I automatically tipped my head back when he got close and I stood there stupidly as his big hand curled around the side of my neck and his mouth came to my forehead for a light touch.
Then his eyes caught mine.
“I need to stall Tyr and my men will be here soon. I’ll need to speak with them when they arrive. Feed the fires, wee one, I’ll meet you in our bed.”
Then before I could open my mouth to make a noise, he was gone.
I stood against the wall staring into the room. Then I lifted my hands and saw they were shaking, even in the weak light of the dying fires I saw them shaking.
Shaking so bad it was out-of-control.
I closed my eyes tight for a moment before I opened them and wandered to the fire, stoking and feeding it then putting the grate to and turning to the other one. Once finished with the second one, I fed a few logs to the kitchen stove then I took off my boots and, still clothed, I climbed to the loft and fed the fire up there too. Then I lay down on the bed, over the covers, back to the railing and pulled a pillow to my chest and held it tight.
Faster than I would have expected, I heard the front door open and close meaning Frey had come back and my body tensed.
I didn’t know what to do, what to think.
This world might have elves, animals that could talk to you and trees that had glitter bark but it also had men who could take a life without hesitation and without even the barest hint of remorse.
And my husband was one of them.
Thinking of the Frey who had been mine for the last three days, my only thought was, how could that be?
Thinking of the Frey I had first met when I came to this world, I knew the answer.
I felt his presence hit the loft then I felt it hit the bed.
Then I heard his voice come at me softly, “Finnie, you’ve not changed.”
And that was when I felt his light touch pulling my hair off my shoulder.
So that was when I moved, swiftly rolling away from him and gaining my knees, I shuffled back to the end of the bed, pillow still held tight to my chest.
“I don’t… don’t…” I shook my head, “I don’t think I want you touching me, Frey.”
He was on his knees too, but settled back on his heels, and his eyes were on me.
He studied me for a moment before, still speaking softly, he asked, “What’s this, wee one?”
I didn’t delay in replying. “You killed two men tonight.”
He moved as if to come toward me and I shuffled back another foot, my feet clearing the edge of the bed and he stopped so I did too.
“Finnie –”
“You didn’t blink,” I cut him off. “You didn’t… you didn’t…” I shook my head and my throat clogged so I swallowed and whispered, “You didn’t even blink.”
“Wife –”
“No,” I shook my head again, then closed my eyes tight and looked away before opening them and looking back, “No. I… I don’t know what you’ve done to get enemies like that but I can guess, considering you killed them without hesitation and then rode away while their warm blood still melted the snow, and, I can’t say… I can’t even think… I don’t know… I don’t know but I don’t think I want anything to do with a life like that.”
“Finnie, come here,” he ordered, extending an arm to me.
“No,” I shook my head, “no way, Frey. I’m sorry but no freaking way.”
“Finnie, come here,” he repeated and I shook my head. He dropped his hand but held my eyes and said gently, “My winter bride, those weren’t my enemies.”
“And whose were they?” I fired back. “Thad’s?”
“No,” he replied carefully, “yours.”
My mouth dropped open and I felt my eyes get wide.
Then I breathed, “What?”
“Come here,” he ordered quietly.
I stayed still and unmoving.
“Love, come here.”
“They’re… they’re…” I stared in his face, “they’re mine?”
Oh God. If that was true, Sjofn totally left a lot out of her note. A lot.
“Fin –” he started but that was when I lost it.
And I lost it by throwing down the pillow and shrieking, “What did I do to make enemies who would come at me with knives?”
I barely got out the last word when Frey moved, his arm darting out, fingers wrapping around my wrist, he yanked me so I fell forward then he shifted, whipping an arm around my waist and one down my legs to haul them out in front of me, my bottom swung out, I landed in his lap and his arms were around me before I could even twitch.
I twisted to face him, my head tipping back and I whispered, “Frey, I –”
“You have been sharing my bed for five nights now, that’s what you’ve been doing, my Winter Princess,” Frey finished for me and I blinked up at him. “And your uncle and, perhaps, spies from dozens of different Houses would know this.”
I blinked again and whispered with confusion, “My uncle?”
“As far as he knows, and now I know he is watching, though he nor any of the others have approached the cabin, I would know this but even if they have, they cannot see through walls, but as far as they know what we’ve been doing in this bed could conceive a child. And he, nor any of them, wishes us to conceive a child. I was afraid someone would attempt something like this and if it is as I suspect and it is your uncle who has done this then he has, as usual, made his play and shown his hand without delay.”
I stared at Frey.
Then it hit me.
My Uncle Baldur, who stood to inherit Lunwyn upon my father’s death, wanted me dead before I could birth a child to succeed the throne.
Oh my God.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“I see you have some understanding of this,” Frey muttered and I focused on his face to see his eyes alert and very focused on mine.
“He’s not a good man,” I guessed.
“No, Finnie, you speak kind but you do not speak true. He is instead the worst type of man, no honor, filled with greed; he is selfish, grasping, avaricious and underhanded.”
Sjofn had written, My uncle is not like my father or grandfather and it is imperative that our beautiful land not pass into his hands…
I turned my face away and whispered, “Oh my God.”
“Look at me, my wee one,” Frey demanded gently and my eyes returned to his. “Those were assassins. Not good ones. It is my guess your uncle wishes you dead and tonight he declared his intent to see to that. Even if it is not him, obviously, someone else wishes this so.”
“Oh God.” I was still whispering and I was again trembling, it was again violently and, try as I might, (and I was trying) I couldn’t seem to stop it.
Frey gathered me closer and when he’d achieved that, he held on tight.
“Listen to me, Finnie, concentrate on me,” he urged and I nodded, staring in his eyes as he kept holding me tight. “I will not allow you to be harmed, my men won’t and your father’s men won’t.” His arms gave me a tight squeeze. “You will not be harmed, love. I’ll not allow it. If it is your uncle, I don’t know why he announced his intentions in this way for those men were not skilled. But I will find out and we will deal with this, your father and I. In the meantime, you will never be harmed; you will not even be touched. I promise you that.” I kept staring at him and said nothing so he whispered, “Do you believe me?”
“I’ve never seen a man die, Frey,” I whispered back and he closed his eyes.
Then he opened them and said softly, “Yes you have, Finnie. Remember when our engagement was
