Frey moved us into the forest, this time much slower, the mist having disappeared and I watched the moonlight glint on the snow as I listened to him chuckle before he muttered, “If so, gods help me.”

I giggled because he was right about that. Then I giggled again just because. Then Frey leaned me into Tyr’s neck, touched his heels to Tyr’s flanks, we shot forward and I giggled again as I watched the trees stream by and felt Frey’s command of his beast as they did, the power of the animal under us, the rider and his mount one and I experienced a late night, carnival-style ride that was better than any I’d had before.

And although I eventually stopped giggling, I never stopped smiling.

Not once… all the way home.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Meddling

One week later…

I had a problem.

We were at Frey’s lodge in Kellshorn or, more accurately, outside the large mountain town that catered to vacationing skiers and fishermen who came to fish at the vast lake that Frey’s lodge and the town skirted.

My girls hadn’t been exactly right. The lodge wasn’t fit for a queen as it was no Winter Palace and definitely no Rimée Keep.

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t cool-as-shit.

First of all, it skirted a vast lake and that would be a spectacular vast lake.

Secondly, the lodge was gorgeous. It was made of blond wood and stone, it had a lower level built into the swell of a hill and two upper levels that had wraparound balconies, the lower one wider, all of them with wooden railings made of flat planks that had been stamped through along their lengths with the shape of a pine tree.

Nothing inside or outside of the lodge was graceful, refined or ornate as with the Palace and the Keep. This was not a place for stately affairs or official meetings. This was a place to relax, unwind and be surrounded by nature in all its immense beauty. It was comfy, cozy, welcoming and warm. There were lots of windows, lots of open spaces, lots of beautiful, gleaming wood, lots of gorgeous stone, lots of furniture that invited you to sink into it and lots of fires that seemed to keep every corner warm.

There were also lots of bedrooms which was lucky because all four of my girls came with me.

This meant the journey included sleighs which made that journey longer (two days rather than the one Frey told me it would have been if we were able to take the more direct route). As we travelled, Frey’s men rode around the two sleighs packed with his, my and the girls’ trunks and, for the first time since I arrived in that world, I rode in a sleigh with Esther and Bess (the first day) and Jocelyn and Alyssa (the second) because Frey didn’t want me on Caspia.

This was my problem.

I was pregnant and Frey, as early signs were indicating, was going to be one of those ultra-careful, concerned, not exactly hovering but nevertheless protective expectant fathers.

Case in point, Frey had put his foot down that, considering my condition, I would not be continuing my lessons on Caspia and he’d also called a halt to knife work with Lund.

I gave in on quitting working with Gun and Caspia. Frey was ecstatic I was pregnant and it had to be said (after the initial shock) that I was ecstatic too therefore it would not do for me to take a fall off Caspia and harm myself or our child.

And, incidentally, when we told Aurora and Atticus, they were both (even Aurora) beside themselves with glee.

In other words, all was well in my world and we didn’t need me to do anything stupid to change that.

But the knife work wasn’t dangerous. Lund knew what he was doing, he never got close to hurting me and we’d been working together for so long, I knew he wouldn’t.

And anyway, all that running around, lunging, twirling and squatting would be a good way to keep fit while pregnant.

Frey, however, did not see it this way and also thought I was a little crazy for wishing to keep fit during my pregnancy, stating, “Part of the beauty of a woman with child is her curves, wife, and you’ll not deprive me of the ones I bestowed on you by ‘keeping fit’.”

Yes, this was what he said.

Further, Frey had allowed me to continue with my bow and arrow but only target practice, not “skulking” (his word) through the woods aiming at human beings.

We’d argued about all of this, our first argument in so long, I didn’t remember when we had our last.

I was pregnant, not invalid and this I shared with my husband.

I was not going to be on a horse, working with knives or skulking through cold woods and this my husband shared with me.

My problem was, to practice with Lund and skulk with Annar, I needed his men and they listened to Frey and not me.

Therefore, Skylar continued his work with Frey’s men and I did not (except the bow and arrow but seriously, it was fun skulking through the woods and it was a lot less fun standing there and shooting at a stationary target).

This pissed me off and, as I nursed my snit, it came to me that if Frey was going to be this cautious with me while I was expecting, then there was no way he was going to let me find a witch, send a message to Valentine, communicate with her what was happening and that I had to go home, talk to Sjofn, sort out my life back home, say good-bye to friends and come back.

No way.

And I had to do this. My return journey was scheduled to happen in less than six months time. I was guessing I was maybe a month pregnant, perhaps a bit more. That would mean I’d be in my third trimester and no way Frey would let me journey back then and I wasn’t keen to do it then either. But if I didn’t get a message to Valentine, he wouldn’t have a choice and nor would I.

So my husband and I needed to have a discussion.

But I was avoiding that discussion because although my anger had cooled to worry, Frey’s had disappeared completely. He was back to my sweet, gentle Frey and held no grudges (then again, he didn’t need to since he got his way). But when we were fighting, I found it upset me (tremendously) when he was angry. We got along so well, fighting with him was no fun, it didn’t feel good at all in so far as it didn’t even feel right and I wasn’t all fired up to get in another argument with him then or, ever, really.

So I needed to find a way to discuss this with my husband without either of us getting upset and with Frey agreeing to let me go home.

Something I thought would be impossible.

I was thinking of all this as I was wandering along the upper balcony, taking in the lake, the sea of pine trees rising up all around, the snow-capped mountains rising behind the trees, the pretty village of Kellshorn some ways away and all of this reflected in the calm, clear waters of the lake. And I was doing this hoping for those calm waters to calm me when I saw Bess, Alyssa and Esther at the end of the balcony looking down and whispering to each other.