Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (50 page)

“I remember,” I rasped softly on a returned
smile, thinking I quite liked Broderick. He seemed very sweet.

Baldur puffed his chest up and ignored our
exchange. “Well then, seeing your proximity to our shore, you were
here two days, you should have sent a missive. It is, as you well
know, my due as king.”

“My apologies, your grace, and I hope you
don’t find it offensive when I remind you we did not expect to be
at your shore this long and I was dealing with a headstrong, unwell
bride. My attention was taken by her, not sending a meaningless
message, the effort of which would be a ridiculous waste of time
for one of my men,” Frey returned.

“
See here,” Baldur said quietly, now
his
voice was rumbling, “I’ll
remind you again whose soil your boots rest on.”

“
And I’ll remind you that my wife is
clearly not well and the curiosity and mistrust, the latter of
which is unearned, I will add,” Frey impressively lied through his
teeth, “that were the true reasons you are here with tents
and
thrones
,” he
said this with disgust, “has delayed me on the errand of seeing to
her health.”

“Careful, Drakkar, you don’t have leave to
speak to this king the way you do my brother. The elves don’t leave
the snow and you can’t call the dragons from this far,” Baldur
retorted.

“Care to test that?” Frey returned.

Ho boy.

Time to intervene.

Pronto.

“Oh dear,” I whispered on my rasp and lifted
a hand to my head, turning in the circle of Frey’s arm toward
Sjofn’s uncle. “Do you, in all these tents, have someplace I can
lie down, uncle? I’m feeling lightheaded.”

At my words, I was instantly swept up in
Frey’s arms and held close to his chest.

“You’ll rest in our cabin,” Frey gritted
then his eyes snapped to Baldur. “If I may have your leave to see
to my wife?”

“
Of course,” Broderick answered for his
father. “And to save you the trouble, I’ll send to my personal
physician for some medicine. It may take until morning but we’ll
message you the moment it arrives so you can send a boat to
retrieve it. That way, you can attend your…” he hesitated, his eyes
came to me and they were warm because he clearly mistook the reason
Frey had used the name he called me, and liked it, before he
finished, “
Finnie.
”

“My thanks, Broderick, but do not go to that
trouble. We’ll be on our way,” Frey stated, jerked his head at
Baldur, turned on his boot and stalked out of the tent.

For my part, I’d wrapped my arms around
Frey’s shoulders and I looked over the right one and smiled regally
(I hoped) at father and son, seeing the king looked fit to be tied
but Broderick was smiling so big he looked like he was trying hard
not to laugh.

Yeah, I definitely liked Broderick.

Then I saw them no more as we were out of
the tent, I was on a horse, Frey swung up behind me, leaned into
me, dug his heels into the horse’s flanks and barked,
“
Yah!
” and we
were galloping away.

After a few minutes, I felt it was safe to
speak.

So I did, starting with, “Frey –”

I was wrong about it being safe to
speak.

I knew this when Frey growled, “Quiet,
Finnie, we’ll wait until I have you
and
Kell sitting down so you can explain to me which one of you
had the spectacularly
stupid
idea to go it alone with minimal guard, only two of whom
are trained, and without
me
, to
attend a man who might want you dead.”

Ho boy.

I got quiet as ordered, thinking it was my
best bet at that juncture and watched the sea, Frey’s beautiful
galleon drifting on it with the sun setting behind it, coming
closer.

Marriage Is Marriage

“Please tell me you’re not back early ‘cause
that sorry excuse for a king set up his throne in a bloody tent of
all places.”

Kell chose this perhaps not very wise opener
to our conversation as he strode into Frey’s cabin looking more
than his usual grumpy.

We were all around the table, Frey seated at
the head by his desk, me to his left, Thad to his right and Orion,
Max, Lund, Oleg, Annar, Gunner and Stephan rounded out the mix with
Oleg standing behind the empty chair at the foot, beefy legs
planted apart, arms crossed on his chest. Orion and Stephan were
also standing because we didn’t have enough chairs and I made a
mental note to visit the galleon furniture store the next time I
was in Sudvic.

