Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters (The Katherine of Aragon Story Book 1) (32 page)

Beatriz looked over the city. So far away it appeared so tiny, and almost dreamlike. A loaded wagon headed slowly towards the gates. Time moved them closer to when it would be the girls’ turn to follow the same route. Her girls. How she wanted to weep.

“The king says there have been too many excuses, too many delays. You know when the king speaks thus your mother bows to his will,” Maria said.

Tears shimmered gold in Catalina’s eyes before she blinked them away. “Why can’t he see how much she needs me?”

Beatriz clasped her hand again. “The king sees that every new day you remain makes it more difficult for the queen. Perchance he does only what he thinks right. I promise you, I will never leave your mother. I can never replace you, but you know my devotion to the queen.”

The girl rubbed her face. “That gives me some comfort, my teacher.” She sighed. “Mother tells me she will not journey with us. She says she will not say goodbye. She cannot.” Catalina looked at the sky. “Will England have dawns as beautiful as this? I want to imprint it on my memory so I never forget. There is so much to say goodbye to. Too much.” One tear and then another tracked down her cheek. “I told Mother I shall take the pomegranate as my token.” Her eyes looked first at Maria, and then at Beatriz. “Do you want to know why?”

Beatriz gazed down at the city, the well-paved, winding, narrow streets, its golden domed alcázars, the close-placed homes of the city dwellers, some like the rich grandees, but on a far smaller scale, designed for beauty as well as homes in which to live. Courtyards, festooned with flowering vines and water-singing fountains, pomegranate trees with turning leaves of red, already laden and pregnant with fruit. Joyful bells – north, south, east and west – they rang out this fair city’s abundant life and vitality.

“An easy riddle, my scholar.” Beatriz waved her hand over the city. “Granada, the pomegranate itself. Your parents laboured long for its conquest.”

Catalina smiled tenderly at the clouds. No longer wisps of feathers sweeping across the sky, they reminded Beatriz of the latticed stone at her fingertips.

“You guess wrong, my teacher, you who is so rarely wrong. I chose it because of the legend of Proserpina... it is what I want my mother to remember and keep always in her heart. One day I shall return to her, as Proserpina did for her mother.” Catalina’s gaze lifted to the morning sky. “One day, in Heaven, she and I shall be together, but with no more sorrow and with no more farewells.”

Beatriz rested her eyes again on the city. Birdsong scored the bright morning, twittering whistles answered by the warble of bolder birds in an unshaped, musical concert. Carried high and thin in the wind, a cockerel crowed and crowed its pride and delight at the new morn, brooking no rebuttal. Someone on a balcony below plucked the strings of a lute. A young boy and girl laughed and tossed a ball, playing with their dog. Heading to the city gates with little hurry, a straight-back, broad-shouldered grandee rode his white stallion as if he owned the world.

The splendour of the morning strummed her like a harp. Wind, light and the warmth of morning sun resonating deep within her, her whole body throbbed with the sweetness of life. She gloried in the day, her whole spirit singing like a bird its own sweet ode. Beatriz squeezed Catalina’s hand. “Remember to take joy in life too. Remember, there always will be light, even in the darkest days.” She smiled through her tears at her girls. “The love you two share is one such light. It will guide you both through all your days. While you can, live and be happy.”

Thank you for taking the time to read my novel. As with all novels, there are a number of themes which run through the narrative. I hope that you enjoyed the book and that the following questions help you to get a deeper understanding of the novel.

1. 1.
   Falling Pomegranate Seeds
   takes place in Spain as Isabel and Ferdinand finally capture the regions still occupied by the Moors. What did you discover about Spain at this time?
   
2. 2. Who were the major players in the book, and what were their motivations?
   
3. 3. How does Beatriz find herself conflicted in her role as tutor to Catalina?
   
4. 4. Some of the story revolves around the Alhambra palace in Granada. Have you been to the Alhambra or seen pictures of the Nasrid Palace? Even by today’s standards, it is a beautiful place. What do you think it must have been like to live in or leave such a place?
   
5. 5. Beatriz hides some secrets of her own. What are they? Do you understand and agree with why she kept them secret?
   
6. 6. What does Beatriz’s character tell us about the role of a woman at this time in history?
   
7. 7. We know that Catalina eventually becomes Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII of England. Do you think that she was prepared for such an important role by her upbringing?
   
8. 8. Do you think that court life was easy for Isabel, Ferdinand and their children or were the pressures of being a royal family very great indeed?
   
9. 9. Was life different for the king and queen compared to those who surrounded them?
   
10. 10. How much did the attempt on Ferdinand’s life change Catalina? Was this a key moment in her life or just something she accepted?
    
11. 11. I have described this book as “a tale of mothers and daughters, power, intrigue, death, love, and redemption, in the end, Falling Pomegranate Seeds sings a song of friendship and life.” Do you think this is a good description of the themes running through the book? Which theme is the strongest within the book?
    
12. 12. Who was your favourite character in the book, and why?
    
