To Have Loved and Lost

One: Catherine of Aragon

---

For Catherine, love meant duty. It called for obedience, for faithfulness, and for sacrifice, but it was not without its rewards. Love was supposed to give joy, security, and peace. And hers did—at first. But twice she lost it: her first husband to an early death; her second to temptation and betrayal.

She is weary now, and wary of loving any but her God and her daughter. She will die soon, she knows, but she is not afraid. In heaven she can be sure of a Love that can be neither lost nor betrayed. And so she is at peace.

Fin.

---

I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

'Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson