“I am fine, Finnie,” she answered.
“You don’t look fine,” I observed, her fake smile faltered and her eyes slid back to the stables so I got closer and enquired gently, “Is this going to be bad, you girls having dalliances with Frey’s men?”
Esther’s eyes came quickly to me, her brows drawn then her face relaxed and she shook her head. “No. It is usually fun and games, the heart isn’t involved. Dalliances occur often and those involved move on with no ill-will, even to friends of the men or women involved.” She explained this but hesitated, her eyes drifting back to the stables and she muttered, “But…” and then she trailed off.
“But what?” I prompted and she looked back at me.
Then she got closer and took my hand before saying softly, “But our Jocelyn, she admires The Drakkar’s Thad and not just because he is a tall, hearty lad with broad shoulders and pleasing eyes. But because he has a quick wit, an easy smile and, she’s noted on more than one occasion, a soft heart. And I fear,” her eyes went back to the stables, “hers is involved but his,” her eyes came back to me, “is not.”
I bit my lip for this might be true. While we were in Hawkvale, I wrote to my girls and they wrote to me. Mail took for freaking ever to get where it was going so there wasn’t a lot of communication but we’d managed to exchange a few letters and Jocelyn’s contributions asked after Thad. Her tone was casual but a forced casual that I thought, at the time, was kind of cute.
Now, thinking about it, all the time my girls had been amongst Frey’s boys and they switched favorites nearly daily, Jocelyn’s attention had always been taken by Thad and never strayed. Thad, on the other hand, I knew, unlike Ruben, did not have a steady woman and, indeed, like all of Frey’s other men, had a steady stream of women.
Ho boy.
I let my lip go and squeezed Esther’s hand, promising, “I’ll have a word with Frey and see if he’ll have a word with Thad to, um… assess the situation. If he won’t or if he will and the news is not good, then I’ll have a word with Jocelyn just to see where she is and give her a little, um… guidance.”
Esther’s eyes went soft and she nodded, “This would be good, my princess.” I nodded back, she squeezed my hand, her eyes going intense, she paused as if uncertain and I waited until she said quietly, “We all, well…” she hesitated. “We miss Sjofn.”
We hadn’t talked of it but all my girls knew I was expecting (though they were surprised I was for they said the powder was usually very reliable) and all of them knew what that meant which was the fact that their friend wasn’t coming back. And I knew all of them were sad about this but I also knew they were all trying to hide it from me.
I held her hand tight and whispered, “I know, honey.”
“But, we’re all also glad you are so sweet.”
I smiled at her and, still whispering, said, “Thank you, Esther. That means a lot.”
She returned my smile before her eyes wandered back to the landscape, stopped on something and she muttered, “I best move, I don’t want to left out,” then she squeezed my hand again, let it go and hurried away.
I watched her a second then looked out to see Oleg striding toward the house while scowling at an Orion who was now smiling down at Bess then he swung his scowl to Max and Stephan who both appeared to be flirting with Alyssa and I had to admit, I was a little surprised at Esther’s choice. Oleg wasn’t hard on the eyes but he also wasn’t easygoing and quick to laugh or smile like all of Frey’s other men. In fact, he so wasn’t any of these, he seemed grumpy a lot of the time.
I waited then watched Esther approach him and then watched him stop and scowl at her, something which I thought was kind of scary but didn’t affect her in the slightest. She said something to him, his brows shot together then he jerked up his chin then jerked his whole head to the house. She turned toward it, he followed her and I wondered what she’d said to him. As she moved, her eyes came up to me and she smiled.
I smiled back.
Oleg, if her smile was anything to go by and he could quit being grumpy long enough to catch a pass, was about to get lucky too.
I left the balcony and in so doing left my girls to it and headed to Frey and my bedroom to get my book and Penelope.
Instead of thinking about how I was going to get my husband to agree to let me return home for a little while to say good-bye to my old life, I wanted to lose myself in a book while reclining on one of the comfortable, wooden lounge chairs on the deck. These had a big, iron fire pit next to them that put off so much heat, what with that and the summer thaw Frey told me about that was warming the air, making the days longer and the snow melt and the icicles drip, you didn’t have to wear a cloak. I knew this because I’d tested it last night, cuddling with Frey in one of those chairs with a big fire blazing beside us and making out until Frey was done making out and carried me to our bedroom to do a lot more than make out. But considering the activities of my girls and Frey’s men, and the fact that he only had a housekeeper at his lodge, no other servants, and further he likely wouldn’t be fired up about me building my own fire considering he thought pregnancy required severely limited physical activity (as in, none at all except to walk, sit, eat and have sex), I decided I’d curl up by the fire in the living room. There were super-soft, comfy couches in there, so comfy, they were a very good second best.
Or, at least they would be until Frey returned from whatever he was doing and I could ask him to build me a fire.
I entered our bedroom through the wooden doors that led to the balcony, closed them behind me and started to the nightstand on my side of the bed where my book was when the hairs at the back of my neck stood up.
I stopped, my breath stopped and I turned slowly then stopped again, going completely still at what I saw.
In the armchair in the corner by the windows sat Valentine wearing a fabulous, jade green, wool knit, wraparound dress, equally fabulous, spike-heeled, charcoal gray boots and her tremendously fabulous red hair was framing the classic features of her alabaster face.
Penelope was curled in her lap purring as Valentine’s blood-red fingernails moved through her thick, ginger fur.
Holy moly.
“Valentine?” I whispered.
“Hello, my goddess of love,” she replied quietly, my eyes got big and I felt a smile hit my face as I rushed to her.
“Valentine! It is so cool you’re here!” I cried, her head tipped to the side, her lips tipped up slightly and her eyes flashed in a way that made my excitement at what I thought was a very surprising but also very fortunate turn of events fade to hesitant concern.