Barbara Erskine 3-Book Collection: Lady of Hay, Time’s Legacy, Sands of Time. Barbara Erskine

follow the signs towards the country park and the castle.

      Parking once more, she stood and stared around her. Where the huge castle of the Clares had once stood were now the hollow remains of a ruined railway station. The Great Eastern Railway had come, destroyed most of what remained of the castle, and in its turn had gone, leaving only the empty shell of the station, trimmed and manicured, with mown grass between the platforms where the track had been. Only a few fragments of wall remained of the castle which had stood for nine hundred years. But the motte was still there – the high, tree-covered mound on which the original keep had stood – and determinedly Jo climbed it, following the spiralling path to its summit. From there she could see the whole of Clare spread out in a shimmering panorama before her. The air was soft. It smelled of new-mown hay and honey. She stood there for a moment and rested her hands on the surviving chunk of flint-built wall, as if by touching the stones she could reach back over the years, but nothing happened. There were no vibrations from the past. Nothing at all.

      That night Jo went through her grandfather’s attaché case. Sitting in her bedroom, the windows thrown open to the scented garden, she felt absolutely at peace. The small table lamp was attracting the moths but she didn’t notice as she pulled out the old letters and diaries and his notes. Never before had she felt even the remotest curiosity about her ancestors. Like Ceecliff her interest was in the present, perhaps because her father had died whilst she was still too young to remember him properly. Her mother Jo rarely saw now. They met from time to time, felt a rush of warm emotion as they kissed, then slowly sank into mutual incomprehension as they tried to find some common ground. At present Julia Clifford was in San Tropez. A fond smile touched Jo’s mouth for a moment as she thought of her mother. They would meet again in the autumn or at Christmas, probably here, at Ceecliff’s, exchange gifts and a little bit of gossip, then their paths would once more diverge. Jo looked back at the letter in her hand wondering suddenly how much of her own tartness was a direct reaction against her mother’s vapid fluttering. But Julia, she knew, would have no time for the past either. For her the past, like Jo’s father, was dead.

      There was only one mention of the distant past in the letters. The mysterious Gruffydd of Wales. Was Matilda somehow an ancestress of hers, through him? But how was that possible when William was so implacably the enemy of the Welsh? She wished she had noted the names of Matilda’s children more closely now, and what had happened to them. Only one name lived in her memory. Little William. Her baby.

      She got home very late on Sunday evening, exhausted by the long drive through the heavy traffic, and she slept soundly, untroubled by dreams, to be woken by the phone.

      ‘Jo? Is that you?’ It was Bet Gunning. ‘What the hell are you up to, giving that story to Pete Leveson?’

      ‘What story?’ Jo yawned. She looked at her clock sleepily. ‘God! Is it really nine? Sorry, Bet, I overslept.’

      ‘Then you haven’t seen today’s papers?’

      ‘No.’ Jo could feel her stomach beginning to tighten. ‘You’d better tell me the worst.’

      ‘Daily Mail exclusive – a whole page – by Pete Leveson. Entitled, Jo Clifford’s Secret Life. It’s all here, Jo. Your hypnosis. Matilda de whatever-her-name is … bloody hell! I thought we had a deal. I thought this was one of your articles for W I A.’ Bet was furious. ‘I know we’re a monthly. I know Pete is a friend of yours, but you could at least have given me an option –’

      ‘Bet,’ Jo interrupted. ‘I know nothing about this. That bastard took me out to dinner on Friday night. We talked off the record, as friends.’

      ‘Off the record?’ Bet scoffed. ‘That’s just what it’s not. He’s got you verbatim. “Imagine my terror and confusion,” Jo said to me last night, “when I found myself alone in an alien world …”’

      Jo could feel herself shaking with anger. ‘I never said any such thing!’ she said furiously. ‘I’ll sue him, Bet. How dare he!’ Her eyes were blazing. ‘I’ll ring him now, then I’ll get back to you –’

      She slammed down the phone and dialled Pete’s number. It was several minutes before he answered.

      ‘Jo, how nice. Have you seen it?’ His voice was laconic.

      ‘No I haven’t seen it, you turd!’ Jo stamped her bare foot on the carpet like a child. ‘But I’ve heard about it. Bet Gunning is hopping mad – but not as mad as I am. Everything I said to you was in confidence –’

      ‘You never said so, Jo,’ Pete put in gently. ‘Sorry, but not once did you ever mention the fact that you wanted all this kept secret. If I’d known that –’

      ‘You could have guessed, Pete.’ Her voice dropped coldly. ‘You used our friendship. That was the most cynical piece of underhand behaviour I have ever witnessed. And the fact that you didn’t tell me what you wanted to do, proves that you knew it.’

      There was an exaggerated sigh the other end of the line. ‘Cool it, Jo. It counteracts the item in the Mail Diary the other day. It establishes that you’re into something interesting and it keeps you in the headlines. Three plus factors, if you ask me. When your own story comes out they’ll be out there baying to read it!’

      ‘Did you use Carl Bennet’s name?’ Jo was not to be appeased.

      ‘Of course –’

      ‘He’ll be furious! You had no right without asking him.’

      ‘So, if he wants, I’ll apologise, but he won’t object to some free advertising. The Great Public will beat a path to his door. Look Jo, love, it’s super talking to you, but my coffee’s perking and I’ve got to get dressed. Keep your hair on, there’s a love. When you’ve thought about it a bit you’ll realise it’s all good publicity. See you!’ Blandly, he hung up.

      Still angry, Jo dragged on her jeans and a sweater. Catching her hair back from her face with a scarf, she grabbed her purse. Outside Gloucester Road underground station she bought a paper from the news vendor, then she sprinted back to the flat.

      As Bet had said, it was a whole-page feature. There were no fewer than three photos of her – one a glamorous, misty picture taken three years before at a ball with Nick. He had been blocked out. The picture made her look dreamy and romantic and very beautiful. It had been taken by Tim Heacham.

      Jo had to dial three times before she got through.

      ‘I am sorry, Jo, I really am. I didn’t know what he wanted it for.’ Tim was contrite. ‘Hell, what was I to think? Pete was back in favour as far as I could see. I had no reason not to give it to him.’

      ‘But it is such a god-awful picture! It makes me look –’ Words failed her.

      ‘It makes you look quite lovely, Jo, unlike that hard bitch face you insist on using over your byline.’ Tim was grinning. ‘I did try to ring you, as it happened, to check, but you were away.’

      ‘I was in Suffolk.’ Jo flopped down beside the phone. She laughed wryly. ‘I went to look at Clare whilst I was there.’

      ‘Clare?’ Tim’s voice sharpened. ‘Why?’

      ‘Didn’t you read the article?’ Jo was staring at it as she spoke. ‘“The handsome man whose love had come too late … The passionate Richard who had to turn away and leave his lady to her fate …”’ She grimaced. ‘He came from Clare. I went to see his castle.’

      ‘And did you find him there?’ Tim’s voice was curiously flat.

      ‘No, of course not. Is something wrong, Tim?’

      ‘No.’ He said quietly. ‘Why on earth should anything be wrong?’

      That night the baby woke her again. She was deeply asleep, the sheet thrown back because of the warm humidity of the night, the curtains and the window wide open. She woke very suddenly and lay, wondering what it was she had heard. Then it came again, the restless mewling cry of a hungry baby. She felt herself