A Love For All Seasons (34 page)
Rob's smile was a gleam of white. "How long do you think that might take?"
"No longer than three days," she replied.
"Three days? Why so short a time?"
"Because," she replied,running her fingertip down the length of his torso to where his shaft already thickened in response to her play, "that is how long it will take for the tailor to make me a new gown."
She closed her hand around that part of him that was most male. As he caught his breath at what she did, she spoke on. "I have no clothing here save that novice's gown. Somehow, I cannot think you want the world to watch as you debauch a poor defenseless nun.”
His laugh was low and deep. "Three days? Without a stitch of clothing to your name?" he asked again easing back down alongside her. His fingers came to rest at the peak of her breast.
It was her turn to gasp. “Unless you would buy me something from the old clothes seller.” It was a weak retort.
“My wife does not wear another's castoffs." He lowered his head to nuzzle her ear. "Do you think if I pay the tailor more than he asks he might stretch it to four?”
There was no standardization of date in the twelfth century. Clerks, depending on their affiliation, might name a day the first day in the first month of the first year of a particular monarch's reign. Or, a pope's. Or, an abbot's or bishop's rule. For common folk, it was the rotation of holy festivals that marked their days, e.g., the plow races on the first Monday after Epiphany or the first plowing done on Candlemas. A child was more likely to remember his or her saint day than his or her birthday.
It's for that reason that I chose to use saint days in delineating the events of this book. Saint Agnes's Eve was an appropriate date to begin Rob and Johanna's reunion, for, by legend, this is the day when a woman divines her future husband. Of course, in Johanna's case, it is both a past and future husband.
For those who wish to know, the speaking of secret vows, as Rob and Johanna did, could actually be considered a legitimate marriage. There were cases where a charge of bigamy is used to separate a later marriage so the two who'd exchanged these sorts of vows could be reunited. The creativity of medieval couples in circumventing the patriarchal habit of arranging unions to suit the family rather than the individual never ceases to astound. Now, as to the horarium. A monk's schedule was not necessarily fixed. Services flexed to fit the available daylight hours, longer in summer, shorter in winter. However, for the purposes of this book, I have given the hours a strict definition:
Matins Lauds Prime Terce Sext None Vespers Compline | 12:00 midnight 3:00 6:00 9:00 12:00 noon 3:00 6:00 9:00 |
Thank you for reading A Love for All Seasons, the last of my stories about the FitzHenry brothers. If you liked this book (or even if you didn't, I suppose) please consider
leaving a review
. I thought I'd take a moment and give you a little context for this book. The series was born in 1978 when I had a dream about two people, the hero and heroine of Winter's Heat Rannulf and Rowena, in Medieval England. This was a time in history that I didn't know anything at all about. In the dream they conveyed to me some of their very complicated relationship, which seemed completely understandable to me some eight centuries later. As I woke up I caught myself saying "I have to write this book!" But I also knew I wanted to write an accurate novel because I believe wrapping historical facts up in a good fictional story will teach you more about history and the way people lived in times past than any textbook. Twelve years of research ensued before I felt capable of recreating this amazing time period. The books followed; #1 was Life in a Medieval Castle, #2 was Life in a Medieval Town, #3 was Life on a Medieval Manor and #4 was Medieval Sheriffs and Politics. (And you thought they were just novels.)
"So now what?" I asked my brilliant son Justin after I finished Autumn's Flame. His answer: "You haven't done one about the bastard son of the maid." And, boom! Just like that, Rob appeared and I got to explore The Medieval Merchant's Life.
As a thank you to all of you out there who turned Rannulf and Rowena into best sellers, I'm offering my novella "An Impetuous Season" FREE on my website.
Click here to download it
In case this is the first book of mine you've read, here is the full list. And thank you!
The Graistan Chronicles (sometimes known as the Seasons Series)
The Lady Series,
although two doesn't quite a series make. There were supposed to be more. Hmm, I wonder... .
The Warrior Series
The Warrior's Wife
(previously The Warrior's Damsel)
The Warrior's Maiden
(previously My Lady's Temptation)
My only Regency era book
. I'm sorry. It was too modern for me. I'm better off back when guys just bashed each other with hunks of steel.
Monica Sarli's Memoir
Men-ipulation
And then there's Monica Sarli's memoir that I co-wrote.
Men-ipulation
is a memoir of addiction and recovery. After fifteen years abusing Cocaine, Crack and (her personal favorite) Heroin, Monica chose on August 4, 1986 to clean up and hasn't looked back-even though cleaning up cost her everything she valued in life. For anyone struggling with addiction or who loves someone suffering with addiction, this is a book you won't want to miss. (And, yes she really talks like that...all the time.)
By the way, I'll note here that I am title defective. For the first five books, my fabulous stepdaughter
Amberly Neese
came up with the original and very clever idea of using the seasons, and the publisher ran with it. Beyond that, well, I count on the kindness of editors and others.
If you want to keep up with me or send me a note, please feel free to email me at
[email protected]
or visit my website at
DeniseDomning.com
where you can read my blog. I'll warn you, the blog has nothing to do with writing. Instead, it's the chronicle of how my husband takes me on a journey into Green Living and Permaculture. I have a feeling this will turn out to be a mangling of "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Green Acres".
Wish me luck (I'll need it) and happy reading!
