Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (24 page)

“Where did he take you anyway?” Jocelyn
asked. “Rumor had it he was on his ship the very next night, away
on crucial business.”

“Oh gods, I hope he didn’t take you on one
of his ships,” Bess muttered.

My wide eyes moved to Bess.

One
of them?

They finally paused enough for me to speak.
“Uh… he was. Before he left, though, he took me to a hunting cabin,
I think.”

Jocelyn looked to Alyssa. “His hunting
cabin. I told you.”

“
This I cannot believe,” Esther muttered.
“His
hunting
cabin?
”

“
I know!” Bess exclaimed (but her
exclamation was subdued, like she didn’t want anyone to overhear).
“His lodge in Kellshorn is fit for a princess, balls to that, I’ve
heard it’s so grand, it’s fit for
a queen
. Even his chalet in Skarnwyld would be better than his
hunting cabin!” She looked to Jocelyn and noted, “I’ve heard it’s
quite lovely.”

“She’s just lucky he didn’t take her to his
fishing cottage in Tylgould. The smell…” Alyssa’s cute, pert nose
scrunched up.

Jeez, how many houses did Frey own?

“
Tylgould is lovely,” Esther stated. “My
parents took me there as a child. And I hear his cottage is right
on the Winter Sea. The properties right on the sea are very old but
very quaint and
very
exclusive.”

“Yes, but even so… the smell,” Alyssa
repeated as she shook her head.

“Uh –” I tried to cut in and all attention
came back to me including Jocelyn’s hand that curled lightly on my
thigh.

“Please tell us he’s been kind to you,” she
whispered.

“Well…” I started but clearly didn’t speak
quickly enough for Esther spoke.

“Bloody hell, he hasn’t.”

“Well –” I tried again.

“
I knew it,
” Alyssa hissed and looked at Bess. “If he
was away on his ship so quickly that means everyone was wrong. The
Drakkar would never leave a woman in his bed who he wanted to be in
that bed with, balls to crucial business. We should have
done
something.”

“
What could we have done? The queen was in
a state. And when Queen Aurora gets in a state…” Bess trailed off,
saying it all without saying a thing then finished, “We didn’t
have
time
.”

Alyssa’s hand came up and she squeezed my
arm so my head turned to her and she said softly, “I’m so sorry er…
other Sjofn.”

“Finnie,” I urged her to call me on a smile,
“please call me Finnie.”

“Finnie,” she smiled back.

Okay, well, I was definitely going to like
these girls, that I knew right off, but I wished they’d let me
talk.

“Finnie,” Jocelyn said and I turned to her.
“That’s very sweet.”

“Oh we have so much to tell you!” Bess
exclaimed in that restrained way again.

“
Yes, including the fact that Sjofn’s witch
has been here
three times,
”
Esther stated.

I grew tense at this unexpected news and
blinked at her but before I could ask, Alyssa spoke.

“That Agnes, she has something of great
import to tell you,” Alyssa shared and I turned my head to stare at
her.

Great. Just great. I wondered what that was
but I was thinking maybe I didn’t want to know. Who knew what Sjofn
was getting up to in my world?

“But she’ll only tell you,” Bess stated and
my eyes went to her. “Still, it seems rather urgent.”

Ho boy.

“Well! Enough of this!” Jocelyn finally
announced. “It’s clear The Drakkar is in a mood and he and his men
have been travelling a long way. We need to prepare Finnie for
dinner without delay.”

“But –” I started as they scrambled off the
bed, tugging me with them.

“Bath first,” Alyssa mumbled. “Bess, off you
go to see about her trunks. We need to unpack her immediately.”

Bess scurried away without a peep.

“The sky blue satin, I think,” Jocelyn
mumbled as they led me to the wall which I saw had a hidden door,
the doorknob barely noticeable in the wood.

“Ice blue,” Alyssa disagreed. “He called her
his Ice Bride.”

Esther opened the door in front of us and in
we went to another room, this clearly a bathroom slash dressing
room with a fabulous light blue, suede-covered chaise lounge in the
corner, a three paneled screen that had a beautifully stitched
tapestry depicting a snowy-mountain landscape with a cloud-free
sky, three dark wood, carved wardrobes on three different walls, a
table with a gorgeous porcelain basin adorned with delicate blue
flowers, a matching pitcher on a shelf underneath it, a roaring
fire in another beautifully carved, stone mantel fireplace, another
heavily-carved, full-length oval mirror and a big, oval copper tub
in the middle with one side swayed back with a fluffy, ice blue,
cotton-covered pillow tied to holes in the copper where you could
lay your head when you lounged back.

I stared with mouth open, rendered
speechless by the room rather than the girls’ chatter.

Only two syllables described this room:
awe…
some.

“He must be blind or just mad, I cannot
understand why he wouldn’t see our, er… princess’s charms,” Jocelyn
muttered and my attention went back to the conversation.

“
Well, it’s hard to be beautiful in a
hunting cabin, no matter how beautiful you actually are,” Esther
stated in a voice that held an edge of ire. “Especially when you
don’t have your maidservants to assist you. I cannot
believe
he departed without taking us
with her…
wherever
he was
going.”

“Uh… ladies –” I tried.

“
Well, he’ll see her
now
, we’ll be sure of it
and
he won’t be blind any longer,” Alyssa stated
firmly. “And it will definitely be the ice blue,” she told Jocelyn.
“
Not
the sky blue.”

“The sky blue is lovely with her eyes, none
better,” Jocelyn shot back.

“Neither, the winter white with the Valerian
embroidery,” Esther declared.

All right. I needed to get in there.

“Girls!” I said loudly when both Jocelyn and
Alyssa opened their mouths to retort to Esther and all eyes came to
me. “You don’t need to make a match,” I told them. “Frey likes me
just fine.”

