I grinned back then stated, “You know, I should be pissed at you for keeping it from me.”
His grin turned to a smile, his arm curving around me and holding tight, he stated back, “I know.”
I started laughing softly and informed him, “It’s good you’re hot, Frey Drakkar, and good in bed and command elves and dragons or you’d seriously be in trouble.”
He kept smiling but his brows drew together. “Hot?”
I nodded. “Hot. Handsome, good-looking, pleasing to the eye,” I leaned into him, “hot.”
He tipped his chin back and laughed then, still laughing, rolled me to my back, his arm around my belly tucking my side into his front, he looked down at me and quit laughing.
“And it is good you are beautiful, Finnie Drakkar, or you would have a very pink arse for risking such a venture.”
I blinked at him.
Finnie Drakkar.
Shit, but that had a nice ring to it.
Then all his words hit me and I felt my brows draw together. “A pink arse for risking such a venture?”
He nodded and his face again grew serious. “This…” he hesitated, “travel to another world. It was foolhardy.”
What?
“What?” I asked.
“You had no idea what you would encounter and I know when you arrived, wife. I know you encountered a situation that was beyond your means to control it. As you know, I do not care for the other you.”
Boy, I knew that.
Frey kept talking. “I do not like to think of how I behaved with you, thinking you were her.” His face grew darker when he stated, “And I do not like to think of what could go wrong with this magic, where you could have been sent, what could have befallen you. It was reckless, my wee one, and you should not have done it.”
I stared up at him.
He was worried about me.
That was sweet and hot.
I didn’t tell him that. Instead I pointed out, “Frey, honey, I’m a princess, I live in a freaking palace, my Mom and Dad are king and queen and I’m married to a hot guy who is the rightful ruler of the land and commands elves and dragons. I totally did all right.”
“This is pure chance,” he stated firmly and I smiled.
“Adventure always is,” I pushed against him, taking him to his back, resting my torso on his, I dipped my face close as I wrapped my fingers around the side of his neck. Then I said quietly, “That’s the best part, baby.”
“Fin –” he started but I lifted my hand, touched my fingers to his mouth and got serious.
“My Mom and Dad, my real ones, back home,” I watched his eyes grow intense, which I thought was weird but I kept talking, “they lived every minute like it was their last.” I slid my fingers across his cheek and down to his jaw before I whispered, “And this was good for their lives didn’t last long. They left me behind, Frey, and I miss them. But I like knowing they packed as much as they could get in before they left me. And before they left me, they taught me not just to exist, not just to breathe in and breathe out, but to live. And I like knowing they’re smiling, wherever they are, knowing that I listened and learned and I’m living my life like they taught me how. Making every single breath I take count.”
He held my eyes even as he lifted a hand, sifted it into the hair behind my ear then glided it down through my hair to hold it bunched at the side of my neck.
“I would like to know about them, Finnie,” he said softly.
“And I’ll enjoy telling you about them, Frey,” I replied softly.
His thumb stroked my throat, his gaze still locked with mine and he muttered, “By the gods, you suit me, this craving for life, your thirst for venture.”
I grinned at him because I liked that he thought that, I liked it a lot.
“Can I tell you something?” I asked.
“Anything, wee one,” he answered.
I moved closer and had no idea my eyes got bright and my cheeks turned pink with excitement before I whispered breathlessly, “I cannot wait to get on your ship.”
He held my eyes for a second before his roamed my face. Then both his arms locked around me and held me tight as he burst out laughing.
I watched him laugh and I liked that too.
I liked it a lot.
When he finished laughing I tilted my head to the side and again had no idea my eyes were bright and my cheeks were pink with excitement when I asked, “Wanna hear about my world?”
His big hand cupped my jaw and he answered, “Absolutely. But go, wife, and get our food. You can talk while we eat.”
I grinned at him and whispered, “Right.”
Then I dropped my mouth to his, kissed him lightly and scurried off the bed. I quickly closed the curtain to shut out the draft, rushed across the room and grabbed the tray that had been set on a dresser and took it to bed.
Then I climbed in bed with my husband, ate dinner and shared my world with him.
* * * * *
“Finnie?” Frey called into the darkness.
“Mm?” I mumbled sleepily, about five seconds away from slumberland.
“You’re too tense with your bow.”
My eyes opened.
“What?” I whispered.
“You’re too tense with your bow,” he repeated. “You’re concentrating too much. You’re letting your brain muddle your aim. You desire so badly to do well, your entire body is locking just prior to release, this jerks your aim off.”
Oh my God. He’d been watching me at archery. When I thought he’d been keeping his distance, Frey had been watching, apparently closely.
I said nothing but my heart again swelled.
Frey spoke again. “If you relax, concentrate on your target, what your arms are doing, your fingers, your shoulders, your spine, focus instead on your body, your bow, the arrow, your target and not on what Atticus will think, you will see improvement.”
Oh my God.
He knew what I was thinking, what I wanted, why I was out there with Father.
He knew what was in my heart.
I remained quiet.
