Midnight Soul (21 page)

While she spoke, he moved to a couch, sat and
grinned at her when she was done.

“Pleased to be of service.”

She tipped her head to the side.

Not dim by a long shot, she read him and
asked, “Do you have something you wanted to talk to me about?”

He did.

A couple of somethings.

“Do you know how to get in touch with
Valentine?”

“Not in any definitive way, no.”

Fuck.

Finnie went on, “But she’s back.”

That was news.

“Back?” Noc requested confirmation.

“Unh-hunh.” Finnie nodded. “She’s back. She
checked in with Frey a couple of days ago.”

“I haven’t seen her,” Noc shared.

“I haven’t either, actually. Apparently,
she’s rented some manor house close by. Don’t know why. When she’s
here, she likes to be in the thick of things. But she did and Frey
knows where she is, so he can send a message to her.”

“I’d like to get a message to her,” Noc told
her.

Finnie nodded. “Sure. I’ll find Frey
and—”

She’d started to push up from her seat but he
lifted a hand and stalled her.

“No, babe. I’ll talk to Frey. There’s
something else I wanna ask you.”

“Shoot,” she invited, settling back into her
seat.

“The Green Sea, that’s the big ocean to the
west, right?” Noc asked.

She nodded. “Yep. Big body of water. Green,
like its name,” she said on a smile. “But a green you wouldn’t
believe, Noc. It’s beautiful. I’m really looking forward to you
seeing it. I traveled widely in my old world and even the emerald
waters in some of the Caribbean don’t hold a candle to the vast
beauty of the Green Sea.”

“And you’ve traveled widely here too, yeah?”
Noc asked.

She nodded again. “I have.”

“Over the Green Sea?”

She looked confused. “Over it?”

“Over it. To a place called Mar-el, or Airen,
or something like that.”

She shook her head. “Oh no. We’ve traveled up
and down the coast of the Northlands, over the Winter Sea, the
Marhac Sea too, but never across the Green.”

“Has Frey traveled across?”

More nodding from Finnie.

“Yes. Twice. As a diplomat for my dad when he
was alive and because there were some Lunwynian treasures that
should never have left Lunwyn soil that had made their way over
there.” Her eyes lit, telling him there was more to the story of
what she said next. “Frey has a habit of collecting those.”

“So it’s a doable journey, not unsafe,” Noc
pushed.

She again looked confused. “Do you want to
voyage across the Green Sea?”

“No, Franka does.”

Her lips parting in a knowing way, she sat
back, murmuring, “Ah.”

“Is it safe?”

Finnie held his gaze. “The journey is long.
Very long. I never asked Frey just how long but I think it takes
months. Easy to run out of supplies, especially if you don’t know
where you’re going or get cast adrift by a storm. And Frey told me
there are lots of islands that are inhabited, not all of them with
friendly people, and some of those unfriendly people have boats.
There are reefs that are difficult to negotiate if you don’t know
they’re there to avoid them. And there are pirates in this world
with the addition of raiders. Raiders tend to wreak havoc by land,
anchoring close to shore and raiding from there. Pirates are about
ship to ship takeovers. Raiders usually simply steal and don’t
create a lot of collateral damage. Pirates take booty and women and
the rest feel the length of a saber or go down with the ship they
usually set fire to, if they don’t decide to steal that as
well.”

“Jesus,” Noc whispered.

“Yup,” Finnie agreed. “I’ve seen a couple of
pirate ships. They’ve tried to come up on Frey’s galleon. But they
see his flag and back off.” She smiled proudly. “Not many people
fuck with Frey. You do, suddenly a dragon’s overhead and you’re
toast. Literally.”

Noc felt his eyes crinkle. “Yeah, I suppose
that would put most people off, even pirates.”

Finnie settled in, crossing her legs under
her long, sweater gown and continued, “In fact, I don’t think there
are any passenger ships I know of that make that voyage. Merchants,
definitely. There’s a bunch of stuff from that side of the world
that’s highly valued here and costs a whack, so it’s worth the risk
of the journey. They have a kind of wool that’s amazing. I have
dresses and throws made of it and I’ve never felt anything like it.
Firenzian rubies are spectacular. Frey got me a necklace and
earrings made of them and they’re extraordinary. Exotic spices.
Tons of stuff.”