Skylar was squeezing between the big men
setting trays of cheese, meat, crackers and pickles on the table.
He’d already seen to making sure all the men had horns of ale, save
Frey, who’d ordered and received a glass and a bottle of whisky
from which he partook immediately and I did not think this boded as
a good sign.

As was apparent since refreshments had been
readied and served by an eleven year old boy, Kell took his time
showing up at our party which made me, as the seconds ticked to
minutes then those minutes ticked to more minutes (and not a few of
them), very uncomfortable. The men didn’t seem to mind it although
they kept their silence as Frey’s seething anger filled the
space.

“We are not, old man, we’re back early
because Broderick and Phobin were both with Baldur we discovered
Phobin is not nearly as clever as he thinks. We arrived, surveyed
the situation and were in and out in a day,” Frey returned.

Kell’s brows shot up as he planted his ass
in a chair and immediately reached for a hunk of cheese.

“You get the branch?” he asked.

“Yes,” Frey bit off, my heart jumped and I
turned to look at him.

“You did?” I breathed.

Frey’s angry eyes sliced to me, I pressed my
lips together and he growled, “We did.”

I decided, considering his expression, now
was not the time to jump up and give him a sloppy kiss in an effort
to reward him for succeeding in a quest where others, for
centuries, had failed.

“So, we’re celebratin’,” Kell stated then
looked to Skylar. “Boy, get me a horn.”

“Kell, we are not celebrating,” Frey ground
out, his infuriated eyes locked on his friend then he stated
angrily, “By the gods, you walked my wife into the tent of a man
who may be plotting her murder.”

Kell sat back and agreed, “Yup.” Then he
popped the hunk of cheese into his mouth.

Ho boy.

The fury rolling off Frey increased about
seven levels. I felt it, fancied its heat burned my skin, bit my
lip and avoided looking at him.

“Gun, Steph, would you like to explain why
you not only didn’t stop this venture but participated in it?” Frey
asked, obviously giving up on Kell, and I watched Gunner look at
Stephan and Stephan looked at Gunner then they both looked to
Frey.

“You left Kell in charge, Frey, and you were
pretty clear about that,” Gunner answered.

“Indeed. And this will be a mistake I do not
make again,” Frey stated low and I watched Kell roll his eyes but,
other than that, he didn’t seem too upset.

There was more silence, more fury waves from
Frey and then Frey called, “Wife.”

Ho boy.

I gave Kell a raised-brow look indicating I
could use his assistance. Kell’s response was to grab another hunk
of cheese and pop it into his mouth. My look became a death glare
when I realized Kell was throwing me right under the bus then I
sucked in breath, rearranged my features and turned to my
husband.

When he had my eyes, he asked in a soft
voice that was not his gentle soft but an altogether different kind
of soft, “Would you like to tell me, when I believe while you were
trembling in my arms after seeing three men die, that I informed
you specifically your uncle is a threat, why you would board a
boat, sit in it while it was rowed ashore and attend a man who, it
is highly likely whether he’s acted on it or not, wishes you
dead?”

Actually, no I wouldn’t like to tell him
though I didn’t think I had a choice.

“Um…” I started, Frey’s eyes narrowed and I
clamped my mouth shut.

Then he clipped, “Finnie, you saw a woman
spewing blood and that woman was supposed to be
you.
”

I got my wits together and began, “I know,
Frey, but –”

“You had entirely no idea what you would be
walking into when you walked into that tent,” Frey cut me off to
say.

“Listen, I –”

Frey interrupted me again and I could tell
by his eyes, his tone and the way he held his body that he was
getting angrier and I didn’t need our afternoon with the adela cup
to read it.

“
I could have come back with a bloody
branch to find myself without a bloody
wife.
”

I leaned toward him and said, “Frey, listen
–” but I was cut off again.

This time by Kell.

