House Of Shadows: Discover the thrilling untold story of the Winter Queen

House Of Shadows: Discover the thrilling untold story of the Winter Queen
Nicola Cornick

For fans of Barbara Erskine and Kate Morton comes an unforgettable novel about three women and the power one lie can have over history.London, 1662:There was something the Winter Queen needed to tell him. She fought for the strength to speak.‘The crystal mirror is a danger. It must be destroyed – ‘He replied instantly. ‘It will’.Ashdown, Oxfordshire, present day: Ben Ansell is researching his family tree when he disappears. As his sister Holly begins a desperate search, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to an ornate antique mirror and to the diary of Lavinia, a 19th century courtesan who was living at Ashdown House when it burned to the ground over 200 years ago.Intrigued, and determined to find out more about the tragedy at Ashdown, Holly’s only hope is that uncovering the truth about the past will lead her to Ben.‘Fans of Kate Morton will enjoy this gripping tale.‘– Candis

NICOLA CORNICK is a historian and author. She studied at London University and Ruskin College Oxford and works for the National Trust as a guide at the seventeenth century hunting lodge Ashdown House in Oxfordshire. Her award-winning books are international bestsellers and have been translated into 26 languages.

ISBN: 978-1-474-03808-9

HOUSE OF SHADOWS

© 2015 Nicola Cornick

Published in Great Britain 2015

by HQ, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, 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 publisher.

Version: 2018-06-29

To Andrew, who has lived with my obsession with Ashdown House and William Craven for many years.

All my love as always.

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time.

Rabindranath Tagore

Acknowledgements (#ulink_88c16fea-7f37-5756-8f21-4d933bed68f2)

All my thanks go to my wonderful editor Sally Williamson who had faith in me to write this book and who gave me endless encouragement and support. I’m also hugely grateful to all my writing friends, especially the Word Wenches and the lovely Sarah Morgan for giving me the confidence finally to write the book of my heart.

I am very fortunate to work as part of a great team of volunteers at Ashdown House. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and for being so much fun to work with. Special thanks go to Maureen Dawson and to Richard Henderson at the National Trust.

I’d also like to thank Denny Andrews for showing me the site of Coleshill House and Neil Fraser for being so generous in sharing his archive on the Ashdown Estate.

I would like to pay tribute to the late Keith Blaxhall, for many years the Estate Manager at Ashdown Park. His enthusiasm and encouragement was inspiring to me and it was a great privilege to have known him.

Finally a big thank you to Julie Carr for allowing me to ‘borrow’ her lovely dog Bonnie for this story, and to Bonnie herself for graciously agreeing to star in House of Shadows.

Table of Contents

Cover (#u06e74c17-b31d-53d7-83e2-fb4d7f7789ec)

About the Author (#u110cb157-68ae-5957-b362-f599102432ce)

Title Page (#ubb91d28a-868e-5aee-a4ed-e6a0f8e500bd)

Copyright (#uc8f36ce3-31f5-5ca5-b588-399e118e1cdb)

Dedication (#u18018a90-63d4-5324-9554-7b5b2d35c8e6)

Epigraph (#u8eb7ac93-b553-5782-89f1-2c8cf6d7207d)

Acknowledgements (#uc60519fa-22ad-5390-9f9c-6dc941e1f984)

Prologue (#ufff634ef-c8b1-542f-993f-854dc54388a8)

Chapter 1 (#u4ca2de71-007e-5322-8327-0382baeac7d4)

Chapter 2 (#ub68a13c6-f95b-57ba-9a40-09600be8c0ea)

Chapter 3 (#ua0944154-93a7-547e-a64b-e9269b0b4cea)

Chapter 4 (#u53fc19dd-da95-5a55-be1f-aae95af4cff2)

Chapter 5 (#u950e416c-aae0-5bf9-95ed-3c4d3edf11e8)

Chapter 6 (#u5efdd78d-9d5c-5d23-afa6-dd7294d2c7fe)

Chapter 7 (#ua87795c5-f9a2-5f67-acd1-3bace4494427)

Chapter 8 (#u03109c46-e0d3-5d8d-9aca-f4f500881430)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)