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       Copyright

      HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Heinemann 1956

      Copyright © 1956 Rosalind Hicks Charitable Trust. All rights reserved.

       www.agathachristie.com

      Cover by ninataradesign.com © HarperCollins 2017

      Agatha Christie 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.

      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.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008131456

      Ebook Edition © June 2017 ISBN: 9780007534999

      Version: 2018-04-11

       Epigraph

       ‘For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’

      ST MATTHEW, Ch. 11, v.30

       ‘Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take

       And stab my spirit broad awake;

       Or, Lord, if too obdurate I,

       Choose Thou, before that spirit die,

       A piercing pain, a killing sin,

       And to my dead heart run them in!’

      R. L. STEVENSON

       Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       PART II. Shirley—1946

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Chapter 7

       Chapter 8

       Chapter 9

       PART III. Llewellyn—1956

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Chapter 7

       PART IV. As it was in the Beginning—1956

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Also by Agatha Christie

       About the Publisher

       PROLOGUE

      The church was cold. It was October, too early for the heating to be on. Outside, the sun gave a watery promise of warmth and good cheer, but here within the chill grey stone there was only dampness and a sure foreknowledge of winter.

      Laura stood between Nannie, resplendent in crackling collars and cuffs, and Mr Henson, the curate. The vicar was in bed with mild influenza. Mr Henson was young and thin, with an Adam’s apple and a high nasal voice.

      Mrs Franklin,

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