Lady Elizabeth Fitz Roy, the "chiefest spy" for King Richard I, (her code name is Witch of the White Rose) is swept along from Vezelay in France to Messina in Italy to Acre, Arsuf, and Jaffa in the Holy Land as she follows the progress of the Third Crusade. She meets such antagonists as King Phillip Augustus of France, Prince John, the Veiled Lady, a Moslem man in a hooded cloak, Lady Damaris, and a hunchbacked servant.
From the first they all seem to be involved in strange plots. They abduct her in a crypt at Vezelay, knock her out with a drugged handkerchief, and leave her in the woods after stealing her herb bag. They push down a statue in the cathedral in Vezelay, where Richard is present at the ceremony of the "Taking of the Cross", to create a diversion so that they can rummage through Richard's private rooms only to steal his christening cup. They later ransack the villa where Richard is staying while in Italy, leaving the house looking as if a whole army has pillaged and plundered it. But they don't take anything worth mentioning. What is going on?
In particular Elizabeth cannot figure out why the most dangerous of the conspirators, the Moslem in the hooded cloak, whose face she seldom sees, is so intent upon kidnapping her, hiding her away in a harem in a walled palace in the Holy Land, and keeping her there no matter what Richard offers as a ransom. She had better find out. For although she has been drawn closer to Richard, for whose protection she is responsible, she finds herself falling in love with this dastardly, heathen Saracen!
The novel was written after September 11. I hope to use the Third Crusade, where Richard fought against Saladin, as a kind of "distant mirror", in the words of the medieval historian, Barbara Tuchman, for our own troubled time and our own "crusade" in a Moslem country. Perhaps we can lift the veil in which the modern Saracens seem enshrouded just as the heroine, Elizabeth, must do in medieval times.
From the first they all seem to be involved in strange plots. They abduct her in a crypt at Vezelay, knock her out with a drugged handkerchief, and leave her in the woods after stealing her herb bag. They push down a statue in the cathedral in Vezelay, where Richard is present at the ceremony of the "Taking of the Cross", to create a diversion so that they can rummage through Richard's private rooms only to steal his christening cup. They later ransack the villa where Richard is staying while in Italy, leaving the house looking as if a whole army has pillaged and plundered it. But they don't take anything worth mentioning. What is going on?
In particular Elizabeth cannot figure out why the most dangerous of the conspirators, the Moslem in the hooded cloak, whose face she seldom sees, is so intent upon kidnapping her, hiding her away in a harem in a walled palace in the Holy Land, and keeping her there no matter what Richard offers as a ransom. She had better find out. For although she has been drawn closer to Richard, for whose protection she is responsible, she finds herself falling in love with this dastardly, heathen Saracen!
The novel was written after September 11. I hope to use the Third Crusade, where Richard fought against Saladin, as a kind of "distant mirror", in the words of the medieval historian, Barbara Tuchman, for our own troubled time and our own "crusade" in a Moslem country. Perhaps we can lift the veil in which the modern Saracens seem enshrouded just as the heroine, Elizabeth, must do in medieval times.
Used availability for Linda Cargill's Witch of the White Rose