Fantasyland: Midnight Soul Part 25

She said nothing, likely because her mouth had dropped open and her stare had become vacant.

"Is this something that offends you?" I asked when her look persisted, as did her silence.

She snapped her mouth closed, opened it, closed it and finally got down to it.

"As you know, my, uh...well, as you know, no other maid I know addresses her lady that way. It just isn't done."

"I'm not just any lady and you are definitely not just another maid. If the Winter Princess herself knew of your talents, she'd try to steal you from me."

A blush of pleasure pinkened her cheeks as she said, "I'd never leave you."

I tipped up my chin. "And I know this and prize it. So let's dispense with some of the formalities, shall we?"

"I...all right," she agreed, a tentative smile forming on her face.

"Excellent," I murmured. "Now that's done, I'll meet your final candidates tomorrow. Once I do, we'll discuss them and decide. But I need to give you another task."

"And that would be?" she asked.

"Your gowns, stockings, cloaks, boots, slippers, etc. You'll need to visit a local clothier, cobbler and milliner as you'll require clothing suitable for a variety of climes and a good deal of it. When we're aboard a s.h.i.+p, I'm not certain there are laundry facilities, and I don't like the idea of you donning dirty clothing because you have no spare. And please, increase the quality of the pieces you choose. You are a maid of a lady of the House of Drakkar but further, we've no idea what we'll be encountering. It would be good for those who look upon us to think you're my ward, and thus have some protection of a certain cla.s.s, rather than my maid."

"Really, Lady...I mean, Franka?" she breathed, her mouth now working, but her eyes had again gone wide.

"If I didn't mean it, I wouldn't say it," I retorted.

"I would...would...would..." she finally spit it out, nearly bouncing in her seat, "adore that."

"I change my mind," I stated and her face fell. "We'll go together. I want to make certain you don't do anything frugal out of habit. Once my brother has arrived and I've greeted him, he'll want to settle his family and probably rest. We'll go out after he arrives."

Bright-eyed again, Josette replied, "That would be most lovely, erm, Franka."

"Indeed it would," I agreed, regarding her thoughtfully. "With your coloring, I think greens. Perhaps pinks. You've excellent skin, roses and creams, pink would suit you." I tipped my head to the side. "I do believe red would also become you, but we'll have to see."

She sniffled and I stopped scrutinizing her and looked in her eyes.

They were wet.

"Josette," I chided softly. "You really cannot rush from the room under the threat of tears every time I show a kindness."

"My Lady," she said in a choked voice.

"I thought we dispensed with that," I reminded her gently.

"No," she stated. Lifting her hand and coughing delicately behind it, she dropped it and straightened in her chair. "That's the last time I'll say it, I promise. But I just want you to know, you're My Lady."

These words made me blink rapidly three times, feeling the sting hit my eyes.

I then straightened in my own chair and declared, "It would vex me greatly if our growing relations.h.i.+p meant we degenerated into simpering ninnies, weeping at every pleasantry that pa.s.sed between us."

"I'll endeavor to be more hardened, Franka," she promised.

"See to that," I ordered smartly.

She fought it. I watched it. But she couldn't control the strangled giggle that pa.s.sed her lips.

I smiled at her indulgently.

I did not berate myself on doing this or doing it indulgently.

I was getting used to it.

Chapter Seven.

It Was Gone Franka I was abed with my breakfast tray the next morning when there came a rap on the door.

I turned my head that way only to see said door open and Noc stroll through.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

Truly.

The nerve.

I wasn't even out of bed yet!

"I'm having my breakfast," I snapped.

"Good morning to you too," he replied, not hiding his amus.e.m.e.nt in the face of my frustration and sauntering across the room but not coming to my bedside.

No.

He walked across the foot of the bed to the other, vacant side, and I watched in stunned silence as he put his a.r.s.e to it, twisted, put his whole body to it, stretched out and settled on his side but with his body up on his forearm, facing me.

Noc in those b.l.o.o.d.y trousers and a blue s.h.i.+rt that did nice things to his eyes, stretched out in bed beside me.

He was impossible.

Once settled, he then reached out and selected a cantaloupe ball from my crystal bowl of fruit and popped it into his mouth.

"That's my melon," I kept snapping.

"Chill, baby," he murmured, grinning at me.

"Chill?" I asked, knowing this was his-world slang, just not able to fathom what it meant.

