Fans of Barbara Erskine can look forward to a good read with her latest title, Time's Legacy. I had been a bit disappointed with her previous release, Warrior's Princess, which, to my mind, seemed a bit stilted and contrived at times. But, in Time's Legacy, Barbara recaptures her smooth storytelling style, weaving us back and forth between the past and the present.
As in Warrior's Princess, we are once again in present-day England, and we are also, once again, in the past, around the time of Jesus. This time, there are three psychic links between ancient and modern times. Abi Rutherford, a young curate assigned to a small church in eastern England, has always known she has a "sensitivity" for ghosts and spirits. Kieran Scott, her new boss, and senior priest in the area also has psychic abilities but is trying his best to bury them within a strict regime of Christian doctrine and dogma. The third psychic link is Justin Cavendish, a modern-day druid whose powers to roam in the past may help all three psychics survive the ordeal awaiting them.
As the story opens, Abi is sent to her new post in St. Johns, Cambridgeshire, and her new boss, Kieran Scott. A romantic attraction blossoms quickly, but things do not go smoothly for the pair. Struggles at her new position are exacerbated by the sudden illness of her mother. When her mother gives her a secret gift of an unusual crystal, Abi's life begins to unravel and her sensitivity to ghosts increases beyond her wildest imagination. Soon she finds herself watching slices of the past, a time when the Roman presence in England was still small and druids were the healers and the religious leaders. Abi is brought into the life of one of the druid priestesses, Mora, and her apprenctice from the East of the Empire, Yeshua. Yeshua is no ordinary apprentice, his ability to heal with the touch of his hands is very different than the herbal medicine that Mora knows. Yeshua's claim to follow one god is foreign to the myriad of gods and goddesses that Mora follows as a druid.
As Abi witnesses the events from two thousand years ago, she is drawn into the lives of Yeshua and Mora and when their lives are endangered by a Roman solider, Abi wants to help but doesn't know how.
Barbara Erskine has done a commendable job blending fiction with mystery, and blending the past with the present. I hope other readers enjoy this title as much as I did.
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