Kearsley blends history, romance and a bit of the supernatural into a glittering, bewitching tale. Rob is more than willing to travel to Russia to help Nicola, and soon, he is training her to not simply observe, but fully witness the 18th-century romance between a young Anna (Margaret’s ancestor) and her own mischievous Edmund. The only trouble is, well, Rob’s mischievous blue eyes still make her forget her own words. Nicola desperately wants to help Margaret, and she’s willing to ask Rob for help. Yet a psychic flash is a far cry from an officially documented provenance. Nicola casually picks up the carving and instantly realizes the truth. Unfortunately, she has no way to prove Firebird’s provenance. To finance a well-deserved cruise, she’s hoping to sell a wooden carving of a firebird, a sculpture she claims has been in her family for three centuries, a gift from the First Empress Catherine of Russia.

After having cared for her aunts and mother until their deaths, Margaret has known little of her own life. But when Margaret Ross turns up, everything changes.

Nicola would much prefer to keep her gift hidden, particularly from her boss, Sebastian, who would probably fire her from the art gallery.

At her best, she receives a sudden, uncontrolled, sharp image or scene, which is fine with her. Able to see ghosts and to sift carefully through the years of memories attached to objects, Rob’s power of sight has always been much stronger than Nicola’s. Kearsley gives Robbie McMorran from Shadowy Horses his own story. Nicola Marter’s Russian grandfather was tortured for his gift of psychometry, so she’s hidden her own talent for years, but she may have to risk sharing it to help another.

The firebird kearsley