Can A Heart Truly Break?

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Can a heart truly “break”?

Physically, of course, it could break down and we might suffer a cardiac arrest. But that is not what we are referring to on this blog hop.

Why do we associate the misery of lost love, or unrequited love with the heart? After all it’s an organ of the body—albeit a vital one—nothing more.

Yet we would be judged odd if we talked about having our lungs broken, or our liver!

“What’s wrong with you?”

“My lover left me with a broken liver.”

(Come to think of it, men do sometimes refer to having another part of their male anatomy broken when things don’t go their way.)

Do we actually feel pain in this “heart-shaped” organ when love kicks us in the teeth? (Sorry!)

Actually, we do! Acute shock, or disappointment, triggers an adrenaline release in the body, which rushes to the heart. We want to fight the “heartbreak”, argue with the person jilting us, or flee, never to see the cad again.

Too much adrenaline can trigger palpitations, tachycardia, arrhythmia—all symptoms we “feel” in our heart.

It can also bring on headaches, but we don’t talk about having our heads broken!

If there was no such thing as a broken heart, romance authors would be in a bad way! If relationships were easy and worked out smoothly every time, I’d be out of a job!

But life isn’t like that, is it?

Nor was it, thank goodness, in medieval times, my favourite period to write about! In fact heartbreak was rampant then, when women had little choice or say in whom they married, and precious few rights.

But the nice thing about romance is that it is “happily ever after”, so we can mend our heroine’s broken heart with a stroke of the pen (or a tap of the keyboard).

Our heroes can be just plain chauvinists, like Ram de Montbryce, in Conquering Passion, and we can right that silliness by giving him a feisty heroine (Mabelle) who insists on voicing her opinions. He discovers he actually likes that about her and her broken heart is mended!

Sometimes it takes an enormous personal sacrifice to make a hero understand just how much a woman loves him. In Dance of Love, Farah leaves behind her most precious possession when she has to leave her hero. She knows it is necessary for him to resume his life as a warrior after he is stricken by a crippling affliction. Her actions eventually prompt him to pursue her and both are relieved of their broken heart!

My medieval heroes are heartbreakers, but not because they are “bad boys”. It’s just they can’t see the wood for the trees! They don’t mean to break the hearts of their heroines, they simply put other things ahead of love—things like honour, vengeance, fear of rejection.

It’s understandable really when you consider the times these men lived in. They often had to fight to protect what was theirs. It could be dangerous to let down one’s guard. Even within families treachery existed. But not in my medieval family. The Montbryces are intensely loyal to each other. And the men all suffer from the “Montbryce curse.” They are noblemen in love with their wives—supposedly an anomaly in the Middle Ages. It was not “manly” to show loving feelings, even for one’s spouse and/or children.

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Interview with the Heroine of Conquering Passion

Heartland's Cindy Busby

Interview with Mabelle de Valtesse, heroine of Conquering Passion

(I visualize Canadian actress Cindy Busby acing the role of Mabelle with no difficulty at all!)

Date: October 1066

Place: Montbryce Castle, Normandy

 We’ve just come from seeing off your betrothed, Ram de Montbryce, as the invasion fleet set sail for England.

They have gone at last? Ram has been impatient to get the expedition underway. It has been difficult for him.

He was very eager to go. Will you miss him?

Of course, but above all Ram is a warrior and very loyal to his Duke. He must do his duty.

Why did you not marry before he left?

Ah, that is a long story. We were supposed to marry weeks ago. In fact I had already dressed in my wedding gown and was on my way to the chapel, but...

Did something happen?

Oui, but I prefer not to discuss it.

Ram mentioned something about you having an unusual upbringing?

He told you that? I did have an unusual childhood. My father is a difficult man. He did something unspeakably cruel to another nobleman. In retaliation we were exiled from our home. We wandered about Normandie for many years.

Does she look like the type to be seen and not heard?

Just you and your father?

Oui.

Perhaps that’s what your betrothed meant when he intimated that if you became his Countess...

Oui, I’m afraid Ram doesn’t think I am suitably brought up to be his Countess. He believes women should be seen and not heard.

So why did his father choose you?

I sometimes wonder myself, but Count Bernard de Montbryce is a kind man who perhaps sees something in me that Ram does not yet see. I am glad the Count will be here, otherwise I would be very lonely in this big castle with all three Montbryce sons off to war.

Did Ram say he would miss me?

Conquering Passion is available for 99 cents for a limited time as part of the Booklovers' Buffet Vacation Getaway. 160 books, 120 authors. Check it out.

(Wo)man Overboard!

Here’s a story from the 14th century chronicler Thomas Walsingham’s Historia Anglicana, as recounted in Ian Mortimer’s book, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England.
In the autumn of 1379 Sir John Arundel—younger brother of the Earl of Arundel—rides up to a convent with a detachment of soldiers, planning to sail to Brittany. He asks for lodging for himself and his troops while he waits for the wind to change. The Prioress is reluctant, given the number of armed young men, but eventually relents, aware of her obligation to provide hospitality to travellers.
The wind doesn’t change and the men become restless. They start drinking and flirting with the nuns, who then lock themselves in the dormitory. The soldiers force their way in and rape them. They then loot the nunnery. Not satisfied with that, they turn their attention to a nearby church where they encounter a wedding party. They seize the bride and take turns raping her.
Suddenly they become aware the wind has changed and they herd this woman and as many nuns as they can onto their vessel.
A day or so later, a storm blows up from the east. The ship is swept off course and takes on water. Arundel gives the order for the sixty women to be thrown overboard to lighten the load. They are all hurled into the sea, and the ship makes its way to Ireland.
As Mortimer points out, this story is an extreme one, and probably not typical. But Walsingham believed it to be true and this demonstrates that medieval people found it credible that groups of young men who were armed, bored, drunk and in a gang were capable of this kind of atrocity.
No wonder women travelled little in the Middle Ages. Medieval society was more fearful, guarded and violent than our own.
This story drew my attention in particular because in my series, The Montbryce Legacy, set almost two centuries before this event, William the Conqueror rewards Rambaud de Montbryce with vast tracts of lands and manors in what was known as the Rape of Arundel. It was an area of Sussex vital for the defence of England.
One of my villains, Renouf de Maubadon appeals to the Bishop of Arundel when his wife is abducted by my hero, Hugh de Montbryce (If Love Dares Enough).
William the Conqueror hoped to bring The Peace of God to England, but it appears that by the 14th century, fear and confrontation accompanied bands of armed men wherever they went, and lawlessness prevailed when there were few means of detecting a criminal’s identity.