Begun this 12th day of September in the year of Our Lord 1290... I am commanded to write an account of my days. I am bit by fleas and plagued by family... Tangled my spinning again. Corpus bones, what a torture... Spent two hours embroidering a cloth for the church and three hours picking out the stitches after my mother saw it... Picked off twenty-nine fleas today.' Catherine's mother wants to teach her the skills of the lady of the manor and to prepare her to be a gentle and patient wife. Her father wants only to see her married off, and profitably. Catherine fancies herself a painter, a Crusader, a maker of songs, a peddler, a minstrel, a monk, a wart charmer... Of all the possibilities, she has ruled out only one: being sold like cheese to the highest bidder. Against a vivid backdrop of everyday life on a medieval English manor, Catherine's earthy, spirited account of her 14th year is a richly entertaining story with an utterly unforgettable heroine.