The Girl From World’s End

The Girl From World’s End
Leah Fleming

When tragedy strikes, there’s only one place she can go…A captivating debut from a born storyteller.When 8-year-old Mirren Gilchrist is orphaned after a tragic accident, she is sent to live with her estranged relatives deep in the Yorkshire Dales. She struggles to fit in, her town ways a mystery to the country children.One day, fleeing school – and the cane – she takes refuge from a fierce snowstorm in the ruins of a stone cottage. Legend has it that World's End is haunted but Mirren has finally found somewhere she can call home and her love affair with this magical place begins.It's the place she falls in love with Jack, the place she secretly hopes will one day become their very own. But the Second World War arrives and everything is thrown into turmoil. Jack returns from leave a changed man – violent and uncaring, a cruel streak shining though.Mirren struggles to cope with the transformed Jack and new motherhood. Then tragedy strikes and history looks set to repeat itself. Is heartache here to stay or can Mirren find solace and inspiration in the only place she has ever felt truly safe?

LEAH FLEMING

The Girl From World’s End

Copyright (#uf56aa83c-0324-5126-8355-cc99741ea590)

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.

AVON

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2007

Copyright © Leah Fleming 2007

Leah Fleming asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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 ebook 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 ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9781847560063

Ebook Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780007334957

Version: 2018-06-19

Dedication (#uf56aa83c-0324-5126-8355-cc99741ea590)

In memory of Kathleen, who loved these hills.

Epigraph (#uf56aa83c-0324-5126-8355-cc99741ea590)

…grief has no wings. She is the unwelcome lodger that squats on the hearthstone between us and the fire and will not be moved…

Arthur Quiller-Couch

Armistice Day Sermon, November 1927

Contents

Title Page (#u92fbd37e-ce8c-5cc1-bec8-4ab2c18f5c50)

Copyright (#u61ff573a-f665-52ff-9cb6-75b45a9b6a27)

Dedication (#u5831036b-80c2-5b91-94b4-d558395a98f9)

Epigraph (#uf9b26aea-116f-550c-9bad-353aeede60f7)

Part One A Change of Sky (#ue3ebe9a0-8707-5bd7-a2fb-61994502c221)

Chapter 1 (#ufee935b4-998f-582f-8c5e-9df2c27bf7b6)

Chapter 2 (#ufba090e1-efd9-5600-8a0d-41c62ab8ee08)

Chapter 3 (#u4c41fb4b-be9c-52fe-9449-39164c992c3c)

Chapter 4 (#u0aa73f9d-695e-5246-bb48-811bd198c724)

Chapter 5 (#u0ff52bde-90eb-56f7-b046-b179e87bbeaf)

Part Two Darkening Skies (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three The Snow House (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)