Midnight is a Lonely Place

Midnight is a Lonely Place
Barbara Erskine

Beautifully repacked edition of this stunning novel of contemporary and historical betrayal and revenge, from the author of LADY OF HAYAfter a broken love affair, biographer Kate Kennedy retires to a remote cottage on the wild Essex coast to work on her new book, until her landlord's daughter uncovers a Roman site nearby and long-buried passions are unleashed…In her lonely cottage, Kate is terrorized by mysterious forces. What do these ghosts want? Should the truth about the violent events of long ago be exposed or remain concealed? Kate must struggle for her life against earthbound spirits and ancient curses as hate, jealousy, revenge and passion do battle across the centuries…

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_69ee7c5e-4d05-5ae1-9632-9b5214d89a11)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

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

First published in 1994

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Copyright © Barbara Erskine 2016

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Cover photographs © Jill Battaglia/Arcangel Images (beach); Craig Joiner/Arcangel Images (sand dunes); Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com) (woman)

Barbara Erskine asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

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.

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 e-book 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.

Source ISBN: 9780007280773

Ebook Edition © March 2016 ISBN: 9780007320929

Version: 2017-09-07

DEDICATION (#ulink_348059ac-be65-5404-a143-d7996994b78a)

For A.J.

who thought of the title

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_ec6aadcb-1dd8-56cb-99bf-9ba47abdc984)

‘Where’er we tread ’tis haunted, holy ground’.

Byron

‘C’était pendant l’horreur d’une profonde nuit …’

Racine

Contents

Cover (#ub326af06-8628-5b61-8843-5847987c3144)

Title Page (#uc221c155-d29b-57cc-8248-50213a719ccc)

Copyright (#u5ad7edac-75aa-5df6-b358-4b4960b3aa60)

Dedication (#u02d23b03-2d40-51e6-8dc7-e3cb07112bb6)

Epigraph (#ue7556045-8448-545d-8792-dacaa13e005f)

Prologue (#u6852dbb6-720a-5ca7-a56c-766c887d242f)

Chapter I (#uce73a679-e386-532f-b979-3992b9447723)

Chapter II (#u35b6d484-88cd-5802-8b57-e024b7f9d193)

Chapter III (#ucc8e7dc6-04ac-5160-9559-fde9cee5a2c3)

Chapter IV (#u2b1b3481-d448-5c42-b773-12eb57c7c786)

Chapter V (#ud578eebd-77d9-5b40-a444-ec0e7ede0d31)

Chapter VI (#ua5305917-7672-504c-b293-1232ece48476)

Chapter VII (#u3806fee3-9319-5f78-8695-ceeef7e3ef09)

Chapter VIII (#ue6381c2d-fa1d-5027-9f95-da38e427cab5)

Chapter IX (#ub7e420bb-5119-5c7d-9385-935f69dd1f13)

Chapter X (#u1ba2cf0c-7d17-5fc4-a8e2-045554894469)

Chapter XI (#ub488f8cc-b954-5a62-9e3a-d870bed280ee)

Chapter XII (#ud73ad1d0-de92-55df-81eb-d4897a8dc37f)

Chapter XIII (#u03c8707e-0e62-5608-a598-57fd6049d74e)

Chapter XIV (#u3e1a9902-6edf-5357-a72a-47c1e2701479)

Chapter XV (#u66fb3f4e-fe27-5d28-bc1f-fddc1f96f54d)

Chapter XVI (#u2eba2ebb-5e9d-5eb3-b38b-db519ce843cb)

Chapter XVII (#u01db6ace-c98a-5dd7-967b-03aff5f82ddc)

Chapter XVIII (#u831908d2-bb6d-5ad1-ba02-b4c87fafb47c)