The thought of trading her subservient role in her father's home for that of being the dutiful wife of someone she had never met caused her to shudder with revulsion. 'No,' she thought to herself, 'What I crave is the opportunity to adventure across the sea, to behold strange and wondrous sights far beyond the city walls of Lübeck.' To do that even once would almost be worth submitting herself to a loveless marriage based solely on familial advantage. 'But not quite,' she admitted to herself. For if there is one thing of which Christina Kohl is certain, it is that she craves her independence even more than adventure.
Yet, these could only be childish dreams for a daughter of a wealthy merchant in the 14th century German imperial city of Lübeck. Even at sixteen-years-old, Christina grudgingly accepts her existence is to be shaped and limited by the men who do and will control her life. When unexpected tragedies befall her family, however, she is presented with an unlikely opportunity to at last become her own person. The freedom of her new life is fraught with peril as she attempts to succeed in a role for which she is ill-prepared, all the while keeping secrets that, if exposed, will certainly bring shame, financial ruin, and perhaps even death.
No Man's Chattel
is an exhilarating coming-of-age novel set in the medieval commercial centers of Lubeck and London, England. It is not so much a story of the societal norms of the era as of one young woman's struggle to defy them.