Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Rocking Stone
    The Rocking Stone
    The Rocking Stone
    Ebook79 pages1 hour

    The Rocking Stone

    By Campbell Hart

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The vengeful spirit of the Lady of Threepwood has stalked Cuff Hill for hundreds of years, bringing death to those unlucky enough to catch her eye. And when a black metal box is unearthed in a druid’s grave, a young girl’s life is transformed for all time, with a chain of events unleashed that will haunt her family for three generations. Only the Rocking Stone holds the key to the legend, with the truth to be found in the ancient fire cast out from the otherworld.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCampbell Hart
    Release dateDec 4, 2017
    ISBN9781370915453
    The Rocking Stone
    Author

    Campbell Hart

    Originally from Ayrshire, Campbell Hart lives in Glasgow with his wife, Lisa, and their two boys.A qualified broadcast journalist he’s been a professional writer for more than twenty years in commercial radio, BBC Scotland, and for various public and private sector organisations.Books by the author include the best selling crime fiction trilogy featuring DI John Arbogast (Wilderness, The Nationalist,and Referendum), as well as ghost story anthology The Cold Black Sea.Fresh crime fiction is currently in the pipeline.For more details visit: www.campbellhart.co.uk

    Read more from Campbell Hart

    Related to The Rocking Stone

    Related ebooks

    Ghosts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Descent

      Jun 14, 2022

      People got out in strange ways. No stranger, I suppose, than the ways they got in. One year an American military helicopter flew too low over an Italian ski village, killing two families headed up the lift. A woman at Hillcrest had Italian citizenshi

      22 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Part 2 A BOY CALLED EVEREST

      Feb 1, 2022

      Part 2 A BOY CALLED EVEREST
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A WING AND a prayer

      Sep 28, 2021

      A raven saved my life Cate McMurray, 47, from West Midlands I ’d always known I was different. As a small child, I used to see and hear people who weren’t there. One day, I was playing hide ‘n’ seek with my two sisters, and tucked myself away in a cu

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Gift from above

      Jun 6, 2024

      Big fat raindrops sploshed into the water around me and I looked up to the sky in delight. It was 1955 and, aged 5, I loved nothing better than venturing out to the bomb craters in the paddock by our home in Manchester, left behind after the war. The

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      That Particular Sunday

      Jul 6, 2023

      That Particular Sunday
      26 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Blackridge House

      Oct 21, 2019

      For a while the phone calls had been getting more insistent. She might be angry (‘I can’t stay here another second, please come and fetch me home’) or matter of fact (‘Hello darling, I’ve had lunch and I’m ready to go now’) or vaguely confused (‘Wher

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Girl On The Bed

      Oct 29, 2019

      The Girl On The Bed
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Your Poetry

      Jun 25, 2021

      The music labeled from A to ZI can’t get those sounds out of my headThose 45s are from our lifeSometimes the memories cut like a knife Jukebox Nights have been the bestAll my problems to get off my chestSpent with people I love and have sharedA good

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Every CLOUD

      Sep 17, 2024

      Every CLOUD
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Just The Way YOU ARE

      Feb 7, 2023

      Just The Way YOU ARE
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      After “The End”

      Oct 10, 2022

      I walked down the road with a hunched back and a wet cigarette in my mouth—the fire had died a while back. My hands were tucked into the pockets of my jacket, and my hair fell over my face, limiting my sight. But I wasn’t really seeing where I was go

      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Four Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      Day after Thanksgiving. I give thanks for Eveto beat the rush of appreciating hernext year and let her sleep inuntil three hundred o’clock.Thank you light on the mountainfor being my star on cloudy nights.Thank you all the guns I’ve never ownedand ki

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Every CLOUD

      Aug 31, 2022

      Every CLOUD
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Women We Love

      May 6, 2024

      Women We Love
      18 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Haunted

      Sep 27, 2023

      Haunted
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A taste of LA DOLCE VITA

      Mar 5, 2020

      I was surprised when my mum agreed to go on a wine-tasting tour, given that the last time she saw me order a double G&T, she was compelled to remind me of the perils of binge drinking. ‘When in Rome,’ she says, sloshing back a Bardolino. We are actua

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      It Happened To Me…

      Jan 26, 2023

      It Happened To Me…
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Candy

      Aug 1, 2024

      Candy
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mystery Guide

      Dec 31, 2023

      Mystery Guide
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Distant Voices, Other Lives

      May 16, 2024

      Distant Voices, Other Lives
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Tomorrows

      Mar 15, 2022

      The night, as most nights, was like a dream. At ten, once I’d fed the dog the last scraps off the stove. Once I’d cursed the cat for scratching up my mama’s antique furniture, then welcomed him back into my arms. Once I’d slicked my hair into a ponyt

      26 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Girl On The Mountain

      Oct 5, 2021

      The Girl On The Mountain
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      I’ll Be There

      Oct 25, 2019

      I’ll Be There
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Now That I’ve Arrived

      Dec 30, 2020

      Now That I’ve Arrived
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Rocking Stone

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Rocking Stone - Campbell Hart

      Table of contents

      The Rocking Stone

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      10

      Sneak peek at The Cold, Black Sea

      About the author

      Acknowledgements

      The Rocking Stone

      The Rocking Stone

      In Threepwood lies the Lady,

      by the circle of the Rocking Stone.

