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Postern of Fate
Agatha Christie
A poisoning many years ago may not have been accidental after all…Tommy and Tuppence Beresford have just become the proud owners of an old house in an English village. Along with the property, they have inherited some worthless bric-a-brac, including a collection of antique books. While rustling through a copy of The Black Arrow, Tuppence comes upon a series of apparently random underlinings.However, when she writes down the letters, they spell out a very disturbing message:M a r y – J o r d a n – d i d – n o t – d i e – n a t u r a l l y…And sixty years after their first murder, Mary Jordan's enemies are still ready to kill…
Postern of Fate
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by
Collins 1973
Agatha Christie® Tommy & Tuppence® Postern of Fate™
Copyright © 1973 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers/Agatha Christie Ltd 2015
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: 9780006165279
Ebook Edition © Jan 2015 ISBN: 9780007422739
Version: 2017-04-17
For Hannibal and his master
Four great gates has the city of Damascus …
Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate, Disaster’s Cavem,
Fort of Fear …
Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing.
Have you heard
That silence where the birds are dead, yet something
pipeth like a bird?
from Gates of Damascus by James Elroy Flecker
Contents
Cover (#ub56a3f9d-de67-5525-a0a1-05310ed92c6d)
Title Page (#u9279cc30-6625-5b1c-8889-b0212226e50e)
Copyright (#ud9d54ce2-2ffb-5c33-ab88-c8b12da05779)
Dedication (#u6661219f-7614-52d1-8265-add98767b4be)
Epigraph (#u8b7cdc43-f88c-5e1e-a17d-38e430e4fa48)
BOOK I (#ubec4b426-6dbe-5b41-b7cb-31cd4d39d943)
CHAPTER 1: Mainly Concerning Books (#u49f7edec-6dad-5c9f-9e82-c93de4f61e77)
CHAPTER 2: The Black Arrow (#u7d57f13d-ba7a-5efd-a9d0-63d685f0fd3e)
CHAPTER 3: Visit to the Cemetery (#ue951af6d-9fb3-555a-85ca-12337cfe116f)
CHAPTER 4: Lots of Parkinsons (#u3dd14361-4f34-5dca-8ee6-6c9ae333c59b)
CHAPTER 5: The White Elephant Sale (#uf7c3a938-2031-59c7-993c-f043c9cb2bc1)
CHAPTER 6: Problems (#u7f9e0eae-42b1-5ade-8ce9-97047fad73af)
CHAPTER 7: More Problems (#u68877cbf-dbf4-55e7-97cb-ddb4bdfe15d8)
CHAPTER 8: Mrs Griffin (#u60ce0c6c-5ebc-526f-bb35-e1e10fd49952)
BOOK II (#u93369cc5-0c3d-5cd0-9503-080105b64810)
CHAPTER 1: A Long Time Ago (#u667105a7-0266-524b-a278-c09c722f6d85)
CHAPTER 2: Introduction to Mathilde, Truelove and kk (#u9775761f-ad57-583b-a3bd-0c27638401e1)
CHAPTER 3: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 4: Expedition on Truelove; Oxford and Cambridge (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 5: Methods of Research (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 6: Mr Robinson (#litres_trial_promo)
BOOK III (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 1: Mary Jordan (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 2: Research by Tuppence (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 3: Tommy and Tuppence Compare Notes (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 4: Possibility of Surgery on Mathilde (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 5: Interview With Colonel Pikeaway (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 6: Postern of Fate (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 7: The Inquest (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 8: Reminiscences About an Uncle (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 9: Junior Brigade (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 10: Attack on Tuppence (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 11: Hannibal Takes Action (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 12: Oxford, Cambridge and Lohengrin (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 13: Visit From Miss Mullins (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 14: Garden Campaign (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 15: Hannibal Sees Active Service With Mr Crispin (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 16: The Birds Fly South (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 17: Last Words: Dinner With Mr Robinson (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Agatha Christie (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
BOOK I (#ufc185c8d-05b8-58f8-983f-58a26f7ab1bb)
CHAPTER 1 (#ufc185c8d-05b8-58f8-983f-58a26f7ab1bb)
Mainly Concerning Books (#ufc185c8d-05b8-58f8-983f-58a26f7ab1bb)
‘Books!’ said Tuppence.
She produced the word rather with the effect of a bad-tempered explosion.
‘What did you say?’ said Tommy.
Tuppence looked across the room at him.
‘I said “books”,’ she said.
‘I see what you mean,’ said Thomas Beresford.
In front of Tuppence were three large packing cases. From each of them various books had been extracted. The larger part of them were still filled with books.
‘It’s incredible,’ said Tuppence.
‘You mean the room they take up?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you trying to put them all on the shelves?’
‘I don’t know what I’m trying to do,’ said Tuppence. ‘That’s the awkward part of it. One doesn’t know ever, exactly, what one wants to do. Oh dear,’ she sighed.
‘Really,’ said her husband, ‘I should have thought that that was not at all characteristic of you. The trouble with you has always been that you knew much too well what you do want to do.’
‘What I mean is,’ said Tuppence, ‘that here we are, getting older, getting a bit—well, let’s face it—definitely rheumatic, especially when one is stretching; you know, stretching putting in books or lifting things down from shelves or kneeling down to look at the bottom shelves for something, then finding it a bit difficult to get up again.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Tommy, ‘that’s an account of our general disabilities. Is that what you started to say?’
‘No, it isn’t what I started to say. What I started to say was, it was lovely to be able to buy a new home and find just the place we wanted to go and live in, and just the house there we’d always dreamt of having—with a little alteration, of course.’
‘Knocking one or two rooms into each other,’ said Tommy, ‘and adding to it what you call a veranda and your builder calls a lodger, though I prefer to call it a loggia.’
‘And it’s going to be very nice,’ said Tuppence firmly.
‘When you’ve done it I shan’t know it! Is that the answer?’ said Tommy.
‘Not at all. All I said was that when you see it finished you’re going to be delighted and say what an ingenious and clever and artistic wife you have.’
‘All right,’ said Tommy. ‘I’ll remember the right thing to say.’
‘You won’t need to remember,’ said Tuppence. ‘It will burst upon you.’
‘What’s that got to do with books?’ said Tommy.
‘Well, we brought two or three cases of books with us. I mean, we sold off the books we didn’t much care about. We brought the ones we really couldn’t bear to part with, and then, of course, the what-you-call-’ems—I can’t remember their name now, but the people who were selling us this house—they didn’t want to take a lot of their own things with them, and they said if we’d like to make an offer they would leave things including books, and we came and looked at things—’
‘And we made some offers,’ said Tommy.
‘Yes. Not as many as they hoped we would make, I expect. Some of the furniture and ornaments were too horrible. Well, fortunately we didn’t have to take those, but when I came and saw the various books—there were some nursery ones, you know, some down in the sitting-room—and there are one or two old favourites. I mean, there still are. There are one or two of my own special favourites. And so I thought it’d be such fun to have them. You know, the story of Androcles and the Lion,’ she said. ‘I remember reading that when I was eight years old. Andrew Lang.’
