It's 1918, and Matty returns home to the family farm from the trenches only to find his brother Arthur dying of an unknown illness. The local doctor thinks cancer, but Matty becomes convinced it's connected to the mysterious books his brother left strewn around the house. Rob knows something other than just Arthur's death is bothering Matty. He's know him for years and been in love with him just as long. And when he finds something that looks like a gate, a glowing, terrifying doorway to the unknown, it all starts to fall in to place. Matty's looking sicker and sicker in the same way Arthur did. What is Rob prepared to sacrifice to cure him? The answer is in the esoteric books ... and with the mysterious Lin of the Frem, who lives beyond the gate to nowhere. It's taken Matty and Rob more than a decade to admit they have feelings for each other and they are determined that neither social expectations or magical illness will part them now.

Inheritance of Shadows

“Clemmie? No. We’re good friends still. She wasn’t ever looking for a husband. I think she was only walking out with me to stop her father trying to marry her off to someone else. She’s a telegraph clerk now, you know. Over in Salisbury. She joined the Auxiliary Corps. She wanted to get out of the village, make something of herself. Old Man Booth wasn’t going to let that happen without a fight.”


He hadn’t been keen on educating his daughters. “What about Marie? Do you hear from her? We exchanged a few letters at the beginning, but after I went forward, we lost touch.”


“Not directly. Clemmie and I write sometimes. She says Marie is going to stay in nursing. She doesn’t much want to come home either.”


Chapter 13