“Frey,” I called, he stilled and his eyebrows went up. “Is everything okay?” I repeated my earlier question.
This time, he answered instantly, “Everything will be okay when we’re at sea and you’re surrounded by men I trust not to poison you or sink a dagger in your flesh.”
Ho boy.
Clearly someone had not had his mind taken off the events of the night by an awesome new city, doxies, galleons and a cool-as-shit captain’s cabin all of it straight out of a movie.
Therefore, I moved into him and circled him with my arms.
Pressing close and tilting my head way back, I whispered, “Honey, I’m okay.”
“Indeed,” he replied, curving his arms around me.
I tipped my head to the side and smiled big at him. “And we’re off on an adventure.”
His eyes again roamed my face before he murmured, “That we are, my Finnie.”
“So it’s all good,” I concluded and watched a darkness settle in his eyes.
Hmm. Maybe all was not good.
I gave him a squeeze and prompted, “Frey.”
“I bedded her,” he said quietly and I felt my brows draw together as my body tensed at his words.
“What?” I asked.
“I bedded her,” he repeated, one of his hands coming up to curl around my neck, he bent slightly so his face was closer to me. “I bedded her,” he said yet again and went on. “And asked her to attend the table the first night I returned with my new bride and your Mother shared that, in doing this, I gave her hope that she would again warm my bed, which, Finnie, I vow to you now that no matter what I said when I was angry with you, she did not.”
He was talking about Viola.
I nodded at this news that was not news to me and Frey kept talking.
“I’d no idea she was of weak character. I’d no idea her time with me led to an infatuation that was unhealthy. I’d no idea she would be open not only to conspiring to harm you but actually moving personally to carry out a plot to murder my wife.”
Ho boy.
“Frey –” I tried to break in on another squeeze of my arms but he bent deeper, got closer and kept talking.
“But she did and I knew the dangers you faced and it wasn’t my hand that tipped the vial of poison in the glass delivered to you but it was my actions that tipped her actions which means events unfolded, a woman lost her life and another woman narrowly avoided losing hers and that woman is my wife. So no, wee one, everything is not okay.”
All righty, this was a leap he was clearly determined to make, a leap that really made no sense but a leap founded in deep feelings of guilt and those kind never made any kind of sense.
And lastly, it was a leap from which I had to reel him back.
In an effort to do that, both my hands slid up his chest and came to rest on either side of his neck as I whispered, “What happened was not your fault.”
“I disagree, Finnie.”
I gave him a squeeze and a gentle shake. “Frey, you’re wrong.”
“Change places with me, my love, and tell me…” his hand gave me a squeeze too and he continued, “even if it was anyone but especially that it was this woman, a woman we argued over, an argument that spurred me to do something unwise which caused a rift between us, a woman you could only be sensitive about and, perhaps not now but possibly later, think about her, think about my thoughtless actions and what they led to and then let that fester. Knowing what already happened and what could happen as your mind invariably turns over the events of last night, how would you feel right now?”
Okay, he had a point there.
“Okay,” I said softly, “you have a point there but think about it. Firstly, if we were to change places and I was in your arms, feeling like shit that all this went down, in an effort to make me feel better and to understand it was really, truly not my fault, wouldn’t you explain that the actions of others are the actions of others? We had an argument and people do crazy things when they’re pissed. You were pissed and you acted on that. Everyone does stuff like that. You asked her to wait on a table, that’s it. You didn’t make any promises to her. She twisted that in her head and she did what she did but she did it. You can’t help it that you’re great in bed.” He did a slow blink at my words but I kept talking. “Well, I guess you could. If you wanted to be bad in bed, you could do that, I suppose. Though I’d ask you don’t start doing that now.”
“Finnie –”