The Queen’s Scribe (Sea and Stone Chronicles)
When Estelle, daughter of the Grand Master Jacques de Milly’s falconer in Rhodes, arrives at the Cyprus royal court in summer 1457, she is greeted with hostility and neglect. Sent as French tutor to Princess Charlotta, she finds the teenaged princess in mourning for her young husband, recently poisoned, and is barred from her presence. Volatile circumstances become even more unstable very quickly. Estelle is accused of theft, and she momentarily allies herself with Charlotta’s older bastard brother, Jacco, who fawns over her for his own gain.
The king’s advisors try to force her into marriage. The Queen sickens and dies, and the King’s death, shortly after, leaves Charlotta the natural heir by Cypriot law. But she is a fourteen-year-old girl, and Jacco is determined to take the throne for himself. Estelle eventually works her way into Charlotta’s good graces, acting as tutor, scribe and interpreter, but not without cost. The only people she can trust are her father’s friend Michel, the king’s master falconer, and Gabriel, a royal under-falconer.
This is a high-stakes adventure moving rapidly from one event to another in a time of great upheaval. Most of the story takes places over the few years of the usurper Jacco’s rampage. The story sometimes relies too heavily on dialogue, but the narrative style is straightforward, using short chapters and a fast pace. There are times when plot speed overshadows depth of character and detail of time and place, but that said, it is an enjoyable read set during a tumultuous and lesser-known period. Readers interested in the history of Cyprus during the last years of rule by the French House of Lusignan may find this worthwhile. The long historical notes are detailed and comprehensive.
