execution.
But it ended up great.
And, by the way, the petite fours tasted even better than they looked.
* * * * *
“Don’t be cross, Penelope,” I whispered as I cuddled my cat who I’d been reunited with a few hours earlier and who, I had found, was holding a pretty mean grudge for being left behind.
She stretched her neck over my arm and looked to the side, clearly wishing to be put down and not receive snuggles and soft words from her Momma who she considered abandoned her.
“You told me you didn’t want to go on a ship,” I reminded her.
“Mrrrr that was before you, mrrr went away for, mrrr ages,” she retorted.
“Next time, I’ll take you with us,” I promised.
“Mrrr, let me down,” she demanded.
“You cannot tell me my girls didn’t take care of you,” I stated.
“Mrrr, they didn’t let me go, mrrr outside,” she replied.
“No, you mean they didn’t let you go outside every ten minutes and then jump to let you back in ten minutes after,” I amended.
She blinked at the distance, granting this point with ill-grace by repeating, “Mrrrr, let me down.”
“Just give Momma a cuddle before I do,” I urged, she turned her head and blinked at me then she turned it away again to look over my arm.
She was being ornery and I knew she wasn’t going to give in (just yet) so I moved her to the bed and dropped her on it. She waddled to the pillows throwing a disdainful look down her fat body at me then she collapsed on the comforter at the edge of the pillows and glared at me a second before she curled into herself and started to clean her big belly.
I sighed. Then I looked around the room which was more elegant furniture, tapestries, glittery stone walls and floors but it was decorated in whites and the palest of pale greens and lavenders. It was fantastic.
The other thing that was fantastic was that the sleighs with our things, as driven by Kell, arrived about an hour ago. They included our trunks and much more precious cargo, Skylar.
And lastly Skylar had taken Frey’s spun glass dragon down and now it was sitting on its feet, its wings spread wide, on a bed of silk on a dresser. My girls had been called close after the message was received that Frey and I would be arriving, they’d packed for themselves and me and made haste from the Winter Palace to Rimee Keep, arriving, Alyssa told me, just twenty minutes before Frey and I did. Therefore, next to the dragon, Esther had set my wedding bundle in a beautiful, crystal vase.
I studied the beauty of the adela twigs and Frey’s glass beast and decided in that moment that wherever we went, those two things would be with us. No matter where we were, they would always be with us.
Always.
Then the door opened and Frey walked through followed by Alyssa and Bess.
The girls went to the wardrobe, Frey came to me and I could tell by the look on his face it was time.
He stopped close, both his hands came to my neck and he bent so his face was near mine before he whispered, “We must be away.”
I knew it therefore I nodded.
He pulled in breath. Then he stated, “Finnie, the last traitor to be hanged was hanged when Sjofn was a young lass. She did not attend due to her youth. Although you are princess and the people think you have been trained thus since birth and much is known about Sjofn, no one can know how anyone would react to what you will see this eve.” His fingers gave me a squeeze before he whispered, “It will be difficult, love, and therefore you must not add to that difficulty by feeling the responsibility of guarding your reaction and displaying one that is not your own.”
Uh… what?
“Sorry?” I asked.
“What I’m telling you is not to worry about what people see, Finnie,” he said softly, “just be yourself.”
I closed my eyes because I loved that he knew me so well and therefore knew that would be weighing on my mind (or, one of the things) then I opened them, looked in his eyes and shared, “I don’t want to disappoint Mother and Father.”
“I know you don’t but I’m also not certain you could do that,” Frey replied, I closed my eyes again because his words felt nice and then I felt his lips on my forehead which felt nicer so I opened my eyes and he looked back down at me. “We must be away,” he repeated on a whisper.
I nodded.
Alyssa and Bess were waiting outside the door holding a pair of dove gray, suede gloves and a fur cloak made of fluffy white pelts dusted in dove gray hairs and they gave me understanding glances before Frey led me down the hall, down the curving stairs and into the great hall where Aurora and Atticus were having their outer garments arranged on their shoulders.
Both of them were wearing crowns and I saw Jocelyn and Esther rush to me as we made it to Mother and Father, Jocelyn carrying a wooden box. Bess and Alyssa settled my cloak on my shoulders and shoved the gloves on my hands as Jocelyn unveiled my fabulous icicle crown in its bed of ice blue silk which Esther took out and brought forward, settling it low on my forehead.
“You are ready, Finnie,” she whispered before she stepped back, I nodded and Bess squeezed my hand before all four girls stepped away.
Frey put his hand in my back and we followed Mother and Father out the front doors. Once outside, at the foot of the steps I saw two sleighs, each one fronted by teams of four horses and around the fountain there were a number of royal guards and what seemed like all of Frey’s men on mounts and this included Kell and Skylar.
The minute I saw Skylar, my step faltered and my head shot back to look at Frey. “Honey, Sky… I don’t –”
Frey cut me off with a muttered, “He asked to come.”
I shook my head and grabbed his arm, dragging my feet and whispering, “He could ask to wrestle a rattlesnake for the fun of it but we wouldn’t let him do it.”
Frey looked down at me, brows raised, “A rattlesnake?”
“You don’t have those?” I asked back as he stopped us at the last step.
“We do but why on earth would he ask to wrestle a rattlesnake?”
“Exactly!” I cried, my voice rising.
“Finnie –”
“I don’t wish him to go.”
“Wee one –”
“Frey, tell him he can’t go. It’s macabre, this interest in death. It’s unhealthy. It’s even wrong. In my world we had public executions but they stopped ages ago. I mean, I think some lands may still do it but most of them don’t because it isn’t humane. And I feel Sky should learn he shouldn’t be that way.”
Frey got close as his brows knit and he bent his neck so he could hold my eyes, “My wee Finnie, he does not wish to go to see the condemned hanged. He wishes to be a part of your guard.”
I blinked up at him as my heart jolted.
“What?”
“All my men are here as your personal guard and Skylar requested to be amongst them. For this, their presence will be ceremonial only therefore I agreed.”
At this, my heart jumped.
“He wanted –?”
“Yes.”
I blinked then whispered, “Really?”
“I would ask why you find that so intensely surprising, my love, considering the fact he thinks the sun shines through you and you hang the moon but the longer we delay, the longer it takes for this to be done, for you and for them.”
Ho boy. He was so right.
