Bride to Be (part fifteen)

Bride to Be (part fifteen)

And the boy was Aldebert. But he was not—

Wildulfa knew it, thinking, wrapped in pelts

So near freezing, she felt sleep were a gift

the goddess might in jealousy

Mete to a soul keeping vigil more constant

than her acolyte’s, squandering the night’s watches

without prayer

Priests of your faith are forbidden marriage

She had taunted him with it

Oh, not altogether. They are, but they do, and little is said

How sad. For the woman, how sad…

Why? The husband she takes is a good man, or a bad

Now, what refutation…not to allow him the opening

Because I have pride, and if I love

You will grant me, at least, that pride, iron will

To be bound to one’s troth, to see a thing through

when you’ve pledged it, is virtue, not sin…!

But this, the smile that would greet it

The unconceding jest of giving in

Turned her mind, restless, to Aldebert again

As he must be less than twenty-five

The baby given to Beodathe

Had died…

The marriage forced on Tamarilde

Had made no yield…?

Perhaps the Romish god disdained

to view the prior match annulled

Bride to Be

Bride to Be (part sixteen)

(2022, Stephanie Foster)