Agatha Christie was made a Dame in 1971.
It was her sharp observations of people’s ambitions, relationships and conflicts that added life and sparkle to her ingenious detective stories. When she turned this understanding of human nature away from the crime genre, writing anonymously as Mary Westmacott to prove to herself that her books could sell on merit rather than her fame alone, she created bittersweet novels, love stories with a jagged edge, as compelling and memorable as the best of her work.
Also by the Author
THE MARY WESTMACOTT COLLECTION
Giant’s Bread
Unfinished Portrait
Absent in the Spring
The Rose and the Yew Tree
A Daughter’s a Daughter
The Burden
Copyright
Harper
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
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First published in Great Britain by Heinemann 1952
Copyright © Agatha Christie Mallowan 1952
Agatha Christie Mallowan 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.
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Source ISBN: 9780006499497
Ebook Edition © NOV 2013 ISBN: 9780007534975
Version: 2013–10–11
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