Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Aleena looked relieved and excited at the same time.
“Oh, I can’t wait to start reading some of the ones I’ve missed in the series!” she exclaimed, running her finger over the spines of the books again. “You know there’s a rumor that the author of the Salana books is actually a woman?” she added in a hushed tone.
Bear frowned.
“Would that really be so strange? A female writing books for other females?”
“Oh, but here women are not allowed to write books. It’s only been in the past hundred solar years or so that we’ve even been allowed to read them!” Aleena explained.
Bear’s frown deepened—he no longer found this a laughing matter. Any society who kept their females in ignorance and intellectual poverty on purpose was contemptible and wrong.
“You should be allowed to read and write anything you want,” he told Aleena fiercely. “My people—the Kindred—believe that females should be elevated, not denigrated.”
She looked surprised all over again.
“Your people sound very strange to me, my Lord Husband,” she said, forgetting to use his name. “Strange…but nice,” she added, with a tentative smile.
“It shouldn’t be considered strange to treat your mate as your equal,” Bear growled. “As long as we’re together, I want you to remember that—and to feel free to read and write or do whatever makes you happy.”
Aleena’s pale purple eyes were so large they seemed in danger of taking over her face.
“You’re very kind,” she murmured at last. “But…you would even let me write?”
“Of course! Write whatever you want.” He threw out a hand towards the bookshelf. “Maybe you’d like to write your own romance novel.”
“Maybe I would…” Aleena nibbled her lush lower lip. “I…I kept a journal for a time,” she admitted in a low voice, as though confessing to a crime. “It was only supposed to be a record of my day and the recipes I liked but then I started writing little stories—just about the people I met and the things I thought they might do.”
“Journaling is a good way to clear your head,” Bear remarked. “I used to keep a journal myself. What happened to yours?”
Aleena looked down at her hands.
“My father found it. It was during one of the rare times he visited us and inspected our living quarters,” she said in a low voice.
“Was he upset that you’d been writing?” Bear asked.
“It was…one of the only times he beat me.” She looked up and he saw the hurt in her eyes. “He’s usually a very kind man but he said…he said he had to beat the will to write out of me. He told me no man would ever want me for a wife if he found out I’d been writing stories.”
Bear felt a wave of protective anger sweep over him. How dare that idiot, Sir Greggor, beat his daughter just for writing? Creativity should be encouraged and nourished—not punished in that way. He had a feeling if Aleena’s father was there in front of him, he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from punching him in the face!
The intensity of his emotions surprised him. Yes, it was unpleasant to be working with a people who were so backwards when it came to the way they treated their females, but he hadn’t expected to have such a visceral reaction to the tales of their cruelty.
“Your father was wrong,” he said at last, trying to keep his temper in check. Aleena didn’t know him well enough to know that his anger wasn’t directed at her. “I do value a female who can read and write. Some of my favorite authors in my own culture are female.”
“Really? You have female authors? I mean, everyone knows they write? They don’t have to use a man’s name?” Aleena asked eagerly.
Bear smiled.
“We do have female authors and no, they don’t have to write under a male name. And you can write too—as much as you want. I’ll even give you what you need to do it. Do you want another journal to write in or would you prefer to type?”
“Oh, I don’t know how to type, but a journal would be wonderful!”
“We’ll get you one then,” Bear promised her, smiling at her excitement.
He liked the idea of nourishing her creativity—of giving her room to grow. His new bride was like a flower that had been raised in a small, cramped corner that was dark most of the time, he thought. He wanted to get her out into the sunlight and give her a place to bloom. He wanted to see her fulfill her potential.
It didn’t occur to him that he was thinking of her as his bride or that he was picturing their relationship as a long-term affair. He only knew he wanted to see Aleena happy and watch that beautiful smile spread across her lovely face again and again.