WARNING: Contains depictions of medical procedures, teenage drinking, animal husbandry, exposed female hairstyles, heresy, and assart. Arriving in a pile of turnips, a small boy makes a meteoric rise from escaped serf all the way to indentured servant. The small market-town of Broadhole is fertile territory for a 12th century confidence man, and this pathological liar is stealing something more valuable than silver-no, not gold. Education. He steals an education.Recruited by a mysterious monk to steal the secrets of a philandering spice merchant, Wilmot will sabotage apprenticeships, be chased by dogs, chased by marriageable girls, chased by his past, and other things besides chasing, like shopping and... learning Latin. By scamming his way into the lives and pockets of the townsfolk, he gains multiple mentors, loyal customers, and faithful friends. He needs every one of them when his former co-criminals track him down and involve him in a plot that could destroy the town.This medieval comedy is a work of fiction about events that might have happened in a town that could have existed in a mythical land called England. Appropriate for teens and adults. 102,000 words