13. 13. Are there any characters you particularly admire or dislike, and why?
    
14. 14. There are strong emotions throughout the book. Can you pick out a passage that you found particularly profound or interesting? Did it make you think about your own life?
    

If you enjoyed
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters
, please consider leaving a review at Goodreads or the place where you purchased the book. I read every review left online and really appreciate the time you have taken to read the book and comment on it.

WENDY J. DUNN

Photo copyright © 2015 David Dunn

Wendy J. Dunn
is an Australian author and playwright who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of two Tudor novels:
Dear Heart, How Like You This?
(winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner-up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction) and
The Light in the Labyrinth
, her first young adult novel. While she continues to have a very close and spooky relationship with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, serendipity of life now leaves her no longer wondering if she has been channelling Anne Boleyn and Sir Tom for years in her writing, but considering the possibility of ancestral memory.

Her own family tree reveals the intriguing fact that her ancestors – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Wendy is married and the mother of three sons and one daughter – named after a certain Tudor queen, surprisingly, not Anne. She gained her Doctorate of Philosophy (Writing) from Swinburne University in 2014. Wendy is the Co-Editor in Chief of Backstory and Other Terrain, Swinburne University two new peer-reviewed writing journals.

M

MadeGlobal Publishing

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge my dear husband for supporting my writing obsession. I sincerely thank him for putting up with our very untidy house and for financing a research trip for this novel. He is often forced to push aside a pile of books to get into bed at night, helpfully locating my missing pens when he tries to sleep on them. Despite everything, he has always encouraged me to pursue my dreams.

Writers need people to believe in their writing. I’m lucky there too. Glenice Whitting, author of the award-winning
Pickle to Pie
, and a darling and long-time friend, never let me forget about this novel. One of my important beta readers, I thank Glenice for always believing in me. I also thank my dear friends Valerie Clukaj and Kristie Dean for their encouragement.

The first version of this work saw Cindy Vallar giving my work the benefit of her red pen and her talents as a gifted editor. This overhauled and reworked version benefited from the red pen of another gifted editor: Rachel Le Rossignol. I express my sincere thanks to you both.

I also want to thank Jan Crosby, who has also read this work in its early life. I am also grateful to Sandra Worth, C. W. Gortner, Barbara Denvil, Nerina Jones, Eloise Faichney, Helen Barnes, Professor Josie Arnold and Adrienne Dillard for their willingness to read and offer feedback on
Falling Pomegranate Seeds
– whether it was years ago for the first version, or this completely reworked version. I also wish to express my gratitude to Dr Carolyn Beasley – who does so much to support me in so many ways.

My sincere thanks also goes to my students Tamasine Loves, Skye Jenner, James Palmer, Senaj Alijevski and Yianni Johns for their desire to help promote Falling Pomegranate Seeds, and to Tim Ridgway of Madeglobal for believing in this novel.

One lovely memory I have of writing the first version
Falling Pomegranate Seeds
involves my youngest son, David, who was then still a child. As I wrote in bed, David would nestle up beside me and ask for the latest word-count. I will never forget the light of pride in his eyes as the novel grew and grew. That light of pride kept me writing.

Thank you all!

Wendy.

Ruth M. Anderson 1979, Hispanic Costume 1480-1530

Bethany Aram 2005, Juana the Mad, The Johns Hopkins University Press

David A. Boruchoff (Editor) 2002, Isabel La Catolica, Queen of Castile: Critical Essays, Palgrave Macmillan

Warren H. Carrol 1991, Isabel of Spain: The Catholic Queen

Antonia Fraser 1998, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Arrow Books

Jane S. Gerber 1994, The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience, The Free Press

Johan Huizinga 2001, Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, Dover Publications.

Washington Irving, from the ms of FRAY ANTONIO AGAPIDA, Author’s Revised Edition. Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

Paul Je 1966, Catherine of Aragon and Her Friends, Fordham University Press

Jack Kelly 2005, Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World, Basic Books

Peggy K. Liss 1992, Isabel the Queen: Life and Times, Oxford University Press, UK

Jane de Iongh 1953, Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherland, W. W. Norton

Machiavelli, Niccolo 1532, 
The Prince,
The Literature Network,
3 May 2006,
http://www.online-literature.com/machiavelli/prince/21/

Garrett Mattingly 1942, Catherine of Aragon

Evelyn Read 1962, My Duchess of Suffolk, Alfred A. Knopf, inc

Roy Strong 2003, Feast Publisher

Leon J. Weinberger 2005, Jewish Prince in Moslem Spain: Selected Poems of Samuel Ibn Nagrela, University of Alabama Press

Anne Wroe 2003, The Perfect Prince: The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England, Random House

Not long after starting my own timeline, I chanced upon this excellent, online resource: Catherine of Aragon timeline,
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Chronology/timelinecatherine.htm. I’d like here to express my sincere thanks to its author for all her/his work that helped with my own research.

The Aljafería Palace
http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.tcl?site_id=4821

Medieval wedding ceremony:
http://www.dfwx.com/medieval.html