My Lady Knight by Jocelyn Kelley

St. Jude's abbey is a specialized nunnery in England set up by Queen Eleanor, formerly of Aquitaine. There, young women are trained to be knights, educated to the limits of their intelligence, which is almost always considerable. But now that the Queen has been imprisoned by her husband, King Henry, the women of the nunnery are forbidden to see or contact the Queen.

However, the Queen sends the abbess a letter imploring for her help. Long ago, she entrusted a metal casket to the Archbishop of Lincoln, containing papers that could cause a rebellion among the people of England. The Archbishop has been reassigned to France by King Henry, and now Eleanor wants one of the women from the Abbey to go and retrieve the papers and the casket and return them to her.

To this end, the Abbess sends Isabella de Montfort. She's less of a warrior than a scientist, and she seeks to decipher the recipie for an exploding powder that she has read of being used in a faraway land called Cathay. But when a fellow student sets off an explosion that destroys the barn, by accident, Isabella suddenly finds herself happy to leave, as it saves her from the abbess' temper. But the abbess tells her that it would be unsafe for her to travel alone, and assigns Isabella to travel with her own nephew, Jordan Le Courtenay, whom she contacts by letter.

Isabella meets Jordan at a nearby abbey, since St. Jude's must remain a secret, where he has sought out the grave of a friend of his, a fellow knight named Ryce de Dolan. Ryce died in a tournament, cowardly slain by other knights. But the local abbey is against tournaments and refused to let him be buried on sacred ground. Isabella finds him there, and Jordan finds her to be disturbingly like a man in how she acts, but is attracted to her nonetheless.

He tries to protect her from dirt, but she helps him uncover the grave of his friend, and take the bones, which he wishes to bury closer to his own manor. In amongst the bones, they find a dagger with a curious figure of a man on a horse and another man in front of him, appearing to lead the horse. It is no noble's sigil that either of them can identify, and Jordan decides to keep it, because it may have belonged to one of Ryce's killers.

He sends Isabella to wait for him at the Abbey while he contemplates the grave of his friend, but the Dagger that Isabella found provokes the Abbot into speaking of "The Brotherhood", of whom he seems afraid. The next day, Isabella and Jordan seek to find a wagon to bring Ryce's bones on, but the one they buy is actually stolen, and Jordan is arrested by the local sheriff, and must be saved by Isabella, who sets what seems to be a fire, but is more choking smoke. Unfortunately, the sheriff and his men catch onto the ruse and capture them, but they are freed by the appearance of Lord Weirton, an aquaintance of Jordan's, who vouches for him.

Jordan and Isabella travel to La Courtenay. Each is attracted to the other, but Jordan doesn't wish to burden her with his attentions, and Isabella tries to be logical and not give into her feelings. But their first night in the castle is interrupted when a man attempts to steal the dagger. Isabella manages to fight him off and knock him down, but shortly after Jordan comes to her aid, the man swallows a vial of something and jumps out the window after getting free, killing himself with the fall.

However, Isabella realizes that what he took was a poison, so that even if the fall didn't kill him, he would still have died. And he also had a mark on his wrist, the exact same one as on the hilt of the dagger. And when Lord Weirton shows up again, his sister Lady Odette in tow, Isabella finds her to be an irritant, but agrees to learn when Lady Odetter offers to show her how to behave in court and around Jordan.

Lord Weirton wants Jordan to marry Odette, but Jordan finds her less interesting, and less affecting, than Isabella. While Odette goes on and on about how... interesting it is that Isabella can take care of herself, she declares that she would always call on a man to protect her, and would die if she were menaced and didn't have one nearby. None of this fazes Jordan, but he allows Lord Weirton and his sister to accompany them to Lincoln.

Along the way, they are ambushed and attacked, but between Jordan and Isabella, and with Lord Weirton, they are able to fight off the men (who are of the Brotherhood) and finally end up in Lincoln. But can they find the papers in the Cathedral, and when Jordan falls victim to a medicine that causes vivid dreams, he imagines that he is making love to Isabella. Can the reality ever trump the fantasy he has had? And when he discovers that the house they are staying in holds a secret underground tunnel that leads to several places sacred to the Brotherhood, can he and Isabella find their way out safely without being captured by the men he thinks are being injurious to the health of the Kingdom?

Who is behind the Brotherhood? What are their goals and what do they want with Jordan and Isabella? What did they have to do with Ryce's death and why did he have to die? And can Jordan and Isabella retrieve the papers in time and return them to the Queen before she is forced to leave England by her husband? And is there any hope for the love that Isabella and Jordan have found together? Or will she be forced to return to the convent without him?

I really enjoyed the backstory behind the novel. The idea of a female knight, or in this case, many female knights being trained at a convent at the behest of Queen Eleanor of England, formerly Aquitaine, appealed to the history nerd inside me. Because Queen Eleanor accompanied her first husband, Louis VI of France, to the Crusades with a group of ladies wearing armor and riding as Knights. And they were led by Queen Eleanor, herself wearing armor. So her doing this sort of thing was right in line with her historical character (if it isn't just a story, as many historians assert).

But what I really liked was the almost modern feeling I got from reading Isabella, and how Jordan loves her for her and finds her intelligence and ability to defend herself admirable instead of a crime against nature or something like that. The only thing I found somewhat annoying was the tingling each felt when they touched each other, even when they barely knew each other. I thought it was a bit much. But that was a very small thing when taken in light of the entire book.

The plot was well-done, and the bits of lies and betrayal made sense in the greater scheme of the book. The Brotherhood is set up early on as the Big Bad of the book, and each plot twist ends with them finding out more about the Brotherhood or facing off against members of the Brotherhood. The secret in the pages concealed in the Queen's casket remains something of a mystery, but the characters find out what it is, even if the readers don't, because it is merely hinted at.

I liked this book a lot, even if it took me a long time to read. I found myself wanting to savor it, and I did a lot of savoring rather than reading at my normal pace. It's a book that appealed to my romance senses and my historical interests at the same time, and if you're interested in the medieval period and Queen Eleanor, you'll find it interesting as well. Recommended.