The Wedding Pact by Ruth Ann Nordin

Author:Ruth Ann Nordin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: murder, sex, gothic, danger, regency romance, virgin heroine, marriage of convenience, virgin hero, naive heroine, cruel guardian
Publisher: Ruth Ann Nordin

Chapter Eleven

Ophelia finished getting ready to go to Didimus’ dinner party before Julian did, so she decided to look through the book of illustrations he had purchased for her. Sitting at the vanity, she opened it to the page of the ship sailing on an ocean. The illustrations were all in black and white, but Julian had told her that the ship would be a deep brown color and the ocean would have a swirl of silver and dark blue hues in it. It didn’t give her an exact image of the ocean at night, but it was enough to offer her an approximation of it.

Upon returning to this townhouse yesterday, Julian had read a couple more chapters of the book to her, and he’d left off at the point where the pirates had banked on the shore of a deserted island. She was eager to find out what was going to happen next. She had no idea that books contained such fascinating stories. It was like a whole new world had just opened up to her. She hoped it wouldn’t take her too long to learn to read on her own, but, as Julian had advised, she would be patient.

At the moment, the only thing she recognized was the letter A. She hadn’t written it yet. Julian had said it would help her learn to read better if she wrote words out, but she had to start with individual letters first. She glanced down at the words below the name of the illustration. She could only make out three A’s in it. Julian had said it read, “A ship at sea.”

She turned the page and looked at the next illustration. This one was of a lad milking a cow in front of a barn. A rooster was walking on by, unaware a cat was following behind. She’d never seen a barn or farm animals before, so it was interesting to learn something else.

She’d known her life had been a sheltered one, but it was just now occurring to her how much she didn’t know about the world. Lord Wolfe had wanted to keep her naïve to almost everything. He hadn’t even wanted her to read books. Why? What had he hoped to accomplish by withholding so much information from her?

Julian stepped out from the room off to the side of the bedchamber, fully dressed and ready for the evening ahead. His gaze went to the book in front of her. “I thought you’d enjoy those illustrations.”

“I do. It’s nice to see them. I might even do some drawings of them.”

He rubbed her shoulder and glanced down at the book. “I think drawing will help to reinforce the images in your mind.”

She closed the book and used her cane to help her stand up. “I’m looking forward to the day when I don’t need to take it easy on my ankle anymore.”

“I don’t know if you should say that. You saw the condition of the cottage. It’s not clean and tidy like this place.

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