Janet you certainly have a great imagination. This story was very good and was up to your high standards.

It appears that some people just can't appreciate a well written story, just because there happens to be things in the story that don't sit well with their opinions on what should be.  This isn't science fiction, the story doesn't HAVE to consider all proper laws etc.

I don't care what Eric says, a well written story, a Fairytale in fact. So logic need not appply

Janet, what a twist on the fairytale of yesteryear. Poor Nigel must become his sister Jane to fullfill an agreement made in the Middle Ages. Janet, Continue to write these twists on the usual tales. Here, you show your true ability as a writer.

Janet's usual solid effort, though the Mad Proofreader in me has to complain about "nerve-racking" (WRACKING, please) and calling a person a "smithy" (a smithy is a workshop or business establishment; the individual who runs it is a smith).

But my problem here is more fundamental -- the premise here seems horribly forced, and the "solution" is a non sequitur.

I can (barely) handle the original setup; it's easy to imagine a losing king getting beaten down into a settlement farther and farther into the future, while at the same time his demand is reduced from the woman's hand in marriage to the chance to deflower her to simply the opportunity to look at her: he's left with a face-saving agreement that no one on either side ever expects to take effect.

And then, against all odds, the territorial standoff still exists 560 years later and both dynasties are still intact and in power.

But there are still massive problems with the payoff.  "The eldest daughter of the direct heir" could be two years old, or non-existent, or widowed (with no husband to "sin" against).  Or, very likely in the 15th century, dead.

As it happens, she IS dead.

Which leaves Sir Nigel's heirs lots of legitimate choices.  If the current king demands the original daughter, make him open her crypt and display her; the sin (and the public derision) will then be on his shoulders.  If he's obliged to accept the oldest LIVING daughter, then the first lord and his lady can adopt one from the thousands of girls in the land -- or better, since the lady is still fertile, give birth to another daughter, conceived either naturally or in the laboratory.  In the case of a natural heir, if the king insists on seeing a ten-year old girl naked, it's unlikely to be the girl who suffers public ridicule.

The one thing they CAN'T afford to do is to try to palm off a feminized boy and hope they get away with it.  If the fraud is discovered, it'll cost them the legitimacy of their claim to the land; if it's not, they're still subject to blackmail and to the threat of invasion if/when the king discovers he's been duped.

It seems to me there ought to be some way to make the story work without requiring that degree of suspension of disbelief: sharpen the terms of the agreement to eliminate the loopholes and explicitly require a non-adopted living female of childbearing age.  (Sir Nigel probably would have assumed that with centuries of advance notice, his descendants would be able to comply.)  Then give the modern king some sort of vulnerability (perhaps the threat of being overthrown by a coalition of dissidents and Nigelians) so that when he backs down, even his later discovery that he was right all along won't be enough to change things.

(Sorry for the length of the comment...)

Eric

One of your very best! Sad, touching yet withal exciting, with (for once) a real reason for the transitioning and the accompanying change of outlook. A marvelous story.

There comes a time when you seem to run out of words to describe the efforts of a wonderfull writer. And it's almost here for me as I've said so much about Janet's stories before.

All I'm left with is the ability to say this story belongs with all the other great stories that Janet has written. She just has an abundance of wonderful tales for those of us who enjoy these transformations.

Thank You Janet.

Diane