in a total of three years marriage, she had one surviving child, two miscarriages, and a fourth pregnancy during which she contracted smallbox, had yet another miscarriage and died, painfully.
:( Man, just from this part I'd be screaming from the rooftops (never mind melancholy) even if I did love my husband. Like you say, never mind sexual orientation, although that adds yet another layer of suck. I didn't realize the timeframe at all, for starters. (being a non-royal, 21st-century female, I am used to reproductive things taking a very long time, which in principle I know doesn't apply to these people at all, but in practice I forget I'm making all these assumptions.)
I don‘t think Isabella would ever have confided into either FS or MT
Oh, sure -- it doesn't make any sense with her personality, at least as far as I understand it, as she would have known it wouldn't make a lick of difference, at least positively. I could imagine that if she'd brought up any kind of complaint, MT might commiserate with the pregnancy thing, and maybe even the sex thing, but would almost certainly be all "but that being said, you have to suck it up, like I did/do," so, from Isabella's standpoint, what would even be the point?
awkwardly told her that if she weren‘t his sister, her existence would totally convince him to change his mind about never marrying again.
Aww, Joseph. I think I mostly like him because he's such an awkward nerd, which I think is funny because I glommed on to Isabella immediately because she seems so smart. matriarchy AU where Isabella gets to rule! It's good that he got a bit of a clue later on, although too late to be of any use to Isabella, which on one hand is super awful for her, and on the other hand it's hard to blame him at age 18. :(
The awfulness of being a royal woman
:( Man, just from this part I'd be screaming from the rooftops (never mind melancholy) even if I did love my husband. Like you say, never mind sexual orientation, although that adds yet another layer of suck. I didn't realize the timeframe at all, for starters. (being a non-royal, 21st-century female, I am used to reproductive things taking a very long time, which in principle I know doesn't apply to these people at all, but in practice I forget I'm making all these assumptions.)
I don‘t think Isabella would ever have confided into either FS or MT
Oh, sure -- it doesn't make any sense with her personality, at least as far as I understand it, as she would have known it wouldn't make a lick of difference, at least positively. I could imagine that if she'd brought up any kind of complaint, MT might commiserate with the pregnancy thing, and maybe even the sex thing, but would almost certainly be all "but that being said, you have to suck it up, like I did/do," so, from Isabella's standpoint, what would even be the point?
awkwardly told her that if she weren‘t his sister, her existence would totally convince him to change his mind about never marrying again.
Aww, Joseph. I think I mostly like him because he's such an awkward nerd, which I think is funny because I glommed on to Isabella immediately because she seems so smart.
matriarchy AU where Isabella gets to rule!It's good that he got a bit of a clue later on, although too late to be of any use to Isabella, which on one hand is super awful for her, and on the other hand it's hard to blame him at age 18. :(