      Her warning comes from ages past,

      cast out from the otherworld.

      If you come to see her once,

      take heed,

      she won’t be far from home.

      She shall not stop,

      she’ll seek you out,

      from the fire of the Rocking Stone.

      Anon

      1

      Threepwood, 1983

      If we could remember all the stories that define a lifetime, would we still have a sense of who we really are? I thought I knew, once, but looking back I’m not so sure. I used to view the world with certainty, but I’ve seen and done things that have eroded my morals to little more than a survival instinct. If my younger self had known what the future held perhaps my life would have been different. But that’s not possible now; and worse than that, history is about to repeat itself.

      In the beginning I thought the Lady of Threepwood was nothing more than a story, a childish fantasy and a fragment of my past. But it’s more than that. Ultimately it’s all I’ve ever known.

      Drawn from black dust cast out from the otherworld the legend ran that the Lady of Threepwood sought death. Worshipped by the druids as a God like figure, they said the spectre had been trapped by a curse and would not stop until her debt was repaid, the circle complete.

      And here I am, back at the Rocking Stone for the final time; prepared to face the reckoning. It had been my own words that had compelled me to return. Wrenched from the sodden earth, the ritual brought me back, first as just a glimpse; then whipped up from dust to face my true form once more. From the stone perimeter, I saw flames engulfing the land around the Rocking Stone. As the chant continued, the flames rose higher and I moved towards the centre.

      Vengeance will soon be mine.

      Peggy Balfour, Threepwood, 1953

      I remember the night well. I was ten years old and I’d been sitting, huddled together with my mother on a threadbare red settee, with only the glowing hearth to heat us through the cold winter evening. It was the perfect time for tales of the ‘otherworld’, as she liked to call them. Father said they were ‘an affront to the Almighty’, but one thing was sure – the women of the house were both fond of stories, and of one in particular.

      ‘Tell me again, mother.’ I looked up, smiling, trying to work out if she was in the mood to let me stay up late. It was difficult to make out her features in the gloom, with the flickering light from the fire casting orange embers past her eyes.

      ‘Oh, Peggy, not again – how many times can I tell it?’ She was shifting in her seat. It was past my bedtime, but I knew she’d continue if I pressed a little longer. She was already showing signs of relenting, ‘You must know it off by heart?’ My mother was making a great effort to look hard done by, but I knew from her look that she’d already made up her mind.

      ‘Just once more; please, mother?’ I kept up my side of the performance and cuddled-in more closely, making sure to beg with the eyes she said looked like moonbeams.

      Ann Balfour sighed. ‘Well, OK, but we’ll need to be quick.’ She was trying to sound harassed, but the gleam in her eye told another story, ‘It’s getting late and there’s work to do in the morning.’

      I smiled and agreed, ‘Start with the rhyme.’

      The wind was fierce outside and a gust barrelled down the chimney and stoked the fire. The last piece of charred wood awoke from its slumber and flickered back to life; it seemed like the perfect moment.

      ‘You’re daft on that rhyme aren’t you, girl? I’ll tell it to you one more time but as I always say, remember it’s all just a story.’

      We were sitting closely together, and I found the heat from her body comforting, ‘Start with the rhyme,’ I whispered, anxious that we should begin in case she changed her mind and sent me to bed. I watched as my mother composed herself, preparing to scare me to death with her favourite story. When she spoke, it was in a low voice, which I had to strain to hear.

      ‘In Threepwood lies the Lady, by the circle of the Rocking Stone. Her warning comes from ages past, cast out from the otherworld. If you come to see her once, take heed, she won’t be far from home. She shall not stop, she’ll seek you out...’

      She paused, as she always did, for dramatic effect, and even though I knew what to expect, I jumped when the last line came roaring from her tiny frame, ‘From the fire of the Rocking Stone.’ The tension broke and we both laughed as she lunged forward and tickled my ribs until it hurt. In the hearth the log was now well aflame. I could feel the warmth creep back into the room. I laughed so much my face was wet

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1