Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [0]
Postern of Fate
For Hannibal and his master
Four great gates has the city of Damascus…
Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate, Disaster’s Cavern, 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
Epigraph
Book I
1 Mainly Concerning Books
2 The Black Arrow
3 Visit to the Cemetery
4 Lots of Parkinsons
5 The White Elephant Sale
6 Problems
7 More Problems
8 Mrs Griffin
Book II
1 A Long Time Ago
2 Introduction to Mathilde, Truelove and KK
3 Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
4 Expedition on Truelove; Oxford and Cambridge
5 Methods of Research
6 Mr Robinson
Book III
1 Mary Jordan
2 Research by Tuppence
3 Tommy and Tuppence Compare Notes
4 Possibility of Surgery on Mathilde
5 Interview with Colonel Pikeaway
6 Postern of Fate
7 The Inquest
8 Reminiscences about an Uncle
9 Junior Brigade
10 Attack on Tuppence
11 Hannibal Takes Action
12 Oxford, Cambridge and Lohengrin
13 Visit from Miss Mullins
14 Garden Campaign
15 Hannibal Sees Active Service with Mr Crispin
16 The Birds Fly South
17 Last Words: Dinner with Mr Robinson
About the Author
Other Books by Agatha Christie
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Book I
Chapter 1
Mainly Concerning Books
‘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,