His arm gave me a squeeze.
“Do not worry, wee one,” he whispered. “Atticus will like you, whether your arrow can find the target or not. He won’t be able to help it.”
I closed my eyes as his words rushed through me and with them my Mother’s from earlier that day, not only her giving them but how she gave them, what that said about her, how she felt about me and last, but by no means least, what they said about how Frey felt about me.
Tension I didn’t know I’d been holding in my shoulders and neck released, I snuggled closer to Frey and tensed my arm around him.
Then I whispered, “Okay.”
His fingers slid up my side and curled in.
“Okay,” he whispered back.
My body melted into the warm hardness of Frey’s and seconds later, I was asleep.
Chapter Seventeen
Anything So Exquisite
Four days later…
I burst out of the house and ran down the stone steps as the mass of riders, led by Frey and King Atticus, charged into the clearing in front of the Palace.
Frey swung Tyr around and reined him in as I got close and I put my hands on his thigh, tipping my head way back to look up at him.
“Did you win?” I asked with a smile and he smiled down at me.
Then he leaned far down to the side in his saddle, his hand hooking me at the back of my neck and pulling me up to my toes so our faces were close.
“You don’t win a hunt, wife,” he said quietly. “The only way to lose is if you don’t bag a deer or at least a hare.”
“Okay then,” I replied, “did you bag at least a hare?”
“Four,” he stated, “and three deer.”
I scrunched my nose.
Frey took in my face and his smile got bigger before he asked, “Why is it you burst forth from the Palace with excitement for news about the hunt and now you look as if I
told you I scored through a village cutting down every breathing being with my sword?”
I didn’t “burst forth from the Palace” because I wanted news of the hunt. I burst forth from the Palace because my hot guy husband rode up to the Palace on his beautiful steed looking… well, hot. And he’d been gone since the wee hours of the morning. And therefore I “burst forth from the Palace” because I was excited to see him.
I did not tell him this.
Instead I explained, “Because before, I thought it was a competition you could win. And now it’s just a bunch of guys going out and killing things. Competition is exciting. Killing things just to kill things…” I shook my head and finished, “not so much.”
Frey kept smiling as he bent even further then touched his mouth to mine before he ordered softly, “Step back, wee wife, so I can dismount.”
He let me go and I stepped back to see Father moving toward us so I turned to him and smiled.
“How did you do?” I asked.
“Not as well as The Drakkar, a hare and two deer,” he answered, arriving at me while speaking through a returned smile and bending in to kiss my cheek after he spoke. When he straightened, Frey was there and Atticus looked to my husband. “As usual, not anyone did as well as The Drakkar.”
I turned to look up at Frey. “So you did win.”
Frey looked down at me, eyes smiling. “If it pleases you, my princess, you can think of it this way.”
“Okay, I’ll think of it this way,” I decided, Frey’s mouth twitched and his eyes went to Atticus who was noting, “Plenty of fresh meat for the feast tonight.”
I made a gaggy face that Frey caught and I knew this because he burst out laughing. It also made him hook an arm around my shoulders and pull me into his side. And last, and best, it made him kiss the top of my hair after he quit laughing.
When he was done kissing me, I tipped my head back to see he was looking down at me.
When he caught my eyes, he stated, “You eat pork.”
I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
“Yes,” I confirmed, “but –”
Frey cut me off. “And beef.”
“Yes, husband, but –”
“And chicken, pheasant and lamb,” he went on.
“I don’t eat lamb,” I protested.
“Of course, I forgot,” Frey looked at Father and informed him. “Finnie doesn’t eat baby animals. It’s a rule.”
This was a rule and this rule Frey learned when our trays were brought up two nights ago so we could (again) eat in bed. Lamb was served and I pitched a mini-fit and, like I was a real princess, sent it back. Frey thought this was hilarious during my fit and after it when I explained my reasons for having said fit. I knew he thought this was hilarious because first, he laughed about it a lot at the time, second, he laughed about it a lot afterward whenever he remembered it and last, because he teased me about it frequently.
He could think it was hilariously funny and tease me about it. I still was not eating baby animals. No way.
I looked at Father, nodded and affirmed, “Totally.”
Father grinned at me and Frey looked back down at me. “You do know where all that comes from, Finnie.”
“Of course, I just don’t wish to discuss it or think of my husband and father riding off into the forest and hunting it down,” I returned then continued, “And, by the way, along with baby animals, I don’t eat hare nor do I eat venison.”
Actually, to be honest, I didn’t know exactly what a hare was except that it looked like a rabbit and there was no way in hell I was eating a rabbit.
I was an adventurer but you had to draw the line somewhere.
“You’ll eat it tonight,” Father put in, “for there’ll be a great deal of it and I promise you, daughter, you’ll think it’s delicious.”
“I think I’ll stick with the canapés,” I replied, Father’s head tilted to the side in confusion and Frey gave me a squeeze which meant they had no clue what I was talking about. “Hors d’oeuvres?” I tried, Father’s brows drew together and Frey started chuckling. “Finger food. Like vol-au-vents, miniature quiches, meatballs on toothpicks and such,” I explained.
