Character Reading for Baron Eaduin Kempe

Baron Eaduin Kempe is the hero of Francesca Hawley’s latest, Seeking Truth. This medieval, paranormal erotic romance is from Ellora’s Cave. Our character has a birthdate of October 31, 1113 (Scorpio sun/Cancer moon)

He was a very intriguing character and I think you will really enjoy meeting him. Leave a comment to be in a drawing to win a book!

1. How do you see the people around you?
A bunch of dreamers who are lead by their emotions instead of their brains. You see them as a bit fragile as well which means you feel as if you have to protect them.

The Ace of Cups is the card of beginning relationships. Someone is tempting you into a relationship but you see that as an emotional trap. Sex is good but emotional involvement is for other people.

You do not drink from the cup you offer others. There is a mystical aspect to this cup. Sort of a chasing the holy Grail—you don’t believe anyone can ever truly grasp that, do you?

The Baron’s Response:
My lady, it is my duty to protect and care for all my people – my family and my villeins. Their fragility was long ago revealed to me when I saw how my father treated everyone around him. His contempt for others and his determination that his family and his people were here to serve his wants and needs without any reciprocity left an indelible mark upon me. I shall never let myself forget that there but for the grace of God go I.

(wicked smile) As to your words about physical pleasure, you are quite right. I revel in it and I have made my lovers beg for release after I have aroused them intensely. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see a woman shudder on the brink of bliss and watch her eyes glaze when she achieves her completion. How sweet it is to see my new wife, Vérité just that way.

But to venture into emotion is dangerous, though I have been tempted of late. Tempted by Vérité. She tempts me as no other woman in my entire life, for her body cries out for mine as does her heart. To my shock, I find myself answering her call on all levels.

2. How are you seen by the people around you?

Ouch. You, sir, are seen as the one who can make or break people. There are those who need you but are afraid to ask you for something. Your intensity scares them.

You hold yourself apart but it is not what they think it is it? You do this to protect them from something.

Have you left your spirituality behind as well? Here we see people outside a church—afraid to go in or is it that they have been turned out?

Why are you the card that represents loss of community and home? Are you the warrior who must take away from others? I don’t feel that you enjoy that if it is true.

The Baron’s Response:
Is it so surprising people see me as a man who can make or break them? I’m a Baron in service to King Stephen who grants me the land I hold. Few people may gainsay me for if I order someone killed, they die. However, watching my father use his power like a whip taught me much about how best to exercise my authority over others. A man who rules through fear certainly gains his objective, but he must always watch his back lest someone else’s blade be stuck there. A man who rules fairly and justly has the respect and acceptance of his people—mayhap even their love. To rule thus has always been my aim.

Yea, I hold myself apart from others. Upon my shoulders rest the well-being of all the souls living within my demesnes. I seek to protect them from danger, but also from myself for I am my father’s son. Strive though I might for decency and honor, at times I see shades of my father in myself.

Ah, the church. I revere and fear it, both. In my dark past, acts were done which can’t be undone. My confessor told me that though I was unwilling, still my soul would be damned. I pray daily that God will forgive my sins and allow me into the lower reaches of heaven instead of condemning me outright to the deepest pits of hell. Only death will show whether my pleas to Him have been heard. Even now, I live outside of the church’s dictates with regard to physical pleasure. I share deep and intense lovemaking with my new wife—no other matches me so completely. Surely God cannot condemn intimacy between husband and wife, yet I know the church would not approve of our desire.

3. What is your most important goal?

To see a woman safe in her own place of power? Here is the Queen of Coins—the hearth mother. She is the nurturer and sometimes wounded woman. I see her as your most important goal because she represents something very important to you.

In this woman you will find your own home—your own hearth where you can be nurtured and cared for. She is a woman of nature, Baron. You won’t find her inside. And I doubt you will be able to keep her inside either!

The Baron’s Response:
God’s teeth woman, you have me utterly. As I grew up, I sought always to protect my foster mother and sisters. I wished them to be cherished but until my father’s death, they knew not security and womanly power. When my daughter was born, I watched over her and raised her alone after her mother died. My child has grown to a beautiful woman who has found happiness with her husband and this pleases me.

More than any other, your words bring to mind my own dear lady, Vérité. The day we met, I found her bent down in a garden, weeding the green and growing things as a soft spring rain fell. Her life in the convent and her poor treatment at the hands of her father wounded her, yet within her is great love and great joy. Each day she heals the ills of our people. But she is much more to me, for as I watch her nurturing our people, her kindness and goodness healed the wounds in my heart and soul. She is my home and hearth – my very life. I would die for her, you see.

4. Where do you get your strength from?

This is one of those cards that hits you right between the eyes. You see the Universe dancing in the center. If you don’t pay attention, you think that is where the important symbol is.

Not for you, Baron. Not for you. The places you get your strength from are the corners—the places where no one thinks to look.

Here are four figures. I feel at least two are other parts of you somehow. And then the others are two advisors/friends/trusted allies or enemies who give you advice you know to listen to.

You gain strength from these interactions. And the Universe is abundant in Her gift of strength to you, I think.

The Baron’s Response:
Dismiss not the dancing maid on this card for she is wondrous fair – though I admit I prefer a woman who is not colored blue. The Universe, as she is depicted here, is in keeping with my preferences for I favor a lover possessed of the abundant curves of health and plenty.

Still, the creatures depicted related to me in ways, I suppose. Like a lion I can use my great strength to protect. As with the fish, the bulk of my spirit is hidden beneath the waves. In common with the bull, I sacrifice myself so that others may prosper. At times, I feel that like the raven I am a creature of ill-omen but also highly intelligent.

5. Why do you want to be remembered?

Judgment can be a harsh card but when you realize that this is how you want to be remembered, it softens that blow a bit. Here is Anubis weighing the heart of a man against the red feather of Ma’at. Will it be light enough to pass or will the weight of the man’s life pull him back to another round of living in a mortal body?

You would like to be able to know your heart is light. Well, not light for there are some things that can never be forgotten, but at least you can atone for some of the past.

Remember that when you ask for or seek forgiveness, you must also give it.

Or is that the other way around, Baron?

The Baron’s Response:
God weighs me constantly and no doubt finds me wanting. I wish that he will allow me passage to heaven yet instead I pray daily that my sins send me only to purgatory, not directly to hell.

But I hope in other ways to be remembered for my judgement. My people are not as conversant with my sins as God and I believe they view me kindly – certainly more kindly than ever they viewed my father. My greatest hope…my greatest resolve is to be a better man, a better lord, a better father, and a better husband than Osweald Kempe.

My lady has shown she believes my heart to be a good one, so to her it is lighter than the feather. I’m pleased Vérité has not found me wanting for her love has softened my rough edges. My lady has told me she sees beauty not only in my fine features but in my soul and I’m humbled by her words.

The Baron’s story is available now. You can read an excerpt. Or you can buy it from Ellora’s Cave. And one lucky commentor will get a free download from Francesca! Comments close on Sunday June 7, 2009 at midnight PST.