Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (64 page)

When Frey saw it, his hand cupped the back
of my head again and he pressed my face in his throat and his other
arm held tight for a moment before he let me go, took my hand and
walked me the three feet to Tyr.

I was up on Tyr, Frey behind me and wheeling
his steed around when I asked dreamily, “I wonder if she’ll be an
adventurer like her Mom and Dad.”

Frey moved us into the forest, this time
much slower, the mist having disappeared and I watched the
moonlight glint on the snow as I listened to him chuckle before he
muttered, “If so, gods help me.”

I giggled because he was right about that.
Then I giggled again just because. Then Frey leaned me into Tyr’s
neck, touched his heels to Tyr’s flanks, we shot forward and I
giggled again as I watched the trees stream by and felt Frey’s
command of his beast as they did, the power of the animal under us,
the rider and his mount one and I experienced a late night,
carnival-style ride that was better than any I’d had before.

And although I eventually stopped giggling,
I never stopped smiling.

Not once… all the way home.

Meddling

One week later…

I had a problem.

We were at Frey’s lodge in Kellshorn or,
more accurately, outside the large mountain town that catered to
vacationing skiers and fishermen who came to fish at the vast lake
that Frey’s lodge and the town skirted.

My girls hadn’t been exactly right. The
lodge wasn’t fit for a queen as it was no Winter Palace and
definitely no Rimée Keep.

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t
cool-as-shit.

First of all, it skirted a vast lake and
that would be a
spectacular
vast
lake.

Secondly, the lodge was gorgeous. It was
made of blond wood and stone, it had a lower level built into the
swell of a hill and two upper levels that had wraparound balconies,
the lower one wider, all of them with wooden railings made of flat
planks that had been stamped through along their lengths with the
shape of a pine tree.

Nothing inside or outside of the lodge was
graceful, refined or ornate as with the Palace and the Keep. This
was not a place for stately affairs or official meetings. This was
a place to relax, unwind and be surrounded by nature in all its
immense beauty. It was comfy, cozy, welcoming and warm. There were
lots of windows, lots of open spaces, lots of beautiful, gleaming
wood, lots of gorgeous stone, lots of furniture that invited you to
sink into it and lots of fires that seemed to keep every corner
warm.

There were also lots of bedrooms which was
lucky because all four of my girls came with me.

This meant the journey included sleighs
which made that journey longer (two days rather than the one Frey
told me it would have been if we were able to take the more direct
route). As we travelled, Frey’s men rode around the two sleighs
packed with his, my and the girls’ trunks and, for the first time
since I arrived in that world, I rode
in
a sleigh with Esther and Bess (the first day) and
Jocelyn and Alyssa (the second) because Frey didn’t want me on
Caspia.

This was my problem.

I was pregnant and Frey, as early signs were
indicating, was going to be one of those ultra-careful, concerned,
not exactly hovering but nevertheless protective expectant
fathers.

Case in point, Frey had put his foot down
that, considering my condition, I would not be continuing my
lessons on Caspia and he’d also called a halt to knife work with
Lund.

I gave in on quitting working with Gun and
Caspia. Frey was ecstatic I was pregnant and it had to be said
(after the initial shock) that I was ecstatic too therefore it
would not do for me to take a fall off Caspia and harm myself or
our child.

And, incidentally, when we told Aurora and
Atticus, they were both (even Aurora) beside themselves with
glee.

In other words, all was well in my world and
we didn’t need me to do anything stupid to change that.

But the knife work wasn’t dangerous. Lund
knew what he was doing, he never got close to hurting me and we’d
been working together for so long, I knew he wouldn’t.

And anyway, all that running around,
lunging, twirling and squatting would be a good way to keep fit
while pregnant.

Frey, however, did not see it this way and
also thought I was a little crazy for wishing to keep fit during my
pregnancy, stating, “Part of the beauty of a woman with child is
her curves, wife, and you’ll not deprive me of the ones I bestowed
on you by ‘keeping fit’.”

Yes, this was what he said.

