It’s #BookQW and ‘tired’ doesn’t dampen her love for this land—or this boy!
More from Chapter 7:
With Annmar’s arm firmly in Mary Clare’s grip, they crossed the farmyard. In the gathering dusk, the mountain breezes brought a freshness to the evening air, and Annmar breathed it eagerly after days indoors. The farm crops and orchard trees. The strange smells she now recognized as the mix of animals. The clean, tilled earth. And one last outdoorsy aroma that Annmar really liked.
This scent was stronger than the others, something so familiar, but so elusive. She couldn’t tell where exactly it came from. It seemed to underlie everything. Annmar wanted it close, to draw it and explore why she should know this thing, in much the same way she wanted to explore Daeryn.
She shivered.
Mary Clare tightened her grip. “Tired?”
She was, but Annmar met Mary Clare’s worried frown with a smile. How did you explain something like this to someone who had never lived in an industrial borough like Derby? That Blighted Basin and everything about this country life was taking hold of her in a strange and exciting way. Tired was worth it. She could be tired every day from now until she went back and it wouldn’t matter. She would spend every minute experiencing this novel place, and Daeryn, and enjoy them both.
Annmar sighed. “Just going to dinner may be an event for me.”
“Miriam is probably going to have my head. But come on, we’re nearly there.” Mary Clare pushed open the back door. Along the hall the clanking of dishes and a buzz of voices came from the dining room.
“Dang.” Mary Clare picked up her pace, rushing Annmar by the sickroom and its tempting cots. “We’re late. Dessert is out.” They hurried through the dining room’s archway, past lingering farmworkers and to the first empty chair at the long table. Mary Clare saw Annmar seated and dashed off.
All around Annmar, people talked of the night ahead, shooting and gobblers. Half of the nearby growers looked familiar, a comforting change from her first dinner here. Fewer ’cambires sat among them, but now Annmar could pick out the animal changers, even without her Knack. At a glance, any of these people would pass for human in Derbyshire. Hair, skin and body shapes were as varied as any Outside. But among them, many—like Daeryn sitting at the far end of the table—possessed a faintly unusual look about their faces.
She couldn’t keep from staring at him, now decently covered in a golden shirt and trousers and speaking with Famil, leader of the day guards. Strands of his hair curled over the crown of his head, flipped and tossed as if by the wind, his longish bangs swiped to one side, not at all like his neat, bristling polecat face.
His eyes were brown, a normal enough color, especially compared to Famil’s orange eagle ones. Very few had blue like Annmar’s, but then most of the Basin residents had dark hair, so perhaps the ancestry was lacking. Where might the early settlers have come from? Far from England, to produce eyes as rich as Daeryn’s.
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I rarely feature The Twisting, because it is the second volume in a serialized novel–you have to read the first of this historical fantasy to fully enjoy the second. However, I’m re-reading it after several years and really enjoying my own book <lol>! It’s set during the autumn harvest in the Midlands countryside, so the perfect novel to read this time of year. I’ve jumped in because soon all three will have new covers and formatting, so it’s time for a review.
Plus, the first, The Unraveling, is free on all retailers, so I don’t feel too bad about featuring the second. Download The Unraveling on my Payhip store or everywhere else! The Twisting is here.
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On a personal note: We have returned home from our trip to Colorado. Lengthy trips always leave me ‘tired’, so it’s nice to do work that involves reading. We did enjoy the fall aspen color in the Rockies before we left.
Hope your autumn is shaping up to be as pretty!
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