A Heart Full of Stars {A Medieval Story} Chapter 70 *Finale* now! 5/28/21

Chapter 1
Life was simple. The people lived content lives in small houses with their families. The seasons changed frequently, crops grew, taxes were paid, babies were born. It was simple, well paced.

Two figures sat outside of the back of a building, one older, the other younger.

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“Now you see, to form the ‘a’ properly, you go around and up in a gentle flourish, like so.” Anwyn showed Joseph, her youngest brother. He was 7 years old, and soon he would be too busy to learn to read and write. He had potential, they all did. Anwyn saw her brother one day having the potential to be a scribe or merchant, but it was hard to teach children when you had a shop to run. She had heard that in the larger villages had schools, but in their quaint little town there was nothing to be done. There could be no schools when the homes were so spread out. They were blessed to have a few nearby neighbors themselves, and didn't have to make a living selling crops that grew when they're wasn't a famine going around.

The Cupshires were the local bakers, making bread and pastries for the locals to save them time in their busy days. It was a safe job, one that paid reliably, and the Cupshires were always warm and well fed. Anwyn helped with her father, mother, and elder sister Lara in the kitchen and shop. The children terrorized the dog and played outside to pass the time.

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As the sun was getting higher above the horizon, Anwyn stood from the bench and dusted herself off. “I want to see twenty beautiful ‘a's on that page by the end of the day, do you hear me, Joseph? Twenty!” She instructed as she entered the back of the house. The kitchen was busy with three sets of hands working to get the work done.

“Anny! Goodness, does that boy know how to write the Bible yet? You spend enough time with him,” chided Mrs. Cupshire. “Get out to the front and fill the orders. We don't have all day to dream of curlicues!”

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“Yes, ma'am!” Anwyn complied as she hugged her mother and went to the front of the shop.

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Master Gibbons was talking heartily with the other patrons who were looking at the goods. In a voice that was accustomed to shouting across fields, Anwyn heard him say “I heard from Master Payhins that the king himself is on his way to town to visit the lord on the hill in two weeks’ time. It’s one of the nicest manors this side of the capitol so it’s no wonder really. If only we had more time to prepare, I’m surprised that the lord hasn’t sent out pages to gather every hand to help him in the preparation.” Master Gibbons turned from the other patrons and hailed Anwyn. “Miss Cupshire! When is my bread ready? I’m not getting any younger!” he heckled in a happy tone.

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“Relax, Master Gibbons, you’re bread is ready, more so than the grain you grow in your pastures! Make way!” Anwyn moved her way into the crowded, small room.

~*~

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“What do you think about the king coming to visit the lord?” Anwyn later asked Lara while they were working in the garden. It had gotten hot outside so Anwyn had changed into a lighter dress. Lara was a beautiful girl who had the fancy of the son of a farmer about a mile away. There was no engagement yet, but it was expected soon. The families couldn’t be happier for them to start a life, as Lara was 25 by this time.

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“It’s not likely. The king travels rather often from what I hear. There’s rarely anything to come of it. Very little, actually. When he gets tired of one location, he’ll take someone else's elaborate manor for a while and then move on. He was here when you were too young to remember, and I barely do. He was barely a man then, but you remember a king coming to town.” Lara shook herself, remembering what she was talking about in the first place. “Still, two weeks is rather short notice. The courtyard alone is under-cared for and the hedges haven’t been trimmed… I’m sure the lord is frantic.” Lara mentioned. She had gone to visit a friend who was a maid in the house the week before last.

“Master Gibbons said he was surprised that no one had come to gather us to be there to help prepare and serve. Do you think that we should be ready to go at a moment’s notice? Should I pack my things? Goodness, listen to me, Lara! I sound like I don’t know my up from my downs!”

“Well, I’m sure everything will turn out as if it never happened. In a year, what will it matter, hmm? The king will be gone again, off hunting in another one of his vast forests-” she laughed and nudged Anwyn, “and he’ll live in history as the king with the most peace ever seen. If one of the worst famines…” she turned back to the garden. “The plants are green, they’re well watered, but they do not fruit. Even the strawberries barely gave us 20 good berries this week. What are we supposed to do with 20 berries? I wonder if some magic is at work here…”

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“Magic doesn't exist, Lara. Don’t be fooled. It’s still the beginning of summer, it will get better soon, I’m sure.” Anwyn reassured.

Lara shook her head. “You’re wrong, it’s full August by now. The fields should be taller, not as green as they are. Grain should be yellow, not green. This is a problem, if a hidden one at that. There is an ill omen here.”

Anwyn was unnerved and worry wiggled it’s way into her mind. “But it could be worse, couldn’t it? Longer winter would be harder on the animals, harder on everything. A longer summer isn’t a problem, could it be?”

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Lara’s face fell. “I wish I could say. I truly do. I’ve never heard of this happening.” She turned back to her work. “Still, as you said, It could be worse. Let’s grab these greens and get inside. I’m sure mother is tired of waiting for us to harvest some greens.”