Further, Frey had allowed me to continue
with my bow and arrow but only target practice, not “skulking” (his
word) through the woods aiming at human beings.

We’d argued about all of this, our first
argument in so long, I didn’t remember when we had our last.

I was pregnant, not invalid and this I
shared with my husband.

I was not going to be on a horse, working
with knives or skulking through cold woods and this my husband
shared with me.

My problem was, to practice with Lund and
skulk with Annar, I needed his men and they listened to Frey and
not me.

Therefore, Skylar continued his work with
Frey’s men and I did not (except the bow and arrow but seriously,
it was fun skulking through the woods and it was a lot less fun
standing there and shooting at a stationary target).

This pissed me off and, as I nursed my snit,
it came to me that if Frey was going to be this cautious with me
while I was expecting, then there was no way he was going to let me
find a witch, send a message to Valentine, communicate with her
what was happening and that I had to go home, talk to Sjofn, sort
out my life back home, say good-bye to friends and come back.

No way.

And I had to do this. My return journey was
scheduled to happen in less than six months time. I was guessing I
was maybe a month pregnant, perhaps a bit more. That would mean I’d
be in my third trimester and no way Frey would let me journey back
then and I wasn’t keen to do it then either. But if I didn’t get a
message to Valentine, he wouldn’t have a choice and nor would
I.

So my husband and I needed to have a
discussion.

But I was avoiding that discussion because
although my anger had cooled to worry, Frey’s had disappeared
completely. He was back to my sweet, gentle Frey and held no
grudges (then again, he didn’t need to since he got his way). But
when we were fighting, I found it upset me (tremendously) when he
was angry. We got along so well, fighting with him was no fun, it
didn’t feel good at all in so far as it didn’t even feel right and
I wasn’t all fired up to get in another argument with him then or,
ever, really.

So I needed to find a way to discuss this
with my husband without either of us getting upset
and
with Frey agreeing to let me go
home.

Something I thought would be impossible.

I was thinking of all this as I was
wandering along the upper balcony, taking in the lake, the sea of
pine trees rising up all around, the snow-capped mountains rising
behind the trees, the pretty village of Kellshorn some ways away
and all of this reflected in the calm, clear waters of the lake.
And I was doing this hoping for those calm waters to calm me when I
saw Bess, Alyssa and Esther at the end of the balcony looking down
and whispering to each other.

As I approached, Bess heard me, turned, put
her finger to her lips and then she lifted her hand and waved it
toward herself urgently, her face smiling.

I smiled back and moved toward them, glad to
have something to take me away from my thoughts. When I arrived at
their huddle, I got close to Bess on the end and looked over the
railing to see what held their attention. I scanned the somewhat
cleared area around the house, saw nothing then I caught it.

Thad had Jocelyn pinned against the side of
the stable, her arms were around his shoulders, his hands were at
her ass and they were going at it, hot and heavy.

Whoa.

When did this happen?

“When did this happen?” I whispered to
Bess.

“He took her last night,” Bess whispered
back. “Her room’s next to mine. They were noisy.” After she
imparted this information, she giggled and tried (unsuccessfully)
to stifle it as I heard Alyssa giggle and unsuccessfully try to
stifle hers too.

“I heard it as well so I went to Bess’s room
to listen,” Alyssa whispered like Jocelyn and Thad were five feet
away rather than yards away and my eyes went around them to look at
Esther at the other end who was looking at me and rolling her eyes.
As for me, I couldn’t help it, I was smiling. “He has stamina too,”
Alyssa finished and my smile got bigger.

“
Lots
of it,” Bess added on a huge grin.

I turned my smile on them both before I
teased, “You two need to get yourselves some so you won’t be up in
Jocelyn’s business.”

Alyssa’s eyes wandered to where Max and
Stephan were standing chatting to each other some ways away from
the goings on with Thad and Jocelyn and she said wistfully, “You’re
indeed right about that, Finnie.”

“So right,” Bess added, also wistfully, her
eyes had wandered to where Orion was dismounting from his horse
close to the lake.

