Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (72 page)

“I find
nothing absurd about it,” Apollo Ulfr drawled. He was leaned
casually back in his chair and his green eyes were leveled on Eirik
Drakkar. “Frey’s suggestion is clearly sound.”

“Clearly…
clear… clear…” Eirik spluttered then pounded a fist on the table.
“Clearly sound?” he shouted. “A woman has never ruled Lunwyn!”

“If any woman
could, it would be Aurora,” Norfolk Ravenscroft pointed out.

“And you would
say that,” Eirik returned hotly. “She’s your cousin, you are close.
You’d have her ear.”

“You’d have
her ear too, Eirik, if you weren’t a horse’s ass,” Apollo put in
smoothly and, seated to Frey’s right where he sat at the head of
the table, Mother to his left, I pressed my lips together to stifle
my laugh.

Eirik glared
at Apollo then stated sharply, “May I remind you that Lunwyn is
just reunited, we have just been at war, half the heads of half the
Houses from both sides of Lunwyn were gods damned
incinerated
by
my son,
” he jerked a finger at Frey, “the other half
are imprisoned waiting trial for treason and, if you lot have
anything to say about it, which you unfortunately do, they will
hang. Now is
not
the time to audition womanly rule.”

“It’s hardly
an audition considering I asked you all here in hopes of receiving
your assent but I will state at this point that I don’t actually
require it,” Frey put in. “Until my princess births a son and he is
of age to accept his responsibilities to his crown, Aurora of the
House of Wilde will rule this land and she does it with my backing
which I’m certain I don’t need to remind you includes my dragons
and the elves. If, in the meantime, she were to be unable to
command her throne, we will reconvene.”

“Then, my son,
I’m afraid you court further action like
we
saw while
you
slept with the elves,” Eirik threatened with narrowed,
flashing eyes and I lost my humor and glared at the odious man who
saw no action at all but had no problem hanging around in his tent
while he ordered men to battle, some of them meeting their deaths
while his grievously injured son was healed by the elves.

Jerk.

“Then, my
sire, I’m afraid, if you threaten treason, I will be forced to
remove you as the head of the House of Drakkar, transfer that
privilege to my brother Calder, your second born, and wish you well
with your retirement,” Frey returned.

And just like
that, my flare of temper disintegrated and I was pressing my lips
together again as I watched Eirik actually bounce in fury in his
seat then he crashed both his fists on the table and stammered an
incensed, “I… you… you cannot… you can’t do that!”

“I’m afraid I
can. I am the true head of the House of Drakkar and, as is well
known, if I do not wish to assume this role then it is my due to
transfer it to who I see fit. As I didn’t give a gods damn who ran
our House, I didn’t take my due. Now, I give a damn so I’ll take my
due.” Eirik opened and closed his mouth like a fish as Frey’s eyes
moved to Calder. “Do you wish this responsibility, brother?”

“By all
means,” Calder muttered to Frey then he turned his head to his
father. “If you would, I will ask you and Mother to make haste in
your move to the dower house. Melba has long been telling me she
thought new curtains would be lovely in the drawing room.” Eirik
blinked at his son while Calder finished, “And the study.”

I couldn’t
help it, a snort escaped and my eyes shot to Aurora who I saw
gazing impassively at the sheen on the dining room table but when
she felt my eyes, hers lifted to mine and I saw them twinkling.

“
This is
outrageous!
” Eirik shrieked and I looked back at him.

“No, this is
done,” Frey declared, standing and extending a hand to me.
“Gentlemen,” he dipped his chin to the table then turned to Mother
as my fingers curled around his and I rose. “My queen,” he
murmured.

“Drakkar,” she
murmured back.

Frey moved me
away from the table then flicked a hand at the chair he’d vacated,
eyes still on his queen.

“Your seat,”
he whispered, her lips tipped up slightly then she rose gracefully,
glided to the head and sat, her eyes moving to the men around the
table and Frey moving me from the room.

When we were
in the hall and out of earshot, I leaned into my husband and
squeezed his hand, whispering, “Well done, my handsome
husband.”

