I thought this was strange until Frey’s mouth came to my ear where he said quietly, “It’s the measure of a man, Finnie, how good he cheats. No game is played without trickery. It is the man who can best cheat who wins not only the game but the respect of his opponents. Many complain during the game of being swindled while they themselves are swindling. Others keep aloof and let the cards speak for themselves. And if you’re bad enough and get caught, you may catch something else, like a challenger’s ire. It’s all part of the game.” Then he paused a moment before saying, “I’m sure you know that.”
My body jolted slightly and I whispered my lie, “Of course, I was just trying to be funny.”
“Of course,” Frey mumbled, sounding like he was suffocating a chuckle and his mouth went away from my ear.
I took in the table seeing all the men were still looking at me and I shifted my rear in Frey’s lap as I hurried to cover what was clearly a gaffe. “Obviously, you don’t know that princesses, being princesses, and thus royal, are taught to be fair and trustworthy in all endeavors,” I lied through my teeth. “Therefore I’ve never been taught to cheat. It would reflect badly on the House of Wilde.” I smiled at the group even as I felt and heard Frey lose his fight against his chuckle, something I chose to ignore. “So now you’ll need to teach me.”
“Excellent,” Ruben muttered, grinning at Frey.
“You need look no further than the man at your back, my princess,” Thaddeus stated and my eyes went to him. “Frey has the quickest fingers I’ve seen. You married the master card sharp. I’ve played many a game of tuble or meerkin with Frey and never won a single hand he dealt nor could I ever make out how he does it, bottom dealing, false shuffles, stacking –”
Ruben cut him off to say, “How about all of those and add culling, center deal, second dealing and slight of hand.”
“The Drakkar can’t do them all,” Laurel breathed, his eyes huge. “Not without detection. No one can.”
“By the gods, he can,” Ruben told Laurel, tipping his head to Frey. “Though I’ve never seen it, I know it to be true.”
“If you’ve never seen it, how do you know it to be true?” Thaddeus asked Ruben.
“Because I have never lost a hand to him and I am a far better cheat than you,” Ruben returned, bragging shamelessly about cheating.
“Then why did I walk away with the entire contents of your purse two nights ago?” Thaddeus shot back.
“Because when you’ve had much ale, you never give up, you keep at it no matter how drawn your purse, you won’t let a man leave a table until yours is gone or his is gone and I had a wench waiting for me whose company I preferred to yours. It was either risk standing from the table and you pulling your blade, and I didn’t feel like drawing your blood or dragging your carcass home and dressing your wound, or let you have my purse so I could get to my warm, soft bed and my warmer, softer wench,” Ruben replied.
Oh dear, I wasn’t sure but those seemed like fighting words to me.
Thaddeus’s eyes narrowed and his body got visibly tight. “That is simply not bloody true.”
Ho boy. There it was. They were definitely fighting words.
“If it’s not, then why did I win back my purse and half of yours last night?” Ruben returned what I thought was a fair point.
Thaddeus’s mouth got tight and he granted the point but changed the direction of the burgeoning argument. “Even full in my cups, you could never draw my blood.”
Ruben sat back, a bright, white smile on his face, he leveled his gaze on his friend and challenged, “Care to consume a bottle of whisky and test that belief?”
“Wench! Whisky!” Thaddeus accepted instantly, shouting yet not taking his eyes from Ruben.
Laurel, Frederick and Ulysses inched their chairs back from the table.
I didn’t move a muscle and stared in fascination.
Frey threw his cards face down on the table and muttered, “I think this is my cue to get my bride home.”
Then he stood, lifting me up with him and setting me on my feet. When I was standing, I turned to him and laid my hand lightly on his abs, my neck bent way back to catch his eyes.
At my touch, he bent his neck way down and he gave me his gaze then I whispered, “Shouldn’t you do something about that?” Then I jerked my head at the macho Raider stare down still in process at the table.