They stared at me, Jocelyn even blinked.

Then Alyssa breathed, “What?”

“He did take off on his ship but when he
came back we made a deal and since then, he’s been lovely. We get
along great, I like him, he likes me and, um… things are
progressing very well,” I assured them.

At that,
all
of them blinked and then I braced because they suddenly
rushed me as one.

“Oh Finnie,” Jocelyn breathed, holding onto
my arm hard, “has he bedded you?”

“
By the g
ods,” Alyssa breathed before I could utter a
noise, she was holding onto my other arm, her eyes on Jocelyn, “I
can’t believe this. This is
wonderful
.” Her eager deep blue eyes came to me. “Is he as skilled
as they say?”

“
I know he is,” Esther, standing close to
my front, her hazel eyes dancing. “He took Viola, to his bed. You
remember,” her eyes moved from Jocelyn to Alyssa, “that maid, the
pretty one who serves the princess’s table? She says he kept her
there
three
days,
three
busy
days and when he released her
she did
not
wish to
go.”

Oh my God. Was I hearing them right?

My heart started banging in my chest as my
stomach clenched.

“
I
do
know,” Jocelyn whispered, “
everyone
knows. Her stories of his varied and
vigorous
talents kept me warm many a
night after I heard them.”

Everyone knows?

“Don’t forget his stamina,” Alyssa added on
a wicked grin.

Stamina?

All three giggled.

I tried hard to recover from what felt like
a punch in the stomach.

Frey had fucked a maid?

One from
my house?

For three straight days?

Again, a maid who worked in
my
house?

I mean, what the fuck was that?

“
Gods!” Jocelyn cried suddenly and I
jumped. “Water! Oils!” She grinned at me and gave my arm a squeeze.
“Even though he,” she leaned in, her grin getting wider,
“
likes
our
princess… tonight, we still get to show him the fullness of her
beauty.”

“I’ll see to the water,” Esther stated,
peeling off.

“I’ll go see where Bess is with the state of
the trunks,” Jocelyn mumbled, also peeling off.

“I’ll press the ice blue,” Alyssa muttered,
hurrying to one of the wardrobes.

“Lounge and relax, Finnie,” Jocelyn called
from the door. “We’ll take care of you.” She smiled big. “It’s what
we do.”

I nodded distractedly to her and then
wandered to the lounge, suddenly exhausted and not in a good
way.

And this was because, first, Frey had dumped
me in a hunting cabin when he had an apparently fabulous lodge and
a slightly less fabulous but still lovely chalet where he could
have taken me. Not to mention a quaint cottage on the Winter Sea,
whatever that was.

Second, I could understand this (slightly)
considering he hated Sjofn but he didn’t hate
me
and he still kept me at his hunting cabin where I
cooked for him, kept the place clean and, one day, washed his
bloody clothes, another of my
not
very favorite activities.

Third, I had gone out of my way to dress
nice for my parents and they hadn’t even seen me with my cloak off.
I had no time to make a good impression or
any
impression before Frey ordered their attendance
(
he
ordered a
king and queen
and
they
did his bidding, what was
that
all about) and stalked off with them scurrying to
follow.

And now, we were back at my palace but
Frey prowled away with my father
and
mother without a kind touch, word or even look and my
maidservants were sweet but they were preparing me to eat dinner
with my mother, father and husband at a table that would probably
be served by a girl my husband had fucked with varied and vigorous
talent and, let us not forget,
stamina
for
three
days.

I felt a headache coming on, not a real one,
but a violent one nonetheless, so violent it would keep me in bed
for about three weeks.

Maybe four.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing would
probably incense my mother, who already clearly did not like me and
my father, who I didn’t think liked me a great deal more because
he’d barely said a word to me, few of the ones he’d spoken were
nice and earlier he had barely even looked at me.

I dropped to then I curled up on the lounge
as these things moved through my brain.

Shit.

I tucked my hands under my cheek on the
armrest and watched Alyssa disappear out of the room carrying a
flash of extraordinary ice blue satin, the fullness of it I could
not see.

But it was extraordinary ice blue satin that
likely was an extraordinary ice blue gown that, normally, I would
be in fits of excitement to see.

At that moment I absolutely was not.

I closed my eyes, deciding I needed
Penelope.

I also needed to find out what the witch
named Agnes needed to tell me so pressingly.

And I also needed to figure out why the idea
of Frey sleeping with one of my maids hurt so damned much.

Shit.

Then I decided not to think of why Frey’s
sexual antics hurt and, indeed, not to think about Frey at all.

Instead, I decided to think of a nice hot
bath, donning a probably extraordinary dress and then putting one
foot in front of the other until I could actually get away with
faking a headache, which would be around the time I was again alone
with my husband. And that headache would be so intense, he’d need
to leave me alone in my bed and go the fuck away until I had time
to sort my shit out.

The Drakkar Will Rise

“I do not believe this,” King Atticus
whispered to the night-filled window and Frey Drakkar turned his
eyes from his king’s openly ravaged expression to look at his
queen.

Queen Aurora had her gaze averted from
Drakkar’s shrewd eyes, her expression hidden but what he could see
of her face, it was carefully blank.

Neither reaction to their daughter’s grave
actions was a surprise.

King Atticus didn’t often hide his emotions.
He did not need to. He was king and those around him catered to his
whims.

Queen Aurora was another story.

Atticus turned from the window, his openly
wounded eyes finding Drakkar’s and he whispered, “This is… this is…
this travel to another world… it is… it’s akin to –”

“Treason,” Aurora finished for her husband,
her voice cold, emotionless and Atticus turned to his wife.

“Aurora, my love –”

She cut him off. “I told you, time and
again, Atticus, I
told
you not to
raise our girl as,” she leaned toward her husband,
“
a
boy.
”