Midnight is a Lonely Place. Barbara Erskine

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      ‘I think you’ll find Alison has that in hand. It’s her project entirely, Kate.’ Diana’s voice took on an unaccustomed firmness. ‘Please leave it to her.’

      And keep your nose out! Kate muttered as she put down the phone. She wandered back into the sitting room and stood looking down at the metal torc. If Alison was going to inform the museum then that was fine. She would show them her two trophies at the same time. She picked up the piece of twisted metal and examined it once more. It was badly corroded and bent, but the basic design of intertwined strands of metal wire was clearly visible. She scratched at it cautiously with her fingernail. A pale gleam appeared. She hesitated, then she scratched at it again, this time harder. The faint scratch showed a distinctly silvery sparkle. It was silver. She was holding a silver torc.

       I CURSE YOU, MARCUS SEVERUS, FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE HERE THIS DAY

      The voice was so sudden and so loud she dropped the torc onto the table. Frantically she shook her head. The sound had been inside her ears; it came from her brain. From her head. From her soul. Frightened she stared round the room. Then taking a deep breath she picked up the twisted metal again. It was very cold beneath her fingers. As cold as it had been when she first picked it out of the wet sand.

      ‘This is stupid.’ She said the words out loud, and her own voice sounded light and insubstantial in the empty room. She carried the torc and the piece of pottery to the small table in the corner on which the lamp stood and pulling out the drawer she laid them both in it. Closing it firmly she turned the key.

      Auditory hallucination is a condition engendered by various states of mind and various physical conditions. She had read about it in one of Anne’s books. But which one of them, if any, applied to her? Picking up the bottle of Scotch she walked through into the kitchen and firmly closed the door behind her. The first thing she could do was restore her blood sugar levels to normal. Perhaps a cooked lunch would dispel whatever it was which was causing this to happen.

      She was sitting at the small kitchen table, with a book propped up before her, eating baked beans on toast covered in melted cheese, when there was a loud knock at the front door. Pushing her plate away reluctantly she went to open it.

      A girl stood on the doorstep, dressed in jeans and a bright blue anorak, her blonde pony-tailed hair blowing wildly in the wind.

      ‘I’ve come to tell you to keep away from my dig.’ The green eyes were furious, the face unsmiling. ‘Mum says you’ve been poking around in the dune. Well don’t. Just because you’ve rented this place it doesn’t give you any right to go poking around in other people’s affairs. Keep away from it.’ The young face was pale and strained. Her headache had been worse this morning, too bad to go to school, too bad to get up until Diana had told her what was happening out at the dune.

      ‘You must be Alison.’ Kate raised an eyebrow but, firmly suppressing the angry response which was her automatic reaction to the girl’s rudeness, she merely said, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interfere in your excavation. Of course I won’t go near it again if you’d rather I didn’t.’

      ‘Please don’t.’ Alison scowled.

      ‘You’ve told the museum about your finds, I gather.’

      ‘I’m going to soon.’ The girl’s chin was set determinedly. She was very like her elder brother, Kate decided suddenly. They were a good-looking family, but obviously not noted for their charm. ‘I’m writing it up first and taking photos and things.’

      ‘Good.’ Kate smiled. ‘That’s exactly the right thing to do.’ She took a step back, about to shut the door but Alison still stood there, hands in pockets, obviously wanting to say something else. ‘Are you really a writer?’ It came out at last.

      ‘Yes,’ Kate smiled. ‘I am.’

      ‘And you’re writing about Byron, Dad said.’

      ‘That’s right.’

      ‘So, why did you come here?’

      ‘I wanted somewhere quiet so that I could concentrate on my work.’

      ‘And you know about history and things.’

      Kate nodded. ‘A bit. I studied history at university.’

      ‘So you know about the Romans.’

      ‘A bit, as I said. I gather they came here.’

      ‘And there were people here even before that.’ Alison’s brow wrinkled slightly. ‘The Trinovantes lived in Essex before the Romans came. That’s a Roman grave.’ She nodded her head in the general direction of the beach.

      ‘A grave?’ Kate frowned. ‘What makes you think that?’

      Marcus. The thought had come unbidden and as swiftly it had gone. Marcus Severus’s grave was found in somewhere called Stanway, which, she had seen on the diagrammatic map near his statue, was on the far side of Colchester, some twenty miles away.

      ‘I just know.’

      Kate looked at the girl, disquieted. ‘Alison, when you’ve got some time, would you show me your dig? Show me properly. Explain what you’ve done – the digging looks very professional – and tell me what you’ve found.’

      ‘You really want to know?’

      ‘I do. Not to interfere. I’m interested.’

      ‘OK. Do you want to come now?’

      With a moment’s regretful thought about her baked beans and her book Kate nodded. ‘Hold on. I’ll get my jacket and boots.’

      The tide had receded a long way when they stood together side by side on the edge of the hollow looking at the excavated side of the dune. The wind was whipping the sand into little eddies which whispered amongst the thin dry grasses and the sun had gone, hidden behind huge threatening clouds. ‘I found some bits of pottery – shards, they’re called, and some metal objects,’ Alison said slowly. ‘They’re at home. I’ll show you when you come to supper if you like.’

      ‘I would like.’ Kate glanced at the girl. She did not seem to be showing any eagerness to jump down into the hollow. ‘How did you know where to dig?’

      ‘The sea started it. Half the dune collapsed. Then I began to find things.’

      ‘What made you think it was a Roman grave?’

      ‘That’s where you find things. In graves. There was a villa on our neighbour’s farm. It’s under his field, very near us, and there was a Roman road to the village and another to the other side of Redall Bay.’

      ‘Was there?’ Kate was fascinated. ‘Can we go down into the hollow? It’ll be out of the wind and you can show me exactly how you’ve been sectioning the soil.’

      Alison seemed reluctant, but after a moment she jumped down into the soft sand and approached the exposed face where she had been working. ‘I’ve been very careful not to disturb anything. The trouble is the sand just falls away. You can’t stop it. The wind and the sea erode this coast all the time. Even houses fall over the edge a bit further along from here, at Redall Point.’ She raised her hand gently to the sand, and СКАЧАТЬ