Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (30 page)

Hmm. This was unusual. If Queen Aurora
wanted to spend time with me, she sent a servant to tell me she
wished my attendance.

I wondered why she was there and I worried
the reason was not good.

Her eyes came to me and she greeted, “Hello,
my Sjofn.”

I took her in. Her face was blank thus gave
no clues.

Damn. From past experience with her, I did
not know if this was good or bad. She’d been warmer to me but I’d
also learned from my girls that Queen Aurora could be moody, her
expectations were high and those expectations were significantly
elevated when it came to her daughter. Who knew what I could do to
make her minimal warmth disappear and the frost return? It could be
anything.

Therefore, I decided to tread
cautiously.

I closed the door and moved into the room,
replying, “Hello, Mother.”

She stopped scratching Penelope and motioned
with a graceful sweep of her hand to the bed.

“Sit with me, daughter.”

I nodded and went to the bed, sitting on the
side. Penelope opened her eyes slowly, took me in then jumped down,
waddled across the floor, hunkered in preparation to shift her
massive bulk from floor to bed then she jumped up to the bed where
she waddled to me and settled with her booty to the duvet but paws
and chest on my thigh and I started scratching her ruff.

Penelope knew who her Momma was and I knew
this because she purred, “Mrrrr, hullo, Mummy.”

“Hullo, baby,” I whispered to my cat, she
purred louder then I looked to Queen Aurora.

She looked down at Penelope then up at me
and her lips tipped up slightly. It wasn’t the first time I thought
she was a lot like Valentine, except without the edge of creepy and
weird.

“The dressmakers have already arrived with
your gown but I’ve asked them to wait for a few minutes so I could
visit with you,” Mother announced.

I took in a short preparatory breath and
nodded. But I didn’t say anything. I wanted to see what she had to
say.

She didn’t delay and when she spoke it was
soft and almost gentle.

“I needed to discuss with you something that
has been troubling me.”

I tipped my head to the side to encourage
her to go on but spoke no words.

She took this in and continued, “I cannot
imagine, Sjofn, that you would think it escapes me or your Father
that there seems to be…” she hesitated, studying me closely,
“
distance
between
you and The Drakkar.”

Ho boy.

I was afraid it was something like this. And
I was afraid something like this was something that would herald
the return of the frost.

I bit my lip and nodded my head slightly to
agree with her observation without saying anything and thus giving
anything away.

She read my agreement and took in a slight,
delicate breath.

Then she said, “This troubles me for it
seems very…” she hesitated, “
odd.
Especially coming so close on the heels of your return, a
return upon which, immediately, The Drakkar demanded your Father
and my attendance to inform us that he was infinitely disturbed at
the attempt on your life and we were to do everything in our power
to keep you safe. Something,” she rushed slightly to say, “we would
do, obviously, since you are our beloved Sjofn.”

I kept my eyes firm on her and didn’t speak
mostly because I didn’t know what to say nor did I know what to
feel at what she’d said about Frey.

I didn’t need to say anything. Queen Aurora
was not near done.

“This disturbed him, as I am guessing with
your detachment from your new husband you may not understand,
because in the short time you were with him, he made it very clear
that he’d come to care about you.”

I felt my heart clench at the same time my
breath started escalating.

She kept talking. “It would seem, the way
he spoke of you, he’d come to do this deeply. Perhaps,” she paused
and continued to study me, “even more deeply than he understands.
Definitely,” another pause, “more deeply than it would
appear
you
understand.”

I kept silent and this was mainly because
I’d started semi-panting and I was thinking I might be in the early
stages of cardiac arrest.

“He called you sweet,” she whispered, her
eyes intense on my face which I knew had grown pale at these words,
words I liked, words that meant the world to me. “He said you had a
strong spirit. He said everything you say, he finds interesting. He
told us he enjoys your humor and your smiles.”

I swallowed, shocked these words could
even come out of Frey’s mouth, even if he
did
feel that way, as well as stunned and experiencing
the weird sensation of being both heartbroken and immensely pleased
that he actually did. Then, as all this hit me, I pressed my lips
together as my throat started to clog.

Mother kept going. “And he shared with us
that he had vowed to you to keep you safe from harm and while doing
this, he told us if anything were to befall you, he would unleash
the dragons as vengeance.”

I blinked, not in confusion, but in total
shock.

Queen Aurora didn’t miss it, as I was
guessing she didn’t miss much, and she nodded.

“
Yes, my dear, that is what he said. The
Drakkar promised to unleash the dragons, beasts that have not flown
across this land for well over a millennia. Beasts that could cause
damage and havoc the likes of which cannot be borne. Beasts that
are not called upon except to defend our frost-covered land or to
utilize their awesome power as service to our people. Your husband
made it clear that
we
were to make
it clear to anyone who would listen that if anything were to harm
you, he would call upon his beasts to wreak vengeance. And this, my
daughter, is not an idle threat to make. This, Sjofn, is
extraordinary.”

Oh my God.

Oh my
God.

I said nothing and she moved, uncrossing her
legs and shifting to the edge of her seat, she leaned forward,
elbows to knees in a casual pose the like I’d never seen her
adopt.

And then she kept going. “It is my duty as
queen of this land and to service my husband who rules it, but also
to be a good wife, to stay quiet, listen and
observe,
” she said softly then even more softly,
she got to the meat of the matter by saying, “I know of
Viola.”

I sucked in an audible breath and she
nodded.

“I know of her, Sjofn, and I saw your face
when The Drakkar ordered she attend the table.”

I couldn’t stop myself from closing my
eyes and looking away in an effort to hide what her words were
making me feel
and
the
intensity of it.

