LEAH FLEMING
The Girl From World’s End
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
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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
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Source ISBN: 9781847560063
Ebook Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780007334957 Version: 2018-06-19
In memory of Kathleen, who loved these hills.
…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
West Riding of Yorkshire, 1926
A girl of about eight sat swinging her legs to and fro to keep them from going numb, watching the sky growing dark above. The weak December sun dipped behind the high moor and soon the cobbled streets would be crusted with frost. When was Father going to come out of the Green Man and take her home? The church clock had struck half-past four. Soon the mill hooter would buzz across the rooftops and the clatter of clogs would