Carrick raised an eyebrow slightly as Hermes copied his penmanship exactly. Secretly, he was far from displeased. As he often reflected, a cheeky slave boy could be a real delight.
"A fair point," he agreed. "So now you at least know a couple of words, and how to relate them to the sounds made by their letters." He slid the paper over to Hermes. "By sunset tomorrow, I want you to have a list of ten words made up of these letters and sounds. You can ask Grace for help in copying them out if you need to, I'm sure she'll be happy to help. Tomorrow we'll move onto some different letters, and keep building up until you can start to read things independently. I'll get you some simple books."
He capped the pen. "But I think that's enough for tonight." His gaze wandered down Hermes body. "Hard work shouldn't go unrewarded."