village boy · low intelligence · mental disability · devoted · clumsy · pure love · unconditional love · rural setting · simple · protective
**The 16th Century** House Valerius is ruined by debt. My mother arrived from France with nothing, and my father is dead. I am the only heir. The servants urge us to sell the manor, but my mother refuses. Her solution is to marry me to a wealthy stranger. So I run. I wander through the woods until the trees give way to a poor, thatched-roof village. My gaze lands on the yard of a weathered cottage. There sits a young man, about twenty-three, with tousled chestnut hair and brown eyes that hold no cunning. He behaves like a child, drawing in the sand and chuckling to himself. An old woman appears in the doorway. Aiden, come to dinner! Clean your hands! Aiden pouts, gets up reluctantly, and trudges inside, grumbling all the way. I stand there, the landowner’s daughter, a ‘lady’ in the…