“And you dig travel so if it was safe to take
you…” he didn’t finish because she was nodding.

“Yeah, if it was safe, we’d go. I haven’t
even asked because I read between the lines when he told me all he
told me. No reason to get into a discussion about it. Frey spoils
me a lot. But when it’s time to put his foot down, he doesn’t have
a problem with doing just that. Since that sometimes pisses me off,
I’ve learned to read when it’s important to him and I shouldn’t
push it, so I won’t push it.”

Noc shot her a grin. “Good plan.”

Finnie’s lips twitched at his reply but then
her face got serious. “She shouldn’t go.”

Noc’s grin died.

This was what he thought not only from all
Finnie just shared but from the minute Franka mentioned she was
doing it.

What he didn’t think about was why it
perturbed him so much she seemed to be totally okay with taking off
after her brother left like she was leaving nothing behind.

The “leaving something behind” part and
precisely what bothered him about that was the part he wasn’t
thinking about.

“I’m gettin’ that impression,” he said.

“What I’d want to know is why she’d want to
go,” Finnie remarked.

“Because she’s lost the man she loves, her
parents are dead to her and never were much to write home about
anyway, she wants to put it all behind her and that’s a surefire
way to do just that. She won’t run into anything familiar on an
entirely different continent.”

“Surefire, true. Dramatic, definitely. A
little bit crazy, also definitely,” Finnie returned. “And that’s
being nice because in truth it’s a whole lot of crazy.”

Fuck.

“You can’t let her go, Noc,” Finnie
stated.

“Not sure once she’s fighting fit I’m gonna
have a lot of say about that, Finnie.”

Her mouth got soft as it tilted up, and
looking at her normally, all that white-blonde hair, her fantastic
figure, her pretty blue eyes, Noc got why Frey went all out to keep
her at his side.

Shit, when she looked like that, he got why
Frey would kill and die for her.

“Think she’s got a soft spot for you, honey,”
she said quietly. “Hard to miss the way you two were at the jail
yesterday.”

The way they were at the jail yesterday.

No, it was more the way Franka was at the
jail yesterday. All of it.

Fuck, he’d been so damned proud of her, it
was scary how much emotion he felt for a woman he really barely
knew.

But when she’d turned to him, vulnerable, and
latched on to him like she needed his strength, looked to him to
allay her fears, that caused even more emotion, he was so fucking
happy he could be there for her. And more, that she had the
strength to show her weakness, she showed it to him and she let him
be there for her.

“She’s definitely finding it easier to let
the mask slip on occasion,” he replied. “But she’s stubborn and I
get why she wants to go. Why she wants to put her past where it
belongs and get somewhere nothing reminds her of it.”

“I see why she wants that but it’s still not
the right choice.”

“There’s a world nothing like hers she can go
to where no pirates will take her as booty,” Noc pointed out.

Finnie’s eyes got bigger as she sat
forward.

“Holy cow, there is,” she whispered.

“Not sure I can talk Franka into coming with
all of us when I go with you guys while you take Tor and Cora back
home. Not sure I can even talk her into coming back with me. What I
am sure of is that I can’t take her back unless Valentine does it
for me.”

“She’ll do it. She seems like a cold fish but
she’s all heart.”

That was what Noc was counting on.

“So, bringing us back, I gotta talk to Frey
and get Valentine a message.”

Finnie was out of her seat before he even
finished talking.

“Let’s go find him,” she said.

Nope.

That
look on her face where she didn’t
hide her excitement was probably what did it for Frey. That look
you’d want to see every day. That look was another look you’d kill
and die for.

Noc enjoyed taking in that look the only way
he could as he pushed out of the couch.

Then they took off together to find Finnie’s
husband.

* * * * *

Franka

Late morning I sat with Josette in a small
sitting room the queen’s secretary set aside for Josette and myself
to do our final interviews of prospective maids.

