by C F Dunn
ROPE OF SAND
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Mortal Fire
Death Be Not Proud
“An addictive mix of suspense, romance, and the supernatural. C. F. Dunn has a voice that makes you want to read on.”
Jane Bidder, author of Guilty
“A triumph of storytelling draws us into an electrifying climax. A true tour de force.”
Eric Delve, author of To Boldly Go
ROPE OF SAND
C. F. Dunn
Text copyright © 2014 C. F. Dunn
This edition copyright © 2014 Lion Hudson
The right of C. F. Dunn to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
All the characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Published by Lion Fiction
an imprint of
Lion Hudson plc
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road,
Oxford OX2 8DR, England
www.lionhudson.com/fiction
ISBN 978 1 78264 087 5
e-ISBN 978 1 78264 088 2
This edition 2014
Acknowledgments
Cover images: Woman © Maja Topcagic / Trevillion Images; Man © Robert Recker/Corbis; Books © iStockphoto/Diane Diederich.
Internal background images: here © iStockphoto/Kim Sohee
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Characters
The Lynes Family Tree
The Story So Far
Chapter
1. Future Perfect
2. Christmas Eve
3. Insight and Intuition
4. Wassail
5. Christmas
6. “Divers Goodes”
7. The Gift
8. Boxing Day
9. Barbecue
10. Meeting Ellen
11. A Matter of Time
12. Some Semblance of Peace
13. New Year Resolution
14. Party Beast
15. Interlude
16. Between the Horns
17. The Trial
18. The Trial – Day Two
19. Uninvited Guest
20. Judgment Day
21. And Spring Shall Come Again
Author Notes
To my girls, for their inspiration and forbearance.
Acknowledgments
This is my opportunity to thank all those involved in bringing Rope of Sand out of my imagination and on to the shelves. So, to start with, I owe grateful thanks to my publisher and editor in the UK, Tony Collins, and the Lion Fiction team with editors Jess Tinker and Sheila Jacobs, designers Jude May and Jen Stephens, and Simon Cox, who have helped bring Emma and Matthew to life, and to Sarah Krueger of Kregel Publishing in the USA.
I am indebted to authors Jane Bidder (aka Janey Fraser/Sophie King) and Revd Eric Delve for their timely and invaluable comments, and to the many people who, in their professional capacity, have generously given their time and advice, especially: Hon William Mahoney, District Court Judge, for explaining the intricacies of the legal system; for her insight into psychological conditions, consultant psychiatrist Dr Kiki O’Neill-Byrne MB, BCH, BAO, Dip Clin Psych, MRCPsych; and the medical advice of Dr Catherine Handy MB, BAO, BCh, MRCGP.
Thanks, also, to author Sue Russell and colleagues Dee Prewer and Lisa Lewin for their invaluable feedback and support, and to the staff at Cobham Hall School for providing an appropriately historic setting in which to hold my launch events. Michelle Jimerson Morris – many thanks for helping me with your contact – you know who it is – and thanks to Norm Forgey of Maine Day Trip, who once again answered my plea for help and provided vital local information.
Everlasting gratitude to my husband and daughters, my mother and father, and my brother and his family, whose love and tireless encouragement keep me going, step by step, along the road.
Characters
ACADEMIC & RESEARCH STAFF AT HOWARD’S LAKE COLLEGE, MAINE
Emma D’Eresby, Department of History (Medieval and Early Modern)
Elena Smalova, Department of History (Post-Revolutionary Soviet Society)
Matias Lidström, Faculty of Bio-medicine (Genetics)
Matthew Lynes, surgeon, Faculty of Bio-medicine (Mutagenesis)
Sam Wiesner, Department of Mathematics (Metamathematics)
Madge Makepeace, Faculty of Social Sciences (Anthropology)
Siggie Gerhard, Faculty of Social Sciences (Psychology)
Saul Abrahms, Faculty of Social Sciences (Psychology of Functional Governance)
Colin Eckhart, Department of History (Renaissance and Reformation Art)
Kort Staahl, Department of English (Early Modern Literature)
Megan, research assistant, Bio-medicine
Sung, research assistant, Bio-medicine
The Dean, Stephen Shotter
MA STUDENTS
Holly Stanhope; Josh Feitel; Hannah Graham; Aydin Yilmaz; Leo Hamell
IN CAMBRIDGE
Guy Hilliard, Emma’s former tutor
Tom Falconer, Emma’s friend
EMMA’S FAMILY
Hugh D’Eresby, her father
Penny D’Eresby, her mother
Beth Marshall, her sister
Rob Marshall, her brother-in-law
Alex & Flora, her twin nephew and niece
Archie, her nephew
Nanna, her grandmother
Mike Taylor, friend of the family
Joan Seaton, friend of the family
MATTHEW’S FAMILY
Ellen Lynes, his wife
Henry Lynes, his son
Patricia (Pat) Lynes, Henry’s wife
Margaret (Maggie) Lynes, his granddaughter
Daniel (Dan) Lynes, his grandson
Jeanette (Jeannie) Rathbone – Dan’s wife, and their children:
Ellie Lynes
Joel Lynes
Harry Lynes
Monica – Henry’s first wife
THE LYNES FAMILY TREE
The Story So Far
Independent and self-contained British historian Emma D’Eresby has taken up a year-long research post in an exclusive American university in Maine, fulfilling her ambition (and that of her grandfather) to study the Richardson Journal – the diary of a seventeenth-century Englishman – housed in the library there.
