Free Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days by Jared Cade Page B

lorry to deliver essential supplies, as a further excuse to stay away.
    The chore of sorting out Ashfield was alleviated by the knowledge that Agatha’s latest book was her most successful to date: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which was dedicated to her sister Madge, had been published by Collins in May. However, the marriage was put under further strain when Agatha proposed that she and Archie take a holiday in Alassio in Italy after Rosalind’s seventh birthday on 5 August and then left Archie burdened with the task of making all the practical arrangements for the trip.
    When Archie arrived at Ashfield Agatha was struck by the fact that he seemed a stranger to her. She became convinced he was holding something back.
    Agatha asked him what was wrong and found her world turned upside down. Archie informed her that he had not booked their proposed holiday. He then explained that he had been seeing a lot of Nancy. Agatha responded by denying the obvious. ‘Well, why shouldn’t you?’ she asked. He told her that he had fallen in love with Nancy.
    Agatha’s shock and horror were compounded when Archie admitted the affair had been going on for eighteen months. He said he wished to protect Nancy’s reputation by making it appear that he had committed adultery with an unknown third party – since admitting adultery was the usual way of initiating divorce proceedings.
    Agatha had previously admired Archie’s strong desire to be considered respectable, but his wish to hush up Nancy’s part in the break-up of the marriage made her see that there was a disturbing side to his conventionality. The man she loved so much, the man whom she had put on a pedestal, suddenly became the ‘Gun Man’ to her.
    The two made a pretence of celebrating Rosalind’s birthday, then Archie returned to his London club and a distraught Agatha attempted to carry on with her life. Madge, who had come to Ashfield to celebrate Rosalind’s birthday, was shocked to hear what had happened. She attempted to calm her sister down by insisting that Archie would come back to her, but nothing from Agatha’s past experience had prepared her for the blow he had delivered, and she could not be consoled.
    Agatha felt totally alone. All she had left to cling to was the hope that Archie would return; she convinced herself that his liaison with Nancy was just a passing affair, inflated in importance because he had felt neglected in the months after Clarissa’s death. Agatha determined to return to Styles to save her marriage.
    On the way she stopped her car for a rest. To her horror her wire-haired terrier Peter wandered into the middle of the road and was knocked unconscious by the undercarriage of a hit-and-run vehicle. Agatha, presuming him to be dead, lifted him on to the back seat of her car and frantically resumed her journey. She failed to notice that by the time she reached Styles Peter was regaining consciousness. Agatha ran into the house crying out that Peter was dead. When Charlotte Fisher, who had returned from Scotland, reassured her that the dog was alive Agatha refused to believe her. In fact Peter made a full recovery and was his usual self within a few days. Agatha later incorporated aspects of Peter’s accident in her stories ‘The Edge’ and ‘The Man from the Sea’ and in her novel The Rose and the Yew Tree , which was published under the nom de plume of Mary Westmacott.
    A fortnight after his defection Archie returned. Agatha felt as if she had received a direct reprieve from God when Archie suggested that he had perhaps made a mistake and ought not to break up the marriage for the sake of their daughter. It had not been an easy decision for him to make, and Agatha was not only conscious of this but of her own needs as well. She wondered whether she could face the pain of further betrayal if he broke his promise to be faithful.
    She felt they should keep their marriage going for another year to see how it went, but her husband would