Juniper

Juniper by Monica Furlong, 1990. Young Ninnoc was born the daughter of a chieftan in Cornwall. She was raised as a princess in her father’s castle and educated as young royalty. She is generally loved and cared for, but there is one person in her father’s household who doesn’t like her, her father’s sister, her aunt Meroot. Ninnoc doesn’t know why her aunt hates her, but she knows early in life she can’t trust her. Meroot isn’t even nice to her own young son. She has ambitions for her son to be a great warrior, so she forces him to start training him early and purposely keeps him hungry and in discomfort to toughen him up. Ninnoc is friends with her cousin, and she and her nurse offer him food and comfort in secret. Her cousin really wants to be a musician, but his mother would never allow such a thing. As the only daughter of a king, it initially seems that Ninnoc’s eventual fate will be to marry and to rule after her father, along with her future husband. However, Ninnoc begins…