A Love For All Seasons by Domning Denise

Author:Domning, Denise [Domning, Denise]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
Published: 2011-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

Stanrudde

October, 1179

"Oh, Rob, I cannot believe she is gone!" Johanna cried, with all the substantial emotion a heart of ten and four could muster. She kicked at the distillery's hearth as if to show him how deep her desire to disbelieve was. The silken skirts of her orange and green gowns flew wide, scooping up crackling autumn leaves with her movement. "Why, I remember how at Eastertide she fair glowed with pride at finally conceiving a child. Something that makes a person so happy shouldn't kill them."

Standing at her side, Rob could only nod in sad agreement. Mistress Katherine's death was neither fair nor right. As if she could call the apothecary's wife back from the grave by will alone, Johanna lifted her head to stare at the closed shutters of Master Colin's bedchamber window. Rob joined her in perusal of those plain lengths of wood.

Only a week ago, when Mistress Katherine had begun her labor, she'd been full of life, buoyed against her pains by the excitement of producing the child both she and the master so desired. The hours passed, but the babe moved not at all. Using every potion and concoction they knew, the midwife and Master Colin battled to bring it forth. One day became two, then three. It had almost been a relief when the mistress at last gave way to death, for at least her torment ended. When she was gone, the midwife cut open her womb, only to find the babe within her dead as well. Since then the apothecary had said no word, passing through the last four days like the wraith his wife now was.

It was Rob's helplessness in the face of Master Colin's grief that had driven him from the mourning feast yet going on in Master Walter's hall. In this familiar corner of the yard he sought to console himself since he could not console his master. As if she sensed his distress, Johanna appeared only moments later.

Had it been any other lass, Rob would have driven her away, wanting privacy in which to struggle with his emotions. Johanna was different, being more friend than lass. Moreover, although she never said or did anything that remotely resembled an attempt at comfort, there was something about her presence that ever soothed him.

He sighed. Oblivious to the tragedy of Mistress Katherine's demise, the world beyond the apothecary's shop went on. In the lane a regrater was calling out the quality of his walnuts. Cart wheels groaned, goads flicked, and muleteers shouted to their pack animals. Warmed by the afternoon sun the day's breeze brought with it the stench of the shambles. From two lanes over, a fuller, his apprentices, and his servants raised their voices in song as they fused newly woven cloth into finished goods to the tune's rhythmic beat.

When her stare failed to conjure up the apothecary's wife, Johanna turned her gaze downward to the distillery's hearthstone. "I am glad Papa called me home so I might bid her and her son farewell.

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