Milt and his father worked long hours on their property and she’d found it hard to get used to. Teaching filled her week but she was often home before Milt, even with the hour drive from town. When she got home she did her prep for the next day and then helped Olive prepare the evening meal. Not that she had to do much. It was usually meat and three veg followed by some kind of dessert, often fruit and ice cream.

“The model wife loves her husband truly,” Milt read on, “and does not highlight his faults. She accepts her husband’s demands and never criticises, argues or speaks disparagingly. The master of the house has the right to expect good health, good habits, and a sound knowledge of housekeeping in all of its phases from his wife who must provide for his every desire.” He wriggled his eyebrows up and down then went on again. “She shows affection, but never in public and is always attentive. If she is frigid she should not be in a hurry to inform her husband. To him it makes no difference in the pleasurableness of the act. Heed this advice. It has saved many women from trouble.” He frowned at her. “Is this for real?”

“I guess it was in your grandmother’s day.”

“I think I’ll like this book if chapter one is anything to go by.” Milt’s voice was low, his words rumbling through her thin nightie and to her skin.

She snuggled closer. “I thought you would.” She truly did love Milt, truly, truly, more now than when they’d married three years earlier, and she thought she was doing a good job of providing for his every desire – up to a point. “I’m the model wife already,” she chirped.

“I know.” He kissed her cheek.

“But I’m not sure about every desire,” she said, noting the sparkle in his eye had turned roguish again.

He reached for a pen from the bedside table.

“What are you doing?” Natalie hissed as he underlined the heading. She glanced around, expecting Olive to appear through the door and reprimand them. “It’s a family heirloom,” she gasped as he wrote YES with lots of exclamation marks next to the heading for Chapter One.

“I’m giving it my endorsement.” He laughed again then gently pulled her round in front of him, resting his hand on her belly. “You weren’t honestly planning on passing this on to our children, I hope.”

“No, but…well, it’s an antique.”

“One that stops with us,” he said and started to nibble at her neck.

She responded and they were soon fully entangled in each other’s arms, his lips leaving a sensuous trail down her neck. Natalie only gave a vague thought to Olive’s reason for giving the book to her as it slid from the bed and hit the floor with a thud.