The duke’s story was exactly the same as the one I’d heard four years earlier, yet I bowed my head and pressed a hand against my stomach in an attempt to calm the turmoil. “And in the case of infertility, the price is always the Ancient Vow of Hannah, the consecration of the firstborn child to God for a life of service to him.” “As everyone knows, a Tear comes with a price,” the duke said. But they were also extremely rare and used only sparingly. Whenever they were given for medicinal purposes, a miracle always seemed to happen. The Tears of the Virgin Mary were very special. My pulse pattered with a strange rush that happened whenever I heard the story. and to give them a Tear of the Virgin Mary.” And at last they became so desperate that they went to the convent and begged Abbot Francis Michael to pray for them. “They wanted a child of their own very badly. His voice was soft, and his eyes had taken on a faraway look. But as time passed, the emptiness of your mother’s womb moved into their hearts.” And so it was easy during the first years of their marriage to ignore the fact that they weren’t welcoming a new baby into their home. “Your parents were always very much in love with each other.
He smoothed his hands around one of mine and I settled back on my heels to listen to him. But I could only speculate that she hadn’t brought it up because she’d wanted me to have as normal of a life as possible for as long as possible.Įven though I’d struggled through the questions and tried to make peace with them, there were still times that I wanted to discover more, to shed light on the truth. Over the ensuing years, I’d always wondered why my mother had waited until so late to finally try to tell me such important news. I’d realized then that my mother had tried to tell me about the vow from her deathbed, but hadn’t been able to get the words out before she’d died.
I need to know everything.” Of course the abbot had explained the vow to me after the death of my parents, after I’d discovered the scroll hidden in the secret chamber of my mother’s chest.
“Tell me all you know about my parents’ vow, your Grace. Even though my body was outwardly calm, my insides continued to resist, like a soldier defending a besieged wall. I stopped my pacing, knelt before the duke, and took his callused hands into mine. Even so, I couldn’t turn my thoughts from the news the duke had delivered.
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