The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

A Suitable Consort (for the King and his Husband)
By R. Cooper
Published by the author, 2021
Five stars

Written with all the loving care that I expect in an R. Cooper book, “A Suitable Consort” is a rather modern tale beautifully dressed in romantic myth.

At the court of King Arden of the Canamorra, an unexpected and unwelcome challenge is raised, suggesting that the king—married before his elevation to the crown to his longtime friend and low-born soldier, Mil Wulfa—should take another husband, to see to the courtly duties that distract him. After five years of peace due to this widely popular young king, the challenge is clearly an effort on the part of certain disgruntled nobles to destabilize the kingdom.

Interestingly, the king doesn’t take the bait, but agrees that the idea is something to be considered. This is where Mattin Arlylian, Master Keeper of the Library, comes in. He is tasked with looking into finding a suitable noble suitor for the king, using his unique knowledge of the country’s history and the library’s archives.

And so begins a delicate, emotionally tense love-dance, as fraught as Jane Austen with unspoken feelings and unacknowledged desire. Cooper does this in her imagined medieval world, which she depicts with all the vivid detail of a tapestry. A detail I loved is the concept of the beat-of-four, referring to the noble families, who have surnames with four syllables. It is this notion of nobility—and the lack of it in the king’s husband, who is a hereditary palace guard—that becomes the focus of Mattin’s search. Knowing that the insult lobbed at Arden and Mil is about class, Mattin figures that he should find anyone who might be of interest to both Arden and Mil because of personal traits and interests, but also appease the turbulent nobles who are jealous of Arden’s kingship and would like to see it toppled.

It is Mattin’s wisdom and deep knowledge of the kingdom’s history that brings him in frequent contact with Arden and Mil, and he is all too aware of the informal friendship he has struck up with the couple. The puzzle is that Mattin, himself from a noble family (four syllables in his name), is but the youngest child of the youngest child, and thus sees himself of no importance or consequence. He tries not to think about his feelings for the king or the king’s husband, pretending their friendship with him is purely a consequence of their kindness to everyone and his usefulness to them.

Cooper is a master of detail about life in this fictional world. Hair, clothing, jewelry, creature comforts like food and fire, are all used to heighten the sense of place in which the story unfolds. Almost all of the action takes place within the confines of the palace complex (think Versailles under Louis XIV), until the final epilogue, when we finally leave the palace and go into the town outside the walls. That brilliant, touching chapter is the perfect cap to a well-told tale about the power dynamics of a feudal society and (surprisingly) the role of polyamory in keeping the peace.