The Half-Orc’s Maiden Bride by Ruby Dixon EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Ruby Dixon
- Language: English
- Genre: Romantic Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
IOLANTHE
The day I grew taller than my father was the day I realized I’d be
unwed forever. My mother’s people are Yshremi, from a land of
scholars and knowledge traders. She was delicate. Small. Pretty. My father’s
people are the sturdier Adassians, and unfortunately, I take after them. I am
tall. Strong. My shoulders are broad and my hips broader. This wouldn’t be
a problem if my parents were rich.
They are not rich.
When I sprout up, I know my father’s thoughts before he voices them.
He can marry off a pretty daughter to further my family’s fortunes, but a tall
daughter with a plain face? I am useless to him. It doesn’t matter that I dress
myself in the prettiest gowns available, that I hunch my shoulders to hide
my height, or bind my breasts and adjust my belts to make my thick, strong
body seem more willowy. I cover myself in lotions day and night so that my
skin might be soft and pretty, but as if the gods are determined to insult me,
I am covered head to toe in freckles. I do not even have the fortune to be
blonde. My hair, white-gold as a child, turns to a muddy brown the moment
my breasts come in.
In short, I am strong and I have nice skin. I will make a fantastic
spinster aunt to my siblings’ children. I cannot even aspire to be a cleric of
the gods, as temples must be bribed, and we have no money for the bribing.
(That suits me well enough. While clerics are great readers—which I
enjoy—they are also great healers, and I find I do not have the stomach for
such things.)
I try not to worry about my lack of appeal to a husband. After all, I have
five younger sisters and my mother to spend time with, and I can avoid my
father’s baleful gaze if I’m careful. But then my mother dies from a wasting
sickness. And then, one by one, my sisters—all pretty, delicate things that
take after my mother’s Yshremi blood—marry off. They marry farmers and
merchants, and one marries a titled knight despite the fact that we are
penniless.
Eventually, it is just me at home with Father. My siblings are gone, my
mother in her final rest, and my father’s remote hold in the rocky crag-lands
of Adassia, Rockmourn Keep, grows poorer by the day. The woales, our
beasts of burden, are sold off to pay retainers, then the pigs. My mother’s
jewelry disappears and when the fine, old tapestries disappear off the walls
and my books vanish, I start to wonder what will be left for my father to
sell.
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