I opened my eyes and looked back at her when
I heard her shift and then I watched her move to stand in front of
me, looking down.

“My dear Sjofn,” she whispered, “we women
carry many burdens. This is one of them, I’m afraid.”

Then I held my breath as she lifted her hand
and tenderly cupped my cheek before she continued.

“
I, too, had an arranged marriage and I,
too, struggled in the beginning to build my relationship and earn
the love of your Father. I was enamored with him on sight, he was
the most beautiful man I ever beheld but he was also so full of
life, so full of humor, it was immensely appealing,” she unusually
shared these juicy morsels and I felt my eyes sting with tears as
she went on. “But he was king and could do as he would. That said,
even though I understood, his dalliances wounded me and they did so
deeply.” She leaned slightly closer and kept whispering. “And thus,
my Winter Princess, I learned to do all I could to make it so he
would not need such encounters. I did this instead of making it
clear they offended me, something your Father disliked.” She leaned
back and smiled a smile that almost, but not quite, reached her
eyes. “However, he did
not
dislike my efforts to make him no longer seek these
relations and,” she paused, her hand shifting to my jaw, her thumb
then sweeping my cheekbone, her smile finally reaching her eyes,
“he
still
doesn’t.”

I stared up at her silent but I felt my lips
twitch.

Apparently, Father got it regular.

“Do you understand me, my darling girl?” she
asked softly.

I nodded. I understood her. Totally.

Her face went soft and she murmured,
“Good.”

Then she dropped her hand and moved to the
door while I turned to watch, her sweet, soft touch still tingling
on my skin, her smiling eyes burned on my brain.

She stopped at the door and looked at me.
“The dressmakers have left the undergarments they have made for you
to wear under your Gales gown in your dressing chamber. You may don
them now in preparation for the fitting. I will find one of your
maidservants to bring the dressmakers to you so you can be done
with this chore and get on with whatever other…” she paused with
meaning, “
pressing matters
you intend to see to today.”

Not exactly a subtle hint so it wasn’t lost
on me.

It was time to seek out The Drakkar.

Shit.

She waited and she did this with obvious
expectation.

So I gave her what she expected.

“Okay, Mother,” I whispered.

She lifted her chin majestically and I
decided I had to practice that. The way she did it was way
cool.

Then she moved gracefully through the door
like she floated on air rather than walked on rug-covered wood and
she was gone.

She Missed You

I stood in my dressing room wearing a pair
of skintight, delicate, black silk undies that had an abundance of
exquisite lace at the seat of my ass, a black satin, boned corset
that tied up the front with a blood red ribbon that pushed up my
breasts and a red silk, loose-fitting, camisole-type thing under it
that had a short, dense, lace ruffle around the edge, a black
ribbon that drew it tight against my flesh and showed serious
cleavage.

I had one foot on the lounge because I was
connecting the second of a pair of the silkiest, flimsiest,
most
divine
black
silk stockings to the back garter that ran from the corset over my
booty to the hose.

And I was thinking that the underwear in
this world rocked in a big way because not only was all this hot,
it was also impossibly comfortable and those silk stockings, even
in a parallel universe nowhere near as advanced as mine, were the
most extraordinary pieces of hosiery I’d ever touched.

And I was also thinking that any man,
especially one who commanded dragons, would dig this underwear.

In a big freaking way.

Yes, that was exactly what I was thinking at
the same time wondering how in the hell to find that man and then
find the words to apologize to him in order to sort our shit out
(and I was thinking the underwear might be useful) when the door
opened.

“Hey,” I started to say, turning my head to
who I expected to be one of my girls leading in the two dressmakers
but instead seeing Frey standing statue-still, hand still on the
door handle, eyes aimed at my ass.

I went statue-still too and took him in.

Okay, it was safe to say from the look on
his face he
definitely
liked
the underwear.

And it was also safe to say from the panic
that seized my innards that I was
definitely
not ready for him to see me in it.

This was why I put my foot down, whirled and
ran across the room to the screen that had my robe thrown over
it.

I got there. I even got my hand on the robe.
But the silk was soon gone from my hand because Frey got there with
me and he jerked it right out of my grasp.

Ho boy.

I turned to face him, eyes wide, breaths
coming fast like I’d run a two hundred yard dash and not across a
room, my mind reeling for the right words to say to sort our shit
out but with one look in his eyes, both heated and enraged, not one
word came to mind.

“I think,” he growled, “don’t you, that at
the very least I’m entitled to see the woman who is supposed to be
my wife without cover.”

I stared up at him, close to panting.

Yep, definitely enraged.

That was when I did the smartest thing I
could do.

I retreated.

Quickly.

And Frey advanced just as quickly, invading
my space with every backward step I made until I slammed against
the wall and he pushed right in, hips to my belly, he pinned me to
the wall.

Oh shit
.

I had to arch my back to tip my head to look
at him which pressed my belly into his hips.

Shit!

“Frey –” I started and his name was
breathless but I stopped saying whatever it was that was going to
come out of my mouth when I heard gasps from across the room.

And I knew the dressmakers had arrived and
I knew Frey heard them too but he didn’t release my eyes and I
couldn’t look away as he barked an obviously impatient and equally
infuriated, “
Out!
”

My body jerked with the noise.

Oh shit, shit,
shit!

The door closed.

Shit.

“Frey –”

He cut me off this time by saying, “I’ve
come to inform you,” he paused, his eyes moved to my rising and
falling chest then back to my face, “
wife,
” he spat and my stomach clenched, “that I’m away in an
hour. Business. I’ll be gone at least a month, likely
longer.”