Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 74932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“My mother never told me!” she protested, but then she seemed to relent. “Very well, child—come let’s sit and I’ll tell you what I know. There are three signs that will betoken your fertility and you must heed them well…”
Isla sat for a moment, nibbling the end of her old-fashioned ink pen. Ought she to write what her Nana had told her on that day, nearly a year ago? No—she mustn’t, she decided. Some things were too delicate to be put in writing.
And what of her diary, which had been a wedding present from her Nana?
“You will want to write your private thoughts in a place that is just for you when you are married, my dear,” she had said to Isla. “It will help you to be a better wife if you have a place to vent your feelings without bothering your husband.”
Isla had never felt that need until recently. But somehow, after the events of the past few days, she felt as though she would explode if she didn’t get things out—if she didn’t write the monologue that spooled ceaselessly through her head.
Not everything could be committed to paper, however. The diary was magno-sealed to her touch but a strong enough hand could force it open. What if her husband, Lord Baslik Le’rank should find it? Isla did her best to hide it—it was only here, on these pages—that she could pour out her heart and her true feelings about her husband and his cruelty. But if he found it and forced it open…
“No,” she said aloud, shaking her head. “No, some things must be kept secret—some things I cannot risk writing down.”
Besides, her wrist was aching and she wanted to soak it. She looked down at her left arm—was it a bit crooked perhaps? Her husband’s physician had set it with a quick-heal plaster to mend the bones but it seemed to Isla that they had not been perfectly aligned when he did so.
At any rate, the bruises still remained on her pale flesh, even though the bones were knitted back together. Bruises in the shape of fingers.
The dinner gong sounded and Isla hurried to hide her diary in the secret compartment under her bottom desk drawer. If she was late to dinner, Baslik would be even more upset with her than he already was. And the Goddess of Mercy alone knew how she would handle that!
Quickly, she rose to dress. She could continue pouring out her thoughts and feelings later, when it was safe. For now she must go through the nightly ritual of dinner…and everything that followed after.
Goddess, how she dreaded it!
TWO
From the diary of Lady Isla, wife to Lord Baslik Le’rank of Telmar Two of the Orinthian System:
My Nana told me all she could about marriage and what to expect from my body, but still I was unprepared. For who can be prepared for their husband’s violence?
It started on our wedding night, after all the gifts and good wishes were over and we were at last alone in the lavishly appointed bridal suite at the SkyTowers Hotel.
All day long I had been distracting myself. It was a fairytale wedding from the gorgeous diamond and pearl encrusted gown that had been made just for me to the arching Cathedral and the solemn notes of the sounding organ. I felt like a princess walking down the aisle—it was too bad that a handsome prince I loved was not the one waiting at the end of it for me. But I told myself it didn’t matter—that I would come to love Lord Baslik Le’rank in time. I tried to ignore the crawling sensation I got when he took my hands and we said our vows and I forced myself not to wipe my mouth clean after he kissed me.
At the reception I met his father, the Prince of the Northern Continent, and his brother, the other Lord Le’rank. Lord Leto Le’rank, in fact, who was the twin of my own husband. He had been born two minutes ahead of Baslik, but this did not make him the defacto heir to their father’s estates. It appeared, from what I heard, that the first son to produce a male heir that bore the family face and name, would be declared the next Prince.
Now I understood why Baslik Le’rank had sought me out—his twin brother already had a wife on his arm—a bland-looking girl with plain features which presumably wouldn’t interfere with the family looks. But Baslik would have known that only I, as a Moonstone goddess, could produce an heir for him that had the distinctive narrow face, beady eyes, beak-like nose, and receding jaw that he, his brother, and his father all shared.
Why anyone should want to pass on such looks was beyond me, but the Prince—my new father-in-law—was clearly excessively proud of himself and his family. He clapped Baslik on the back and roared,