1. Chapter 1: A peace offering [Reviews - 6] (2403 words)
For this fic, I took my inspiration from a true story happened in 1285 in the north of Italy: Gianciotto Malatesta stabbed to death his wife Francesca da Rimini and his brother Paolo, suspecting them of cheating on him.
The poet Dante Alighieri has written about them on his Commedia (chant V of his Inferno). The scenes of Rose and John reading courtly books (namely Lancelot and Guinevere) are directly inspired by Dante.

In my fic, obviously, my characters have their happy ending. For the sake of the story the events take place in 1356 —under the reign of King Edward III— during the “Hundred years' war” (1337-1453) between the King of England and the King of France.

I do love courtly literature and that time period, but, alas, I'm not a medievalist, so all historical (or other) mistakes are mine. I've tried to adapt, nevertheless, their way of thinking to ours just to rend the story more understandable trying, in the meantime, not to betray too much their manners.

I hope you'll enjoy reading as much I've enjoyed writing it.

Unbeta'd so every single mistake is mine.

2. Chapter 2: Courtly love (and a taste of the good life) [Reviews - 0] (2594 words)
Where a special guest character appears, and shares the main characters' vicissitudes.

3. Chapter 3: On the run [Reviews - 1] (2525 words)
Four main ideas in the tradition of courtly love:
- The lover is lovesick and thinks all the time to his lover, he lives for her and can't sleep;
- Love must always be secret;
- True love doesn't exist within marriage (all marriages were about interest and convenience);
- Woman is worshipped


Unbeta'd

4. Chapter 4: Courtly love: continuation and conclusion [Reviews - 1] (2643 words)
Where (almost) everybody has a happy end.
Just a warning, nevertheless: mention of character death. It's just alluded, so nothing graphic.


Since the beginning I planned to get rid of Rassilon. In order to kill him at the battle of Poitiers (19th September 1356), I've described him as a soldier. He had to be consistent, hadn't he? But...
There is no evidence of his death: maybe he's just faked his death to rebuilt a happier life abroad, without the burden of his name or his father's beliefs. Maybe he's really dead.
What's sure is that neither John, nor Rose (or the others characters) will ever be annoyed by him.

Thank-you so very much to you all, wether you've reviewed or read until the end, it means the world to me.

So many thanks to all the wonderful authors who with their fantastic stories have made me fall in love, cry, laugh, stay hooked, set pen to paper and battle against my shyness.

Rules of courtly love
The following rules are found in How Love May be Retained.
- Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
- It is not proper to love any woman whom one should be ashamed to seek to marry.
- When made public, love rarely endures.
- The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.
- Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.