Adventures in Time Travel: Undercover at the Court of Henry II

[Miss Moppet]

Part One. My Secret Life

Identities will be concealed in this story to protect the innocent.

No, scratch that. My identity will be concealed. Everyone else will be named and shamed.
I’d better explain myself. To the outside world, I’m an art historian, generally to be found in the depths of the Rare Book Reading Room at the British Library, only venturing as far as the National Archives at Kew when I think I can stand the excitement.

Little does anyone know of my secret life.

Mostly, I read about the past. But sometimes, I visit it.

Just this time last year my friends thought I was taking a relaxing break in Tuscany. I was actually in Windsor...in the year 1184, that is. I was hired by, shall we say, a very illustrious person to infiltrate Henry II's Christmas Court. My mission: to acquire the Empress Matilda's crown and bring it back to the present day, thus sparing it the fate of getting lost in the Wash in 1216.

But my goodness, the romantic complications. Not only did Henry II fall for me, but so did Prince Richard, and Prince John. Just as well I brought my laptop along - by the end of the week I needed an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of it all. What made me such an object of desire to those royal men? Was it destiny? Pheromones? The Chanel No.5 I chucked into my suitcase at the last minute? Or the fact that I was female, sentient and wearing a skirt? I'll never know.