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Back The Cliff House Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Booklist
  3. Title Page
  4. Praise
  5. Dedication
  6. Prologue
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  62. Epilogue
  63. Acknowledgements
  64. About the Publisher

Her smile slipped away like sand through a fist and a veil of fear descended over her. She’d seen something over my shoulder. I tried to turn my head but it was stuck rigid. I couldn’t move. The whites of Edie’s eyes grew wide as I stared at her. I squinted hard, focused on the bottomless black pools of her pupils, trying to see what was reflected in them.

Edie stepped back. She moved silently. Trying not to be seen. Wanting to hide, to get away from whatever it was that loomed. A shadow moved over me, darkening the air above my eyes like a rain cloud passing overhead. And there she was. Eleanor Davenport. She walked slowly towards me. I tried to scream, terrified of what she might do when she recognised me. But then I saw she was smiling. Her eyes were warm. Her hair was like a golden halo around her face. I tried to reach up to her, but my hands were pinned to my sides, swaddled, invisible bandages tight around me. She became cross with me then. Angry I wasn’t greeting her properly with a kiss. How rude! Her face darkened. Blacker and blacker. Her nose and mouth deformed, stretching and contorting. Her eyes shrunk to small black beads which shone with a glint of light in their centre. Her blonde hair fell out in chunks, which tumbled to the floor like manna, and black needles began to push out from her scalp, her face, her limbs. The needles bloomed into feathers. Hundreds of black feathers bursting out like bot flies all over her. Her arms were changing shape, thickening and enlarging, until in one swift movement they sprung outwards, her sinewed limbs now mighty wings.

They spread. Beat the air.

Then she flew at me, her raven’s beak wide, her eyes boring into me…

‘Hush, Tamsyn.’

I woke with a start. My body was drenched with sweat. Heart pounding. ‘It’s okay, sweetheart. You’ve had a nightmare.’

Mum was in her dressing gown. Her hair mussed up from sleep. Eyes blinking into the light. She took my hand, lifted it to her mouth and kissed it.

‘Will you stay with me tonight?’ I asked her, gripping hold of her, terrified Eleanor would come for me in my sleep again.

‘Hush, it’s okay, of course I’ll stay.’ Then she lifted her feet onto my bed and lay beside me stroking my head. ‘I used to do this when you had bad dreams as a child.’

‘It was Dad who came to me, wasn’t it?’

‘No, me mostly. He probably did once or twice though.’ And she kissed the top of my head and held me until I fell into a smooth and dreamless sleep. ‘But mostly it was me.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Edie

August 1986