Here, however, Nora's parents had stepped into the romance. Nora was just eighteen. They wanted her to finish her college education, and they did not want her married until she did. When she was twenty-one they'd consider it. Jeff agreed. He had things to do before he entered into matrimony. He just didn't want Nora to get away.

After graduating he had gone on to earn a masters' degree in business at Harvard, and done a brief military service. Then he had joined Coutts and Wickham, a very prestigious advertising firm in the city. Nora had remained at her studies, kept safe from other possible suitors, chaperoned by her fiancй's fraternity brothers to the various university social events when Jeff couldn't join her.

Any young man approaching Nora was warned away in the strongest terms possible. One boy who refused to heed the warning was beaten up by unknown assailants. After that, no males approached Nora Edwards, but she never knew the lengths that Jeff had gone to, to keep her for himself. She had her studies, and everyone was so very nice to her.

Two weeks after her graduation with a degree in English literature, Nora Edwards had married Jeffrey Buckley in a large, tasteful all-white wedding, with six bridesmaids in white linen sheaths with narrow green ribbons at their waists, and wreaths of baby's breath with white rosebuds topping their heads. After a honeymoon in Bermuda, they had moved in with his parents for a year while their own house was being built. The lot on Ansley Court had been a wedding gift from their grandparents.

When the house was finally finished they had moved into it. Nora had spent her days decorating and gardening, making their home a place that Jeff was proud to show off.