Depravity: A Beauty and the Beast Novel (A Beastly Tale Book 1) by M.J. Haag Page A

occasions, stood in the doorway of their modest home, watching for us.  The trees had been cleared from around the house for quite a distance to allow for an animal shed and several fields.  Uprooted trees at the edge of the fields, bordering the woods beyond, foretold of bigger fields for next year’s crops.
    “Welcome,” Mrs. Kinlyn said with a smile as she motioned for us to enter.  She looked close to Father’s age, perhaps a bit older, with windburned, brown skin.  Tiny white lines fanned from the corners of her eyes from squinting in the sun.  I found her happy smile infectious and smiled in return.  My sisters murmured polite greetings.
    Inside the square home, a single wall divided the room in half.  At one end of the room, a long table with several chairs around it took up most of the space along with the hearth. The other side of the room held the kitchen with a modern iron oven.  Two closed doors interrupted the plain wall, and I guessed they led to bedrooms.
    At the table, six men sat waiting.  Well, almost men since the youngest looked about nine.  They all appeared freshly washed, and I bet they wore their best clothes like we did.  The Kinlyn children had all inherited their mother’s smile.
    “Please, sit.  Everything’s ready.  Henick, help me with the roast, please,” Mrs. Kinlyn said.
    One of the older boys stood to help his mother while Mr. Kinlyn rose to greet Father and shake his hand.  Introductions were made.  Henick, the oldest at twenty, smiled when his father said his name.  Renald, the next at eighteen, nodded politely, his smile never wavering.  Kennen, close to my own age, winked at me when his father said his name.  I wanted to wink back, but all eyes were on me so I just smiled in return.  The introductions ended with Bolen and, finally, Parlen.
    Mr. Kinlyn directed us to our seats with Father and me sitting near Mr. and Mrs. Kinlyn, and Bryn and Blye sitting at the other end of the table with Henick and Renald.  Seeing the arrangement, I knew I had been correct in the purpose behind the dinner.  The youngest, Parlen, sat to my right with Kennen across from me.
    I listened with half an ear to Henick and Renald’s attempts to converse with my sisters.  They politely asked after the interests of my sisters, but neither answered in enough detail to inspire an intelligent response.  So the brothers started explaining about their father’s plans for their crops.  I couldn’t understand Bryn and Blye.  All of the Kinlyn men were handsome enough and had pleasant natures.  Why weren’t they giving them a chance?
    “What do you do here, Parlen?” I asked the sandy blonde boy sitting beside me.
    He politely wiped his mouth before answering.  “When we need to dig around a tree before pulling it, I help with the digging.  Otherwise, it’s care for the animals and hunt for game.”
    “Really?  What do you hunt?” interest spurred me to ask.
    “Mostly rabbit and wild hen,” he said.  “But once I came this close to bagging a wild pig.”  He held his thumb and forefinger up with an inch of space between.
    Kennen laughed and picked up the story.
    “He’s lucky the pig escaped the trap before he tried to wrestle him down.  It had tusks enough to bleed him.”
    “Kennen,” Mrs. Kinlyn said in quiet warning.
    The only good conversation to be heard and it wasn’t fit for the dinner table.  I suppressed a sigh and tried again.
    “I trap rabbit, mostly.  We don’t have anything else wild so near the village.  If I cross the river to the east, I can usually find some type of bird.”
    “River?” Parlen perked up.
    “It runs south, just east of the village,” I said slowly, trying to visualize how far it might be from the Kinlyn farm.  “I’d think you’d run into it less than an hour’s walk east.”
    “S’True,” Mr. Kinlyn said in his quiet way.  “Runs slow and deep for a bit.”
    “Good fishing?” Renald asked with interest.  All of