“Yes, you know, where people sit down, discuss weighty issues, drink coffee, eat pastries and decide the future for hundreds of thousands of people,” I stated. “A meeting.”
He continued to scowl. Then he grunted. Then he turned on his boot without another word and stomped away.
I giggled to myself.
Then I moved down the hall only to turn down another one and see a maid coming to me.
“My princess,” she said softly then dropped in a quick curtsy before straightening and offering a creamy envelope to me. “This came in today’s post.”
“Thank you, Michelle,” I said softly, taking the envelope, she did another quick curtsy and scurried away.
I turned the envelope over and saw a bright green wax seal, pressed with a scrolled, looped, double L.
Lavinia.
I smiled, ran my nail under the seal, opened the envelope and pulled out the thick, cream paper inside, opening it and reading.
My Winter Princess,
The adela takes root!
I cannot tell you how pleased I am. As you know, I planted three branches and all three have begun to glow. They send shoots into the earth, reaching to the elfin realm. It is very exciting to have this early success.
I am away to move through my beautiful Lunwyn and plant branches before the frost sets in. It will take decades for the trees to spread but our great land will be graced by the glow of the adela once again, I will see to it.
I have received your letter and it is good to know your pregnancy does not cause you trouble as other women endure. I wish this for you for the entirety of it and I will be at your side when it is time for you to deliver our next king or our next Winter Princess to this world.
And I await stories of your next adventure, my princess.
Yours always,
Lavinia
I smiled at the paper then, folding it and sliding it back into its envelope, I moved to my mother’s old office, a smaller room, more feminine and now unused.
The door was open and I stopped in it to take in Skylar behind the desk, Penelope lying on top of it. He was bent over it with pencil in hand. She was sending her tail in wide sweeps, catching his papers.
“Stop it, cat,” he muttered.
Penelope swept her tail away, then back over his papers.
He turned his head and glared at the feline. “Stop it, cat!”
She executed two more sweeps.
Skylar emitted a little boy growl that was alarmingly like the ones I’d heard from Frey’s men on occasion and punished my cat by picking her up from the desk, cuddling her in his arms and torturing her with scratches behind her ears.
I could hear Penelope’s purrs all the way across the room.
When I heard them, I smiled.
* * * * *
Two weeks later…
Houllebec.
I sat in Frey’s lap shuffling the cards, my eyes on the occupants of the table.
Esther sat in Oleg’s lap and I was unsurprised to see, for I’d seen it before, that he was as gentle when he was with her as Frey was with me.
But, even so, he still didn’t talk much and when he did it was mostly grunts.
Jocelyn sat beaming in Thad’s lap and although Esther and Oleg were testing the waters, clearly enjoyed each other and were becoming close; it didn’t take a love doctor to see Jocelyn had fallen and when I say that, I mean deep.
Thad had too. It wasn’t so much him showing it, though he, also like Frey, was not afraid of showing affection and he often teased her in a way I thought was super sweet. It was that Thad told Frey and Frey told me so I had the inside scoop that Thad had fallen, and hard, for my Jocelyn.
Thad was also recovered, or as much as he ever would be. He’d sustained an injury to his leg which would mean he’d always walk with a hint of a limp. But I had noticed he wasn’t letting that slow him down and I also noticed that none of the other men said a thing about it, called attention to it or treated Thad any differently.
Ruben was with us too, his woman not there, as were Laurel, Ulysses and Frederick.
I stopped shuffling and smiled and chatted while I dealt the cards, every card I threw on my husband’s pile I dealt from the bottom of the deck.
Then I set the deck down, picked up my cards and started to fiddle with them in my hand but didn’t get very far.
Frey threw his hand down on the table face up and announced, “Finnie cheats.”
I looked to the table at the fantastic hand I dealt him then lifted a hand up to touch my chest and my eyes moved to my husband’s.
“Me?” I asked with sham innocence.
Frey grinned. “You,” he answered.
“Well, I never,” I muttered.
“Yes, you do, Finnie, every single time,” Thad stated.
He was not wrong.
“Finnie?” I heard a voice that was familiar, a voice I hadn’t heard in a long time, a voice I thought I’d never hear again and I turned slowly in Frey’s lap and looked at the woman standing behind him and my heart leapt into my throat.
“Claudia?” I whispered, taking in my friend wearing a Lunwynian style gown, her hair pulled back, a redhead, also in a Lunwynian gown, standing behind her, her lips tipped up in a cat’s smile.
“Claudia!” I shrieked, jumped out of Frey’s lap, rounded him and threw myself in my friend’s arms. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God, God, God!” I chanted, holding on tight and swinging her side to side.
“Oh Finnie, honey, oh God,” Claudia muttered in my ear then burst out crying, her arms spasming around me.
“Oh Claudia, honey,” I muttered back then I burst out crying.
After we did this awhile, I pulled back, framed her face with my hands, grinned into her wet, twinkling eyes then I let her go and threw myself at Valentine.
“Valentine,” I whispered, holding on tight.
“My goddess of love,” she whispered back, giving me a squeeze.
We said no more, just held on. I hadn’t seen her in ages, she left shortly after Frey and his dragons routed the enemy and I hadn’t heard from her since.
Finally, I pulled away, smiled at her and held her upper arms then my eyes caught on a flash at her throat, they dropped there and I saw a very, very large Sjofn ice diamond, what I had mistaken as aquamarines in my crown and the jewels I wore on my wedding night but what were actually very sought after, very expensive diamonds found only in the depths of Lunwyn. Diamonds that legend held were touched blue by the elves.
