Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (34 page)

“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 to 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.”

Frey looked down at me. “I understand you’ve
grown close to them, Finnie, and I’m pleased you have but a ship is
no place for a woman.”

“I’ll be there,” I pointed out.

“
And
you’ll
be warming
my
bed in
my
cabin and my men will know this
and will know they will earn my displeasure and how that
displeasure will be communicated if they do not train their
attention to other things when you’re amongst them. Your girls
would be distracting and when we are at sail; my men do not need
distractions.”

“
Actually,” I whispered, leaning in even
closer to him as we walked, “I think that’s why they’re all pouty
that at least one of them doesn’t get to go. Your men have been
around quite a bit and the girls have noticed this…” I hesitated as
Frey stopped us outside the door to our rooms, curled me into his
front and I emphasized, “
a lot.
I think they’re hoping to get lucky.”

Frey’s lips twitched and he asked, “Get
lucky?”

I nodded. “Get laid. Get tagged. Get hit.
Get their skirts tossed up.” I put my hands on his chest, got to my
toes and finished, “
Get lucky.
”

Frey threw his head back and burst out
laughing as his arms came around me and he gave me a big
squeeze.

Then he tipped his head down to look at
me. “Even so, my wee one, my ships aren’t manned by a few men. They
might not want to get
that
lucky and a month or more away, most of that at sea, they
would court that possibility.”

I shook my head and replied, “I don’t
know. Every day each has a new favorite. Yesterday, Bess’s was Max
but she’s switched to Lund today. Orion was Alyssa’s favorite
yesterday but she swears she’s in love with Annar today. We had a
situation yesterday with both Jocelyn
and
Esther carrying a torch for Thad but luckily,
today, Esther has switched to Stephan. Jocelyn is still hooked on
Thad. In fact, if memory serves, she was hooked on Thad the day
before that too.”

Hmm, and she was hooked on Thad the day
before
that
too.

Interesting.

I forced myself to focus on our conversation
and not my possible future matchmaking efforts and finished, “I’m
not certain they’d mind a smorgasbord.”

Frey grinned but asked, “Is Jocelyn the dark
one with the green eyes and the extremely large –”

“Yes,” I cut him off before he could finish
for to say Jocelyn was busty was a serious understatement and to
say Jocelyn didn’t mind displaying these attributes was another
serious understatement.

I watched his grin turn into a wicked
smile.

“
Then, we shall inform Thad of this after
we return so that he can keep his mind on the matters at hand. It’s
safe to say he’s noticed your maid’s rather…” he paused then went
on, “
significant
charms and would not mind making her feel
lucky.”

I leaned deeper into him and whispered,
“Excellent,” then went on to advise, “though, when he makes his
move, you might tell him he should comment on her eyes, not on her
rather…” I paused, “
significant
charms.”

Frey chuckled, gave me a nod and another
squeeze then let me go, turned and opened the door.

We barely got two feet in before all four of
my girls fell on me.

“Finnie!” Alyssa cried. “Where on earth have
you been?”

“
We’re never going to have time for her
hair to dry in order that we can fashion it,” Bess announced in a
dire tone as if this possible occurrence would mark the end of the
world as we knew it. “
Never,
”
she finished on a muted, despairing cry.

“Disrobe! Bath! Immediately!” Esther
snapped. “Before the water gets cold.”

“It already must be cold,” Jocelyn
predicted. “It’s been sitting there half an hour. We’ll have to
order more brought up.”

“
I’ll do it!” Bess cried and then ran,
actually
ran
from the
room.

“Uh… can you gals give me ten minutes with
Frey?” I asked hesitantly for it was clear this request was not
going to go down well and I was right. Esther, Alyssa and Jocelyn
all reared back in horror.

“Ten minutes?” Jocelyn asked on a dismayed
whisper.

“
I know what ‘ten minutes with Frey’
means,” Esther muttered under her breath to Alyssa, “it means
another
entire
afternoon
of bedplay and we’ll
never
have time to get her hair dry to fashion it for the
Gales.”

I couldn’t hold back the quick, shocked
giggle or the heat that hit my cheeks.

“Esther!” I snapped but teasingly, still
feeling the blush.

“
Well, he
is
The Drakkar and he’s barely let you up for air for
five
days!
” Esther returned
and I felt my cheeks get hotter.

“Finally,” Alyssa muttered to Jocelyn and I
heard Frey start chuckling.

Okay, time to put an end to
this.

“Right, well, this isn’t about that, it’s
about something else and I need ten minutes,” I stated then when
all three opened their mouth to speak, I promised quickly, “Just
ten minutes.” I lifted my hand, palm out to them. “You have my
word.”

They all looked at me then they looked at
Frey then they looked back at me.

Then Jocelyn started tugging the other two
out saying, “Ten minutes, Finnie.”

“Make it good,” Alyssa called back as
Jocelyn shoved her out the door. “It’ll have to hold you over until
after the Gales.”

Frey chuckled again and I stared at the door
shaking my head.

Then the door closed and it was just him and
me.

That was when I got shy again so, for some
lame reason, I kept staring at the door.

“Finnie, love, whatever this is, you’ve got
ten minutes,” Frey reminded me, my body jerked and I turned to
him.

His arms were crossed on his chest and his
eyes were on me. His beautiful, gentle green-brown eyes.

Shit.

I sucked in breath.

All right, I did it, what I did wasn’t a bad
thing to do, not by any stretch of the imagination, so I had to get
over this ridiculous shyness and just get on with it.

So I told him, “While you were at the hunt,
Mother and I went into Fyngaard. We went shopping.”

Frey didn’t speak but I could tell by the
look on his face he was wondering why I imparted this not very
interesting news on him for he was a man not to mention a
super-cool action hero Raider who commanded dragons, and his
expression made it clear both types of men, no matter what world
they lived on (not that we had Raiders in my world), didn’t care
about shopping.

I bit my lip, sucked in another breath and
then moved to the wardrobe. Opening a door, I disappeared behind it
and pulled out the big, wooden box I’d put there a few hours
ago.

Then I juggled it as I turned back to him
and closed the door. He was standing where he was before and he was
still watching me. He continued to watch me, his eyes flicking to
the box twice as I moved to the bed, set the box on it and opened
the top.

Then I reached in and whispered, “While we
were there, I bought you something.”

Carefully, I grasped the beautiful, large,
dragon fashioned out of delicate spun glass in brilliant colors of
gold (neck and feet), vermillion (head and body), violet and a deep
sapphire blue that had gold flecks in it (both colors making up the
wings) with the tips of its talons, horns, wings, tail and its eyes
all painted a glossy onyx and I shifted to face him.

Frey had turned his body toward me as I
walked through the room but now he did not move, he did not speak
and his eyes did not leave the delicate piece held out in my hands
for him to see.

When he continued to stare at it, face
expressionless, body unmoving, I rushed to explain, “I, uh… saw it
as we rode into Fyngaard, um… when we came back. It was in the
window of one of the shops. I thought it was beautiful and wanted
to go back and check it out but, uh… when you, um… explained you
are who you are and you can, uh… do what you can do, well…” His
eyes came to mine and I stopped talking when I saw not one thing in
them, nothing, not happiness, not confusion, not an indication he
was humoring his idiot wife, nothing so I whispered, “So, I guess I
thought, you being you, you needed to have this.”

I thought more than that. It was a dragon,
it was beautiful, it was majestic, even in its delicacy it depicted
the fierce power of the beasts, beasts he controlled. And I thought
he needed to own it because, in its beauty and fierce power, it
personified him.