Olivia's home is the Green Man Inn, situated in medieval city of London. She is content with her life, running the bustling tavern with her father, and is taken aback when he suggests a long journey in late autumn into the west of the country to meet her mysterious bridegroom.<br><br>As Olivia gets farther away from the busy metropolis, her concerns grow, especially as Halloween approaches. She senses something strange and unearthly in her fate, and her imagination conjures up fearful images.<br><br>All alone in the wild forests of Wales, will she be an unwilling sacrifice to the pagan gods?

The Green Man

Olivia nearly dropped her cup of wine in shock. “Married, Pa? But to who?”


Her father gazed into his goblet, avoiding her eyes. “Someone of my acquaintance. A very great gentleman in his particular way. One worthy of my own dear girl,” he said with a strained smile.


“But why can he not come here?” Olivia was normally an obedient daughter, but her bewilderment made her speak out of turn. When the time came, she had thought she would be betrothed to someone familiar, say a local apothecary or merchant. It had never occurred to her she would marry a man from outside the city bounds in some unknown and unlooked-for part of the country.


“He has, well, commitments in his lands. To the west of here,” her father vaguely waved his hand to indicate the direction.


Chapter 2