Single-minded and determined, Emma is wary of relationships, but she quickly attracts the unwelcome attention of seductive colleague, Sam Weisner, and the disturbing professor of English, Kort Staahl. Despite her best intentions to remain focused on her work, and encouraged by her vivacious Russian friend, Elena Smalova, Emma becomes increasingly attracted to medical research scientist and surgeon Matthew Lynes, whose old-fashioned courtesy she finds both disarming and curious.
Widowed and living quietly with his family, Matthew is reluctant to let her into his life, despite his clear interest in her, and Emma suspects there is more to his past than the little he tells her. The familiarity of his English-sounding name and the distinctive colour of his hair intrigues her, and Emma believes there is a link between Matthew and the very journal she came to the United States to study. Against her nature, she smuggles the historic document from the library to investigate further.
Events take a sinister turn as a series of savage assaults on women sends ripples of fear through the camp
us. Emma is convinced she is being followed, and during the prestigious All Saints’ dinner at Halloween, she is viciously attacked by psychotic Professor Staahl, leaving her on the edge of death. Only Matthew’s timely intervention saves her and, as he cares for her in his college rooms, their relationship deepens and Emma finds herself battling between her growing love and her need to learn more about him.
A near-fatal encounter with a bear raises questions about Matthew she can no longer ignore.
Frustrated by the mystery surrounding his past and his refusal to tell her who he really is, Emma reluctantly flees Maine to her claustrophobic family home in England. Hidden from sight, but not her conscience, she has also taken the journal.
Years of acrimony with her family and a bruising affair a decade before with her tutor, Guy Hilliard – a married man – have left their scars. Now broken both physically and emotionally, and facing a crisis, Emma drifts, until a chance meeting refocuses her attention on the unanswered questions she had left behind. Using her historical training to trace Matthew’s family to an almost extinct hamlet in the tiny county of Rutland, she makes a startling discovery. Her instinct had been right: Matthew is a relic of the past.
Born in the early years of the seventeenth century, Matthew had been betrayed during the English Civil War when a clash with his uncle left him fighting for his life. He not only lived, but persisted, growing steadily in strength and surviving events that would have killed any other man. Diary entries by the family steward in the same journal now in Emma’s possession reveal that in the overheated atmosphere of seventeenth-century England – where rumours were rife and accusations of witchcraft frequent – Matthew faced persecution because of his differences, and he fled to the American colonies.
Coming to terms with Matthew’s past, Emma is all too aware that she possesses knowledge that could destroy his future and, when she learns he has disappeared from the college, sinks further into desolation. But as winter descends on the old stone walls of her family home, Matthew, unable to remain separated from her, comes to find Emma and takes her back to America.
Looking forward to the future, Emma believes she has all the answers, but Matthew has one more revelation that could end their relationship once and for all. In a fraught confrontation in a remote snowbound cabin high in the mountains, Matthew tells her that he is still married. Over a harrowing few days with their relationship hanging in the balance, Matthew recounts his story, and Emma learns that his wife, Ellen, is a 96-year-old paraplegic, and the man she thought was his father is, in fact, his son. Emma is faced with a stark choice: cut all ties with Matthew as she once did with Guy, or face an uncertain future with the only man she has ever really loved. Emma believes that her life is inextricably linked with Matthew’s and makes the decision to stay with him with all the complications it will entail.
As she prepares to meet Matthew’s family at Christmas, the last thing on Emma’s mind is college professor Sam Wiesner, but it becomes apparent that she has been very much on his. After a brief but unpleasant encounter in which Sam acquires a broken jaw, Emma is forced to warn Sam off. But, despite her best efforts to protect Matthew’s identity, wheels have been set in motion that one day could expose him to the world.
Secure in their bonds of faith and love and now approaching the threshold of his home, Emma faces far more than just meeting Matthew’s family for the first time; but what she does not know cannot hurt her, surely?
CHAPTER
1
Future Perfect
When had curiosity become fascination? At what point had fascination become love? How could I have let it happen after everything I have been through, after all the promises I made myself? After all the years spent reined in so tight that I hadn’t let my guard down – not once, not ever – and now this; stealthily and without declaration and without any shadow of doubt.
Riding compacted snow, the car drew in front of the classical house and came to a standstill. Emphatic silence replaced the sound of the engine.
