Kelly Scarborough is the author of the new novel Butterfly Games. She spent two decades working as a lawyer, and she lives in Connecticut and in South Carolina.
Q: Why did you decide to focus on the 19th century Swedish countess Jacquette Gyldenstolpe in your new novel?
A: Jacquette first appeared to me in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be analyzing some documents for a court case I was working on. She was a footnote at first—just a young countess rumored to have had a love affair with Prince Oscar, the future king of Sweden.
But as I kept digging, I realized history had depersonalized her by defining her only by her scandal. The more I searched, the more fragments I found—letters, memoirs, and court gossip—that hinted at a vibrant, complicated young woman whose star-crossed love affair threatened a fragile new dynasty.
That combination of vulnerability and courage drew me in instantly. I knew hers was the story I had to tell.
Q: What did you see as the right balance between fiction and history as you wrote the book?
A: I aimed for a balance that respected the historical record while giving the story room to grow.
The early Bernadottes lived through a turbulent political time, and to help readers feel that instability, I introduced a fictional storyline involving documents in the queen’s letter box. It allowed Jacquette to become an active participant in events and made the Gustavian threat more tangible.
None of Jacquette and Oscar’s emotional life—especially their private conversations—was ever written down, so those scenes are imagined. But I grounded them in what the historical sources reveal about the temperaments of these two young lovers.
In the book’s author’s note, I explain where and why I departed from the record.
Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: When I began, I had never been to Sweden and didn’t speak the language. Ten years later, I’ve traveled there many times, studied Swedish, collected antique books, translated letters, and spent an untold number of hours in archives and castles.
Discovering hundreds of letters written by Jacquette and her relatives—many in French—was a revelation. Their voices suddenly felt close enough to touch.
What surprised me most was how politically charged Jacquette’s world was. Sweden had recently lost Finland after 600 years, overthrown a king, and elevated a French general to the line of succession.
In that volatile environment, women exercised influence in subtler but powerful ways—through alliances, gossip networks, and acts of quiet persuasion. It wasn’t the same type of power men wielded, but it shaped outcomes, nonetheless.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The title revealed itself when I came across the Swedish term fjärilsleken—“the butterfly game”—in the entry for Queen Charlotte (Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta) in the Swedish Dictionary of National Biography.
There, the word was used to describe the flirtations, romantic entanglements, and strategic sexual liaisons that unfolded within the royal court. It was a polite way of referring to a world where love and ambition often merged, and where private relationships could carry very public consequences.
In Butterfly Games, I recast the term as shorthand for the unspoken rules of survival at the Swedish royal court—a place where elegance masked danger and a single misstep could alter a life. Jacquette is warned that the Butterfly Game is not for the halfhearted, and she discovers, painfully, how true that is.
For me, the title reflects the central tension of the novel: beauty on the surface, peril just underneath.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m deep into Book 2 of the Butterfly Games series. It picks up after the events of the first novel, with Jacquette newly married and Oscar now crown prince. Both must confront the consequences of the choices they made in Book 1, and the stakes—for them and for Sweden—rise quickly.
Jacquette is no longer a bullied teenager; she’s a young woman beginning to understand the price of playing (or refusing to play) the Butterfly Game. Several supporting characters take on their own emotional journeys, including Brita, Nils, and Désirée.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: My mother turns 90 soon. I’m so happy she’ll be at my launch party—this book belongs to her as much as to me.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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