The Wolf's Bride (Pause)

Chapter 1

Dinner was unusually quiet, I might even go as far as to say tense. My father's brows were creased in a frown, his lips tightly pressed as he looked at his untouched table, unused fork in hand. My mother was eating, albeit slowly, pushing the food around the silver or hated plate, playing with a peas, inspecting each one of them as if she was expecting them to bite her hand or eat her fork.

My sister, Elia, was the least bothered of all, but that was normal. What was not normal was the slight frown in her manicured eyebrows, the lack of focus in her eyes, the quietness. That was not normal, not for her. Alas, even when troubled, she looked beautiful. I was yet to see if there was any circumstance under which she did not.

"Has something happened?" my words happened to be louder than I expected, cutting harshly through the silence.

My twin, my spectacularly beautiful twin looked at me, and flashed a smile.

"We will receive a guest tomorrow! Father thinks he might strike quite the deal with this foreigner!"

Then it made sense why my father looked on the verge of throwing up the food he was yet to eat. Although it was slightly unusual for him to be uneasy, or anxious. He raised his head, his salt and pepper hair not moving an inch, styled to perfection, by my mother probably. She loved doing father's hair, and although he protested every morning, there was always a breezy smile on his face when he looked in the mirror after his wife styled his hair.

"Do I know of him? Is he wealthy?"

Elia shook her head softly, biting her lip with a playful grin, her blue eyes sparkling. "No, I don't really know either, father didn't want to tell me anything, but I bet he's young and handsome, and that's why he doesn't want us to know, so that we don't steal his guest."

As always, she was thinking of young and handsome men. Not that I could blamed her, I usually minded that same business.

My father sighed and told us to talk somewhere else, with the mention that if we were to try and steal his business partner he might just lock us in our rooms for the duration of his stay.

That was enough to get me and Elia out of the room laughing joyfully. We spent an hour speculating about the mystery guest, how tall he would be, what color his eyes were, how many jewels his treasury contained, along... other less proper assumptions.

While we conversed, Elia begged me to do her hair like I used to when we were smaller. And so she sat down in front of the mirror, and so I started brushing her long golden hair.

"Do you think he might be a prince?" she inquired with her sweet voice.

"He just might. Are you finally going to get married?" I inquired back.

She turned her head around, yanking it in the hairbrush with that motion. "You know me, sister, I want a lovely prince. Mother said that with my beauty I could marry a prince, so I won't settle for less. How you even thought of giving that staple guy a chance is beyond me, sweetheart. You need your innocence to get married!"

"Elia, I don't think I'm going to get married any time soon, not when you are still in the house. You know all too well that no one looks in my direction when you are around."

Half of the truth. Some people looked at me even when she was around, mostly men, mostly after being rejected by her. I didn't mind it, not really, not when it was a pleasure to be inside, to be reading book after book while my sister attended fancy dinners with our friends, mostly hers, our family's friends. She and my mother were much alike, always surrounded by proper ladies, always on date with all the gossip. I didn't mind that either, especially when I sat down with Elia and a cup of tea and she told me all about everyone.