A Spy for the Redeemer

A Spy for the Redeemer (2002) Candace Robb

Set in Wales and Yoak in 1371.

Owen has not yet left Wales. He is finishing his mission for the Duke of Lancaster and making sure his father-in-laws tomb is finished, but he is also wondering what would change if he chose to stay and fight for Welsh independence.

‘I sometimes wonder who was the daft one to set it here.’

‘I thought the story was God told St David to set it here,’ said Owen.

‘Aye, well, so they say. The good Lord was thinking of the masons, I suppose. We shall never want for work.’

Back in York, Lucie is dealing with Jasper who has become a teenager, and wondering when Owen will return. That Brother Michaelo returns with news of her father’s death but without Owen makes things even more difficult, as rumors begin to circulate.

Why had they said nothing of this? Dear God, what of Jasper? How would he receive such a rumour? Is this why His Grace the Archbishop invited her to dine? To question her about Owen’s loyalty?

Magda sat, took one of Lucie’s cold hands in her warm, strong grasp. ‘Look at Magda.’

Reluctantly, Lucie raised her eyes. ‘

Magda did not wish to tell thee. So it must be with all thy friends. Some may believe thou knowest what folk say and choose to ignore it. Which is what thou must now do.’

I was very glad to have Lucie back. I missed her point of view and her thoughts and the things women went through that were very different from what men went through in that time.

Additionally, Lucie has to deal with her Aunt’s failing health–something that is truly little different today than it was then.

‘Do not leave,’ Phillippa said as Lucie began to walk away. ‘I am relieved to have spoken of it. But I do not remember— oh Lucie, it is the cruellest curse, to be witless one day, lucid the next. It is as if I have been sleepwalking and everyone has witnessed my foolishness. All look at me with such pity— and fear that they, too, might come to this end if they live so long as I have. It is horrible. Horrible.’ Her jaw was set in anger and frustration.

And some other things remain the same as well.

Tildy took a deep breath and turned her gaze upwards, to the dome of stars that stretched to the horizon. It was a test of her courage, to look up at the night sky. She had been born and raised in York, had seldom been outside the walls of the city until the past summer, when she had stayed here on the manor with Gwenllian and Hugh. When she first walked out into the night the vast sky had frightened her. It was too large, too mysterious, a monster with a hundred hundred eyes.

I liked this story, and as I said, I was glad to have Lucie back.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Diversion Books

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