Annabelle 468Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1nOipWPbW
Annabelle had always been a good girl. She obeyed everything her mother and father asked her to do and never complained once. Yet when her parents had told her they’d made match for her, her future betrothed in fact, she’d been unsure. But the trip to the wide countryside was long, and beautiful too which gave her plenty of time to consider her future husband and what kind of future they might have. It made her almost giddy thinking about how handsome he might be, and she’d heard mother saying how very rich her betrothed parents were so he was almost like a prince.
Anna couldn’t help but stare at the strange farmer man that opened the gate for them as they pulled into the manor. His eyes were the strangest of colours for one’s eyes, an almost glowing, sickly yellow. It was to the young lady’s surprise that the strange farmer man stared right back. He didn’t look to her with wandering eyes, as some of her lord father’s gentry did. He looked to her with wondering eyes with an almost mean looking slant to them as if he were perpetually picking you out to see what kind of person you are. She looked away, and tried her best to forget, and to remember her prince. When the carriage pulled to a stop before the door, the Lord and Lady Ashford were waiting. The Lord and Lady Feyre exited the carriage, her Lord Father politely helping his lady wife down the carriage steps as a gentleman should. It made Anna smile, thinking of when her lord husband would do the same.
Instead, the farmer man extended a cold hand and helped her down. The two families exchanged their greetings and were led inside the splendid manor of white timber and coloured glass panes. Looking about the house, Anna heard the them talk about grown-up nonsense in the background.
“-Two years you’ve been here?” Her Lord Father Elomnd Feyre said. He was a tall man of broad shoulders and a broader yet pride. The years had not struck his black hair with grey, and his opal eyes that he had passed onto his daughter still retained the same stubbornness and sharpness that had remained over his forty years. Her lady mother on the other hand had the softest of eyes, a sweet maple entwined with a river of golden honey and the softest of brown curls that she had passed onto her daughter.
“-Yes, two years. We’ll be returning to the estate over London way soon enough. It’s done good for us, for all of us. I’d say my lad Solomon will be a touch upset at moving back but he’ll be delighted to hear about Anna, he’s twelve years of age and I believe mature enough to start to understand things like man,” Lord Arthur Ashford replied.
Anna found her way out onto the veranda overlooking the farmland, wheat field and whispering stream below the hill that the manor sat upon. The Lady Ashford came to stand by her, and rested a hand against her back pushing her gently along.
“If you want to find Sol he’s just over in the barn I should think,” She said sweetly.
Anna spotted the red walled barn in the distance, and brushed off the need to ask for her parent’s consent and waded through the swaying wheat to the barn. She tripped on the rocks and loose soil as she passed a boulder two heads higher than herself in excitement.
I’m a lady. Remember mother’s words, it is not being a woman that makes a lady it’s the woman that must be the lady.
And so Anna tugged at her skirts to lift them to her ankles and treaded with as much caution as she could muster. Approaching the barn, the sound of laughter quickly quietened to that of hushed whispers, despite their isolation. It was only when Anna stood at the towering doors that she could make out what they were saying.
“Egg, my father would be mad if he found us. I…I really don’t like it when he’s mad…” A voice she supposed must belong to Solomon said.
“Sol,” Egg said softer, his voice carrying a touch deeper and carrying the lilt of the English country.
“I’m, - I’ma hunter. I know how to survive in the forest and I can use a bow so, so I won’t let him hurt you!” Egg promised in his hushed tone.
“Egg…” Sol began, as Anna pushed open the barn door. The two boys has been sitting on two bales of hay, legs crossed and facing each other. What she saw, she couldn’t quite comprehend. They weren’t kissing in the same way she saw her parents kiss. They were sitting too far apart, so Solomon had to put his hand on the divide of the two hay bales to lean over far enough to kiss Egg properly. Even then, Sol was awkward and had one hand holding Egg’s shirt pulling him close, and almost stiff. Egg on the other hand had obviously been taken by surprise by the way his eyes were still open for the first few moments and way he’d drawn back slightly in reflex.
Anna stumbled backwards straight onto her tailbone in an attempt to escape from whatever the hell was happening here. This only drew their attention to her. They broke of their kiss and Sol drew backwards. When Sol narrowed his eyes and realised that she had seen what she should not have seen, he moved with shocking speed. The clothes he wore were simple and slightly dirty, but purely from the way he moved Anna could tell he was highborn. He rushed over and pulled her by her ankle back into the barn. He was much stronger than he looked, this future husband of hers.
Solomon sat atop her and wrapped his fingers around her throat and squeezed. He squeezed, and shook her, his warm tears raining down on Anna’s face that grew redder and redder by the second.
“She saw, she saw, SHE SAW US!” He sobbed. Egg rushed to his side and placed a worried hand on Sol’s shoulder.
“Sol, Sol, let her go,” Egg insisted, looking to her.
Egg, whoever he was, had his father’s eyes. Yellow ones, almost the exact same. They weren’t slanted with that hawk-like, almost mean like look in them. They were kind. When Sol wouldn’t let go, Egg’s face twisted into one of anger, and he took the boy he’d just been kissing a moment before and threw him off Anna with more force than she thought the young lad of only twelve years could possess. Sol looked to Egg for a moment, clear hurt in his blue eyes before the same rage returned when he looked back to Anna.468Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFT4bUJsAcy
Egg ignored Sol, and kneeled before her with an extended hand.
“You’re Annabelle Feyre, aren’t you? I’m Egad Northwood, but you can just call me Egg. I’m sorry, Sol didn’t mean to hurt you but we’d all get in a lot of trouble if you told anyone what you saw. So…how about we make a deal? We can be friends, if you keep it a secret that is,” Egg promised.
Anna, with her throat so sore and neck red she could only nod. She took his hand, and he helped her to his feet. His hand was warm, unlike his father’s.
His face stained with tears and eyes red Sol tried his best to smile and said, “Let’s – let’s be friends then.”468Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOtMFQsaRfo
