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ANNE BENNETT
A Daughter’s Secret
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This paperback edition 2008
1
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2007
Copyright © Anne Bennett 2007
Anne Bennett asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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This novel is 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.
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Ebook Edition © JUNE 2008 ISBN: 9780007283576
Version: 2017-09-08
To my grandson Jake, the eldest Bennett boy, with all my love
CONTENTS
As Thomas John Sullivan drove the horse and cart past St Mary’s Catholic church on the way home from Buncrana, the nearest market town, the noon Angelus bell was tolling.
‘Dear Lord, but it’s perishing cold,’ his wife, Biddy, commented from the seat beside him. ‘The fields and hedgerows are still as heavily rimed with frost as they were this morning, for the sun hasn’t put in an appearance all day.’
‘Aye,’ Thomas John agreed, ‘it’s mighty cold, right enough. That’s Donegal for you. Sure, don’t we have the coldest of winters here at times?’
‘We do indeed. Is the child all right, Aggie?’
In the back of the cart, Aggie nursed her little brother,