On the Edge of Darkness

On the Edge of Darkness
Barbara Erskine

Stunning repackage of the story of a woman trapped in the wrong time. Abandoned by her twentieth century lover, she plots a terrible revenge on him and his family.Adam Craig is fourteen when he meets Brid near an isolated Celtic stone in the wild Scottish Highlands – he is fascinated by her exotic, gypsy-like dress and strange attitudes. They become friends, and, in time, passionate lovers. She leads him, unsuspecting, into the sixth century, where she has mastered the ancient mysteries and dangerous magic of the Druids.In her obsession with Adam, Brid is seen as a traitor by her people, only escaping death by following Adam to Edinburgh, when he leaves home to study medicine.As the years pass he makes new friends and finds new love. But Brid is consumed by jealousy and haunts him like an evil shadow, until, fifty years on, Adam’s granddaughter helps him discover the secret that will free them from the terror of Brid’s curse.

Copyright (#ulink_365d84ef-d878-5fdf-8308-cfd7b05c07e9)

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

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

First published in 1998

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Copyright © Barbara Erskine 2016

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Cover photographs © Athina Strataki/Etsa/Corbis (woman leading a horse); Tom Gardner/Alamy (Dusk on Black Mount, Rannoch Moor, Scotland); WebbTravel/Alamy (view across the heather, Scotland)

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: 9780007288656

Ebook Edition © March 2016 ISBN: 9780007320950

Version: 2017-09-08

Epigraph (#ulink_1ed3076d-773f-508e-9971-fcb278e058c8)

In a symbol lies concealment or revelation.

THOMAS CARLYLE

Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;

But will they come when you do call for them?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV Part I

Contents

Cover (#ubc1dd653-f354-51ff-83c4-4615b55375fa)

Title Page (#uf4f752f4-2e95-55f9-ae0e-6a03c8aa1222)

Copyright (#u5f5626ad-a4ba-5863-88f7-34fdea8ffa15)

Epigraph (#ub8911f39-3e64-5df7-a336-d8350ef0c18e)

Prologue (#u1cb6c4a3-2e46-5499-bdad-d22982bc5e58)

Part One: Adam 1935–1944 (#u66975432-5cbb-52de-8836-1296965afddd)

Chapter One (#ud89819ce-ed91-5b53-a0b5-93775a6a6e42)

Chapter Two (#u4d60c1b3-d813-5853-aeb6-8cfae01288d1)

Chapter Three (#u2f5d147f-9da9-51c0-8207-d64e93adc840)

Chapter Four (#udbc02bdf-6aea-5853-bbb9-c5702f6c4368)

Chapter Five (#ucd5d73c0-5366-5a51-8cb1-9ce9b31be8a8)

Chapter Six (#u7e0aef37-2ec5-5627-aa08-e0b9a86d5680)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two: Jane 1945–1960s (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three: Liza1960s–1980s (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)