My middle-grade medieval mystery novel, Trouble at the Scriptorium was published in 2012. For those of you who haven't read it yet, I thought it would be fun to introduce you to one of its main characters.
Trouble at the Scriptorium takes place in a rural castle in England in the early 13th century,
and focuses on Harley, a twelve-year-old servant at the castle. Harley
discovers a number of odd things going on in the Shire of Hertford, and he
enlists the help of the beautiful Lady Margaret, also twelve, to put all the
pieces together.
Lady Margaret was kind
enough to share some thoughts about her life and adventures:
* * *
My name is Lady Margaret. I am the only child of Sir
William of Castle Berkhamsted, just north of the City of London. My father, in
turn, serves the great Lord Edmund of the Shire of Hertfordshire. Lord Edmund,
in turn, is bound in service to Henry III, King of England.
Did you get all of that?
My mother’s name is Lady Ursula, and her name day
celebration is in one week. That’s the special feast day for St. Ursula, whom
my mother was named after. It should be a joyous occasion. In fact, the entire
village of Berkhamsted is preparing to eat, drink, and dance in my mother’s
honor.
But two awful things happened today that could ruin
her name day.
First, she got word from my grandpa, Count Heinrich of
the Rhine, saying that the family gems, her inheritance, have been stolen.
Everyone thinks they were taken by the notorious thief, Hermann the Bald. But
no one even knows if he’s still in Europe.
And then our servant boy, Harley, brought told me even
more bad news, a secret we hope to keep from my mother: There’s a beautiful
book of Gregorian chant Father hired a scriptorium to make as a name-day gift
for Mother. However, Harley’s seen it already (his uncle is a monk), and he says one
of the paintings it’s supposed to include is missing, and some of the musical notes
are written wrong. Oh, my poor mother will be heartbroken if we can’t get this
fixed in time!
Here’s something even more odd and disturbing:
Harley thinks the missing jewels and the incorrect chant book are connected.
He’s convinced the book’s errors are some kind of code. And he visited the
scriptorium where the book was made, and says the monks who work there are
acting suspiciously.
Still, Harley’s just a servant boy, so what would he
really know about things like this? He’s promised to show me a page he cut from
the book, which is wise choice, since I’m very good with puzzles. My tutor,
Professor Al-Zarkali, may be able to advise us, as well.
Somehow, we’ll figure out this mystery!
* * *
Trouble at the
Scriptorium
is available as a print book directly from the publisher: http://www.rfwp.com/browse/novels
