The Noble Servant

Gr 9 Up—When 19-year-old Magdalen, daughter of the deceased Barron of Mallin, receives a written wedding proposal from 21-year-old Steffan, Duke of Wolfberg, she and her stern and callous mother believe things are looking up for the family and for the people of Mallin. Mother immediately sends Magdalen on her way, but the situation quickly changes when Agnes, her maidservant, and Erlich, Agnes's father, threaten her life if she does not swap places with Agnes. Magdalen quickly discovers that trickery is afoot at Wolfberg Castle: the "duke" to whom imposter Agnes is now engaged is not Steffan but Alexander, his cousin, acting under the control of his father, Lord Hazen. When the real Steffan arrives, he is forced to play the role of a poor shepherd until he can prove his true identity. Magdalen and Steffan must find a way to regain their true identities as they wrestle with their mixed emotions for each other and their concern over the fate of their people. Dickerson develops the male and female protagonists by stripping them of the royalty to which they are accustomed and placing them in the vilest of human states at the time in which this story was set: 1365, during the Holy Roman Empire. Though the plot of this story, inspired by the Brothers Grimm's "The Goose Girl," is very quickly revealed, readers will revel in both Magdalen and Steffan's journey and Agnes and Alexander's.