“Over an hour.”
I blinked again and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
He uncrossed his arms and planted his fists on his h*ps and asked back, “And why would I do that?”
I put my hands to my h*ps too and shot back, “Oh, I don’t know, Kell. Probably so I’d have more time to consider this dilemma and maybe come up with an answer rather than receiving the news there was a dilemma at the last possible moment so my only choice is to freak out and make a rushed decision about what the heck we’re going to do. Jeez, two heads are better than one,” I ended on an annoyed snap.
“Not when one ‘a those heads belongs to a woman,” Kell fired back.
Oh no he did not.
I glared at him.
Then I ordered, “Prepare a boat and pick men you trust to accompany me but the party must include Gunner and Stephan.”
It was his turn to blink. Then he breathed out a, “What?” that clearly stated he thought I was insane.
“Prepare a boat and pick men you trust to accompany me,” I repeated.
“Woman –” Kell started but I interrupted him.
“Kell, we have a demand from a king. We’re in his waters and my husband is in his country doing something he will probably not like. Frey is not set to return for days.” I leaned forward and reminded him, “We need to buy time and the only one who can do that is me.”
“Princess, that man has known the other you since she was a baby and you have never seen him in your life,” he reminded me back.
I threw out a hand and declared, “I’ll wing it.”
His brows shot together again and he grunted, “Wing it?”
“Make it up as I go along, wing it. Now send a message that I’m rousing myself for the journey, prepare a boat and select men you trust to accompany me.”
He didn’t move. He scowled.
Then he announced, “Drakkar is not gonna like this, woman.”
I didn’t figure he would. Then again, I figured he’d come to understand I had no choice.
With any luck.
“I’ll deal with that later.”
“Hopefully it won’t be much later, say, he already knows what’s happenin’, he’s makin’ his play and that play is abducting you, incarceratin’ your rounded arse in one ‘a his castles and sendin’ word to your father that he ain’t real happy his niece and nephew-in-law are runnin’ amok in his kingdom. Somethin’, by the by, your papa don’t know balls about.”
Hmm.
“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it,” I decided.
Kell scowled at me some more but still didn’t move.
“Kell, time is wasting,” I reminded him.
He ignored me and continued to scowl at me. Then something shifted on his face, the scowl was still there, just not as severe and something had lit in his eyes.
I didn’t have time to decipher it. I had no time at all and I needed to get changed before all this went down. I wasn’t wearing breeches to this meeting. I was meeting my uncle, king to princess, and I needed an outfit that would remind him of that.
So I prompted, somewhat loudly, “Kell!”
That was when he muttered, “He said you had the spirit.”