Frey answered immediately. “Thad could drink two bottles of whisky while still consuming ale and not be full in his cups. If Ruben waits for Thad to get arsed, it will be a long night. And if Ruben has the patience for Thad to fall full in his cups and Thad’s fool enough to challenge, his blade work will indeed be shoddy and Ruben will have his blood.” My eyes got big and Frey kept talking. “Don’t worry, wee one, Ruben will be certain to stick him so he makes his point but doesn’t do damage because he knows we set sail in two weeks and he doesn’t want to court a knife fight with me, which is what he’ll get if he sticks one of my men badly enough to lay him up prior to a voyage.”
I blinked up at him but said no words.
Frey leaned in so his face was close to mine. “This will not happen, Finnie. And it won’t happen because that warm, soft wench is still in Ruben’s bed waiting for him. There is no chance he’ll sit around here waiting for Thad to get tossed. We won’t be halfway home before he’ll be at his cottage just down the street, joining his woman.”
I knew this was true mainly because of the confident way Frey relayed this information. It was clear he knew his men, he read the situation and there was no cause for alarm.
“All righty then,” I whispered and he grinned.
Then he lifted a hand to the side of my neck and gave me a squeeze before he urged softly, “Bid farewell to your friends and let us get away home.”
I nodded, suddenly liking the idea (very much) of “getting away home” with my husband. That meant making out (or better) so I accepted the cloak Frey threw over my shoulders and fastened it at my neck as I moved to Ulysses, Frederick and Laurel to give them all hugs and cheek kisses, thanking them for teaching me tuble and spending time with me.
“Until you return, your grace,” Frederick said on a squeeze during our hug.
“It was a pleasure, Winter Princess,” Laurel muttered, holding onto my upper arms and smiling at me.
“Honored to do it and will be honored when we do it again, Princess Finnie,” Ulysses murmured in my ear while proving his arms were indeed very strong for he squeezed the breath right out of me.
When I pulled away, I smiled into his eyes and wondered if I’d be back this way before I went home. Then I looked through the three of them and hoped I would. I didn’t know them well, just like everyone I’d said farewell to that day in the village, but everything I knew I liked so it would be cool to know more.
Frey came around the table and claimed me and I called good-byes and see-you-laters to Thaddeus and Ruben as I yanked on my gloves. Thaddeus grunted his good-bye, still clearly peeved. Ruben smiled at me and gave a good-bye flick of his hand, still not peeved at all.
I wrapped the fingers of both my hands around Frey’s bicep (or kinda did, they didn’t get anywhere near going all the way around) and leaned into him as he led us out of the pub and down the snow covered ground toward where Tyr was waiting.
“So,” I started, “do you really know how to bottom deal, stack the deck, false shuffle and all of that?”
“Yes,” Frey answered and my head snapped back to look up at him.
“Really?” I asked.
He looked down at me and grinned. “Yes.”
“Will you teach me?”
Without hesitation, he repeated, “Yes.”
“Awesome,” I breathed, his grin became a smile through which he chuckled and then he disengaged my hands from his arm when he moved it to slide around my shoulders and pull me to his body.
I slid both my arms around his middle and walked semi-sideways as I pressed my cheek to his chest.
It had
been a good day, a good night and it had been six good weeks (mostly).
And it kept getting better.
I sighed as Tyr came into view wondering how much better tonight might get (and hoping it got a whole lot better) then my step stuttered when I felt Frey’s body suddenly get tight at my side.
Then, in a flash, he flung me away from him. I went flying and landed against Tyr who had shifted quickly to the side in a way that it seemed like he was breaking my fall.
But even as I reeled, I saw it.
I saw.
I saw.
Lightning fast, Frey’s hand went to his knife on his belt, his knees bent and his arm swung overhanded, launching the knife down the walk.
And I saw that knife lodge right in a man’s throat.
