I Stumbled Upon Grace {Excerpt}

Well, it's been a while since I posted from the novel I'm working on. Since then, I decided to change the novel from third person to first person, and started rewriting it. I even changed the title! I know, I'm a bit too impulsive for my own good. Though I'm sure my parents are merely happy that my impulsiveness is directed towards writing and not life.  Here's a little excerpt. Hope you enjoy!    

           Breakfast was served promptly at seven. When I entered the small dining hall, Nathan was alone, looking out the window. At the sound of my steps he turned, and for just a moment his face was unguarded, and I saw an expression of pain on his face. But it was gone in a second, replaced by cool eyes that said a thousand things. They were questions and answers that made no sense to me. His hand rested on the back of a chair, and I noticed a long scar that ran down the length of it. I raised my eyes slowly, and he was watching me.

“How d..did you sleep?” he asked quietly. It was the first time I had heard him speak, but his voice was so low that I could hardly hear the stutter.

“Well,” I said hesitantly. For a moment more we stood there, each lost in our own thoughts. Would he ask me about the names under the painting? What would I tell him if he did?

Jeremiah and Elizabeth arrived together.

“Good morning,” Elizabeth sang, and then stopped as she saw the serious looks on Nathan's and my face. Jeremiah's face betrayed an expression of questioning, and again I knew that I needed to be careful. This family was knowing, intuitive. They liked to laugh, but they loved truth. I sensed this, and it scared me. Jeremiah moved to my side, and I forced my eyes to his face.

“How are you this morning?” he asked pleasantly.

“I'm fine.”

“Just fine?” he teased.

“Well, it has been a whole eight hours since I last saw your face.”

Jeremiah grinned.

“You're a good student. You're picking up our sarcastic ways quickly.”

“Perhaps I learned them from someone else. And perhaps I was not being sarcastic.”

Jeremiah raised an eyebrow.

“Well then. You must introduce us to your teacher.”

It suddenly seemed to me that everything this family said was calculated, intentional. There were no idle words. Even Elizabeth's outspokenness seemed to be a cover for secrets. And yet for some reason it did not appear fake, or dark. I truly believed that they were sincere, but were they covering secrets as I was? The thought frightened me. A marriage could not be based off deceit, no matter what the reason.

My father and theirs arrived together, talking in interested tones about the upcoming hunt.

Their father excused the queen, saying that she had decided to sleep in, as she was very tired from the day before.

“Is she all right?” Nathan asked quickly, and I sensed deep concern.

His father's eyes shifted to the window. “She will be fine,” he said quietly, and Nathan nodded, apparently still unassured. Jeremiah seated me, and I tried to calm myself. I felt that I always had to be on my guard, protecting my past, protecting myself from the bewilderment that I knew was pending in the back of my mind.