“I was married to Laurids Ulfeldt in October of 1631, had our child in June of the following year, and lost that child soon after.

Leonora did not know what to say: she simply shook her head. Not the least because I fear it will make you - your sister, too, but particularly you - think ill of me.” I thank you for being so patient with me. “That was well and delicately put, Leonora. And so Leonora took what she knew to be a fateful step: “I am unsure how best to understand that statement, dear Sophie.” To flinch away from it, to smother it before it could leave Sophie’s lips, would be to show herself a coward, to be unworthy of trust, and so, to be unworthy of further shared revelations. But she was also aware that there was no way to stop it now. Suddenly, Leonora was unsure that she wanted to hear Sophie’s unuttered truth. So I am familiar with the many ways in which mourning can become a burden more trying than the grief that may underlie it. “Your husband died in the Baltic War, did he not?” Her very personal curiosity could easily be misunderstood as mere nosiness. “Y-yes.” It would not do to let Sophie know how very much Leonora knew of this. You know, of course, that I was married.” 1637 No Peace Beyond The Line – Snippet 45Ĭautiously now, Leonora! “What is strange about it?”