Chapter 1

Olivia rode through the forest, the bright winter sun shining off a glimmering blanket of snow. Olivia was already 18 years old and still without a husband. Tomorrow her parents would find her someone to wed as it was the way it always went; arranged marriage was very big in 1060. She was very upset about knowing she will have to marry someone she would never love, everyone always told her that she would learn to love her husband but she knew that wasn’t true, she could never learn to love someone she was forced into marrying. That’s why she came to the forest, it was the one place she came when she needed to clear her mind and think, and it was her happy place when she was upset. She was always warned that it was dangerous for her to be out alone in the forest but in the years she had been coming here no harm had come to her. They always told her there are dangerous wild animals here in Scotland and plenty of hunters around but she had never encountered any.

Today Olivia had decided to wear one of her favourite dresses. It was partly blue with a white under dress which extended all down the long sleeves. The neck line of the dress started just above the breasts with criss-crossed lace on the torso of the dress mimicking a corset and it was just as tight as one. Over her dress she wore a plain black coat, with fur around the neck and arms, which flowed to the ground much like her dress. The shoes she wore with this were leather black flats. They had a strap around the top with silver buckles to keep the strap in place.

Her long dark brown hair shone slightly red in the sun, it hung loose and blew gently in the light wind as she rode her horse. Olivia looked beautiful with her pale white skin, full red lips, her long dark wavy hair and her beautiful black horse, all of which stuck out in the snow white forest.

She had named her horse Lunar. Lunar was a Friesian mare that stood 15.5 hands tall, she had a lot of feathering and had a long wavy black mane and tail, her mane flowing longer than Olivia’s hair. She was born from her father’s mare 8 years ago and was given to Olivia for her 10^th birthday. She was equipped with a black leather bridle with metal circles along the nose piece and black fabric along the length of the reins with white tassels hanging off them, the saddle was also black leather like the bridle but was plain, the numnah was a large piece of black fabric that went down to Luna’s belly and much like the bridle had the white tassels all along the outside of it.   

Olivia had now been riding for about 20 minutes and was fairly deep into the thick pine forest, only a small amount of light breaking through the needles of the pine trees. She stopped in the same place she did every day and tied Luna up to the same branch she did every day. She walked a few more meters into the forest to her spot, there was a rock here where she sat each day to watch the deer she had named Warrior. Warrior starting appearing in this spot month ago and each day she had managed to get closer to him, he was always here before she arrived each day and today was no different. As Olivia emerged from the trees Warrior lifted his head to stop grazing, only for a moment from the grass he managed to dig up from under the snow, while he studied her with his big brown eyes. He quickly turned his attention back to the grass after realising who she was, his large antlers always amazed Olivia, she had always been fascinated by animals but Warrior just amazed her. She slowly started moving towards him, so she wouldn’t startle him, to see if today was the day she could finally stroke him. He lifted his head to look at her as she approached him, cautious but trusting he remained still. Olivia finally reached him and placed her hand on his neck and started stroking him.

Suddenly Olivia was covered in blood as an arrow shot through the deer’s eye, missing her by only an inch, causing Olivia to jump back in shock and surprise as the deer fell to the ground. She started running back towards where she had left Luna, she quickly mounted her and started galloping through the forest as fast as she could, she knew the hunters would have seen her even if she hadn’t seen them so she had to hurry and get out of the forest before they caught up. Olivia started hearing horse hooves following her, there were at least four of them, that much she could tell from the sound. Luna galloped avoiding every tree in her path but Olivia could hear them gaining on her, she knew they must have found the mostly clear path in the forest otherwise there would be no way they could gain on her. Nevertheless she still continued in the hope she could escape them, she feared what they would do to her if they caught her, the thing most men would do to a young girl in the forest, away from the eyes of others. She continued galloping through the forest, the others gaining on her quick, she could see their figures flashing through the trees at either side of her, even though she knew she couldn’t out run them she still continued as fast as Lunar could carry her but it was not fast enough, she started hearing the hooves ahead of her now but still she didn’t stop and that’s when he pulled out in front of her. He sat high on his grey Andalusian, its long white main and tail, even at 15.2 hands it looked taller than Lunar but that might have just been because of the man that sat atop of it.