Spellbound - Cara Lynn Shultz [47]
“I had not yet finished my meal!” Eleanor shouted, striking the girl across the face.
Weeks before the wedding, Archer was riding in his fields alone, not wishing to share his miseries with anyone when he came upon a small, yet meticulously cared-for cottage. A young woman was outside, tending to roses that climbed the cottage’s facade.
She looked up and blushed, hastily bowing.
Archer was taken by the woman’s beauty. It was not powdered and pressed the way the women at the court were. She was natural, almost wild, with black hair that fell to her waist. He dismounted and asked to speak to her.
He found that, although she wasn’t highly educated, she was smart. She was clever, yet kind.
Turning to her roses, she pulled something small off the petals and cupped it in her palm. “I’m holding the loveliest thing your eyes will ever behold,” she told him, and Archer begged to see.
With that, she showed him the tiny ladybug nestled in her palm. When Archer scoffed, she explained, “You cannot find beauty in this small creature? It can fly—we cannot. Its jacket is bright red and spotted. We are simply plain. If you cannot see the glory in the palm of my hand, what chance have you to see beauty anywhere else?”
Archer asked the peasant what her name was, and when her father would be home. Gloriana was stunned when he told her, “Tell your father Lord Archer will return tonight to speak with him.” Although his fine robes told her Archer was a man of great import, she didn’t know he was her family’s own lord. Gloriana apologized, fearful that she had angered the lord. He promised her all would be explained when he spoke to her father.
That evening, he asked Gloriana’s father, John, for her hand in marriage. Her father feared for retribution from the powerful lord, yet didn’t want to sentence his daughter to a lifetime of misery. The only joy afforded peasants was the chance to marry for love.
John told Archer he must ask Gloriana for the pleasure of her hand. Surprised, but intrigued, Archer proposed to Gloriana.
“Might you court me first?” she asked. “Afford me the same respect you would a maiden a thousand times my stature.”
Archer, already in love with Gloriana, agreed. But when he told his father he wished to cancel his wedding, Alistair feared for the life of his son. Snubbing Lady Eleanor and her powerful family—for a peasant!—was tantamount to treason.
Still, Archer persisted in his courtship of Gloriana, even after learning that the young maiden practiced pagan rituals. Those in court scoffed at the satchel of herbs he wore around his neck for protection—a gift from his beloved.
Members of society whispered that Archer had lost his mind, leaving a fine woman like Eleanor for a heretic peasant. But Archer would not be stirred; the bolder and more independent Gloriana was, the more deeply he fell in love. Finally, she accepted his marriage proposal. The two were wed in a small ceremony, with just her family and his father in attendance. Society had refused them.
Archer didn’t trouble himself with the court’s chatter. After all, he and Gloriana shared a true love. He offered her all the jewels and servants she could want, yet all she desired was an education. So Archer employed scholars to give his bride the knowledge she craved. Soon, she was writing love poetry that rivaled the epic poems Archer himself wrote to his beloved.
Their seemingly infinite joy grew when Gloriana gave birth to a son. But their happiness was tainted when the Cardinal refused to see the child and baptize him. The reason given was that Archer had insulted Lady Eleanor, whose family was great friends with the Cardinal. Archer suspected that the rumors of Gloriana’s heresy had reached the Cardinal, influencing his decision. So Archer made plans to travel to the Cardinal and petition him personally to christen the child. He planned to explain