Raw Winter

Chapter 6: Untamed

They stood side by side, and Winter gripped Charlet's arm for comfort. She apologized the first time she had done it, not realizing how hard she was gripping until she noticed him grimacing. She tried to loosen her grip, but he took her arm and smiled weakly.

"Please don't let go of me until they arrive. I feel like I deserve this if it's going to hurt, and you deserve your comfort," he told her.

"You don't deserve to be hurt," Winter told him. "This was a part of your job, and I would hate to see what would have happened if you didn't do it."

"There are always other options," Charlet answered, his voice wispish as if afraid of her hating him.

"I know well enough that sometimes a person doesn't have a choice," Rawintr told him, "and how easy it can be to falter."

"Oh, my dear, you don't know the half of it yet, but you will. I promise you will when it's all over," he answered.

She nodded, not knowing what else to say. He looked as if he had tears in his eyes and she moved closer as if to hug him, to reassure him one last time, but she could already hear shuffling on the other side of the door. Before it opened, she let his arm go, and they stood apart with no sign they had ever been touching.

The first to enter were male servants, men that appeared eternally youthful, but when Winter got a better look at them while they were clearing the path and making it presentable for their master, she realized they were much, much older than she initially thought. She tried not to watch them, keeping her eyes dutifully forward like he instructed her a few hours prior. Charlet stepped back a few feet methodically, so she was standing alone. It wasn't what he wanted, but it was what they trained him to do.

The next to enter was Sir Nevel. She felt conflicted looking at him. He wasn't less handsome than she had pictured him, but he wasn't noble in bearing either. He would be earthly if not for the way he carried himself, as if he expected to get only what he wanted. He was pudgy. She couldn't fault him for that. She wasn't thin by any means, especially spending much of her time idle in the library. She thought he looked neglectful and needlessly indulgent. His blond hair was combed over to the right and his dull blue eyes were shifty. He wore a tan overcoat and white thrills under his chin.

He walked over to inspect her. She felt uncomfortable, but she knew there was only one thing she was meant to say. "Welcome home, master."

"I see you already started her training. That's good," Nevel said, not addressing her at all, but not looking at Charlet. His shifty eyes were on hers, and he commented, "You chose a good one, I guess. Her eyes look muddy and unclean, and with that black hair, she may as well be a demon. I hope she has the taste of one at least."

Winter's face reddened as he lifted her chin and tilted her head back and forth as if inspecting an animal. She had never felt more uneasy in her life. She wanted to tell him his eyes looked like blue rocks pressed into dough, but thinking about dough made her feel strangely homesick. The way he was circling her made her feel homesick for half an hour ago when he wasn't here. His voice grated on her. It sounded well-bred, but as if he was trying too hard. It was toeing the line between well-bred and whiny.

"Tirenen, why don't you come check her teeth? I would hate to catch something from her before you give her a proper examination," he said.

A second man was suddenly at her side. She hadn't noticed him come in, but realized he must have been there for a while now. He was taller than both her and her new master and felt as if he towered unnervingly. He wore a white coat and partially obscured by it was an apron with many tools. Between the coat and apron, it was harder to see, but he was clearly boney as if he never ate in his life. He had his hands hid beneath white gloves, but even then, his fingers appeared spindly. His face was sharp, his cheekbones stuck out and his dark eyes, like voids, stared into her as he smiled toothily. More than one tooth appeared sharpened and tampered with in his mouth. It was like a hodgepodge of sharp teeth and precious metals that didn't quite make his smile any less uniformly threatening. His sharp chin was clean shaven.