Hannelore Brassenberg was the favorite and youngest daughter of respected Nurnberg architect and inventor Jakob Brassenberg. Jakob's adoration for his daughter was most evident in the generous amount of time he allowed her to remain unmarried. Hannelore's five older sisters all were arranged into marriage by the time they were fifteen years of age. Hanne, as her doting father called her, at eighteen was still at home learning domestic duties from her mother and assisting Jakob in his hobbies of alchemy and medicine.
Jakob's friends in town joked that Hanne was too apt an apprentice to be married off and would surely become a spinster. Though Jakob valued his daughter's assistance greatly, in truth, he had far grander plans for the beautiful and intelligent girl. Hanne received formal education as a young child at a convent unlike the rest of the Brassenberg girls who simply were taught to read and write at home. Hanne learned Greek and Latin, as well as thorough Biblical teachings, from the very progressive thinking nuns of St. Cecilia in Bremen. Having returned to her beloved home at fourteen, Hanne expected to be married right away to one of her father's apprentices or one of his wealthy friends, but it was not to be. Jakob was, in fact, grooming her to be the wife of a family friend, the great master painter Alaric Dusek.
The brilliant twenty-three year old artist was the son of Jakob Brassenberg's best friend, Johannes Dusek. Alaric was on another sojourn to Italy, a quest to refine his skills in perspective and human form. At his young age, the artist had won great acclaim, riches and success. Just two years after Columbus sailed to the new world, Alaric Dusek was considered by many to be the most talented and famous artist in the world. Unbeknownst to either Hannelore or Alaric, their respective parents had agreed that the two would marry upon Alaric's return from Florence.
One day in April, Hanne had come to town from her family's country house just outside the city's massive gates, to assist her sister Margreth in caring for her newborn son and the three elder children. Margreth was still weak from a difficult birth and Hanne had been eager to help with her sister's adorable, fat and fair children while their father was working.
"Hanne, will Father ever let you marry and begin a family of your own?" Margreth asked, smirking at Hanne who was rocking the baby's cradle with her foot while feeding the two year-old his porridge.
It wasn't as if Hannelore was an homely girl with no prospects, she was commonly known as the most striking of all Jakob's comely daughters. The only redhead in a family of blondes, Hanne was always noticed. Men of the city often watched her as she did the marketing for her mother with red curls escaping from under her headdress and ample bosom threatening to pop from her bodice. Hanne's youthful face and cheerful personality also captivated the male population. She could make even the most dour soul smile.
"I've had three proposals and Father has refused them all. I shall probably wither and dry up before he decides who I'll wed." Hanne sighed. She had grown tired of waiting patiently to start her life. She longed for love, friendship and intimacy with a man. Hanne felt desire well up inside every time a young man flirted with her in the square or heated glances were exchanged with a fine gentleman at a feast. It was past time that she experience the act of love.
"Poor Hanne, perhaps Father wants more for you than to be the wife of a boring cobbler or an overweight jurist." said Margreth.
"I could do far worse than Counselor Willhelm. He's a bit overweight, this is true, but he's kind, humorous and rich." Hanne replied while wiping her nephew's face with a damp cloth.
"Sister, I know you all too well. You only wish to marry the ponderous lawyer's library. You would let those chubby fingers fiddle with you for a peek at his vast collection of Latin volumes." The elder sister teased.
"His fingers aren't at all chubby and are quite adept. I let him fiddle with me for no reason at all, if you must know." Hanne announced to Margreth who wore a shocked expression on a face similarly beautiful to Hanne's own.
"You're a wicked girl, which is why I love you, dear Sister." Margreth switched her ten month old son to nurse at her right breast.
"I am curious who I'm intended to marry. It has to be someone soon, Father has said I will not return to the convent, thankfully."
"Master Dusek, the elder, told Pawel that Alaric returns from Florence on the feast day and he is to be wed immediately." Margreth referred to her husband, Pawel, who was one of the elder Dusek's craftsmen.
Hannelore felt the color rise to her pale cheeks at the mention of the famous Alaric Dusek. She hadn't seen him since she was a child, but his most recent self-portrait hung in his parents' home. He was the most eligible bachelor in the city, even though he was hardly ever there. There had long been a rumor circulating that his father insisted he take a German wife. Hanne thought the rumor was mostly wishful thinking among Nurnberg's single women.
Alaric had been a shy boy who was quickly pronounced a genius and then apprenticed to various out-of-town master painters and engravers, as was the tradition among artisans of that time. Hanne only met the perpetually travelling Dusek once when he was fifteen and she was ten. Alaric had sketched her as a gift to her father and that portrait still held a place of honor in her father's workshop.
"Surely not. Likely he brings his betrothed from Venice or Florence; a woman of noble heritage." Hanne clarified. Pretty blonde Margreth shook her head at the smart, yet naive girl.
"No Italian noblewoman could marry the son of a German goldsmith, no matter how skilled or rich he is."
Hanne wouldn't allow herself the luxury of thinking she might become the wife of the incredibly handsome painter. Her knees became weak, even at ten years old when she first saw him . The reaction came again when she saw the portrait of a man with long, curling, light brown hair , wide honey colored eyes and angelic red lips. Other works of his; drawings in particular, on display in town, seemed alive with passion and sensuality. If by some strange occurence, Alaric was to be her husband, Hanne prayed the passion conveyed in his art was with him in all things.
"He'll probably be engaged to the magistrate's trollop of a daughter." Hanne finally said, feeling sorry for herself. Margreth and Hanne were still disagreeing when their younger brother, Hans, who was sixteen, came to fetch Hanne back to their house.
At the end of the short ride back, Hanne was quickly proven wrong. Alaric Dusek's parents were visiting with her mother and father in the kitchen. She was instructed to sit with them after greetings were exchanged. Hanne sat between Alaric's pregnant mother and her own mother.
Things Hannelore already knew from her conversation with Margreth were explained to her again. She listened graciously to Alaric's father as he recounted tales of his son's travels in Italy and other parts of Europe from Alaric's many letters while abroad. Alaric had purchased a large house in Nurnberg in which to live with a bride of his father's choosing. Alaric did not yet know his father had chosen Hannelore Brassenberg for him. Hanne supposed it didn't matter much who the bride was since it was apparent that neither party could refuse this union.
Hanne was given a large picture still in it's crate; a gift from her fiancée. The crate contained yet another superb self portrait of Alaric, depicting a fine gentleman, no longer the boy who set out to experience the world. In this portrait, he held a single flower in his hand and an inscription in Latin read: "My affairs will go on as ordained by God.". The beauty of it took Hanne's breath away, her heart pounded and blood rushed through her to places much lower while viewing the likeness of Alaric's virility. His shoulder and collarbone were revealed by the cut of his expensive chemise and she sinfully wondered what it would be like to put her mouth to that marvelous place. Hanne chastised herself, for those were not the thoughts of a virtuous lady. Her thoughts often wandered where they aught not, along with her eyes and hands.
Thoughtfully, Alaric had sent, along with his portrait; two cases of wine for her parents and a bolt of fine Italian, emerald-colored, silk brocade for her wedding gown. Hanne tried hard to contain her elation, but the Duseks noticed anyway and were thrilled with the success of their matchmaking.