I stared at the man as he fell backward, hands lifting to his neck, blood spurting from the knife and rushing down to stain his sweater but I sensed more movement, looked back and saw Frey had his other knife out, a man was approaching him, blade drawn. Frey’s hand snaked out and wrapped around the man’s wrist that was holding the knife. Frey whirled him and yanked him back against his body and, without hesitation, on another hideous gush of blood, Frey sliced open his throat.
Saliva filled my mouth as the air hollowed out of my lungs and I pressed back hard against Tyr.
Then I heard running footsteps and saw another flying knife as Thad went down to a knee and released one in what appeared to be my direction. My heard jerked around to see a man who had been rounding Tyr and nearing me drop to his knees, Thad’s knife in the side of his neck.
Then I whirled immediately the other way as I heard scuffling feet and I saw Ruben had hold of yet another man, one arm wrapped around the man’s chest, pinning him to Ruben, Ruben holding his own knife close to the man’s throat. The man in Ruben’s hold was pressing back to get away from the knife and grunting with the effort even as his feet shuffled underneath him but only his toes were touching the snow because Ruben held him off the ground.
I stood frozen, every inch of me, including my mind and my lungs… but not my heart.
My heart was hammering painfully in my chest.
Tyr was pressing his bulk against my back which was a good because if he didn’t, there was a good chance I would pass out.
“We saw them follow you out of the pub,” Thad explained, striding forward casually and bending over to yank the knife out of the not quite dead man lying in the snow not three feet away from me. And when he did, the man’s body jerked as he made a horrid gurgling noise and a new flood of blood poured out of the wound.
Another surge of saliva filled my mouth at the sight but Thad completely ignored him as he straightened and turned to Frey.
“They’ve had eyes on you and Princess Finnie all night,” Ruben put in.
“Felt them, saw them, not skilled, unwise but interesting,” Frey muttered distractedly then jerked his chin at Ruben. “Find out what he knows and I’ll want to know everything he says the minute you break him.” Ruben grinned in a very scary way that told an equally frightening tale about the new activities he’d be engaged in that night, activities he appeared to be anticipating with great relish but Frey was already looking to Thad. “Go to the constable, explain. Go to the men, I want four at the cabin on patrol outside. All night. Do it now but not in that order. Finnie and I are away home. Tell the men we leave for Fyngaard at dawn, we’ll need a guard. And send someone to the king.”
Thad nodded, turned and disappeared in the shadows.
Ruben was already yanking the still struggling man away and he too disappeared in the shadows.
I stood still frozen but my head swiveled woodenly to the side as Frey walked calmly to the dead man to collect his knife, putting his boot to the base of his neck to do so.
He sheathed it after wiping the blood off by stabbing it twice into the snow.
I swallowed back a sudden surge of vomit and my head got light.
Tyr whinnied and suddenly I was caught in Frey’s strong arm. He mounted his steed at the same time dragging me with him. Then I stared blankly ahead of me as Frey touched his heels to Tyr’s flanks and we took off at a full gallop.
Frey held me close with his arm around me, his torso pressed into my back so we were both leaning over Tyr as we cleared the town and the darkness of the forest which was shot by the bright gray of moonlight on snow surrounded us.
My husband just killed two men.
Right in front of me.
And one of his men killed a man.
Right beside me.
And they didn’t pause, check for pulses, call police or anything.
And they were good at killing. Very good. Remarkably skilled. Unbelievably. They wasted no time, they didn’t hesitate, they didn’t blink and they didn’t even get winded or break a sweat.
They’d done it before. Often.
I started trembling but not with the cold that bit at my cheeks and ears.
It was fear. Pure fear the like I’d never felt in my life.
I closed my eyes tight and my trembling tore through me deeper, turning to shakes.
Frey felt it.
“Wee Finnie, it’s all right,” Frey whispered in my ear, “you’re safe, my winter bride.”
I opened my eyes for two reasons. One, because I saw the remembered and probably never to be forgotten vision of the man’s body jump and his blood flood when Thad unceremoniously yanked his knife out of his neck and two, because I didn’t feel safe.
