The Burning Time

The present. In Florida a young woman has the same nightmare over and over again of a young girl burned at the stake.1736.England.A young girl is put on trial for being a witch! DAMARIS MEREDITH, an American doctor, goes to England to trace her family roots at the behest of her dying grandmother. It takes her back to eighteenth century England where women were tried as witches then burnt at the stake. There is one name that haunts her most, her ancestor REMY BABBAGE. At first she can find no trace of her but slowly she begins to put together the fragments of the past to see how they are woven into the future. After a chance encounter with the archaeologist HARRY CAVENDISH he agrees to help her trace the girl in her nightmares but he too has a secret. As they try to find the key to the past they must deal with a phantom child, a missing ring, a secret admirer and the legacy of her ancestors. On the way she meets the descendent's of MISTRESS MERRYMOUTH, who accused Remy of witchcraft. Damaris also meets one of the most terrifying people in history, the Witchfinder ELKANAH DREWS. In researching her ancestor she is drawn further into her world, her forbidden love affair with the tormented Cornet Denning, and then her trial and eventual execution for witchcraft. All due to false allegations from Mistress Merrymouth. She learns of Remy's baby, her ancestor, and the birth, with a vivid description of eighteenth childbirth and a cesarean without anesthetic. Something that, as a doctor, greatly affected Damaris. Remy's trial is dealt with in heartbreaking detail as this teenage girl is tried for her life after being betrayed by her best friend. She confesses to save others just hours before the WITCHCRAFT ACT is repealed. She talks of meeting a devil, but it is a devil in the form of the witch hunter. There is still one final heartbreaking discovery for Damaris in this sweeping historical novel.