In a childless and unhappy marriage, Clare Royland is rich and beautiful—but lonely. And fueling her feelings of isolation is a strange, growing fascination with an ancestress from the distant past. Troubled by haunting inexplicable dreams that terrify—but also powerfully compel—her, Clare is forced to look back through the centuries for answers. In 1306, Scotland is at war. Isobel, countess of Buchan, faces fear and the prospect of untimely death as the fighting surrounds her.

In her second volume of short stories, which follows the hugely successful 'Encounters', Barbara Erskine has created a compelling world of love, betrayal, suspense and grief. A biographer investigating a tragic death hears voices from the past drawing her towards the truth… A nineteenth century parson’s daughter is caught up in the excitement and romance of a smuggling intrigue… A young boy from a deprived background finds his own haven in the wastelands of the inner city…

Ruth has returned to Edinburgh after many years of exile, left rootless by the end of her marriage and career and now the death of her father, from whom she had long been estranged. She is faced with the daunting task of clearing his house, believing he had removed all traces of her mother. Yet hidden away in a barely used top-floor room, she finds he had secretly kept a cupboard full of her possessions. Sifting through the ancient papers, Ruth discovers the diary and letters written by her ancestor from the 18th century, Thomas Erskine.

Hay-on-Wye, 1400. War is brewing in the Welsh borders. Catrin is on the brink of womanhood and falling in love for the first time. Her father is a soothsayer playing a dangerous game, playing on the mixed loyalties and furious rivalries between Welsh princes and English lords. For 200 years the Welsh people have lain under the English yoke, dreaming of independence. And finally it looks as though the charismatic Owain Glyndwr may be the man legend talks of.

Cadi’s pen was in her hand, her mind in the past with Elen. She ran her fingers over the words on the page, hoping the past would come alive again. Following her pen, the ghostly story was revealing itself in a misty meadow, two thousand years ago.