Review: Rumors at Court

I'm a small handful of librarians inhabiting the planet who does not have an undergraduate degree in English.  No, mine is in history - and I spent the better part of four years working on a concentration in British history.  This being said, I'm fairly hopeless when it comes to anything prior to the Tudors.  I like reading medieval romances, but medieval history never captured my imagination in the same way that, say, the Victorian era did.

Which is why I appreciate how Blythe Gifford writes about the time period.  She has this way of infusing her stories with the history without 1) writing dull textbook treatises or 2) hopelessly confusing the reader.  While reading Rumors at Court, I'll admit, I ran off to Wikipedia early on to brush up on the Duke of Lancaster's timeline but after that I sunk right into the story and let it carry me away.

Valerie of Florham is a widow and she thanks God for that fact.  Hers was not a happy marriage.  Her husband was abusive and was not faithful.  Adding insult to injury, she failed to conceive - and a child is something Valerie so desperately wants.  Her husband's death means she has been summoned to London where the Duke of Lancaster (now calling himself My Lord of Spain) has wed Constanza of Castile.  The Duke was hopelessly in love with his first wife, Blanche, but his second marriage is strictly strategic.  He knows he is unlikely to ever sit on the throne of England and our boy has ambition.  So he weds the exiled Constanza which gives him a claim to the throne of Castile.  All he has to do now is wage a war to take it.

This would be where Sir Gil Wolford comes in.  She served the Duke faithfully fighting in France.  He is a trusted knight, and has the Duke's ear.  He was also Valerie's husband's commanding officer and he wishes to meet the widow to return something she gave her husband before he rode off into battle.  A small scrap of beautiful silk.  Imagine his horror when he meets Valerie and she spurns the silk.  Um, yeah.  She gave her husband no such thing.  So here's poor Gil, offering back the token to the wife that some mistress gave her husband.  Oopsie doodle.

What follows is a story about two people who lack agency - because, to be frank, very few people had agency during this time.  If you weren't at the mercy of the Court, you were at the mercy of the Vatican.  Valerie lives in fear that the Duke will decree she take another husband and given the dumpster fire that her first marriage was, she's not exactly in a rush.  All she wants is to go home, to tend her small garden, to work the land.  Gil is a man who has a home, but it's one he spurns.  His family's history is unsavory to the point of ugly.  He's damaged goods.  It's what has driven him to be a fierce warrior, that blind hope that people will forget what blood runs through his veins.  His greatest wish?  To take Castile for the Duke and live there permanently - a land where nobody knows his name.

We all know where this is going, right?  The Duke eventually decrees that Valerie and Gil will marry.  Valerie resigning herself to be controlled by yet another man, and fearful because her only memories of marriage are horrid.  Gil wants a family, desires a wife, and he is attracted to Valerie.  But she's a puzzle, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in an enigma - and he has no idea how to reach her.

Secondary storylines come into play surrounding the Duke, his mistress Katherine (a friend of Valerie's) and Constanza, who is pregnant by the Duke when this story opens.  As Gil prepares for war, Valerie is making herself indispensable to Constanza, and looking for a way to return to her home - even as it seems inevitable that she will marry Gil and end up in Castile.

There's a nice mix of external and internal conflict to this romance, but even with all the drama surrounding court life, this is a quiet story.  Valerie and Gil are both characters with deep insecurities and fears who must learn to trust and be open with each other.  Gil is a fearsome knight with a fearsome reputation, but his gentleness with Valerie make this a movingly sweet romance.  And Valerie, with Gil's understanding, has to learn to find her voice.  Gil makes decisions over the course of this story that will break her heart, but as they come together, as they learn to trust, Valerie and Gil find their way to each other and carve out their own path to happiness.

Final Grade = B

Secrets At Court

I know authors loathe the term "wallpaper historical," but I've always found it an apt description, assuming the term is used correctly.  For me, a book that is "wallpaper" is one with no clearly defined world building.  That is to say the author tells you the story is a medieval, but it lacks so much flavor that it might as well take place in Regency London, post-Civil War America, or on the moon.  When I read a historical romance I want the author to give me a story that is entrenched in the era they are writing about.  When I'm reading a medieval, I want a medieval thankyouverymuch.  Which is why I could kick myself in the teeth for not reading a Blythe Gifford book sooner.  Secrets at Court is very clearly a medieval - a darn good one at that.

Anne of Stamford knows how lucky she is, in theory.  Born with a lame foot and leg, she is well aware that her life could be spent either in a nunnery or begging in the streets.  Instead she is a lady in waiting to Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent.  Joan keeps her around for a couple of reasons 1) she has secrets Anne could expose and 2) being "lame" Anne is never really "seen" by most people.  That is to say Anne is pretty darn great at ferreting out court intrigues - and Joan has plenty of secrets, most of which involve her addiction to marrying men in secret.  Now she has fallen in love with Edward, the Black Prince, they marry in secret with Anne as a witness, and then after the fact try to get the Vatican's blessing.  The fly in the ointment?  Joan has been married before - twice.  The church having already untangled one of her messes.  The other is that Joan and Edward may be too closely related for the church to bless the union.  Well, no matter.  We're talking royalty after all, why should rules apply to them?  So Edward dispatches a knight, Sir Nicholas Lovayne, to deal with these few remaining minor details.

Nicholas is bloody well tired of dealing with the whims of his betters, but you cannot very well say no to a prince.  He just wants to get the whole mess sorted so he can pack his bags and head back to France, or Italy, or wherever the wind takes him.  Nicholas is a man with no ties, very few possessions, and has spent his life at war.  It's the way he likes it - until he meets Anne, a woman who intrigues him like no other.  But little does he know that the tempting Anne has entered into his orbit at the behest of her lady.  Because Joan has secrets that Nicholas can never, ever, be allowed to uncover.

There is no mistaking this story for a medieval.  It's a medieval down to the marrow.  There's the court intrigue, the politics, the incredible importance of the Vatican and the Pope, plus the keen sense of value placed on loyalty.  Loyalty was everything.  Loyalty either let you live or got your killed, depending on which side you were on (hopefully the winning one!).  Loyalty literally meant life or death - and the author does an excellent job of conveying all of this within the framework of her fictional story.

What I loved about the romance is that both Anne and Nicholas felt they were "lesser than" for entirely different reasons.  They are two lost souls who feel they are unworthy of love, marriage, and happiness - but for their own unique reasons:

Joan:

"A man might wed a plain woman for money or because she could help raise children and run the household.  He might bed a beautiful one for love or lust.  But a lame one was of little use to anyone.  Except, perhaps, to God."

Nicholas:

"The truth was, he had nothing to offer her, or any woman, but a strong right arm and a nimble brain.  All he had to show for thirty-one years on this earth was the horse beneath him and the armour on his back."

And when these two people get together?  When they succumb to their attraction?  You get beautiful moments like this one - where Anne literally teaches Nicholas to open his eyes and see - see the details all around him:

'You must promise me something.  You must do it for me.  When you leave, when you go back to France and Italy and the rest of the world, look at it twice as hard.  Look at it for yourself and then look at it for me.  Look at every leaf and stone and bit of coloured glass and every wave.  And know that I will think of you.  That I am here, imagining all the wonders the world holds.'

It's everything I want out of a good medieval.  It gives me the strong sense of time and place, with intriguing, damaged characters lugging around enough burdens to make them interesting.  If you love medievals this is a must read or if you just need a historical romance palate cleanser?  Look no further.  This is a very good story that will take you out of the Regency ballroom for a change.

Final Grade = B+