The Illuminator

"The Illuminator" by Brenda Rickman Vantrease is set in the 1380s, and I'm sorry, there is no way to concisely sum this one up: there's too much going on. An illuminator, a scribe who (back then, before the invention of the printing press) hand wrote books, has an assignment from a church to do a manuscript for him. The church makes arrangements for Finn and his daughter Rose to stay at a nearby manor house, Blackingham Manor, run by Lady Kathryn, a widow with twin sons. On the side, Finn is writing out what the church would consider heresy if they found out: the Bible in English, so the common people can read it. He and Lady Kathryn fall in love, as do Rose and Kathryn's younger son, Colin. Kathryn's older son is jealous and plants one of his mother's necklaces that he found in the overseer's cottage (the overseer killed the priest Kathryn had given the necklace to as a tithe; I know, I know, it's getting complicated) in Finn's bag. When the sheriff comes, he finds the necklace, assumes that Finn killed the priest, and hauls him off to jail. Rose, in the meantime, has become pregnant with Colin's child, and Colin doesn't know because he has left on a pilgrimage. Anyway, the whole book had a lot of intrigue and things going on, and while I liked it, the ending was very sad.