Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams(171)

Then I asked haltingly, “Do you think, um… that Mother and Father will, uh… be happy about this too?”

He smiled that gorgeous smile again, dipped his head to touch his lips to my nose and then pulled back an inch before he answered, “Just today Aurora asked how we were getting on with creating the heir to the throne. She awaits good news and tomorrow, we will delay our departure so we can have a celebratory breakfast with them before we go.” He gave me another squeeze as I felt my brows draw together and he finished, “She and Atticus will be delighted.”

Okay, the good news about that was, I was right. Atticus and Aurora were also obviously already on board with me taking their daughter’s place.

The bad-ish news was that I didn’t think Frey and I had been trying to create the heir to the throne, not yet. But his words would indicate he did.

Or maybe just Aurora did.

I had no opportunity to think on this as Frey gave me another squeeze and his head dipped, his lips touched mine then slid down my cheek to my ear where he murmured, “It is now time to get my wife and child home and warm. I could stand in the glow of the adela and the brighter glow of this news for a decade, my wee one, but I must take care of my family.”

My belly somersaulted again and I twisted my neck to look at him and when I caught his eyes, I smiled.

Then I said, “Living in Lunwyn, he or she is going to have to get used to the cold, husband.”

To which Frey returned, “As they’ll have to get used to their parents’ loving care, wife.”

Okay, there it was again, another belly somersault and I couldn’t stop the huge smile that spread on my face.

When Frey saw it, his hand cupped the back of my head again and he pressed my face in his throat and his other arm held tight for a moment before he let me go, took my hand and walked me the three feet to Tyr.

I was up on Tyr, Frey behind me and wheeling his steed around when I asked dreamily, “I wonder if she’ll be an adventurer like her Mom and Dad.”

Frey moved us into the forest, this time much slower, the mist having disappeared and I watched the moonlight glint on the snow as I listened to him chuckle before he muttered, “If so, gods help me.”

I giggled because he was right about that. Then I giggled again just because. Then Frey leaned me into Tyr’s neck, touched his heels to Tyr’s flanks, we shot forward and I giggled again as I watched the trees stream by and felt Frey’s command of his beast as they did, the power of the animal under us, the rider and his mount one and I experienced a late night, carnival-style ride that was better than any I’d had before.

And although I eventually stopped giggling, I never stopped smiling.

Not once… all the way home.





Chapter Twenty-Nine


Meddling





One week later…

I had a problem.

We were at Frey’s lodge in Kellshorn or, more accurately, outside the large mountain town that catered to vacationing skiers and fishermen who came to fish at the vast lake that Frey’s lodge and the town skirted.

My girls hadn’t been exactly right. The lodge wasn’t fit for a queen as it was no Winter Palace and definitely no Rimée Keep.

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t cool-as-shit.

First of all, it skirted a vast lake and that would be a spectacular vast lake.

Secondly, the lodge was gorgeous. It was made of blond wood and stone, it had a lower level built into the swell of a hill and two upper levels that had wraparound balconies, the lower one wider, all of them with wooden railings made of flat planks that had been stamped through along their lengths with the shape of a pine tree.

Nothing inside or outside of the lodge was graceful, refined or ornate as with the Palace and the Keep. This was not a place for stately affairs or official meetings. This was a place to relax, unwind and be surrounded by nature in all its immense beauty. It was comfy, cozy, welcoming and warm. There were lots of windows, lots of open spaces, lots of beautiful, gleaming wood, lots of gorgeous stone, lots of furniture that invited you to sink into it and lots of fires that seemed to keep every corner warm.

There were also lots of bedrooms which was lucky because all four of my girls came with me.

This meant the journey included sleighs which made that journey longer (two days rather than the one Frey told me it would have been if we were able to take the more direct route). As we travelled, Frey’s men rode around the two sleighs packed with his, my and the girls’ trunks and, for the first time since I arrived in that world, I rode in a sleigh with Esther and Bess (the first day) and Jocelyn and Alyssa (the second) because Frey didn’t want me on Caspia.

This was my problem.