"A delightful Medieval from the Resident Genius of Bad Boys"

Anne Stuart has a habit of conjuring dark and dangerous men, men who are not your normal heroes, and then compels you to fall for them. She has given us supposed killers, a hit man, a mercenary, madmen, a practitioner of the black arts, impostors, and even a cult leader. It's as if she adores to tweak the readers' noses and say, "I can make you love the devil, when you tell me you won't". And she does it, time and again, like none other.

This time, the challenge was to make you love a fool. Not an idiot, mind you, but a real fool, a jester for the King Henry of England. Nicholas Strangefellow is the fool for the King, but being a contrary Stuart character he's not your average fool. He is tall, handsome and much brighter than anyone stops to see.

The King sees some of it, thus he trust Nicholas on a special errand for him, fetch back a holy relic, a challis of the blessed Saint Hugelina the Dragon; and he will reward Nicholas for doing his bidding. Nicholas has long used the mask of the fool to his advantage, and sees Henry's task as the end of the road. A son of a baron, he saw the family lands taken, and his father killed, when he chose to fight on the wrong side of the struggle with Henry and his sons. Nicholas was forced to survive on his wits, and what better way to curry favor than by playing the buffoon? The Challis of Saint Hugelina the Dragon is in the keeping of Lord Hugh. Hugh is to marry Lady Isabeau, so Henry seizes the opportunity to sends Nicholas to the couple under the guise of a "gift". Nicholas is to entertain at their wedding feast, when actually it's the opportunity to steal the sacred cup.

Nicholas travels to Lord Hugh's in the company of Lady Juilanna, the estranged daughter of Lady Isabeau. A young widow Nicholas sees a means of passing the time, but soon is intrigued by Julianna. She was wed when she was only eleven years old to a sixty-year-old man. For ten years, she has hated her mother for allowing her father to marry her off. Returning for her mother's marriage and their reunion is not something Julianna views with joy. Her short temper is exacerbated by the irritating fool, who make jests of all, wears annoying bells on his sleeves, recites riddles that have deep meanings and is much too handsome for her peace of mind. She cannot help but be attracted to the sharp-witted fool. Nicholas sees something in Julianna he has not seen in the countless other women he has bedded: true innocence.

Nicholas Strangefellow is a very complex man, not your typical hard as nails Stuart Bad Boy, but he still is pure delight. Stuart always writes with the realities of conditions and life for women in the Middle Ages, without pulling punches, and gives you a rich set of characters for her merry tale. This is Stuart at top form - but when is she not?

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted August 19, 2004