“Do I have to do this?” I asked Matthew, knowing the answer before he came around to my side of the car and offered me his hand. Reluctantly stepping onto the snow, I looked up, and an unexpected movement caught my eye as a face appeared at a first-floor window. Ghost-pale and with silver-white hair, hollow eyes punctuated its skull. The disembodied face hovered momentarily before retreating into the darkness. I stared. I blinked. “Matthew, is your house haunted?”
The tall, distinguished man who greeted us had one of those faces you couldn’t help but like straightaway. Well-cut hair of a distinctive aluminium framed his face with a neat, trimmed moustache and beard. Eyes of an indeterminate blue gleamed behind silver-framed glasses, and he was already smiling, a habit evident in the uplifted corners of his mouth and the deep lines either side of his eyes that crinkled on seeing me. There was good humour and kindliness in this face, patience and wisdom.
“Dr D’Eresby, you are welcome. Please, come in.” He opened the door wide and I stepped across the threshold of Matthew’s home, finding reassurance in the steady pressure of his arm around my waist.
“Henry, thank you.” Matthew indicated the older man in front of him. “Emma, this is my son, Henry, and his wife, Patricia.”
I held out my hand to the man old enough to be my father, although the quality of his skin was that of a much younger man than his hair suggested. With a slight bow of his head he took my hand within his firm handshake. “We’re so glad you can join us for Christmas, Dr D’Eresby.”
“Thank you. How do you do?” I said shyly.
“Pat’s been looking forward to quizzing you about traditional English fare. I think she’s hoping to ring the changes with Christmas dinner, and experiment on you.”
“I’m probably not the best person to ask,” I said apologetically, turning to a woman in her sixties, my height, and with fashionably short hair coloured soft greys and gold, the colour of late summer, and returning her smile.
Pat tutted. “There now, don’t listen to him! He’s a terrible tease. We can do with some more female company around here, can’t we, Ellie?” I recognized the slim figure of Matthew’s great-granddaughter from the hazy days I had spent recovering in the medical centre, and noted she didn’t reply.
Matthew interjected before her silence became too obvious. “Emma – you’ve already met Ellie and Harry.” Leaning on one of the elegantly curved banister rails of the wide wood staircase, Harry beamed cheerfully at me over his sister’s head. “Dr D’Eresby, ma’am!”
I suppressed the urge to respond with something pithy; Ellie threw him a sharp sideways look and smiled stiffly, but I saw the way she glanced at Matthew’s hand on my hip, and the slight pout of her mouth.
Pat left Henry’s side. “Oh, just look at us all standing around here when I’m sure you would like to come on in and have a cup of tea. I’ve been just dying to meet you, sweetie, and I want you to tell me all about where you come from. Matthew has been so secretive that getting him to say anything is like drawing rope through a needle.”
Matthew held on to me firmly. “Before I relinquish you to Pat’s interrogation, I’ll show you around. Where is Maggie?”
Henry’s briefest hesitancy said it all. “I… don’t think she knows you’ve arrived. I’ll find her and let her know.” That must be Ghost-face, I thought; and therein lies a problem.
“Thank you, if you would. Pat, we won’t be long. Harry, will you fetch Dr D’Eresby’s bags from the car, please – they’re in the back.” Matthew guided me towards the stairs, and I could feel four pairs of eyes watching us. He didn’t take his arm from around my waist until we reached the galleried landing and were out of sight; then he enfolded me in both. “That’s the worst bit over; have you survived?” he asked, his mouth against my ear. I held on to him, my head tucked under his chin.
“I will now, but I didn’t expect to meet your family so soon.”
“They wanted to be here to help you feel at home.”
“Yes, in the barn conversion, and Ellie and her brothers live with their parents in The Stables across the courtyard. You’ll meet Dan and Jeannie later, I expect.”
He’d left out one other member of the family: his granddaughter, Margaret.
“And does Maggie have a problem with me being here?”
He nuzzled the top of my head with his cheek. “Oh, you caught that, did you? Maggie has a few issues to work through. It’s not you so much as her internal demons. But whatever her problems, you are here with me and that won’t change, so don’t let it worry you.” That was easier said than done and I suspected that it was more straightforward than he let on: Maggie didn’t want me there. Full stop. End of discussion. He took me by the hand, not letting me dwell on it. “Come on, I’ll show you where everything is.”
A central window above the front door, and one either side, made the broad horseshoe of the landing immensely light despite the overcast day. Doors led off the landing.
“That’s Maggie’s room when she stays here – she has a place of her own in town – another couple of guest rooms, then yours, and then mine next to it. Come and have a look at your room and make sure you have everything you need.”
A fire had been lit in the fireplace of a room much bigger than my bedroom at home. Matthew led me past the rosy polished wood of the bed to where a wingback chair overlooked the sheltered courtyard and the mountains roaming the skyline beyond. On a slender-stemmed table, a crystal vase of pale pink and cream blooms lent an unseasonal fragrance. It felt a comfortable, inviting room and someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to make it feel so.