Dancing the Maypole
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Timothy Cranston’s heart is bone dry; reason enough to hate the world. Since his father’s death he’s been tormented by the secret shame of needing to be touched with kindness. He can’t remember the last time his mother put an arm around his shoulders, ruffled his hair or even pinched his cheek. Her words of love are meaningless; if she loved him she’d touch him. She obviously hates him and he returns the sentiment. He hates everyone, especially his two Elizabethan ancestors who’ve been cursed to ensure ten generations of their progeny marry for love. The absence of privacy has soured Timothy’s tender introverted heart. He’s resolved to die a bachelor; any other ending is unthinkable. What is love? It’s a myth made up by old ladies to inflict feelings of failure on the young!
For years, Lady Jayne Grey’s well travelled neighbours have compared her adored unsociable Papa to the sour Lord Cranston. Invited to stay with her Aunt Josephine for the London season, Jayne hopes to meet the man of her dreams. Unfortunately Aunt Josephine detests Lord Cranston and refuses the necessary introduction. Undaunted, Jayne waits patiently like the grey spider on her family crest. When fate blows Timothy into her web, Jayne finds ensnaring a Cranston heart requires infinite patience and a soft steady touch.
Background to The Curse of Love
The Curse of Love is a result of wondering how a misogynistic hero would fall in love. On occasion in real life it does happen. H.L. Mencken famously fell in love after a lifetime of ranting on about the evils of womanhood. I haven’t studied his relationship; I just know she was in the audience at one of his lectures and he fell in love and they married. Unfortunately she developed cancer and died five years later which is sad, but he did fall in love!
After I started The Curse of Love back in 2002, a friend lent me a book which blew my mind and changed the story. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman has totally changed how I see and treat other people. How people communicate love differently is one of the main themes running through the story.
The Five Love Languages is now the only thing I give as a wedding present. It’s so simple and obvious I’m surprised no one saw it before. The theory is that there are five basic love language types, and though we use and can appreciate all five, there is usually one or two dominate languages that really make us feel “loved”. The five languages are; Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Receiving Gifts, Physical Touch and Quality Time. As we are individuals we all have our own unique sub-language…for instance my main love language is Words of Affirmation, but for me I need to hear people tell me how I make them feel (in a good way obviously). Nothing compares to the sensation of feeling loved in my own language. Just the other week I was visiting a friend and as I was leaving she complimented me in my love language and the hair on the back of my neck stood up and my whole being felt charged like a neon sign. I felt like I was glowing!
Relationship problems can often be dissected to find that both partners aren’t feeling loved anymore (if both were in love in the first place). Once you know about love languages they stand out. Studying one 17th century Englishman; reading the letters between him and his wife was heartbreaking. It was a love match, but within a year or two the euphoric stage of love ended and they were left drifting apart like battered ships barely afloat. She would write to him, “You never spend any time with me!” By choice she mainly lived in the country while he worked for the King so he lived most of the year in London. He would write back, “But I’ve done this and this for you! Why aren’t you happy?” Her love language was Quality Time and his was Acts of Service and neither realised that the other needed the thing they were offering or demanding.
This is where we often fail those we love; we try to tell them we love them in our own language. It’s a vicious circle; loved ones don’t feel loved so they lash out and we get hurt and put up barriers and eventually stop trying to love them.
Growing up I felt loved by a few people, but never my parents. One day this past year I was discussing love languages with one of my sisters and she mentioned that she believed our mother’s love language to be Acts of Service. I was stunned. I didn’t know our mother used to lie awake at night wondering what she’d done for each of us (I have six siblings). All those years she was trying really hard to show me she loved me, but I never got the message. She loved me with Acts of Service, but I thought she was a horrid unloving woman because she never told me how she felt about me or my accomplishments.
Another theme running through the story is how our ancestors affect our lives. This subject fascinates me. I love discovering new ancestors for my family tree and learning about them. It certainly brings history to life. I recently bought a book on the French King, François I. (I’m not related to François that I know of, I just like reading about dead Frenchmen.) It was reading about François’s attack on Italy guarded by Swiss mercenaries with their deadly job of defending at the front battle lines with their pikestaffs that made me stop and reflect. Some of those brave mercenaries could easily have been family.
I have what I have because of thousands of choices by thousands of ancestors whose forgotten lives affect me every day. It’s amazing anyone survived childhood, let alone had children who survived to have children. It’s this chain of living history that makes up our lives. We may not be standing on the shoulders of giants, but we are standing on the shoulders of survivors. My ancestors (from all over Europe) may not have had the highest IQ’s ever recorded, but they survived to reproduce. I like to think they challenged fate with resilient humour or at least dour resistance. It’s all part of the curse of love!
I hope you enjoy reading The Curse of Love as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it!
