Midnight Soul

by Kristen Ashley

  “Josette and I are going to be making the final selection of a new lady’s maid. After that and also after my brother arrives, we’ll be sledding into town to order some clothing for her. It’s time we start preparing for our journey and the seamstresses who’ll be making her new attire will need to get to work on it as soon as possible. I don’t suspect Kristian will wish to stay long. He tends to prefer to be at home.”

  “What journey?” Noc queried and I looked to him.

  “Pardon?”

  “You said you’re preparing for a journey. What journey?”

  I took hold of a rasher of bacon, raised it and answered, “Once Kristian leaves, Josette, the new maid we select and I will be on our way to Sudvic to see about purchasing passage across the Green Sea.”

  “Come again?”

  My bacon held aloft, I turned my attention back to Noc.

  “We’re sailing across the Green Sea,” I repeated. “Not many people journey there so I imagine we’ll be in Sudvic some time, waiting for a galleon that makes that journey to return, or to prepare to make the journey, as I can imagine that takes some doing as I hear it’s many weeks. In truth there may be no galleons who sail the Green Sea that harbor in Sudvic. We may need to find another port city, perhaps even travel to Hawkvale, passage across the green waters is so unusual. But we’ll find our way over,” I finished decidedly.

  I crunched bacon, chewed, swallowed and started mumbling again, this time mostly to myself.

  “I hope we can make the island nation of Mar-el, for Josette’s sake. But then I dearly wish to see Airen.”

  I finished my bacon, had eaten more egg and was slathering marmalade on another corner of toast when I realized Noc hadn’t said anything for some time.

  I looked his way to see he had his gaze fixed to my tray but his eyes were distant.

  “Have you had breakfast?” I asked.

  He said nothing.

  “Noc,” I called, his head twitched and his ice-blue eyes came to me.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “What?”

  “Have you had breakfast?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you still hungry?”

  “Not really.”

  “Then will you explain why you’re staring at my tray like you wish to nick my bacon?”

  His mouth spread in a grin that for the first time I didn’t believe was real.

  “No one can have enough bacon,” he quipped.

  This was quite true, bacon was delicious.

  However I had the uncomfortable feeling he was lying and I didn’t like this. I’d lied and been lied to by many people, starting from so far back I didn’t even remember when it actually began.

  But Noc, I knew instinctively, had never lied to me.

  And thinking that he was now, about bacon of all things, troubled me far more than I’d care to admit.

  “You can have my bacon,” I said quietly.

  “Baby, I don’t want your bacon. Honest,” he replied in my tone.

  I studied him closely before asking, “Is all well?”

  “I just got something on my mind.”

  I shouldn’t extend the invitation.

  Nevertheless, I extended the invitation.

  “Would you like to share it with me?”

  His gaze on my face warmed and his words made my chest do the same when he replied, “Yeah.”

  I put my cutlery down, the wedge of toast, and twisted to him to give him my full attention.

  Even so, he carried on by saying, “Just not now. Seems you have a full day. But can I ask that we end it together?”

  “End it together?”

  “Yeah,” he gave me a genuine grin that time. “You and me in a room somewhere with a bottle of whiskey.”

  I wanted that very much, this something I would never share.

  Though I did agree to this assignation.

  “We can do this, Noc.”

  “Great, Frannie. Gotta go,” he declared and immediately made a move to go, however, quick as a flash, his hand darted out and he pinched my last rasher of bacon.

  “Noc!” I snapped.

  But he was out of bed, smiling at me cheekily as he munched my bacon and sauntered around my bed toward the door.

  He arrived at it, eyes to me, swallowed a bite of my bacon and said, “Later, babe.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  He kept smiling at me a moment before he closed the door behind him.

  * * * * *

  Noc

  “Hey,” Noc greeted Finnie as he walked into the room one of the servants had told him she was in.

  She was alone and looked like she was writing letters, but she stopped doing this the minute she lifted her head and saw him approach.

  She set everything aside on the cushion of the couch where she was sitting and replied, “Hey.”

  “Don’t want to interrupt you—” he began.

  She cut him off. “Interrupt me. Please. People bring gifts to the Bitter Gales for Frey and me and I’m writing thank you notes. I tried to share with the queen that doing this was killing too many trees. She thought I was losing my mind, told me so and also told me to stop procrastinating. A princess writes thank you notes. And trees are a hell of a lot more plentiful here than in my old world. So I really don’t have any excuse not to do it,” her eyes lit, “except to talk to you.”

  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.
<
br />   “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.