Young heroines

This is one of my favourite houses. I've never been inside of course. It is privately owned, and at the east end of Corbridge. I believe I read somewhere that it was once a tavern. There's a small window, now closed off, that opened right on the roadside so ale could be handed out to gentlemen on horses. It may all be bunkum, but my imagination runs wild whenever I go by, and I do pretty often. Perhaps I'll set a story there one day.
The second half of Jane Eyre lacked the intensity of the first half - possibly lacked Toby Stephens. Pleasant but definitely not as gripping. But then, I always thought the intrusion of the St John characters into the story a little odd.
One submission wended its way home today - they liked it but will reject the story because the heroine seems too young. So, the dilemma is - shall I age her? Or leave her alone? I don't disagree with them; I wrote her as very young, knowing that marriages in Tudor times were contracted between very young people. But perhaps readers will not empathise with such a young heroine.
However, I have sent off another story to them that has a heroine who is all of twenty-six. Perhaps they'll take to her.