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    The Stone-Worker's Tale
    The Stone-Worker's Tale
    The Stone-Worker's Tale
    Ebook34 pages30 minutes

    The Stone-Worker's Tale

    By Margaret Frazer

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    About this ebook

    A LOVE TO DIE FOR...

    When Frevisse is given bishop-pardoned leave to visit her cousin Alice at Ewelme, she is enchanted by the work of the sculptor Simon Maye. Charged with carving the angels upon Alice's tomb, Simon has been truly touched by God's gift - there was an otherworldiness to their stone features, an aliveness to the very feathers of their wings. He saw beauty that others could not, and brought it to life through his craft.

    But Simon also saw the beauty of Elyn, one of Alice's ladies in waiting. Clandestine meetings have given way to sinful lust, and now the two lovers have disappeared. The servants whisper that the lovers have eloped, and secretly pine for the passion to do the same. Lady Alice believes her sculptor has been stolen away by jealous rivals and rages at the injustice. But Frevisse alone suspects there may be some darker truth behind the midnight vanishing...

    A story from Margaret Frazer's Tales.

    PRAISE FOR THE SISTER FREVISSE MEDIEVAL MYSTERY SERIES

    “Frazer’s quiet yet intense medieval mysteries are so vividly and gracefully written you just float back in time...” – The Poisoned Pen

    “There is action aplenty and intrigue in abundance.” – Historical Novels Review

    “Frazer weaves historical details into the life of the fictitious nun... Whether good or evil, her characters are vibrant and compelling. While we might like to believe that the prejudices of that era have passed into history, we are reminded that we are not so very different after all.” – Romantic Times Book Club

    A Romantic Times Top Pick.

    Twice nominated for the Minnesota Book Award.
    Twice nominated for the Edgar Award.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJustin Alexander
    Release dateMay 10, 2011
    ISBN9781458021724
    The Stone-Worker's Tale
    Author

    Margaret Frazer

    Herodotus Award Winner ("Neither Pity, Love, Nor Fear") Edgar Award-nominee (The Servant's Tale) Edgar Award-nominee (The Prioress' Tale) Minnesota Book Award nominee (The Bishop's Tale) Minnesota Book Award nominee (The Reeve's Tale) To begin with, 'Margaret Frazer' was two people, both interested in writing and in medieval England, one of them with modern murder mysteries already published, the other with file drawers, shelves, and notebooks full of research on England in the 1400s. They met in a historical recreationist group called the Society for Creative Anachronism and joined forces to write The Novice's Tale, the first in a history mystery series centered on a Benedictine nun, Dame Frevisse, of a small priory in Oxfordshire. Both character and setting were chosen for the challenge they presented – a cloistered nun in a rural nunnery: how does one go about being involved in murders in that situation? -- and the chance to explore medieval life from a different perspective. During their collaboration, the authors worked together by first laying out the general idea of a story. Then the 'Frazer' half of the team developed the plot and characters in detail and wrote the first draft. The 'Margaret' half then re-worked that into a second draft, the 'Frazer' half re-worked that (and it helped they lived five miles apart and couldn't hear what each said about the other during these stages!), and then they did the final draft together, never able to argue over it too long because by then there would be a deadline closing in. The collaboration worked well through six books and two award nominations – an Edgar for The Servant's Tale and a Minnesota Book Award for The Bishop's Tale – before the 'Margaret' half grew tired of the series and amicably returned to the 20th century, leaving the 'Frazer' half to continue the series, with an Edgar nomination for The Prioress' Tale. I write stories set in medieval England because I greatly enjoy looking at the world from other perspectives than the 20th century. My brief college career was as an archaeology major with writing intended as a hobby, but with one thing and another, my interest came down to medieval England with writing as my primary activity, only rivaled by my love of research. But why medieval England, especially for someone who grew up without any interest in knights in shining armor and ladies fair? That's a tangled tale but the final steps were ...

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    • 5/5
      Satisfying short story. I admit I did not see the Act 3 twist coming, though I should have. :) Which is the sign of a story well done.

    Book preview

    The Stone-Worker's Tale - Margaret Frazer

    The Stone-Worker’s Tale

    A Short Story by Margaret Frazer

    Part of the Dame Frevisse Medieval Murder Mysteries

    Published by Dream Machine Productions at Smashwords

    Copyright 2005 Margaret Frazer

    http://www.margaretfrazer.com

    When Domina Frevisse had last been in St. Mary's church at Ewelme, it had been a quiet place, its brief nave divided from its side aisles by graceful stone pillars, the chancel and high altar remote beyond a richly painted wooden screen topped by a gilded crucifix and saintly statutes.

    Now its quiet and all its ordered peace were gone.  Near the high altar the south aisle was given over to scaffolding, stone dust, and workmen; the summer morning's heavy sunlight pouring unobstructed through the gaping hole in the wall that would someday be a stone-mullioned window of richly stained glass; and the crane with its ropes and pulleys still straddled Lady Alice's stone tomb chest from yesterday's lowering into place of the stone slab that was its top, complete with a full-length carving of Lady Alice lying in prayerful repose, gazing serenely up to heaven.

    Presently, though, Lady Alice was anything but prayerful, serene, or reposed as she demanded at her master mason, He's gone?  Just gone?  He was here yesterday and now, like that, he's gone?

    Around them the workmen were drawn back, idle instead of busy at their varied tasks, wary and watching while Master Wyndford said in open distress, Yes, my lady, agreeing to what he had already admitted.  In the night sometime it must have been, he added, as if that might help.

    It did not.  When young Simon Maye had gone was not the point.  Even why he had gone was not Lady Alice's concern just now, and she said angrily, What of my angels, then?  If he's gone, who's going to finish my angels?

    Her tomb was splendid with angels.  They were carved in a guardian array along both sides of the tall tomb chest, and more would go along the stone canopy that would someday rise above the tomb, and more would stand on the pinnacles that would rise above even that.  Already four of the panels that would edge the canopy were done, were sitting on the floor along the aisle well away from the work still going on, leaned at an angle against the wall so that their angels – three to each panel – gazed upward rather than downward as they someday would when in place above the tomb.  Domina Frevisse had admired those angels the other times she had come with Alice to the church to see how the work came on.  They were

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