Leaving me here!
I came unstuck with a jolt and ran to the door.
Throwing it open I saw my sleigh, my horses and no Dragon.
I glared into the brightening sky.
Then I shouted at the top of my lungs, “God damn it!”
My horses danced slightly in agitation.
I stood in the cold, glaring at the thick but beautifully frosted forest all around thinking I had not handled that situation, or him, very well.
Then I stomped back into the house.
* * * * *
I was cold, exhausted and hungry but I was also Seoafin Wilde and I’d been in some serious pickles in my life and I’d always managed to survive.
It must be said, sharks crashing a sea dive and elephants stampeding were a lot more serious than a dirty house in the middle of a frozen nowhere. And Claudia hadn’t even mentioned that time the natives got seriously restless.
So I was Seoafin Wilde and nothing ever got me down.
The good news was, I was a lesbian and therefore my husband wanted nothing to do with me.
The bad news was, I was a lesbian and my husband thought he could watch me “at play” with a woman.
The good news was, he was gone, apparently for awhile, so I had time to figure out what to do about that.
The bad news was, I was in the middle of a frost-filled forest. I was cold, exhausted and hungry and I had four horses as well as myself to take care of.
So, since I really had no choice, I took care of the lot of us.
Prioritizing, I had to get changed. Many people wouldn’t think this was priority but, seriously, that dress rocked and it wouldn’t do for it to get dusty or torn.
So I went out to the sleigh, told my horses I’d get them warm and fed as soon as possible, they whinnied like they knew what I was talking about and I unhooked the silken ropes that held down the also silk tarp and threw it aside.
Eight huge trunks were in the back of the sleigh, four smaller ones.
I started with the smaller ones because I could carry them, lugging them in one by one and opening them. Quick glances told me there was nothing I could use in the present. So out I went to pull off the first trunk which was so huge and heavy, I had to drag it down off the sleigh, it thudded against the snow, then I dragged it into the house.
I opened it.
Sheets and blankets.
Shit.
Back out I went and I got the second trunk in.
On top of some folded, soft, knit woolen gowns, I saw a note. I picked it up and read it.
Princess Sjofn,
We’re so sorry. Your mother supervised your packing. We had to pack only your trousseau. We couldn’t pack any of your breeches or the shirts and boots you like.
But all of this is lovely and we hope you enjoy it.
Write to us and tell us how you’re getting along.
We will miss you.
Alyssa, Esther, Jocelyn and Bess
Well, apparently, Sjofn of this world dressed like a boy.
Perhaps not a surprise.
I had to admit, even though I (mostly) avoided dressing like a boy (unless I was caving or the like) I could use some breeches or whatever at the present time but if a dress was all I had, a dress was what I would use. I sorted through them, finding the least fine but warmest looking one as well as a light wool cloak at the bottom of the trunk and changed (with some difficulty for it was buttoned down the back) out of my wedding gown.
Seeing my underwear at its fullest, I was right, it was awesome, the bustier was hot as all hell, my breasts nearly spilling out of it. It was so damned sexy, as crazy as such a thought was, I couldn’t help but think my stupid new husband who didn’t wait around to get an eyeful of that was a moron. But I didn’t look long because it was fucking cold and I needed to get dressed.
So I got dressed then I got busy.
I started fires in the two grates in the living room. Luckily, there were dry logs stacked at the sides as well as kindling and they even had matches that were made of very long, slim pieces of wood that I had to drag across the stone of the hearths but they made starting a fire a snap.
Then out to the sleigh I went to drag in all the trunks. Then back out to stamp through the snow to the biggest outbuilding. Upon entry, I found it was what I thought it was, a six stall stable, cleaner than the house by far (my husband was clearly not only scary but also a dick, cleaning the stable but keeping the house in such a state) and there was a barrel full of fresh water, plenty of oats and hay. With effort, I threw open the huge sliding door, stamped back through the snow, got in the sleigh and led them inside the stable. I closed the door and went to work. It took for-freaking-ever to figure out how to unhook the horses and get their apparatus off them. But I damn well did it, led them to their stalls, fed and watered them. I hung the apparatus up on hooks outside each stall and then I stamped back to the house.
Once inside, I fed the fires more wood then took inventory.
The kitchen was rudimentary: big, old battered wooden table with two chairs, big used butcher block in the middle, big, black iron stove, wooden sink with (thank God) a pump that, upon testing, worked and pumped clear, clean water. Cupboards, as my dickhead husband said, were not bare but most of the shit at first glance I didn’t know what it was.
I decided I’d spend more time on that later.
There were also other supplies stuffed in the plethora of cabinets: dishes, cups, silverware, wooden spoons and a stack of wooden bowls and other accoutrements to use for cooking, cast iron pots and skillets, candlestick holders and gas lamps with a few lanterns thrown in.
Using the stack of wood in the kitchen, I built another fire in the stove then out the backdoor I went. There was an enclosed porch type area that ran the length of the house, one whole side lined with stacks of logs so high, they went up to my neck. There were a couple of cupboards too, one I opened was filled with tall candles of all widths. Another one was filled with plugged jugs of what a sniff test told me was some kind of fuel. Probably for the lamps.
Okay, good. I had heat and light and, by the looks of it, a lot of it.
I stamped out the backdoor to the two, remaining out buildings.
One, to my gloom, was an outhouse.
The other, far larger, was a shed that was also filled with split, prepared logs, a shitload of kindling and another cupboard filled with fuel. There was also a hatchet, an axe, several buckets and other bits and bobs.
Back to the house I went, I opened a door off the living room and entered a room that had a table with a ceramic basin on it, a pitcher under it, an oval mirror on the wall over it and a drum like thing in the middle of the space, this one made of some kind of metal. It was oval and I suspected it was a tub. There was also a small fireplace in there.
Well, bath time wasn’t going to be relaxing. But at least there was a bath.
Back out to the living room where I wandered the place, noting there were lots of rugs on the floor, not thick, but they covered the wood planks so the cold wouldn’t seep up. As I wandered, I carefully pulled off the sheets covering the furniture, bunching them quickly while doing it so I captured as much of the dust as possible.
Now we were talking. Finally, something decent.
A big, fluffy couch and two deep-seated fluffy chairs with ottomans, all turned to the biggest fireplace. A sturdy desk with chair behind it in a corner. Handsome tables here and there as well as some tall candleholders. It
