There it was. A sign, a small one, but one like him keeping me warm that said maybe he was a decent guy and he was going to try.
“I’m glad,” I said softly.
He looked back at his plate and shoved more pancakes in his mouth.
Okay.
Maybe that went better than I suspected.
Phew.
Chapter Seven
Mr. Conversation
While Frey’s attention was on the deer, I grabbed my stuff and nipped to the hot springs for a quick bath.
One could say the hot springs were awesome but one could not say drying off afterward was. However, I’d done it so often, I’d made an art of it so I was out, dried off and clothed in record time. Then I wrapped my clean, wet hair in the bathing cloth and nipped back quickly, luckily without him seeing me.
Since I had one day of essentially semi-kinda-dating my husband before we got down to the nitty gritty husband and wife stuff, once I got back, I lotioned, powdered and perfumed as well as put on some light makeup. I mean, I would never go on a first date without making an effort. And I had at least a couple of weeks of dates (according to my own personal philosophy of how long before I considered sleeping with someone) to squeeze in one day so I made an effort.
As I did this, I planned the dinner I was going to make that night and therefore drew up a grocery list in my head of what I needed to get from the store. I wanted something special so he would notice I was making an effort (and maybe he would make one too). I also wanted something chewy. He made light work of those pancakes, chewing approximately twice before each enormous swallow and I was hoping dinner would last a whole lot longer than that.
I was in the kitchen, all done up but hair still wet (though pulled back in the ribbon again) and I was getting the basket I usually took to town with me to carry my purchases back when Frey walked in.
I turned to the door and again, like that morning, when he saw me, he stopped dead.
Weird how he did that.
“Hey,” I greeted. “I’m going to town to pick up some stuff for dinner. Do you want anything?”
He stared at me a moment and I was hoping he wasn’t back in silence mode when he stated, “I’ll take you.”
Hells bells. I’d actually wanted some time alone to psych myself up for what was going to happen after dinner.
However, time alone wasn’t going to help me know this guy any better, or get used to having him around, so maybe him going was a good thing.
We could chat.
“All righty then,” I replied.
His eyes moved to my hair and he moved toward the living room, muttering, “I’ll saddle Tyr. You get a hat. I don’t want my new wife catching a chill.”
Hmm.
That was thoughtful.
So thoughtful, I smiled as I followed him and called out, “Tyr?”
He turned at the front door, answered, “My mount,” then left.
Well, there you go. I already knew something more about him. His horse was called Tyr.
That was a start.
I went to my trunks and pulled out a cloak I liked especially. It was a light silvery-gray wool with fur in a matching color on the high collar. It had matching gloves and hat. The hat was knit wool at the top, furry around the edges and I’d noticed it didn’t give me hat head.
I didn’t want hat head. Not that day or, maybe, any day when Frey was around.
So I got ready to face the chill, nabbed my basket and then walked to the stables.
When I got there, Frey had Tyr in the middle of the space, bridle on, saddle on (with a longer, very dark brown blanket style thing that hung over his rump, probably to help ward off the cold, something the horse hadn’t worn on our long ride there). I noticed now that the horse was like everything Frey that was to say his coat so dark brown it was nearly black. He was also huge. He was also glossy. He also had extremely intelligent eyes.
He was lastly beautiful.
I went to the hooks on the wall to get a bridle for one of the grays and had lifted a hand to nab it when Frey called from behind me. “What are you doing?”
I dropped my hand and turned to him then answered, “Preparing a gray to ride.”
“You’ll ride with me.”
I blinked.
Then I asked, “What?”
He stood by his horse for about half a second then he walked to me, reached low, engulfed my hand in his then led me to his horse. Before I became unstuck, he’d mounted and leaned down to hook me around the waist and pull me up in front of him.
Then he immediately clicked his teeth and Tyr walked out of the stable. Once clear of the structure, Frey clicked his teeth again and leaned slightly into me, taking me with him, chest to back, at the same time his arm moving me back into him as it tightened around my belly and Tyr took us from walk to a not fast but definitely not slow canter.