“Mm,” he
murmured, eyes straight ahead. “I’m glad you think so, my wee wife,
but this means no adventure for you for a time. We have word Baldur
returns and I will need to stay close to show my support to our new
leader.”

I pointed my
eyes straight ahead too and muttered, “I’m sure I’ll find something
I can do.”

I felt Frey’s
eyes on me, kept mine aimed at the hall then I heard Frey sigh.

“Indeed, you
will and this terrifies me,” he muttered back and that was when I
allowed myself to giggle.

So I did and I
did it loud.

* * * * *

That
evening…

Late.

My body
pressed to and straddling my husband’s long, muscular frame, I
kissed his throat as I felt his hands move up the skin of my back
then I lifted my head and looked down at him.

“I don’t
believe I’m going to say this,” I told him. “But I think I like
your brothers.”

His arms
wrapped around me as he muttered, “It wasn’t only me who sat at my
Grandmother Eugenie’s knee when I was wee.”

I smiled at
him and slid a hand up to curl around his neck. “I take it Franka
didn’t spend a lot of time with your Grandmother.”

“Franka was
busy stealing her handmaids’ hair pins and ear bobs, concealing
them amongst her
other
handmaids’ possessions, whispering in
the right ears and then watching as false accusations were thrown,
unbeknownst to the accuser they were false, and then watching
tempers flare. She had little time for Granny’s knee.”

I could
believe this.

Frey’s arms
gave me a squeeze and I watched his face grow serious.

Then he stated
gently, “My wife does not sleep soundly.”

I felt my face
go soft even as the pads of my fingers dug into the skin of his
neck.

He would
notice, Frey would. He would notice and worry.

God, I loved
this man.

“Baby,” I
whispered.

“Tell me,”
Frey whispered back.

My hand slid
up and my thumb slid out to stroke his jaw as, stalling, I asked,
“About what?”

“About what
keeps you from a sound sleep,” he answered patiently, knowing I was
stalling.

I studied his
beloved face.

We hadn’t
talked about this. Any of it. There wasn’t time. Much was
happening, we were travelling everywhere, I had a lot on my mind
and I had Frey back, all was well, I didn’t want to relive it, any
of it and Frey had let this be.

But now I saw
he was biding his time.

“What parts do
you want to know?” I queried.

“All of them,”
he replied.

I held his
eyes. Then I sighed.

Then I
whispered, “I thought you were dead.”

“I know,” he
whispered back.

I kept
whispering. “I thought I said terrible, ugly words to you before
you died.”

He kept
whispering too when he repeated, “I know.”

“Frey,” I
breathed, not really wanting to go on.

“Finnie,” he
gave me a squeeze, not wanting me to keep it bottled in.

I looked at
the pillow beside his head then my eyes went back to his.

“I took
lives,” I said softly.

“You did, wee
one, and I am glad of it for if you hadn’t you might not be lying,
naked, astride me.”

This was
true.

“I…” I
faltered then confessed the worst of it, “after I killed Phobin I
not only rubbed Broderick’s nose in it, I rubbed his nose in his
defeat.”

Frey grinned
at me.

Yes,
grinned.

Then he burst
out laughing, pressing his head back into the pillows and
everything before he rolled me so he was on top.

And after he
did this he was still laughing.

“Frey!” I
snapped, his laughter died to chuckles and he focused on me.

“I wish I was
there to see that,” he said through his dying mirth.

“It was not my
crowning moment,” I retorted sharply.

“Let us see,
my wee one, he killed your father, Alyssa, and nearly killed Thad
and me. You lived over a month thinking I was dead and drowning in
sorrow and guilt for the last thing you did was shriek at me. He
imprisoned your mother, was the architect of a number of faceless
soldier’s deaths –”

“All right,
all right,” I cut him off, “I get it but hello? Frey? Remember
awhile back when I lectured thousands of people about mercy? And,
there I was, getting in Broderick’s face about –”

He lifted a
hand to my jaw, thumb to my lips and he pressed lightly.

