Lair of Beasts [Book I in the Curse Of Blood Saga]

Chapter IV - A Change of Plans

When a powerful lord leaves his residence and takes to the road for a jaunt about the countryside, he is accompanied by a vast retinue of men-at-arms and various servants. This was not the case with the Earl of Drakkentörn for he arrived at our humble gate with no more than ten men; albeit armored and fierce-looking men.

Once they had crossed over the fixed, stone bridge, and into our midst, as we waited in the courtyard, I was again taken aback by the sheer size of him and his knights. I had thought Godwin the tallest man I had ever seen in the course of my life, but as I stood watching the behemoth beside him, dismounting from his ornery-looking destrier, I knew this now not to be the case. I had forgotten about the silent giant altogether.

Our two stablehands were rushing about, assisting our guests with their mounts, as I looked my fill, at the giant in particular. Struck again by his youth, which one might easily overlook in the face of his colossal height, I guessed him to be perhaps only a score in years. I might have thought younger, but for his features that were drawn into grim lines.

He was, though not unfortunate-looking, no gallant knight by any minstrel's standards. In sooth, one might admire the curl of his tawny locks or the strapping cut of his figure; however, the rest of his character might deter the composition of sonnets altogether for his lips were compressed into a hard line and his low brows were drawn austerely over his dark eyes, in what I suspected was a perpetual frown. 

Frown or no, the peculiar shade of his eyes struck me just as curiously as it had done when I'd first beheld the earl's. Whereas Godwin's were glacial and pale, this man's seemed to have flecks of red in his eyes. 

As the sunlight slanted over his face, I gasped. Ay, they were red!

There was an aquilinity about his nose that added to his imposing physiognomy and, as I finished my perusal of him, I decided again that his features, although by no means unattractive, were too striking to be classically handsome. But it was, in truth, the extreme length and sinewy breadth of him, and the hint of cerise in his eyes, that was uppermost my first impression of the earl's large companion; moreover, not an ounce of excess flesh adorned his great bulk.

Godwin, meanwhile, had confidently approached my father and Elinor, as was customary, but his eyes were pinned on me as he did so and I wondered again, for mayhap the hundredth time, why me?

Godwin, I noticed suspiciously, raised a golden brow and shot the giant a meaningful glance, the latter nodding his head peculiarly, and the pair of them seemed to study me as if I were the rarest oddity — their nostrils flaring keenly as I quaked. There was such an expression of baffled intrigue on the younger man's face, and it impressed me so palpably, that my cheeks became immediately aflush with crimson. I wrung my hands nervously and was of a mind to hide my face behind my curtain of dark hair, but I squelched the impulse directly, opting instead to fasten my eyes to my grass-stained slippers.

Lord Drakkentörn might have picked any number of beautiful, wealthy heiresses, yet he had singled me out of this boundless list. I, who was drab, plain, and sallow — an aberrant, sport of nature for all my unattractive height — had somehow gained his interest. Moreover, and I might have thought to mention this first, I was the daughter of a mere country gentleman who was fast approaching penury; or had been until Godwin's interference. There was no possible reason why he should want to align himself with my family.

As I finished this threadbare line of thought, Godwin suddenly broke away from my father, whose loquacious flatulence and bombastic greeting even I was tiring of, and marched purposefully over to kneel beside me, a stormy fury broiling in his eerie, pale eyes.