Wildest Dreams (Fantasyland #1)(55)

“She’s just lucky he didn’t take her to his fishing cottage in Tylgould. The smell…” Alyssa’s cute, pert nose scrunched up.

Jeez, how many houses did Frey own?

“Tylgould is lovely,” Esther stated. “My parents took me there as a child. And I hear his cottage is right on the Winter Sea. The properties right on the sea are very old but very quaint and very exclusive.”

“Yes, but even so… the smell,” Alyssa repeated as she shook her head.

“Uh –” I tried to cut in and all attention came back to me including Jocelyn’s hand that curled lightly on my thigh.

“Please tell us he’s been kind to you,” she whispered.

“Well…” I started but clearly didn’t speak quickly enough for Esther spoke.

“Bloody hell, he hasn’t.”

“Well –” I tried again.

“I knew it,” Alyssa hissed and looked at Bess. “If he was away on his ship so quickly that means everyone was wrong. The Drakkar would never leave a woman in his bed who he wanted to be in that bed with, balls to crucial business. We should have done something.”

“What could we have done? The queen was in a state. And when Queen Aurora gets in a state…” Bess trailed off, saying it all without saying a thing then finished, “We didn’t have time.”

Alyssa’s hand came up and she squeezed my arm so my head turned to her and she said softly, “I’m so sorry er… other Sjofn.”

“Finnie,” I urged her to call me on a smile, “please call me Finnie.”

“Finnie,” she smiled back.

Okay, well, I was definitely going to like these girls, that I knew right off, but I wished they’d let me talk.

“Finnie,” Jocelyn said and I turned to her. “That’s very sweet.”

“Oh we have so much to tell you!” Bess exclaimed in that restrained way again.

“Yes, including the fact that Sjofn’s witch has been here three times,” Esther stated.

I grew tense at this unexpected news and blinked at her but before I could ask, Alyssa spoke.

“That Agnes, she has something of great import to tell you,” Alyssa shared and I turned my head to stare at her.

Great. Just great. I wondered what that was but I was thinking maybe I didn’t want to know. Who knew what Sjofn was getting up to in my world?

“But she’ll only tell you,” Bess stated and my eyes went to her. “Still, it seems rather urgent.”

Ho boy.

“Well! Enough of this!” Jocelyn finally announced. “It’s clear The Drakkar is in a mood and he and his men have been travelling a long way. We need to prepare Finnie for dinner without delay.”

“But –” I started as they scrambled off the bed, tugging me with them.

“Bath first,” Alyssa mumbled. “Bess, off you go to see about her trunks. We need to unpack her immediately.”

Bess scurried away without a peep.

“The sky blue satin, I think,” Jocelyn mumbled as they led me to the wall which I saw had a hidden door, the doorknob barely noticeable in the wood.

“Ice blue,” Alyssa disagreed. “He called her his Ice Bride.”

Esther opened the door in front of us and in we went to another room, this clearly a bathroom slash dressing room with a fabulous light blue, suede-covered chaise lounge in the corner, a three paneled screen that had a beautifully stitched tapestry depicting a snowy-mountain landscape with a cloud-free sky, three dark wood, carved wardrobes on three different walls, a table with a gorgeous porcelain basin adorned with delicate blue flowers, a matching pitcher on a shelf underneath it, a roaring fire in another beautifully carved, stone mantel fireplace, another heavily-carved, full-length oval mirror and a big, oval copper tub in the middle with one side swayed back with a fluffy, ice blue, cotton-covered pillow tied to holes in the copper where you could lay your head when you lounged back.

I stared with mouth open, rendered speechless by the room rather than the girls’ chatter.

Only two syllables described this room: awe… some.

“He must be blind or just mad, I cannot understand why he wouldn’t see our, er… princess’s charms,” Jocelyn muttered and my attention went back to the conversation.

“Well, it’s hard to be beautiful in a hunting cabin, no matter how beautiful you actually are,” Esther stated in a voice that held an edge of ire. “Especially when you don’t have your maidservants to assist you. I cannot believe he departed without taking us with her… wherever he was going.”

“Uh… ladies –” I tried.

“Well, he’ll see her now, we’ll be sure of it and he won’t be blind any longer,” Alyssa stated firmly. “And it will definitely be the ice blue,” she told Jocelyn. “Not the sky blue.”

“The sky blue is lovely with her eyes, none better,” Jocelyn shot back.

“Neither, the winter white with the Valerian embroidery,” Esther declared.

All right. I needed to get in there.

“Girls!” I said loudly when both Jocelyn and Alyssa opened their mouths to retort to Esther and all eyes came to me. “You don’t need to make a match,” I told them. “Frey likes me just fine.”