Dark Under the Cover of Night (The Kingdom of the East Angles Book 1) Read Free Page A

hall.
    Cynric
spied her immediately.
    “Ah, there
goes Raedwyn the Fair,” he boomed across the hall. His face was florid from the
copious mead he had drunk since his arrival. “And I am relieved to see the
stories of your beauty were not exaggerated! You are a goddess my Lady!”
    Raedwyn,
not shy by nature but not used to such bold statements, felt her face grow hot
in embarrassment. Suddenly, all eyes were on her and she felt dozens of male
gazes rake her, head to toe.
    “Come
Raedwyn.” King Raedwald beckoned his daughter over to her place near the head
of the table. The king and queen sat at a table on a raised dais. Below the
high seats ran two long benches. Raedwyn took a seat in-between her brother
Eorpwald and her uncle Eni at the head of one of the tables. Opposite her sat
Eni’s eldest son, Annan, and Cynric. Raedwald’s thegns and most prized warriors
sat nearby, closest to the king and queen, while the younger men sat on the
other side of the fire pit.
    Raedwyn
could feel Cynric’s stare as she picked at her piece of roast boar. The hall
was loud with the crackling and spit of fat in the fire pit and boisterous conversation.
Smoke from the cooking tinged the air.
    Raedwald
was in fine form tonight. The mead had relaxed him and distracted him from the
pall of melancholy that hung over him these days. He put an affectionate arm
around his wife as he regaled his audience with stories of the adventures he
and Eni had shared in their younger days. Raedwyn laughed with the others at
the banter that flew between the two brothers. They were good men, her father
and uncle, noble men.
    Torches,
soaked in oil, hung from the walls and their fire illuminated the handsome
lines of Cynric’s face and glittered off the gold and silver rings he wore on
his arms. It was too bold to stare at him but Raedwyn kept her eyes averted
with difficulty. She had her mother’s strong-willed nature and the role of coy
maiden did not sit well with her. She had grown up as the only young female in
a household filled with strong, dominant men and with a father who had relished
her feisty nature. However, Raedwyn understood instinctively that not all men liked
strong-willed women and so she behaved demurely at the table. She nibbled
daintily at the meat and bread before her and only took occasional sips of
mead.
    “You’re
quiet this eve sister.” Eorpwald washed down a mouthful of bread and roast boar
with mead and eyed Raedwyn. “You’re not usually at a loss for words.”
    Raedwyn
threw her brother a withering look. She and Eorpwald had never understood each
other.
    “I think I
like this new, lady-like sister of mine,” Eorpwald teased. “She’s much less of
a handful.”
    Raedwyn
rolled her eyes and resisted the childish urge to stick out her tongue.
    “It’s not
long now dear brother before you shall be rid of me for good,” she replied
sourly.
    “Then our
father’s hall will become a much sadder and duller place,” Eorpwald replied,
the teasing tone now absent from his voice.
    Raedwyn
gave him a sharp look, unsure whether he was still making fun, but Eorpwald was
no longer looking at her. He was a small and sinewy young man with mousy hair
and heavy-lidded gray eyes; a sharp contrast to the other blond, blue-eyed and
physically imposing men of the Wuffinga line.
    Eorpwald
often irritated Raedwyn. He was observant but indirect and she found him sly
compared to her beloved late brother Raegenhere. He would often look on with
barely concealed amusement at Raedwyn’s exuberant, pragmatic behavior, unfazed
by her coolness towards him. Eorpwald’s relationship with their mother and
father had always bemused Raedwyn. He often appeared ill at ease in his
father’s hearty company, and relations between Eorpwald and the queen were
distant, bordering on cold. Seaxwyn had always treated Eorpwald like her other
children and Raedwyn noticed it was he, rather than she, who was standoffish.  
    Raedwyn
watched her enigmatic