Eternal Love Book Two: Renaissance Love

Chapter Seven: Heartbreak

Life is full of unexpected surprises and just when Constance and Giuseppe were settling into married life, they received heart breaking news. After over a year of trying to conceive the doctor told them the news. Constance was not as fertile as she should have been and having a child would prove to be difficult. The news was hard to take especially since Giuseppe wanted another child. Constance was even more heart broken.

She remembered the child they had lost, but at the same time she knew that life could be so much worse. So, for a while she buried herself in her art, she created masterpiece after masterpiece a lot of the paintings were of her old life and the nobles loved them. Egypt was an exotic place far away and those novels loved the look of the palace and its gardens. The sights of their pyramids, most of the pictures had the two lovers in them and soon Constance's art became known to the world.

Just as she was getting over one heart break, she received a letter from her old teacher. At first, she had no intention of seeing him. But after some convincing by Giuseppe she gave in. Giuseppe had made a good point he was a Master of Art and might be able to help her expand her network of contacts even more so. Constance should have told Giuseppe about Giotto's previous advances but she did not want him to worry.

So, with a sigh she sent a note back accepting his invitation. The next night Constance dressed and took her carriage to Giotto's home. After being invited in and sitting down for dinner their conversation began. It was a normal conversation at first...

Giotto congratulated her on her accomplishments and went on about how wonderful her artwork was. He got up and poured them both a glass of wine, sadly Constance did not notice the powder he was slipping into her drink. They ate and drank and then afterwards he offered to show her his latest work. She agreed and then things hit a turning point. She felt a bit lightheaded but ignored it. She went with him into his studio, it had changed since she had been there. There was a bed in there now, and a few hidden paintings.

She felt off balance and then as she looked at the painting, he was talking about she realized that coming here was a bad idea. The painting was of her and Giotto naked in each other's arms, in the bed that was in the room. Constance tried to turn to leave, but instead she got woozy and fell onto her back onto the bed. Her breathing grew heavy and she stopped being able to move. Her eyes remained open and she could see and feel everything.

Giotto stood above her smiling and then moved her body more onto the bed. She tried to fight him away but her body was paralyzed. Giotto sneered at her and began kissing her helpless body, as he began undressing her.

“I've been wanting this for so long and it's time I get what I want.” He says as he stands up and takes his pants off. It ended up being a long night for poor Constance.

Giotto forced himself on her paralyzed body taking her by force repeatedly. Until Giuseppe showed up. He had gotten worried when Constance had not returned. He stormed into the house with guards following him. What he found sent chills down his body and fury filled him. It if wasn’t for the presence of the guards he would have shown his true self. Giotto was buried deep inside Constance when Giuseppe stormed in, he just smiled and kept going until he was pulled off by Giuseppe.

He knocked him out and threw him to the guards. He went to Constance, “It's okay it’s over, I'm here.” He tells her softly.

The tears were streaming down her face but she could barely move. Giuseppe covered her with his cloak wrapping her up and carried her out to their carriage, he took her home and carried her inside to their room. After laying her on the bed he had a hand maiden run her a bath. He carried her and laid her in the bath and helped her carefully wash her bruised aching body. After he finished, he dried her off, dressed her in a night gown and got her in bed. The doctor came and carefully checked her. The doctor had bad news, but he knew now was not the time to give it.

After the doctor left Giuseppe climbed into bed next to her and put his arms around her, and then it happened, she finally broke down and started crying. Her body shook in his arms, as he held her tightly.

He felt guilty he shouldn’t have made her go, or he should have gone with her. But it was too late for that and he could never take that back. But he would tell her when she was ready just how sorry he was. It was his fault for not protecting her. Now she was suffering for it. It was going to take time for her to get past this and he worried that she would blame him and hate him for it.

Only time would tell if they would have the same love between them...

Constance was in turmoil; she should have known better than to be alone with Giotto. She blamed herself if she had told Giuseppe about Giotto's advances, he never would have pushed her to go to see him. Constance did not blame Giuseppe; she knew he didn’t know finally after crying herself to sleep she rested peacefully.

She wasn’t afraid she knew she was safe but she worried that Giuseppe would never look at her the same way. She had been defiled how could he want her now. The thought of that scared her more than anything. But the worst part of all was the news the doctor came back with. Constance had been so damaged, the small chance she had of possibly having children was now gone.

This new knowledge had an impact on how much Constance feared that Giuseppe would not want her anymore. After a few days Giuseppe finally had to do something he could feel the uncertainty, anytime he touched her she pulled away and got distant. They sat at the dinner table everything was quiet until Giuseppe slammed his fork down.

“Okay I can’t take this anymore. I understand if you are upset about what happened and I understand completely if you blame me for it. Hell, I blame myself, but it hasn’t changed how I feel about you or how much I want to be with you. It doesn’t matter that we can’t have children. What matters is that I love you and I want to be with you no matter what happens. And I’m sorry I never should have let you go there alone. It’s my fault.” He says his voice breaking at the end.

Constance's eyes were full of tears, “Giuseppe I’ve been pulling away and being so distant because I thought you didn’t want me anymore, I thought that I was to damaged for you to want me anymore. And it's not your fault, I have never blamed you.”

Giuseppe got up and put his arms around her, that conversation was what they needed to move on. After that night everything began to fall into place. Eventually it was about time to celebrate Constance's twenty-first birthday. So, Giuseppe decided to surprise her with another trip. But then tragedy struck...