Persson

Excerpted from The Cocktail Dress by Laird Borelli-Persson © 2009.

Laird Borrelli-Persson is the senior features editor at Style.com, the online home of Vogue and W magazines.

His first service was with a rich miner named Anders Persson, in whose barn he threshed grain for several days.

Anders Persson kept his secret, but advised him not to stay long in any one place lest his enemies get wind of him.

He had to work now to live, and hired out to Anders Persson, the farmer of Rankhyttan.

But in 1569 Stockholm was captured, Gran Persson killed and the king forced to abdicate.

During this spell he set free his brother John and dismissed Gran Persson.