Not at all.
What I did feel safe was saying that Frey definitely had enemies. Four men had come at him.
Four.
And he’d dispatched them without a thought and left them dead or dying in the snow of a sweet, quiet, winter village that had two awesome waterwheels and he did this without a second glance.
Oh God.
At a gallop and using Frey’s shortcut, we were home in five minutes. Frey took Tyr right to the door, dismounted the minute Tyr came to a stop and hauled me off the horse. He held my hand as he guided me to and through the front door but used my hand to position my back against the wall right at its side.
“Stay here, wee one,” he muttered then I watched blankly as he moved about the room, the bathroom space, he climbed to the loft and down again then moved through the kitchen, out through the backdoor then back through the kitchen.
Then he came to me.
I automatically tipped my head back when he got close and I stood there stupidly as his big hand curled around the side of my neck and his mouth came to my forehead for a light touch.
Then his eyes caught mine.
“I need to stall Tyr and my men will be here soon. I’ll need to speak with them when they arrive. Feed the fires, wee one, I’ll meet you in our bed.”
Then before I could open my mouth to make a noise, he was gone.
I stood against the wall staring into the room. Then I lifted my hands and saw they were shaking, even in the weak light of the dying fires I saw them shaking.
Shaking so bad it was out-of-control.
I closed my eyes tight for a moment before I opened them and wandered to the fire, stoking and feeding it then putting the grate to and turning to the other one. Once finished with the second one, I fed a few logs to the kitchen stove then I took off my boots and, still clothed, I climbed to the loft and fed the fire up there too. Then I lay down on the bed, over the covers, back to the railing and pulled a pillow to my chest and held it tight.
Faster than I would have expected, I heard the front door open and close meaning Frey had come back and my body tensed.
I didn’t know what to do, what to think.
This world might have elves, animals that could talk to you and trees that had glitter bark but it also had men who could take a life without hesitation and without even the barest hint of remorse.
And my husband was one of them.
Thinking of the Frey who had been mine for the last three days, my only thought was, how could that be? r />
Thinking of the Frey I had first met when I came to this world, I knew the answer.
I felt his presence hit the loft then I felt it hit the bed.
Then I heard his voice come at me softly, “Finnie, you’ve not changed.”
And that was when I felt his light touch pulling my hair off my shoulder.
So that was when I moved, swiftly rolling away from him and gaining my knees, I shuffled back to the end of the bed, pillow still held tight to my chest.
“I don’t… don’t…” I shook my head, “I don’t think I want you touching me, Frey.”
He was on his knees too, but settled back on his heels, and his eyes were on me.
He studied me for a moment before, still speaking softly, he asked, “What’s this, wee one?”
I didn’t delay in replying. “You killed two men tonight.”
He moved as if to come toward me and I shuffled back another foot, my feet clearing the edge of the bed and he stopped so I did too.
“Finnie –”
“You didn’t blink,” I cut him off. “You didn’t… you didn’t…” I shook my head and my throat clogged so I swallowed and whispered, “You didn’t even blink.”
“Wife –”
“No,” I shook my head again, then closed my eyes tight and looked away before opening them and looking back, “No. I… I don’t know what you’ve done to get enemies like that but I can guess, considering you killed them without hesitation and then rode away while their warm blood still melted the snow, and, I can’t say… I can’t even think… I don’t know… I don’t know but I don’t think I want anything to do with a life like that.”
“Finnie, come here,” he ordered, extending an arm to me.
“No,” I shook my head, “no way, Frey. I’m sorry but no freaking way.”
“Finnie, come here,” he repeated and I shook my head. He dropped his hand but held my eyes and said gently, “My winter bride, those weren’t my enemies.”
“And whose were they?” I fired back. “Thad’s?”
“No,” he replied carefully, “yours.”
My mouth dropped open and I felt my eyes get wide.