“Got a sharp wit, that one,” he stated and
Frey’s eyes cut to him so mine did too. “We were in a bad position
Frey, you off doin’ what you were doin’, Baldur suspicious. Got
nerve, your woman does,” he jerked a head my way, “got smarts too.
Was her idea to fake bein’ sick and how she did it. We’d already
used that ploy to call ‘em off, they weren’t fallin’ for it but her
act was so good, man, even I thought our lie was true. And the way
she faked bein’ sick meant she didn’t have to talk much so I could
do the talkin’ for her, which helped hide who she is. In the end,
she made a show of takin’ pains in payin’ her respect to a man who
don’t deserve it but sure as hell demands it and he came off
lookin’ like an arse. Quite a play, all ‘n’ all and worked out
fine. So calm, man, pull up anchor and let’s get outta here.”

I thought this was an excellent suggestion,
not to mention I was pleased that I’d impressed Kell.

Frey did not agree.

“It worked out well by pure chance,” he
growled and when I turned to him and opened my mouth to speak, his
eyes cut to me and he kept growling. “And don’t, Finnie, don’t you
tell me it was a risk worth taking. Three times,” he held up three
fingers, “fortune has smiled at you and, wife, if you keep riding
that particular blade of luck, you’re going to get sliced wide
open.”

Eek!

All righty, clearly it was time to soothe
the pissed off Raider.

“Honey,” I whispered, hoping my tone would
calm him, “what did you expect us to do?”

“
Not bloody walk into a tent with only two
trained guards when Baldur had twenty-four and sit down for a
bloody
chat,
” Frey
returned, not soothed even a little bit by my soft tone.

Hmm.

Unfortunately, it seemed I was getting
mad.

“We needed to buy time,” I informed him.

“As it works out, love, you didn’t,” he
informed me.

“Well we didn’t know that!” I shot back.

“You waited an hour, you would,” he
retorted.

I glared at him and then scooted my chair
around to face him.

“
Listen, Frey, we were in a situation. They
weren’t falling in with our efforts to stall. And you were out
there,” I swung out an arm, “doing something
I
didn’t want
you
to
get caught doing. We thought you wouldn’t return for days, not
hours and, for God’s sake, I couldn’t huddle in your cabin biting
my nails and hoping for a miracle rescue!”

“Finnie –” he started but I talked over him,
leaning toward him to do it.

“
You know, marriage is marriage, a
partnership. You aren’t the only one who needs to step up and keep
one of us safe. It’s my job as your
wife
to do the same if a time comes when I have to and it’s my
job to do it however that might need to come about. We were exposed
and I didn’t want
you
to be
exposed so I did what I did in an effort to keep you safe. It was
dangerous, yes, I’ll grant that. But we had
no choice.
”

“Fin –” he tried to get my name out but I
kept right on going.

“
You’re angry because I was in
danger,
again,
well, you
were in danger too! You rode right up to those tents and came
charging in to keep me safe. What? I don’t get to do what I have to
do to return the favor?”

“Love –” Frey began but yep, I kept right on
talking.

“I get you’re angry because it was dangerous
and you’re concerned. I’m sorry about that. But I’ll tell you this,
given the chance, I’d do it again, no joke. I’d do it in a
heartbeat.”

Frey was silent after that and I was too but
I was communicating through my angry glare. Frey, on the other
hand, was not communicating; he was simply holding my glare.

Then he asked, “Are you finished?”

“I don’t know. Do I need to go on?” I asked
back.

His tone was quiet when he said, “I think
you’ve stated your case, wee one.”

“
Told you she had a sharp wit,” Kell put in
and Frey and I looked at him to see him gnaw a piece of meat in
half and start chewing. Then, with mouth full, he went on, “And
she’s got nerve, head-to-head with you?” he shook his head and
shoved the rest of the meat in his mouth even though he wasn’t done
with the last. Then, still with mouth full, but his voice was
different he said, “But you know that, don’t you? Was you told me
she had the spirit and, by the gods, man, we learned today you
were
not
wrong.”

I was interested in this spirit business and
I was feeling all warm inside because I’d obviously earned Kell’s
respect and equally obviously Frey had been talking me up but, as
nice as they were, both of these things made me feel slightly
embarrassed.