I blinked again then asked, “You think?”

“Absolutely,” he answered.

I felt my body melt in his arms.

“What’d she do?” I heard Jocelyn whisper from behind me.

Then I heard Thad answer, “I’ll tell you but I’ll do it outside.”

Then I heard the shuffling of bodies moving right before both Frey and I were rocked to the side as arms came around both of our thighs. I looked down to see it was Skylar giving our legs a hug and I melted even deeper in Frey’s arm as I moved a hand to touch Skylar’s hair. But Skylar, being Skylar, didn’t wait around for that. Without a word or look, he let go and raced out of the room. I twisted in Frey’s arms to watch him as he did it and saw the only one left was Kell.

He was standing, feet planted, arms crossed on his chest, eyes glued to Frey.

“Don’t know if it’s the spirit she’s got,” he remarked. “Don’t know what the bloody hell it is. Never seen the like from a woman.” His eyes shifted to me before he finished brusquely. “Only know whatever the bloody hell it is, it’s good.”

Then he uncrossed his arms, stomped out of the room like coming to this conclusion was beyond annoying and indeed rocked his world to its very foundations and he didn’t like that all that much and he slammed the door behind him.

I turned back to Frey feeling warm inside and out.

“I think Kell likes me,” I whispered.

“You would think correctly.” Frey didn’t whisper.

My eyes went to his chest as my fingers went there to fiddle with the strap of his cloak. “So, uh… you’re not mad at me for losing it, you’re, um… proud of me?”

He gave me a gentle shake and my fingers quit fiddling as my eyes lifted to his.

Then he stated, “You weren’t born princess, Finnie Drakkar, but that does not mean you’re not one.”

I closed my eyes and dropped my forehead to his chest as his words washed over me. And when I did my crown dug into my forehead so I immediately pulled it right back.

“I need to get rid of my crown,” I whispered.

He nodded but didn’t move. Instead, he asked, “Are you all right?”

I answered honestly, “No, that was heinous and I hope no one else tries to kill me because that isn’t much fun at all and watching them hang for it isn’t much better.”

His mouth twitched and he agreed, “I hope so too.”

I leaned into him and stated, “Now I need food and after that I need my husband to take me to bed and hold me so I can forget all this and think about where Mother is going to take me shopping tomorrow.”

His arms tightened and he replied, “My wee Finnie, if we’re in bed I would hope you’re not thinking about where your Mother is going to take you shopping.”

I grinned at him then challenged, “Well then, it seems you have your work cut out for you because some of the shops we passed today…” I shrugged and finished, “just saying.”

He grinned back, his body shaking with laughter and he accepted my challenge by dropping his head and kissing me.

Incidentally, several hours later, after dinner, when I was in Frey’s arms in our warm, soft bed in Rimée Keep, not once did I think of shopping.

Or executions.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Conjecture

Two weeks later...

Frey Drakkar stood between to Max and Thad and watched Gunner putting Finnie and Sky through their paces, Finnie atop her new mount Caspia.

Drakkar had presented his wife with her horse two days after they arrived in Snowdon. It was a dapple gray; its dapples an extraordinary shade that bordered on lilac and when he saw her, Drakkar knew she was Finnie’s. He was correct. Finnie had been entranced the moment she met her, named her within a second and fell in love with her the second after. As for Drakkar, he’d become entranced the moment his wife did and he made note to bestow gifts upon her far more often.

Now, every day, as with her archery and knife work, she and Sky spent an hour or more with Gunner learning what Finnie termed, “Raider Horse Maneuvers”. And at that very moment she was bent over Caspia’s neck, snaking her gray at a gallop closely around obstacles Gun had set out after which she (and Sky) encountered a fence that they had to jump. Once they achieved that, they were to rein their mounts around sharply, re-jump the fence and snake again through the obstacles, this time snatching pennants from the top (Finnie’s, blue; Sky’s, black) only to end having to jump another fence.

His bride, Drakkar noted, was taking to her Raider Horse Maneuvers far quicker than she had archery or daggers and he knew why. Firstly, she had experience on a mount. Secondly, she was fearless. The speed, the maneuvering, her position in the saddle nor the jumps fazed her. She faced it all unblinking and drove herself to excel. Horsemanship was part skill, part finesse and part daring and she had the latter of those in abundance.

That said, she was beginning to excel at archery, having achieved three more direct bulls-eyes. Therefore, Annar had advanced her to stalking young, male servants who volunteered to wear padded cloaks and tripled wool caps and were set to skulking through a local forest where Finnie would, if she found them, shoot at them with arrows that had no points but instead pads wadded with cotton. Her volunteers, Annar reported, enjoyed this tremendously, looking on it as a game even when Finnie’s arrow found its unharmed target. This was because, Annar told him, Finnie made it a game.

She was, also according to Annar, excelling at that too.

Although proud of his wife, Drakkar couldn’t contain a sense of amused disquiet that she seemed so determined to gather all the skills required of a Raider.

It would be good when she fell pregnant with his child. This, he hoped, would turn her mind from adventuring with him and his men, something he was getting the not so vague sense she was intent on doing, to caring for herself and their child.

Drakkar watched as Finnie re-jumped the fence and wound through the seven obstacles, missing only two pennants as Sky followed her much slower while missing five of his and one of the ones he’d gained, he dropped.

“Finnie takes to this Frey,” Max muttered, his eyes on Finnie who had jumped the last fence and reined Caspia in to trot over to where Sky was atop his mount, shoulders slumped having given up in his dejection therefore he pulled back on his horse and did not make the final jump. “Gun will have to increase her challenge soon,” Max finished.

“He will,” Thad concurred. “But Sky is nowhere near equaling her and she’ll not advance until Sky can advance with her.”