The Wedding Pact — Ruth Ann Nordin

On her 21st birthday, Ophelia was due to marry her guardian. Only she didn't know it.

Miss Ophelia Crowe has led an extremely sheltered life. After her parents died when she was five, she went to live at her guardian's country estate. She went on to live a life where everything was managed for her. From what she could wear to what activities she could do, each and every day had been carefully structured by the servants.

The problem was, she didn't know who her guardian was...

Until the morning of her 21st birthday when the maids present her to him looking more like a doll than a lady who would like to have a say in her future.

And a doll is exactly the way he treats her. She comes to realize just how much he's structured her life so that she's been trained to be the kind of wife he wants. Well, she's decided she won't marry him. In a bold move, she runs off on a horse in the night in order to escape the fate everyone has set out for her ever since she was a child.

All Vicar Julian Roskin wants is to lead a quiet life. He's caused enough trouble in the past. He doesn't need any more problems. But, late one night, his safe and predictable world is turned upside down when a beautiful young lady ends up on his doorstep in need of protection. Protection, in this case, will require him to marry her.

Reason tells him not to do it. Nothing good can come from marriage to a lady he doesn't know anything about. But something about her demands he take her up on her offer. Dare he take the risk, or should he do everything he can to send her back?

This is loosely inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood story.