The Shattered Rose Page 0,7
but Jehanne would never recover from losing them.
He'd been surprised when his cool-headed, quick-witted wife had revealed a passionate maternal longing, but once established, it had become the ruling force in their lives.
Her desire for a child had eroded their sexual pleasure and made her silently miserable every month of the year. That misery had driven him to do the one thing he had no wish to do - leave her and take the cross.
Their childlessness had not mattered at first. Betrothed at sixteen, married at seventeen, life stretched before them like an open road, and the tangled pleasures of fighting and bed play absorbed all their attention. After a year or so, however, the questions started - well-meaning questions about when Jehanne would quicken. Galeran was even taken aside by his embarrassed father to check that the young couple were actually doing all that was necessary.
They certainly were, and enjoying it so much that they were in no great hurry to have the fun interrupted by pregnancy and birth. The concern of all around began to affect them, however, so they took measures.
Herbs were recommended, and dutifully used. Prayers were offered.
Jehanne even agreed to wear an amulet to keep away the evil spirits that could eat a woman's children before they started to grow.
Still, it was all more a matter for amusement than concern. At eighteen they lived in youthful optimism that everything would come in time, and in the meantime they had much to absorb them, Jehanne had already perfected her skills as chatelaine and was an industrious, efficient manager. Galeran was continuing to develop fighting skills as well as the administrative abilities he would need to run the barony when Jehanne's father died. He was entranced by the power and prestige of Heywood. After all, as a younger son, he had never expected to become a landed lord so easily.
The unexpected marriage had come about because Jehanne's brothers had died, leaving her heir to her ailing father's estates. Fulk of Heywood decided to marry her off quickly to a suitable young man, one old enough for responsibility but young enough to be trained by him.
He naturally looked to the large family of his neighbor, William of Brome.
Will, the eldest son, was already married. Eustace, the second son, was nineteen and all a man could want in a son-by-marriage.
The betrothal negotiations were well advanced, when Eustace threw everything into disorder by announcing that he felt called to become a priest, a fighting priest opposing the Moors in Iberia. Fulk howled, Lord William raged, but Eustace held his ground as firmly as one would expect of a holy warrior.
Thus Galeran found himself the focus of dynastic plans. Just sixteen and more interested in horses and hounds than women, he was not consulted.
He was summoned from Lancashire, where he served as squire to Lord Andrew of Forth, stuffed into unusually fine clothes, and taken to Heywood to be betrothed to a frosty girl a few months older and a few inches taller than he. Scarce over that shock, he was told he would live at Heywood and complete his training in arms under Lord Fulk, while learning how to manage property.
Despite the shock, Galeran recognized his good fortune. He was being handed a castle and estates of his own and was likely to have them soon, since Lord Fulk was ailing. The only mold in this tasty loaf was his betrothed wife.
The Lady Jehanne made no secret of the fact that she would prefer to marry another, Raymond of Lowick. Tall, handsome Raymond had been her father's squire, and was now known throughout the north for his skill with arms. At her father's command, she had accepted that she was to marry Eustace of Brome, who was equally tall and handsome in a rough-cut way, and who had also proved himself in battle.
She had not expected to marry a slightly built boy.
"I'm a full two months older than you" was virtually the first thing she said to him.
He had sisters and knew how to handle that. "Then you'll doubtless die sooner." But his voice had cracked on it, and he would have given his right hand that it not, because she wasn't his sister. She was that frightening creature, the woman who would one day be his wife.
They'd already made the vows and signed the documents, witnessed by thirty or so men of standing in the norm. Now they'd been sent to sit together at the opposite end of the