title: The Southern Rules: The Advanced Course for Women Who Are Serious About Taming the Male Beast
author:  Ellen Patrick 
description: The Southern Rules: The Advanced Course for Women Who Are Serious About Taming the Male Beast
zlib_text: **The Beast at the Door**
  
   **Althea Blue**
  
  Supposed Crimes LLC, Matthews, North Carolina
  
  All Rights Reserved
  
  Copyright 2016 Althea Blue
  
  Published in the United States
  
  ISBN: 978-1-938108-14-3
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
  products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
  to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely
  coincidental.
  
   _To my author friends who showed me that real people can actually do this._
  
   **Chapter One**
  
  “I will not!”
  
  The obstinate expression on the girl’s face suggested that she wanted to stamp
  her foot for emphasis, and only decorum kept her from doing so. Though her
  posture was perfect, and her clothes impeccable, her demeanor did nothing to
  conceal the utter horror she felt when she contemplated what her parents had
  just commanded.
  
  Her mother and father sat before her on chairs as disparate as their
  appearances. The man, older, balding and running heavily t