The Mistress

Prolog

To my wonderful readers. This is unedited for now, bare with me.

This union had been in the making since I was a small child. I was to be France's next King and she was supposed to stand by my side and help me rule. She was wealthy. This Union supported  her nobility, and the nobility of the French court.

My parents had so carefully hand picked the proper girl for me. Yet why was I having such a hard time with it? Some would say I had a wild spirit, and don't want to throw away my child hood on a women. I am nineteen and she is eighteen, we are certainly of age to be married, some would say we've waited to long, I've prepared myself for growing up, so that's not the problem at hand. I believe the real issue here is that I'm not drawn to her in anyway. She is a plain girl, with weak eyes brown eyes, and brown hair. Never once have I seen her laugh, and when she smiles it's weak and shows no teeth. The times we have spoken have been brief, she always seems to cut me short and never interests me in any conversation. She treats her servants like they are something to be walked on.  I remember as a child, mother would tell me to ask her to play, and she would always decline my offer, then sit around all day, not saying a thing.

The only thing I can say for this girl is, she is wise, and thinks with her head not her heart. That's what it takes to be a good leader.

As Marie of Anjou walks towards me on this day of our wedding her face is emotionless. I search it for some sign of hope that we could possibly bond over the years of our marriage, but her face is stone. I've heard her concerns that she's made very publicly, she's worried I will be to rash, making hasty decisions, she is also worried that I will be to much to deal with, my high strung nature as she would call it.

This women is whom I'm to marry. We join hands and the ceremony takes place.  I'm going to learn to love this woman. "Love is something we royals don't get to experience" my mother says, but I know that I could love someone and I long to. I will learn to love this woman, my wife. I make a promise to myself right there on the altar that I Charle VII, future king of France, will love, deeply, and truly.

***

I sit in our home's library trying to comprehend what my mother is telling me.

"Darling a lady of our, status must take every opportunity to better themselves." My mother says dramatically.

"Our status? What exactly is our status Mother?" I ask in a just as dramatic tone, mockingly, but she doesn't catch on, she's to thrilled I'm taking enough Interest in the matter to ask about it.

"Well, we are not low enough socially to be considered peasants but we aren't high enough socially to be considered nobility worthy of sitting in the Kings court." She says fanning herself with the book she was trying to teach to me.
"So my point is, that you my darling only have education and beauty to get you any title in life. You already possess to beauty of a goddess my dear so it's my job to educate you to your fullest potential."

"That's a lot of pressure on a girl." I say softly

"Dear, charm will do half the job for you. You can wrap a man around your fingers with the proper bat of your eyelashes. Flirt, darling flirt, just like I taught you. That's how I won your father over" she says smiling

The doors to the library open. "Catherine don't feel her head with nonsense. Agnes the only thing that matters is that you find a man with wealth and a good title and keep your virtue in tact, or no man will want you." My father says to me walking over to where my mother and I sit.