Because George does not have a high position in society, they cannot marry, and both end up wedding others: George, an eccentric older Saxon businesswoman named Ethelfritha, who was struck by lightning Aelis, a seven-year-old duke.

One of the book's largest subplots occurs when her favorite uncle, George, comes home from the Crusades and falls in love with Catherine's best friend, Lady Aelis. She spends the year described in her diary fighting the marriage, devising various escapes and alternate versions of her life where she will run away and be a monk, or escape overseas and go on the Crusades. Eventually, Catherine's father demands that she marry an old, repulsive man she calls 'Shaggy Beard' in her diary. Several suitors approach Stonebridge Manor with the intention of wooing Lady Catherine, but all fall short of her expectations and devices. Her mother wishes her to be an accomplished and docile lady, while her father wishes to make advantageous social connections through her marriage.

Edward, with whom she corresponds and is closest, is a monk who lives in an abbey nearby.Ĭatherine's relationship with her parents is a pervasive element in the plot. Catherine's second brother, Thomas, is in the king's service. He weds his betrothed though she is only 12, and she dies from complications while giving birth to their child. Catherine is called 'Birdy' because she keeps many birds as pets.

The novel is marked by the Catholic Saints' Days. The story begins in September 1290, when Catherine describes her world: her father's manor, her father and mother themselves (her father is bawdy, loud and disagreeable her mother, kind and sweet), and the people she encounters daily.

Who is birdy