Midnight is a Lonely Place. Barbara Erskine

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 then drew back without touching it. ‘I’ve left my tools in your log shed.’

      ‘Oh, I wondered who the spade belonged to.’ Kate pushed her hair out of her eyes and reaching into her pocket for her glasses squinted more closely at the surface of the dune in front of her. ‘Look, do you see? Here, and here. There’s a change in texture. The sand is more glutinous. It’s stronger. I think there’s an outcrop of clay and peat of some sort. You may have more luck excavating that. It won’t crumble so easily.’

      ‘No.’ Alison took a step forward and examined the place Kate was pointing to. Then she shivered. Her headache had returned with a vengeance. ‘It’s too cold to work today. I think I’ll go home now.’ She turned away. As they scrambled out of the hollow into the full force of the wind again Kate saw the girl glance over her shoulder at the spot where they had been standing. There was an unhappy frown on her face as if she had seen something which puzzled her.

      It was only after Kate had watched Alison disappear up the track through the woods and had let herself once more into the cottage that she realised that she had not said a word about her own finds. She walked back into the kitchen and looked with regret down at her plate. Then she scraped the congealed mess into the waste bin and put the kettle on. She had wasted enough time already today. Forget Alison Lindsey and her Roman grave. This afternoon she must go back to the world of the cold, bleak Aberdeen lodgings where the young George Gordon was learning the bible, and a lot more besides, at his nurse’s knee.

      Her eyes glued to the screen of her lap top Kate did not notice the room growing dark. Her fingers were cramped; her arms stiff and heavy and there was a cold spot somewhere between her shoulder blades which had begun to hurt quite badly. Taking off her glasses, she stretched her hands out in front of her and wriggled her fingers painfully. The fire had died again and the room was icy. Climbing stiffly to her feet she went through the now routine acts of lighting, filling and closing the stove and stood for a moment staring down at the blackened glass of the little doors. She had done it on automatic pilot, her thoughts still with Catherine Gordon and May Grey and their volatile confusing relationships with the boy in their charge, relationships which would leave him scarred for life.

      Satisfied at some subconscious level that the fire would now catch and warm her she went back to the table and, sitting down she began to read through the afternoon’s work.

      May the gods of all