Better late than never, I guess?
Here’s my snippet for this week, carrying on directly from the last one I posted here. Bethan is observing Alwyn crossing the yard towards the house.
Her adored big brother, dark and quick, had turned heads, but now he could barely catch anyone’s eye, even those who loved him. She studied him, his mouth drawn awry by the scars that seamed the right side of his face, his once smooth skin like old oak bark, the stub of an ear. He was too far away for her to see the drooping lid that covered the clouded remains of the eye that had once been so bright. She suppressed a shiver and got up to fetch his plate.
Alwyn ate quickly, just nodding as Nye complained about the new man at the chapel and how he was playing ducks and drakes with the Sunday services, and again when Nye commented on the high prices for fodder.
“They say it’s all going to France to feed the draft beasts – better prices from the War Office than from honest farmers – and how are we supposed to work our acreage when they’ve taken the best horses and called up most of the men?”
More next week. xx
Elin Gregory 
Amazing description of Alwyn, I could picture him exactly 🙂
Thank you lovely. There’s a local ‘look’ that is getting rare now – smallish darkish curlyish people who tend to be slim and sinewy in youth but bulk up comfortably as they get older. A lot of my heroes default to that unless I make the effort to change them.
“now he could barely catch anyone’s eye, even those who loved him”
Oh, so sad. 😦
This had better have a happy ending for him. *hard stare* 😉
He will, honest. Got to have a bit of angst first, though, right? 🙂 *kisses*
Terrific description of the character as well as showing us more of the time period and day to day concerns.
Again, the details of the setting are just wonderful, but what really caught my eye this time was ‘skin like old oak bark’. It tells us so much about the narrator’s terms of reference but there’s also something a little comforting in there. She still associates him with something natural, despite the changes in him.
Ah Elin, you’ve managed to shred my heart with sympathy for Alwyn. Now I have to read all about him. 🙂
Yes, better late than never! 🙂 I’m loving this story, the premise is brilliant and (as always) wonderfully executed.
Wonderful pathos and description here 🙂
Definitely curious to find out more about what happened to him.
Really liked the descriptions in this.