Daughters of Fire

Daughters of Fire
Barbara Erskine

The sweeping new novel from the bestselling author of ‘Hiding From the Light’ and ‘Whispers in the Sand’ switches between Roman Britain and the present day where history dramatically impacts on the lives of three women.

The Romans are landing in Britannia…

Cartimandua, the young woman destined to rule the great Brigantes tribe, watches the invaders come ever closer. Her life has always been a maelstrom of love, conflict and revenge, but it only becomes more turbulent and complicated with power. Her political skills are threatened by her personal choices, and Cartimandua finds she has made formidable enemies on all sides as she faces a decision which will change the futures of all around her.

In the present day, historian Viv Lloyd Rees has immersed herself in the legends surrounding the Celtic queen. Viv struggles to hide her visions of Cartimandua and her conviction that they are real. But her obsession becomes more persistent when she finds an ancient brooch that carries a curse. Bitter rivalries and overwhelming passions are reawakened as past envelops present and Viv finds herself in the greatest danger of her life.

BARBARA ERSKINE

Daughters of Fire

Copyright (#ulink_5fcf1376-414c-5055-8b4c-3926b85e9fdf)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

This edition 2007

Copyright © Barbara Erskine 2006

Barbara Erskine asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN 9780007174270

Ebook edition © SEPTEMBER 2008 ISBN 9780007279449

Version: 2017-09-12

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Dedication (#ulink_559e11df-b8de-5d08-b602-6c0f8be6c21d)

For Diz, who started the hare.

Epigraph (#ulink_70def10f-81f4-5b97-a558-b623ae5579d7)

The lamps now glitter down the street;

Faintly sound the falling feet;

And the blue even slowly falls

About the garden trees and walls.

Now in the falling of the gloom

The red fire paints the empty room:

And warmly on the roof it looks,

And flickers on the backs of books.

Armies march by tower and spire

Of cities blazing, in the fire;

Till as I gaze with staring eyes,

The armies fade, the lustre dies.

Then once again the glow returns;

Again the phantom city burns;

And down the red-hot valley, lo!

The phantom armies marching go!

Blinking embers, tell me true,

Where are those armies marching to,

And what the burning city is

That crumbles in your furnaces!

‘Armies in the Fire’

A Child’s Garden of Verses

Robert Louis Stevenson

‘The evil that men do lives after them,

The good is oft interred with their bones …’

Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare

Contents

Title Page (#u32a0889e-ddf5-5dfa-b1cb-a548186ce814)

Copyright (#ulink_f6aa37a2-6bc5-586e-b161-20a77a3ef4c0)

Dedication (#ulink_6e7e19ce-ea14-559b-83c1-9601236c41c6)

Epigraph (#ulink_828ef1ba-87b1-5d1c-94b7-e4776f887947)

Map (#u7e41a087-2d3c-564a-9060-0d9868ee8512)

Prologue (#ulink_02d03b4e-ef67-59c3-a701-7e143ca83a67)

1

2

3