Robert Read

Preserved in Amber Robert Read

17th century England, civil war between Roundheads and Cavaliers, an innkeeper's daughter begins a torrid affair with a French soldier-of-fortune. Separated by his call of duty to Royalist cause, she realises she is pregnant. Hiding signs from strict parents, news arrives of battle and captured French spies waiting trial and execution. Certain one is her lover; her hope is to appeal to court begging his release. Traumatically witnessing his public execution, she is attacked, raped, rescued by two "ladies-of-the-night" and coerced into prostitution, resulting in early death from syphilis. Bizarre coincidences linked to experiments in "past-life regression" convince a divorced man his liaison with an escort is reincarnation of the lovers. Sensing his responsibility, publishing the story may make amends.