I looked at the diamond then at her.
Then she whispered, “I told you, love is everything and your husband knows this.”
I blinked.
Frey had given her that diamond. Somewhere along the line, Frey had given her an expensive diamond from another world in payment for her bringing Claudia to me.
In payment for her bringing things I loved from my old world to my new one.
I released her and slowly turned to Frey who was watching me.
“You did this,” I whispered.
“Indeed,” he replied.
I stared into his green-brown eyes.
Then I burst into tears.
About half a second later, I was in my husband’s arms, my face shoved in his neck.
“Is that her husband?” through my tears I heard Claudia stage-whisper to Valentine.
“Yes, dear Claudia,” Valentine answered on a beleaguered sigh. “How, in your infinite insightfulness, did you fathom that?”
“Well, he’s hot,” Claudia shot back. “I mean, like, hot hot. Like otherworldly hot. Not that Finnie couldn’t get hot but… I’ve never seen that level of hot.”
“Otherworldly hot,” Valentine murmured, her two words sounding vaguely annoyed in a way that stated Valentine actually found them quite annoying but she wasn’t about to expend the effort to be too annoyed by the likes of Claudia.
Hmm. Seemed things hadn’t changed between Valentine and Claudia.
I pulled slightly away
from Frey, wiped my face and smiled like a lunatic at my friends. “Find chairs, sit down, we’re playing cards. I’ll introduce you to everyone.” Claudia grinned at me; Valentine looked aghast at the table like sitting in a pub, playing cards was akin to spending the night in a hotel that was any less than five stars, I totally ignored this and shouted, “Lindy! We need horns!”
“Got it, Princess Finnie,” Lindy called back.
“Awesome. Princess Finnie,” Claudia whispered and smiled at me.
I smiled back.
Then my friend from my old world sat down with my friends from my new world, I introduced everyone, we played cards and drank ale.
Well, except me, I played cards but Lindy brought me apple juice in my horn.
* * * * *
Later that night…
“What is this?” Frey asked as we sat on the mattress in the firelight and candlelight in the loft of his cabin, Penelope curled in a ball asleep at the end of the bed, all our friends gone home to soft beds and warm bodies with Claudia and Valentine staying at an inn in town.
I scooped out some peanut butter then set the jar aside and dipped it into the marshmallow fluff.
Claudia had talked Valentine into bringing gifts.
And she picked good ones.
I looked to my husband who was warily inspecting my movements.
“Heaven on a spoon,” I told him and turned the loaded spoon his way. “Try it,” I encouraged and his eyes came to me.
Then his mouth opened and I fed him heaven on a spoon.
When he was working the delicious goo down his throat and I had started to dip the spoon back in the jars, I asked, “Do you like it?”
“Its… interesting,” he replied, I looked to him, grinned big then shoved a giganto spoonful of peanut butter and fluff into my mouth.
My eyes closed slowly in abandoned rapture as I sucked the spoon clean.
“Gods,” Frey muttered and I suddenly found myself without spoon or jar and on my back in our bed with my husband on me.
“Frey, I wasn’t done,” I told him as his fingers pulled my nightgown up.
“You’re done,” he told me as my hands slid around his back.
“No, seriously, I wasn’t –”
His lips came to mine, his hard hips pressed into my soft ones and he growled, “You can have more later.”
“Okay,” I breathed against his mouth, I felt his lips smile then he slanted his head and he kissed me.
My handsome husband tasted of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.
Kiss number three in the lineup of our best kisses.
Kisses, all of them, better than anything… absolutely anything… even my wildest dreams.
* * * * *
Very late that night…
The forest outside Houllebec.
Valentine Rousseau moved through the dark night until she saw the figure emerge from behind the tree and she stopped.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the moonlight was bright and she saw his big, firm, muscular body, dark thick hair, strong jaw and jade green eyes.
Delicious, she thought as she had always thought when she saw this gorgeous specimen.
“You are a powerful witch,” his deep, appealing voice rumbled.
“I am,” she replied.
He hesitated.
Then he asked, “Is it true what Frey tells me?”
“About each world having twin?” she queried.
He didn’t bother to reply but she knew.
She knew.
She was pleased to bring her goddess of love jars of peanut butter, marshmallow fluff and even her tedious friend for she had her delightful ice blue diamond from The Drakkar.
But Valentine was multitasking.
“It is,” she answered.
He moved a step closer and she tipped her head back, keeping hold on those remarkable green eyes.
And what she read there made her draw in a delicate breath.
Then he held out a small, leather pouch to her, she lifted her hand, palm up and he dropped it in.
“Her name is Ilsa Ulfr,” he growled then he turned and strode away.
She stared at his broad-shouldered, departing back.
Then she dipped her chin, pulled the leather band on the pouch to open it and she tipped the stones into her palm.
They sparkled in the moonlight.
She smiled her cat’s smile.
Then she looked to the distance and saw he was gone.
“Love is,” she whispered to the night, “everything.”
About the Author
Kristen Ashley lives in the beautiful West Country of England with her husband and her cat. She came to England by way of Denver, where she lived for twelve years, but she grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana. Her family and friends are loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen’s Mom moved her and her brother and sister in with their grandparents when she was six. Her grandparents had a daughter much younger than her Mom so they all lived together on a very small farm in a small farm town in the heartland. She grew up with Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched). Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.
And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
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Wildest Dreams f-1 Page 54