"Relax," he explained.

Oh.

Hmm.

That was actually quite clever, considering my ire was heated.

I didn't relay this sentiment to him.

I declared, "I'll relax when you get out of my bed, leave my room and allow me to eat my breakfast in peace."

"I'll do that when you tell me how you're doin' this morning and what's up for your day," he returned.

I turned slightly his way and queried, "Has it occurred to you how irritating it is that you consistently ignore my wishes?"

"Has it occurred to you that I know your act is bulls.h.i.+t so I'm gonna keep ignoring the bulls.h.i.+t and get on with things?" he retorted, but he wasn't quite finished. "You like me. You like spending time with me. Stop pretending that you don't."

He was correct, of course. He was excellent company. Engaged. Amusing. Affectionate. Attentive. Thoughtful. Caring. And very much not hard to look at.

I was not about to share those sentiments with him either.

I turned back to my tray, picked up a triangle of b.u.t.tered toast and my knife and started slathering marmalade on it as I mumbled (me! mumbling!), "It'll be good when I'm away on a s.h.i.+p."

"What?" Noc asked.

"Nothing," I kept mumbling and continued spreading as I raised my voice and answered his question. "I'm quite all right this morning, Noc. As concerns my back, better than yesterday. And I would imagine, just in case on the morrow you find yourself curious about the same, it will be even better as healing tends to go that way."

"Glad to hear it, sweetheart," he said softly. "But I meant that gig with your folks yesterday and your brother probably showin' today."

I turned my head his way, lifting my toast and inquiring, "The gig with my parents, if I'm to understand you, is done. Behind me. And my brother and I might not have a close, loving relations.h.i.+p, but we've been through a good deal together so I'm looking forward to his visit."

I then put the toast between my lips, sunk my teeth into it and munched.

"Big stuff like what happened yesterday can mess with your head, Frannie. Feels like a relief at the time, then the demons everyone fights in their heads start playing with you," he noted.

The demons everyone fights?

He had demons?

This I found surprising. And intriguing. He seemed confident in all matters. The way he held and used his body. The way he spoke. The way he communicated with others.

I suddenly felt hungry for something I'd given up on doing.

This being gathering all the information I could on a certain subject and not caring how I had to obtain that information.

This time the subject was Noc.

Fortunately, after Kristian left, Josette and I would be away so I couldn't indulge in this pastime.

"There are no demons playing with my mind," I a.s.sured him. "I had some unease prior to yesterday's visit but it couldn't have gone better if I'd planned every second prior to entering that jail."

"Good to hear that too," he muttered, reaching out and s.n.a.t.c.hing more of my cantaloupe.

I sighed.

I then shared, "As you've spoken it repeatedly, you know my name is p.r.o.nounced Frahn-kah."

His brows drew together, he swallowed my melon and he said, "Well...yeah."

"So should I wish to have one, which I don't, the nickname Frannie is not only abhorrent, it doesn't make sense. It should be Frahnnie and that's just ridiculous. Or more ridiculous than Frannie."

"Could call you Koko," he remarked, and I felt my lip curl. I then felt the bed slightly shake with his chuckle as he said, "Okay, that's out."

"How about calling me Franka?" I suggested.

"Can't call you Kaka because that's just wrong," he went on his own bent, as was his wont, completely ignoring my suggestion because it went against what he wished to do.

But my curiosity got the better of me.

"Not that I desire you to call me Kaka either, but why is that just wrong?"

"In my world that's s.h.i.+t. As in it means s.h.i.+t, c.r.a.p, excrement."

The lip curl that earned was more p.r.o.nounced.

Noc exploded with laughter.

I sighed yet again and nibbled more toast.

"So it's Frannie," he said when he was done laughing.

"I suppose," I murmured, finis.h.i.+ng my toast and going after my fork to spear some scrambled eggs.

"So you're good with the visit to your folks and you're lookin' forward to your brother showin'. What else is up for your day?" Noc asked.

I chewed and swallowed eggs (it must be said, the queen's cook was superb, even the eggs were delicious), still curious.

"May I ask why you wish to know?"

"Why wouldn't I wish to know?" he answered my question with a question.

Yet it was still an answer.

He was interested in me. Even the mundane goings-on of my day. He came in first thing in the morning for no reason whatsoever, except, it seemed, to be in my company.