and decidedly deserve, I refuse to accept
never seeing you again. I will come for
you. I will come for you standing as a man
should and you will fold me into your arms
in honor of all that I have done for you. We
are bound. Wait for me and I vow unto
every breath you take that as soon as I am
strong enough, I will be at your side.
Nothing will keep me from delivering
that promise and proving to you that I am
capable of being more. You wanted this
bond, you pleasured yourself in my name,
and given the blood you poured for me, I
kneel to being yours. Always.
Your humble servant and overlord,
Evan Oswald (disregard Ridley)
It was the first of seven hundred and thirty seven letters.
Over many months that had turned into a year and then two years and three and a few months, Ridley fought to fight past the pain of his broken body and worked to make it stronger with massive iron weights his arms and his legs dragged.
All the while, his bed and his room and his books and his think ropes created a new altar. One of unending pieces of her life that turned into his. Though she never once responded to any of his letters, he knew she was making him crawl.
It enabled him to walk.
To celebrate that he had made it to the wardrobe of his room with his Chaucer cane, he wrote Jemdanee a letter he intended to deliver to her in person. He folded that letter into leather, creating a casing to protect the words he had written. He then set that leather casing against his bicep and wrapped that bicep in rope, knotting it into place twice to ensure he carried it at all times.
One knot represented her. The other him.
He only ever removed it when bathing.
In doing so, she became what he swore no woman would ever be to him again: his.
The Whipping Society Saga
FEATURING MR. RIDLEY & JEMDANEE KUMAR
throughout all three books
* * *
Book 1, Mr. Ridley
(Available 2/28/2017)
* * *
Book 2, The Devil is French
(Pre-Order available, releases 4/28/2017)
* * *
Book 3, Reborn
(Available 6/28/2017)
Copyright © 2017 by Delilah Marvelle
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Mr. Ridley: A Whipping Society Novel Page 26