It was a lovely room, the best part of it
being it was one of the growing number that had already had its
glass replaced, so it was bright, sunny and cheerful.

I’d read all the
curriculum vitae
and
references of the candidates. There were several references written
by people I knew or knew of (only one I knew to trust every word as
the girl had been employed by Norfolk Ravenscroft, an honest,
intelligent man and cousin to the queen). We’d spoken to all the
candidates. I’d asked a few questions but Josette had asked many
more, her follow-up questions.

And now I was being mostly silent.

She didn’t seem to notice, she was chattering
up a storm in a way that was thinking out loud.

“The second one, Deona, I think she’s keen
for the job just because she wants to catch the eye of a Firenz
savage,” she stated. “Man crazy could cause problems.”

“Mm…” I murmured rather than saying it like
it was.

She was absolutely right.

She continued babbling.

“The first one had a problem meeting your
eyes. Not sure what that was about. Timidity is one thing but we
spoke with her for over half an hour and not once did she get
herself together to look you straight in the face. I think that
would annoy you over time if she eventually didn’t snap out of it,
and I’m worried she won’t.”

“Mm…” I murmured again, because again she’d
hit it on the nose.

“Not to mention, if she doesn’t have the
courage to meet your eyes, how is she going to have the courage to
board a galleon and venture across the Green Sea?”

“Good question,” I said softly.

She either didn’t hear me or was deep into
her bent for she chattered on.

“But the last, I like her. She even brought
stitching samples with her and she’s talented with a needle. Almost
more than me,” Josette went on.

This last was untrue, Josette’s talent with a
needle, in my experience, was unsurpassed, but I said nothing.

“I think that was smart, doing that,” Josette
continued. “I should have thought to bring my own samples when I
interviewed with you. She also has no ties here that would make her
homesick and melancholy, which I think we would both find
trying.”

She was again very correct.

“And her eyes lit up at the idea of crossing
the Green Sea,” Josette prattled on. “It seemed genuine. Not many
would have that reaction. Both one and two said they’d be fine with
it, but I didn’t quite believe them. Candidate three, well, I get
the sense she’s like Princess Sjofn…and you, of course. A female
but with a hint of a raider’s spirit.”

I spoke not and waited.

“I think three,” Josette declared.

She’d chosen well. Petite and slender though
number three was (a girl by the name of Irene), she carried herself
well, had ready answers, stated she relished being busy and she was
younger and less experienced than Josette so there wouldn’t be a
future where I had one maid attempting to perform a coup to take
the status of my other.

“What do you think?” Josette queried.

“Three,” I stated.

“You liked her?” she asked uncertainly.

“I don’t know her. I liked her for the job.
And you two seemed to converse well.”

“I like her,” Josette shared.

“Then it’s three.”

“But you have to like her,” she returned.

I drew in breath to calm my sudden impatience
and held her eyes.

“Okay, it’s three,” she said, reading my
look, her lips quirking.

I dipped my chin in an affirmative. “Send
your missive. We’ll need to prepare her for our adventure as well.
She might as well start planning now.”

Josette jumped from her chair and started to
rush from the room, doing this talking.

“I’ll be back to go shopping.”

I was certain she would.

“Until then,” I said to her back.

The door closed.

I smiled.

That task complete, onward to the next.

Whatever that turned out to be.

* * * * *

One of the palace servants came to me to
share that Kristian had arrived.

I didn’t pay any heed to what it might
communicate that I abruptly rose from my seat and left Cora and
Circe alone in the sitting room as I dashed out the door.

The hallways seemed interminable.

But finally I made the front hall and there
he was, allowing his cloak to be taken by a footman while his
wife’s cloak was taken by her own maid.

She saw me first.

Brikitta Drakkar.

A mouse of a woman with nondescript hair and
features and a too-thin frame, my brother was far more attractive
than she.

That said, except in her presence, I’d never
seen Kristian smile as much.

Or laugh.

I saw the frozen look on her face I knew was
her attempt to hide the fear she had of me.