I was pregnant and Frey, as early signs were indicating, was going to be one of those ultra-careful, concerned, not exactly hovering but nevertheless protective expectant fathers.
Case in point, Frey had put his foot down that, considering my condition, I would not be continuing my lessons on Caspia and he’d also called a halt to knife work with Lund.
I gave in on quitting working with Gun and Caspia. Frey was ecstatic I was pregnant and it had to be said (after the initial shock) that I was ecstatic too therefore it would not do for me to take a fall off Caspia and harm myself or our child.
And, incidentally, when we told Aurora and Atticus, they were both (even Aurora) beside themselves with glee.
In other words, all was well in my world and we didn’t need me to do anything stupid to change that.
But the knife work wasn’t dangerous. Lund knew what he was doing, he never got close to hurting me and we’d been working together for so long, I knew he wouldn’t.
And anyway, all that running around, lunging, twirling and squatting would be a good way to keep fit while pregnant.
Frey, however, did not see it this way and also thought I was a little crazy for wishing to keep fit during my pregnancy, stating, “Part of the beauty of a woman with child is her curves, wife, and you’ll not deprive me of the ones I bestowed on you by ‘keeping fit’.”
Yes, this was what he said.
Further, Frey had allowed me to continue with my bow and arrow but only target practice, not “skulking” (his word) through the woods aiming at human beings.
We’d argued about all of this, our first argument in so long, I didn’t remember when we had our last.
I was pregnant, not invalid and this I shared with my husband.
I was not going to be on a horse, working with knives or skulking through cold woods and this my husband shared with me.
My problem was, to practice with Lund and skulk with Annar, I needed his men and they listened to Frey and not me.
Therefore, Skylar continued his work with Frey’s men and I did not (except the bow and arrow but seriously, it was fun skulking through the woods and it was a lot less fun standing there and shooting at a stationary target).
This pissed me off and, as I nursed my snit, it came to me that if Frey was going to be this cautious with me while I was expecting, then there was no way he was going to let me find a witch, send a message to Valentine, communicate with her what was happening and that I had to go home, talk to Sjofn, sort out my life back home, say good-bye to friends and come back.
No way.
And I had to do this. My return journey was scheduled to happen in less than six months time. I was guessing I was maybe a month pregnant, perhaps a bit more. That would mean I’d be in my third trimester and no way Frey would let me journey back then and I wasn’t keen to do it then either. But if I didn’t get a message to Valentine, he wouldn’t have a choice and nor would I.
So my husband and I needed to have a discussion.
But I was avoiding that discussion because although my anger had cooled to worry, Frey’s had disappeared completely. He was back to my sweet, gentle Frey and held no grudges (then again, he didn’t need to since he got his way). But when we were fighting, I found it upset me (tremendously) when he was angry. We got along so well, fighting with him was no fun, it didn’t feel good at all in so far as it didn’t even feel right and I wasn’t all fired up to get in another argument with him then or, ever, really.
So I needed to find a way to discuss this with my husband without either of us getting upset and with Frey agreeing to let me go home.
Something I thought would be impossible.
I was thinking of all this as I was wandering along the upper balcony, taking in the lake, the sea of pine trees rising up all around, the snow-capped mountains rising behind the trees, the pretty village of Kellshorn some ways away and all of this reflected in the calm, clear waters of the lake. And I was doing this hoping for those calm waters to calm me when I saw Bess, Alyssa and Esther at the end of the balcony looking down and whispering to each other.
As I approached, Bess heard me, turned, put her finger to her lips and then she lifted her hand and waved it toward herself urgently, her face smiling.
I smiled back and moved toward them, glad to have something to take me away from my thoughts. When I arrived at their huddle, I got close to Bess on the end and looked over the railing to see what held their attention. I scanned the somewhat cleared area around the house, saw nothing then I caught it.
Thad had Jocelyn pinned against the side of the stable, her arms were around his shoulders, his hands were at her ass and they were going at it, hot and heavy.
Whoa.
When did this happen?
“When did this happen?” I whispered to Bess.