“Am I presentable?” She asks him with her hand on the front door knob.
Too much so. “Lovely, Your Highness.”
A crooked smile forms along her lips before she throws open the door, only for a frown to replace her happiness.
“May I help you?”
Calder peers through the windows.
Oh, Briny’s balls, he swears.
“Good day,” Jarl Guy greets her with two soldiers flanking the bottom steps. His breath is somehow visible in the summer afternoon. “I wish to speak with King Sigvid Thordsson. My party has recently arrived from Skalor, and I hoped to finally make his acquaintance.”
Any vestiges of longing lingering with the Princess evaporate, leaving the same eerie tension he recognizes in himself. “My lord, I fear my parents are away. I also believe the King instructed that no one should call upon our private residence.”
Guy claps his hand on his forehead. “Oh, dear me. Now, I recall! Please, forgive my intrusion,” he trails off, expecting her to give him her name.
“Frida.” She lies so spectacularly well that Calder nods his approval.
“Oh,” Guy steps back, straightening his tunic. “I was under the impression he only had one daughter.”
A frigid expression settles over her, and she crosses her arms tightly. “My older siblings are adopted. We all bear the Sigvidsson-Redwood name.” The warning in her voice threatens an unshakeable fury.
“No offense offered, dear. I would like to call upon Princess Aura?” he asks with a glance into the house, this time catching Calder and offering a smirk. “I see my peer is welcome inside.”
“Jarl Calder,”Gods, she can say my name all day long, “is here on my invitation. Besides,” she tosses her curls with such dismissive care that she draws rare amusement from the Iss Drengr’s lips, “he fought alongside my father in the shield wall.Heis allowed to take residence in a guest room while staying in Treland.”
“Of course.” Guy grows cautious. “I will take my leave, Princess Frida.”
He could not be daft enough to fall for her lie.
“Excuse me,” Grim appears behind Guy and greets him as Aura lets the door slam closed.
“Did you see how he approached me, looking for Father and then asking for me by name?” Her nostrils flare. “That,” she gestures to the front doors, “is what I meant, Jarl Calder. How can I exist as Aura, the non-Drengr? Everyone can stomp upon me until they need Father, of course. Then I becomePrincess Aura.” Her words are bitter and filled with intensity.
He strides toward her until they are nearly touching. She is a resilient, determined young woman.
I’d slay all her foes from here to the ends of the continent just to watch her reach her potential.
“I apologize for that. I sent that Jarl on his way,” Grim says, interrupting the moment.
Calder lingers a breath away from her for far too long, and he is confident that his old friend is, at the very least, passively observing the tense heat between him and the Princess.
“Pardon me, I wish to go lie down. Thank you, Jarl Calder,” she bows low to him, her gaze swiftly flicking to his. “Uncle Grim.” Aura embraces him before heading up the stairs to the second floor.
Grim shakes his head in disbelief. “Where did you find her?”
“Around Blackwood.” He would not betray her trust. “Grim, I am available during the Conclave to watch over her.”
Why am I committing blasphemy? Why can't I just keep quiet and enjoy Salt, the one place that comes to mind when I close my eyes?
Grim drops into one of the chairs by the hearth. “I would be eternally grateful, good fellow. As long as a member of Sigvid’s Inner Circle watches over the Princess, we should be clear with him. Just don’t let anything happen to Aura, or it’ll be all our heads.”
Once Grim disembarks again, Calder ascends the steps to the second floor, recalling that he stashed a bottle of Steinlund whiskey in his pack before leaving Kaldrgataness. Here’s to drinking away thoughts of devouring every hole of the young woman tormenting his thoughts.
As he strides down the corridor, he hears faint sounds of pleasure.
Is that a moan?
