Spring 1554
My Dearest Venera,
Let this letter find you in excellent health. I worry very much about how fond you are of the horses. When I'm not accompanying you you may gallop to your death. Or trot into some tunnel of branches and feel the webs of spiders stick across your penny rose cheek. Maybe even a complete spider will find you and flit over your beautiful face. It isn't that I'm trying to hold you away from seeing the country, you have all the liberty in the world to take a carriage to the sweet grasses and hills as much as you like. It's that I have seen women fall from the light and into too many colors which they later speak of with regret. Careful to watch your dainty steps my dear and I know of the story of your sister. I want only that you are pleased and that life pleases you so that we may live in peace with God. Confide in me that every new handmaiden you have and ever will have is extremely well chosen. Be wary of the cheek that is too hot and the eyes that long too much. Most fragrant are the flowers that smell the longest. Some sweets only smell so for as little as the morning. My drifting mind goes to you with much preoccupation, but when it is asleep it dreams pleasantly of your angelic self.
Your soon to be husband in admiration of your incredible spices of beauty,
Martín Cortés Zúñiga, II Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca
YOU ARE READING
The Letters: Prequel to Cenquizqui the Novel
Ficción históricaThe Letters The most intimate journey into the characters of Cenquizqui lies beneath the broken wax seal of The Letters. What they reveal is entirely dependent upon their relationship with the recipient. Gaze through their masks and discover t...