~*~

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“God, give us the strength to continue with tomorrow’s hardships and trials, bless Dante (the eldest brother among the children) and his wife. May they bear a child soon, may their fields grow tall, and may their lives be on the path of righteousness.” Anwyn’s father finished the prayer and started to eat his meal.

“I learned to write an ‘a’ and a ‘b’ today!” Joseph boasted with wide eyes. “I can do it all by myself, Anwyn taught me.”

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“That’s wonderful, I’m sure the dog is happy that you were otherwise occupied.” teased Mrs. Cupshire. “And what are you going to do with your new skill?”

“I’m one step closer to being able to write like the scribes, I could get a job being a poet maybe! Or a messenger!”

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“Messengers don’t have to read and write,” commented Sophia. “In fact, it’s probably better they don’t so that they don’t know what the paper they’re holding says and they can’t spread the secrets on it.”

“Then I don’t have to be a messenger, I could be something else! Anything else!” cheered Joseph.

“I think that’s a bit far in the future to be thinking. Let’s not forget about tomorrow.” Mr. Cupshire reared the conversation.

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“I heard that the king is coming to stay with the lord and that they may need help cleaning and preparing the manor.” Anwyn commented, placing food into her mouth.

“It’s a right shame the disarray that they let that place get into whenever no one is around to see it. If I could give that lord a piece of my mind… I’d tell him that he ought to right it up until everything is shining.” Mrs. Cupshire said, shaking her head. Everything that Mrs. Cupshire cleaned had to be shining when it was done, that’s how their house stayed so clean. Any dirt was eliminated.

“I’ve never been in the house, I wonder what it’s like…” Anwyn mentioned.

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“It’s a nice house, but you’ll be prudent to stay away from the king,” her father cautioned. “He may seem like a noble king, but I’ve heard tales of other things… Things that no man or woman need to get involved in. I want the two of you-” he looked at Lara and Anwyn “- to stay as far away from him as you possibly can. Besides, he’s a married man, no reason for young women as yourselves to be around him.”

“Yes, sir,” Anwyn and Lara said in unison, turning their attention back to their plates.

Mr. Cupshire looked back at his own plate, then smiled widely as if remembering something lovely. “I have some news of my own. The Winchesters have agreed to the marriage of Lara and William! The dowery is minimal, a few pieces of gold and the promise to have and to hold, ‘til death may you part.”

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Lara cheered and beamed. The rest of the family was cheering and celebrating, and Mrs. Cupshire looked like she was going to cry. Dabbing her eyes, she beamed at her husband and Lara.

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“There is so much arranging to do,” she commented. “People to invite, cooking to be done. Your aunts are going to want to come, I’m sure. No doubt. Congratulations, Lara. William Winchester is a good boy who will love you until the earth crumbles. We can only all be so lucky…” she looked slyly at her husband, and the two of them smiled, then burst out laughing as if something were the funniest thing in the world.

Anwyn looked at her sister. “You’re going to be so happy and have many healthy children, I’m sure. Your life is going to be wonderful, and this is just the beginning.”

Dinner was cleared away and the children went to bed. Anwyn and Lara went to their room and got ready for bed.

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“Just think, soon you won’t be Miss Cupshire, you’ll be Mrs. William Winchester, a farmer’s wife. You’ll never go hungry for sure.” Anwyn sat on her bed, letting down her hair.

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“But, I know nothing about the duties of being a wife. I’ve heard the…” Lara cleared her throat a bit, embarrassed. “How children are conceived. From the other wives in the village.”

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“Really? Who was telling you about how to be with a man? Was it Mistress Gibbons? Or was it Mrs. Campfer?” Rose leaned in.

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Lara had a smirk on her gleeful face, still embarrassed as the moon during the day.“I’m not going to say who, just that if you have a question about it you should ask Mistress Graham.” she giggled.

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“Oh, I should have guessed her!” Anwyn got serious for a moment. “What exactly did she… say about it?”

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Lara also grew a bit more serious. “It was hard to get a straight answer about anything, really. I barely even knew that we were having the conversation, there was so much innuendo and metaphor. Just that it may hurt the first few times, but that it becomes pleasant? But I have always heard in church that it is unpleasant and a woman’s duty as a wife. Both can’t be true, can it?”

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“Childbearing is the painful part, perhaps the sowing is good? I don’t really want to think about it,” Anwyn and Lara had some second hand knowledge of how children were made. The walls in the house weren’t the thickest and while the Cupshires tried to be discrete, it wasn’t easy to do when you had 5 children. Anwyn knew that childbirth was the hardest part of it all, but her mother had made it through each of her births, and Anwyn was sure that Lara would make it as well.

“When my time comes, you’ll have to… give me advice. Oh, my sister, you always know and do what’s best! This new life your starting, though away from me,” she chidded in jest as if it were a flaw, “Will be the very best, of that I’m sure.”