Father closed in our huddle and he said quietly, “I think, my other world daughter, we do not have the same foods.”
By the way, Father and Mother, I now knew, had been told by Frey who I was and where I’d come from. This had made things better for it meant I could be me around both of them. I was obviously way better at being me and that seemed to be working, especially with Father.
Still, I went out with him every day (except today, since he was with the hunt) and practiced with my bow and arrow. And Frey was right; I was worrying too much about disappointing Atticus. Once I started to focus on what I was doing, and not on making Father happy (not to mention, doing that every day, my arms and shoulders were getting stronger and thus I gained more control), I got loads better. I wasn’t hitting bulls-eyes but the last two days I was out, not one arrow went astray and some of them actually hit the circles in the target.
Father was pleased with my progress and so was I.
“We’ll see,” I whispered back, “we probably just don’t call them the same things.”
“Probably not,” Father stated then looked beyond me and smiled so I turned to see Mother approaching, also wearing a slight (as was her way) smile.
“And how did you do, my husband?” she asked on arrival and after leaning up to give him a kiss and when she did, I sighed and pressed into Frey’s side as his arm tightened around me.
“A hare and two deer,” Atticus replied.
“It’s good to know, even if we didn’t have royal game hunters, my husband could provide meat for our table,” she returned softly, Father grinned proudly and then she turned to me and her face grew serious.
“I’m relatively certain, my Finnie, that you should be at your bath,” she stated bizarrely and I blinked at her.
“I should?” I asked.
“The Gales ball commences in four hours,” she informed me of something I knew.
Therefore I told her I knew.
“I know, but it won’t take four hours to get ready.”
Her lips tipped up before she returned, “Dear, trust me, your maidservants are upstairs fretting that you’ve spent the last half hour pacing the windows while looking out, anticipating your husband’s return and now you’re out here with your husband and didn’t, upon his safe return, retire to your rooms to begin preparations where your maids expected you to be at least an hour ago.”
I felt Frey’s arm tense around my shoulders, indicating he now knew the reason I “burst forth from the Palace” but I ignored that because I was busy blinking again.
Then I asked, “Seriously?”
She nodded firmly, “Seriously, my daughter.”
Wow. Five hours to prepare for a ball? Jeez, I wondered what would take so long.
Looking at my mother, I decided I’d better find out and probably not do that by wasting time with asking.
“I’ll go up right away,” I told her.
“This would be wise,” she replied, her eyes getting soft as I’d noticed they had been doing a lot more these last four days.
I had to say, I liked that.
Then I thought of our morning in town, why I asked her to go with me and what was waiting upstairs. Therefore, I pressed my lips together and bugged my eyes out at her. She nodded her head slightly toward the house then just as slightly jerked out her chin in the same direction just in case I didn’t catch her first hint. I bit my lip nervously. Her eyes narrowed on my mouth then she again jerked her chin to the Palace and blinked meaningfully.
I took her meaning and that was when I tipped my head back to look at Frey.
“Can you come up with me? Just for a minute,” I asked shyly.
And I didn’t know why I was being shy. It was silly. He was, of course, my husband. I did, of course, know him in a biblical sense. I had been getting t
o know him very, very well in that biblical sense for the last five days, in other words, outside of archery, eating, sleeping and afternoon dancing lessons with the girls (for there were a number of dances they danced at the Gales and Princess Sjofn knew them all and I, of course, did not so I had to learn them tout suite), that was pretty much all I’d been doing. Not to mention, I’d spent a great deal of time with him. Why I was shy now, I had no clue.
But I was.
And Frey, being Frey, and missing less than Mother did (which was to say, not very much), caught it.
And therefore Frey, being Frey, gave me a squeeze and murmured gently, “Of course, my wee Finnie.”
I smiled at him then we exchanged farewells with my parents and he led me up the steps to the Palace.
We were inside and heading to the stairwell when his arm, still around my shoulders, curled me closer into him.
“Is everything all right, wee one?” he asked.
I nodded, my eyes on my feet.
“You’ve had your maids pack your trunks?” he went on and I nodded again.
We were leaving tomorrow to go to his ship.
I was looking forward to wearing my fabulous dress that night. I was looking forward to seeing what everyone else would be wearing. I was looking forward to finding out what we’d be eating (though, if it was only hare and venison, I was planning another mini-princess-fit). And I was looking forward to trying out my newly learned dance moves.
But most of all, I was looking forward to going with Frey tomorrow and finally seeing his ship then being on it and then being with him and out at sea.
And I was looking forward to that a lot.
“They’re packed, they were loaded on the sleigh two hours ago and they’re on their way to Sudvic,” I told him.
“Excellent,” he muttered, guiding me up the stairs.
“Um… if we get to our rooms and the girls are there, just to give you a head’s up,” I warned, looking up at his profile, “they’re not really happy you won’t let me have at least one of them along when we set sail.”