I looked around them again to Esther who was
not looking at me, Bess, Alyssa or any of Frey’s hot guys but at
Thad and Jocelyn and I saw her face was thoughtful.

My head tilted to the side before I looked
back at the couple only to see Thad had Jocelyn by the hand and he
was leading her into the stables.

“Someone’s going to get their skirts tossed
up in the hayloft,” Alyssa muttered then giggled again.

Bess giggled with her then stated, eyes
still on Orion, “My turn next,” and she moved away from the balcony
with a quick wave, a big smile and a, “Farewell, ladies.”

Hmm. It seemed Orion was about to get
lucky.

“Not a bad idea,” Alyssa murmured, gave me a
wicked grin and both Esther and I a wave as she also moved away,
saying to me, “Please don’t need anything for, say… a few hours,”
her wicked grin got more wicked when I nodded to her request then
she sashayed down the balcony and disappeared inside.

Now Max or Stephan was going to get
lucky.

Or whichever of Frey’s men Alyssa ran into
first for I didn’t think Alyssa was all that picky. Then again, all
of Frey’s guys were hot
and
nice.

I grinned to myself even as I wondered if
this was all a good idea, for Frey’s men were Frey’s men, my girls
were my girls, it was likely this would always be the way and we
didn’t need a soap opera unfolding around us. I moved to Esther
who, I was thinking as she still looked deep in thought and her
eyes were still directed at the stables, agreed.

“You okay?” I asked when we were close, she
started, her eyes came to me and I watched her force a smile.

“I am fine, Finnie,” she answered.

“You don’t look fine,” I observed, her fake
smile faltered and her eyes slid back to the stables so I got
closer and enquired gently, “Is this going to be bad, you girls
having dalliances with Frey’s men?”

Esther’s eyes came quickly to me, her brows
drawn then her face relaxed and she shook her head. “No. It is
usually fun and games, the heart isn’t involved. Dalliances occur
often and those involved move on with no ill-will, even to friends
of the men or women involved.” She explained this but hesitated,
her eyes drifting back to the stables and she muttered, “But…” and
then she trailed off.

“But what?” I prompted and she looked back
at me.

Then she got closer and took my hand before
saying softly, “But our Jocelyn, she admires The Drakkar’s Thad and
not just because he is a tall, hearty lad with broad shoulders and
pleasing eyes. But because he has a quick wit, an easy smile and,
she’s noted on more than one occasion, a soft heart. And I fear,”
her eyes went back to the stables, “hers is involved but his,” her
eyes came back to me, “is not.”

I bit my lip for this might be true. While
we were in Hawkvale, I wrote to my girls and they wrote to me. Mail
took for freaking ever to get where it was going so there wasn’t a
lot of communication but we’d managed to exchange a few letters and
Jocelyn’s contributions asked after Thad. Her tone was casual but a
forced casual that I thought, at the time, was kind of cute.

Now, thinking about it, all the time my
girls had been amongst Frey’s boys and they switched favorites
nearly daily, Jocelyn’s attention had always been taken by Thad and
never strayed. Thad, on the other hand, I knew, unlike Ruben, did
not have a steady woman and, indeed, like all of Frey’s other men,
had a steady
stream
of
women.

Ho boy.

I let my lip go and squeezed Esther’s hand,
promising, “I’ll have a word with Frey and see if he’ll have a word
with Thad to, um… assess the situation. If he won’t or if he will
and the news is not good, then I’ll have a word with Jocelyn just
to see where she is and give her a little, um… guidance.”

Esther’s eyes went soft and she nodded,
“This would be good, my princess.” I nodded back, she squeezed my
hand, her eyes going intense, she paused as if uncertain and I
waited until she said quietly, “We all, well…” she hesitated. “We
miss Sjofn.”

We hadn’t talked of it but all my girls knew
I was expecting (though they were surprised I was for they said the
powder was usually very reliable) and all of them knew what that
meant which was the fact that their friend wasn’t coming back. And
I knew all of them were sad about this but I also knew they were
all trying to hide it from me.