The Taming by Jude Deveraux Page B

a wife? It’s her lands I want. Now go to sleep, little brother, for tomorrow’s Wednesday and Wednesday takes a lot of energy.”
    Severn smiled in the darkness. Tomorrow he’d see Iolanthe and everything would be the same. But in three months’ time Lady Liana Neville would enter their lives and things would still remain the same, for if she was anything like her father, she was a cowardly little thing.

Chapter
Four
    N o, no, no, my lady, good wives do not screech. Good wives obey their husbands,” Joice said. She was tired and exasperated. Lady Liana had asked her to teach her how to be a good wife, but Liana had had too much control for too long and it was almost impossible to make her understand how a wife was supposed to behave.
    â€œEven when he is a fool?” Liana asked.
    â€œ Especially when he is a fool,” Joice answered. “Men like to believe they know everything, that they are always right, and they want absolute loyalty from their women. No matter how wrong your husband is, he will expect you to stand by him.”
    Liana listened to this carefully. This is not what her mother thought of marriage, nor did Helen. And neither of them had been beloved wives, she thought with a grimace. In the last month she’d come to realize how different she wanted her marriage to be from the two she’d seen. She didn’t want to live in hatred for the rest of her life. Her mother hadn’t seemed to mind the fact that she despised her husband, nor did Helen, but Liana wanted her life to be different. She’d seen a love match once of a couple who, after years of marriage, still gave one another long looks and sat for hours talking to each other. Liana wanted that kind of marriage.
    â€œAnd he’d rather have obedience than honesty?” Liana asked. “If he is wrong, I am not to tell him so?”
    â€œMost certainly not. Men like to think their wives believe them to be next to God in everything. Take care of his house, bear him sons, and when he asks your opinion, tell him that he knows much more about such matters than you do, that you are merely a woman.”
    â€œMerely a…” Liana said, trying to understand this. The only man she’d ever really known was her father, and she hated to think what the Neville lands would be like if her mother had refused to govern them. “But my father—”
    â€œYour father is not like most men,” Joice said as tactfully as possible. She had been stunned when Lady Liana had asked for her advice about men, but she thought it was high time. Liana had better learn what men were actually like before she tied herself to someone like those Peregrines. “Lord Rogan will not allow you such freedom as your father has.”
    â€œNo, I guess not,” Liana said softly. “He has said he will marry no shrew.”
    â€œNo man wants a shrew. He wants a woman who will praise him, who will see to his comfort, and who will be eager in bed.”
    Liana thought she could handle two of those points easily. “I’m not sure Lord Rogan believes in comfort. His clothes are dirty and I believe he does not bathe often.”
    â€œAh, now there is where a wife can have power. All men like comfort. They like a certain dish for eating, a certain cup for their favorite drink, and whether your Lord Rogan knows it or not, he likes an orderly, quiet household. His wife should take care of the servants’ quarrels, she should see that his table is loaded with delicious food. You can replace his scratchy, dirty clothing with soft new ones. These are ways to a man’s heart.”
    â€œAnd if his lands are in a muddle, then I—”
    â€œThen that is his business. It is not a woman’s concern,” Joice said sharply.
    Liana thought it might be easier to run a hundred estates than to please one man. She wasn’t sure she could remember all the rules of what a man did and did not like.