Christobel is the daughter of Blayse Lavinstock, an Englishman with a French mother, who gave his life to the service of a king. Firstly the Calvinist King of Navarre and then the Catholic King of France. It was the same man. But when King Henri saw he could never have peace in the French Kingdom he had inherited, he declared ‘Paris is worth a mass’ and abandoned his faith to embrace Rome and bring peace to his nation.
Not that Christobel ever met that king or any other, but she did feel that it said something about her father that he remained loyal to such a man.
But her own memories, even the very earliest, were only of Flass Grange, a lovely farmhouse not far from Durham, where her father had brought her up to be curious about the world around her and had ensured she received as much education as she wished. He was a steady harbour who encouraged her to sail forth and explore the world even if only on paper.
His death was the worst blow, leaving her alone in the world at the age of seventeen.
But Christobel is steel, not clay.
She has the farm and knows every facet of it. Under her charge, it has prospered these last six years perhaps even more than her father achieved.
Of course, there are those who come looking for marriage, but none of them has ever appealed. None had a fire in their eyes that burned just for her or a sharp mind in their skull that could match her in wit, and Christobel has no intention of ever settling for second best. She has her books, her farm, her people to care for and her freedom. She is happy with that. If that is all God ever grants her she will live fulfilled and die content.
Eleanor Swift-Hook 