Synopsis "Timeweave"
Timeweave: Synopsis Timeweave is a historical fantasy that starts with a band of Vikings attacking an Anglo-Saxon village and taking the villagers captive. Two survivors, both weavers, are told by a mystical warrior to weave a message asking for help, which is then sent to a weaving shed on a Victorian landed estate. After the message arrives, the landowner's daughter is drawn back in time to the Anglo-Saxon village and this compels the landowner to raise a rescue party to go in search of his daughter and the villagers. Interspersed by further messages between the two centuries there are ambushes, threats of torture, moral dilemmas and hostage taking to be resolved, before the rescue mission is successful and the inhabitants of both eras are able to return to their everyday lives. However, just as everything on the Victorian estate seems to be getting back to normal, there is a final twist with the arrival of a new message from the ninth century. Main theme A force of marauding Vikings attacks an Anglo-Saxon village and captures most of the inhabitants. A mystic warrior, Kenwyn, suddenly appears and offers to help two survivors, Aidan and Sheply, who are weavers. He enables them to magically send a message from one of their looms to the weaving shed of a 19th century widowed landowner, Josiah Armitage. Josiah's only daughter, Emily, becomes involved in the affair. She disobeys him and is drawn back to the year AD 850 by Kenwyn, and because of this Josiah is eventually persuaded to raise an armed force to go on a rescue mission to save Emily and the captured villagers. The rescue group suffers a number of setbacks, and Josiah sends Emily back with the wounded to Victorian times. After a fire at Josiah's estate, Emily returns to be with her father but is taken hostage by the Vikings. After a difficult moral dilemma in deciding how to free her, Josiah and his group are able to bring about the successful outcome of the rescue mission and to return safely to Victorian England. Subsidiary themes There is an ongoing relationship between Josiah's family and the family of his neighbour, a rich widow, Lillian Maddison. Lillian attempts to bring about the betrothal of Emily to her son, Benjamin, and her own marriage to Josiah. In the absence of Josiah on the rescue mission, a romantic involvement occurs between Lillian and Arthur Abraham, a professor of linguistics, who is helping in the rescue effort as a translator. During the rescue mission, Emily feels a growing attachment for both Jack French, from Josiah's estate and Aidan, Jack's ninth century alter ego. As a result of being wounded on the rescue mission, after his repatriation Benjamin Maddison turns violently against Emily and Josiah by getting one of his employees to burn down their weaving shed, thus putting communication and the whole rescue mission in jeopardy. During the final armed engagement against the Vikings, Aidan disappears, presumably captured by the Vikings. Josiah returns to Victorian times successful, but is compelled to investigate the arson attack, and finally discovers that Benjamin is the guilty party. Josiah is a local magistrate and he deals successfully with the treatment of Benjamin and at the same time tries to maintain the impetus of his rekindled relationship with Lillian. There is a slow development of the relationship between Emily and Jack French, but just as Victorian life is getting back to normal, a further message arrives from the ninth century signed Aidan .
