To Wed A Rebel by Sophie Dash

Author:Sophie Dash [Dash, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781474050012
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-05-22T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Ruth

Ruth’s nerves had been uneasy all day. It was as though her veins had been pulled tight, stretched thin, close to snapping underneath her skin. The tense way Isaac held himself and the scowl he constantly wore had not helped either. All she knew about the days ahead was communicated through his demeanour. It was not Isaac’s relatives she was worried about. It was Isaac himself. Compared to everyone else she’d ever known, whose behaviour she’d been able to predict (for the most part), Isaac was a wildcard. And she had already been lulled into a false sense of security by him once before.

Miss Lamont’s Academy for Young Ladies had been the oldest, most refined and ornate building she had ever stayed in. It paled in comparison to Trewince Manor. This place was imposing, bleak and magnificent – and it took her breath away. Whereas Isaac only gave it a cursory glance, she drank it in, slow to follow his lead, catching her own plain reflection in the mirrors they passed.

As grand as it was, it was cold too.

Everything around her warned do not touch and do not look.

The very walls seemed set to push her out and tell her she did not belong.

Imagine growing up here.

She looked to Isaac. He did not belong here either, not any more.

Lady Mawes was as fearsome as their surroundings, and when she ordered Ruth to stay with her, she felt – for the first time – a need for her unconventional husband. Mild panic set in, for he was the only person she knew, even though she barely knew him at all. The gentleman she’d met those few times before their marriage was a fiction – and the man she knew now was an unknown.

There were no formal introductions to the eccentric family. It seemed as though everyone staying within the house had already been made aware of who she was and why she was there – and she was not welcome for it. Any looks that were thrown her way held little cheer.

“Tell me,” began Lady Mawes, sliding a teacup towards her. It rattled on the painted, metal table. “Has Isaac been unkind since the marriage?”

Ruth was taken aback and she glanced downwards, rather than meet those piercing eyes.

“I know your union was untraditional,” the older woman added tactfully, pulling on the lace ruffles of her gloves. “But I will have him act as a husband should, mark my words.”

There was no hiding from her strength of character. Ruth paled before it, sapped of all the resolve she had tried to hold on to. And there was no way to deflect Lady Mawes’s question or distract her, though she did not know the answer herself.

“Well,” said Ruth, taking a sip from her cup, mouth dry. “We have been married only three weeks. I could hardly—”

“Isaac cannot disobey me and nothing you say here will have repercussions,” she said. “This is all for his benefit.”

“How so?”

“He carries our name, his actions reflect on us and I will ensure he acts as he should.

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