Then he said
softly, “You will note it was not me who stood up when Viola was
being pelted with ice missiles and demanded mercy for her and it
was not me because her actions meant I stood to lose you. With
Broderick, you thought you had actually lost me and you knew you
again lost a father. I think succeeding in four short days in
bringing him low and setting the rebellion into disarray, you can
excuse yourself for gloating.”

Well.

I had to
admit, he had a point.

I decided not
to respond.

Frey knew why
and grinned.

Then his grin
faded, his hand slid to my neck and he said quietly, “We must speak
of what I did to you.”

I shook my
head. “No,” I replied. “All’s well that ends well and, thank God,
it’s ended well so no, Frey, we never have to speak of it.”

“You say this,
Finnie, because you still hold the pain of guilt, all that time you
thought I was lost. That dark shadow runs deep in you, my wee one.
I see it at times, drifting across your eyes when you look at
me.”

“Frey –”

“But had we
not been attacked in the middle of that episode, you would have
been entitled to an explanation, wife, and you still are.”

I tried to
waylay him by explaining, “I know that it’s, uh… law, um… here, in
this world, for the man to decide if birth control is used or not
and if the woman doesn’t adhere to his, uh… decision she can be
sentenced to serve the realm.” Frey stared at me and I finished.
“Uh… I told Aurora everything that night after Father… after we put
Father… when his boat…” I sucked in breath. “Well, that night
Mother drank two bottles of wine all by herself and I fell asleep
while she did it and so did she and you had to carry both of us to
bed, I told her what happened and she explained it to me.”

“This is not
the same in your world,” he guessed.

Women who did
or did not take birth control against their male partner’s wishes
serving a term of nine months sentenced to do light work in
castles, hospitals or orphanages?

Uh… crazy!

“No,” I
confirmed. “It’s the woman’s choice unless she’s married and then
they decide together and until they do… well, she just takes it,
mostly. I don’t know, I’ve, uh… never been married until, well…
now.”

Carefully,
Frey stated, “You hid taking it from me.”

I blinked in
confusion before, equally carefully, I replied, “No, honey, I
didn’t. I don’t know why you’d think that but I guess you just were
never around when I took it.”

He nodded
before he reminded me gently, “All right, Finnie, but we discussed
it with you approaching the subject within twenty-four hours of my
return to you after I was at sea.”

“I know, Frey,
because we were set to have sex within twenty-four hours after your
return to me and, at that time, I thought I was going home and I
didn’t want to do it pregnant or with a newborn who’d never see his
or her father again.”

He studied me
for long moments.

Then he
muttered, “I misinterpreted this,” but as he did, he held my
eyes.

I smiled at
him and said softly, “I gathered that.”

His eyes
dropped to my mouth then his hand shifted up so his thumb could
stroke my cheekbone as his eyes lifted back to mine.

Then he
whispered, “I was in love with you when I ordered the elves to bind
you to me.”

My body
stiffened slightly under his and I shook my head and whispered,
“Frey –”

“It is true I
didn’t know it,” he interrupted me. “All I knew was when Nillen
told me you were set to leave, I couldn’t abide that. Nillen warned
me there would be consequences but I decided I would accept
whatever they were as long as I knew you could never leave me.” His
face dipped closer and his voice dipped lower when he went on, “You
already had a hold on my heart, Finnie. You must believe I would
not have done what I did if that wasn’t true.”

“You barely
knew me,” I pointed out quietly.

“I knew you
were beautiful. I knew you smelled good. I knew you filled out a
gown very nicely. I knew you could cook. I knew your cheeks got
pink and your eyes lit when you were excited. I knew in just weeks
you made friends, you chattered brightly, you were interested in
me, you smiled easily, you laughed readily, you would come to my
defense when you thought I faced danger, you responded to my touch
and,” he grinned, “you did that wildly.”

I rolled my
eyes.

Frey kept
talking so I rolled them back.

“And I left
you alone in my cabin and you didn’t just survive, you thrived so I
knew you were an uncommon woman, an uncommon woman who would match
me. So I knew you, Finnie, and I bound you to me knowing I wanted
to know you more and knowing I would like having a lifetime of that
discovery.”

Oh my God, did
he just say that?

I stared at
him, my heart in my throat.