The dukedom will not pass without the contract my father left behind. It demands a wife and records of every punishment I administer to keep the line secure. Grace came to maintain the ledgers, but her presence turns the library into a trap I cannot escape.
Her compliance is a quiet strength that draws me closer each night. I watch her quill move across the punishment book, knowing one wrong word could ruin us both, yet the hunger to see my mark on her grows with every command.
I stand at her back in the candlelight, my hand resting on the open page next to hers. Write the first entry as I dictate it, I say, the words carrying the weight of all I have yet to do.
