Frey answered immediately. “Thad could drink two bottles of whisky while still consuming ale and not be full in his cups. If Ruben waits for Thad to get arsed, it will be a long night. And if Ruben has the patience for Thad to fall full in his cups and Thad’s fool enough to challenge, his blade work will indeed be shoddy and Ruben will have his blood.” My eyes got big and Frey kept talking. “Don’t worry, wee one, Ruben will be certain to stick him so he makes his point but doesn’t do damage because he knows we set sail in two weeks and he doesn’t want to court a knife fight with me, which is what he’ll get if he sticks one of my men badly enough to lay him up prior to a voyage.”
I blinked up at him but said no words.
Frey leaned in so his face was close to mine. “This will not happen, Finnie. And it won’t happen because that warm, soft wench is still in Ruben’s bed waiting for him. There is no chance he’ll sit around here waiting for Thad to get tossed. We won’t be halfway home before he’ll be at his cottage just down the street, joining his woman.”
I knew this was true mainly because of the confident way Frey relayed this information. It was clear he knew his men, he read the situation and there was no cause for alarm.
“All righty then,” I whispered and he grinned.
Then he lifted a hand to the side of my neck and gave me a squeeze before he urged softly, “Bid farewell to your friends and let us get away home.”
I nodded, suddenly liking the idea (very much) of “getting away home” with my husband. That meant making out (or better) so I accepted the cloak Frey threw over my shoulders and fastened it at my neck as I moved to Ulysses, Frederick and Laurel to give them all hugs and cheek kisses, thanking them for teaching me tuble and spending time with me.
“Until you return, your grace,” Frederick said on a squeeze during our hug.
“It was a pleasure, Winter Princess,” Laurel muttered, holding onto my upper arms and smiling at me.
“Honored to do it and will be honored when we do it again, Princess Finnie,” Ulysses murmured in my ear while proving his arms were indeed very strong for he squeezed the breath right out of me.
When I pulled away, I smiled into his eyes and wondered if I’d be back this way before I went home. Then I looked through the three of them and hoped I would. I didn’t know them well, just like everyone I’d said farewell to that day in the village, but everything I knew I liked so it would be cool to know more.
Frey came around the table and claimed me and I called good-byes and see-you-laters to Thaddeus and Ruben as I yanked on my gloves. Thaddeus grunted his good-bye, still clearly peeved. Ruben smiled at me and gave a good-bye flick of his hand, still not peeved at all.
I wrapped the fingers of both my hands around Frey’s bicep (or kinda did, they didn’t get anywhere near going all the way around) and leaned into him as he led us out of the pub and down the snow covered ground toward where Tyr was waiting.
“So,” I started, “do you really know how to bottom deal, stack the deck, false shuffle and all of that?”
“Yes,” Frey answered and my head snapped back to look up at him.
“Really?” I asked.
He looked down at me and grinned. “Yes.”
“Will you teach me?”
Without hesitation, he repeated, “Yes.”
“Awesome,” I breathed, his grin became a smile through which he chuckled and then he disengaged my hands from his arm when he moved it to slide around my shoulders and pull me to his body.
I slid both my arms around his middle and walked semi-sideways as I pressed my cheek to his chest.
It had been a good day, a good night and it had been six good weeks (mostly).
And it kept getting better.
I sighed as Tyr came into view wondering how much better tonight might get (and hoping it got a whole lot better) then my step stuttered when I felt Frey’s body suddenly get tight at my side.
Then, in a flash, he flung me away from him. I went flying and landed against Tyr who had shifted quickly to the side in a way that it seemed like he was breaking my fall.
But even as I reeled, I saw it.
I saw.
I saw.
Lightning fast, Frey’s hand went to his knife on his belt, his knees bent and his arm swung overhanded, launching the knife down the walk.
And I saw that knife lodge right in a man’s throat.
I stared at the man as he fell backward, hands lifting to his neck, blood spurting from the knife and rushing down to stain his sweater but I sensed more movement, looked back and saw Frey had his other knife out, a man was approaching him, blade drawn. Frey’s hand snaked out and wrapped around the man’s wrist that was holding the knife. Frey whirled him and yanked him back against his body and, without hesitation, on another hideous gush of blood, Frey sliced open his throat.
Saliva filled my mouth as the air hollowed out of my lungs and I pressed back hard against Tyr.
Then I heard running footsteps and saw another flying knife as Thad went down to a knee and released one in what appeared to be my direction. My heard jerked around to see a man who had been rounding Tyr and nearing me drop to his knees, Thad’s knife in the side of his neck.
Then I whirled immediately the other way as I heard scuffling feet and I saw Ruben had hold of yet another man, one arm wrapped around the man’s chest, pinning him to Ruben, Ruben holding his own knife close to the man’s throat. The man in Ruben’s hold was pressing back to get away from the knife and grunting with the effort even as his feet shuffled underneath him but only his toes were touching the snow because Ruben held him off the ground.
I stood frozen, every inch of me, including my mind and my lungs… but not my heart.
My heart was hammering painfully in my chest.
Tyr was pressing his bulk against my back which was a good because if he didn’t, there was a good chance I would pass out.
“We saw them follow you out of the pub,” Thad explained, striding forward casually and bending over to yank the knife out of the not quite dead man lying in the snow not three feet away from me. And when he did, the man’s body jerked as he made a horrid gurgling noise and a new flood of blood poured out of the wound.
Another surge of saliva filled my mouth at the sight but Thad completely ignored him as he straightened and turned to Frey.
“They’ve had eyes on you and Princess Finnie all night,” Ruben put in.
“Felt them, saw them, not skilled, unwise but interesting,” Frey muttered distractedly then jerked his chin at Ruben. “Find out what he knows and I’ll want to know everything he says the minute you break him.” Ruben grinned in a very scary way that told an equally frightening tale about the new activities he’d be engaged in that night, activities he appeared to be anticipating with great relish but Frey was already looking to Thad. “Go to the constable, explain. Go to the men, I want four at the cabin on patrol outside. All night. Do it now but not in that order. Finnie and I are away home. Tell the men we leave for Fyngaard at dawn, we’ll need a guard. And send someone to the king.”