My heart lightened and I grinned at him. Then I admitted, “Well, I kind of actually like archery.” His eyes brightened at this news, I took heart and I went on, “I just for some reason have become not very good at it. I’m totally into keeping it up and getting better again if you’re happy to help me.”

His eyes stayed bright when he replied quietly, “I’m more than happy to help you, daughter.”

My grin became a smile. And Father smiled back and finally it wasn’t fake.

“Until tomorrow,” he muttered.

“Cool,” I muttered back.

His head jerked a little at my word (and I reminded myself that I really had to speak like they did in this world) but he kept looking at me smiling. Then he bent and touched his lips to my cheek, turned and walked away.

I stood in the hallway watching him go and grinning to myself.

Well, that went well. Finally. Thank God.

Then I turned and started to make my way to my rooms because I knew, soon, the dressmakers would be there to do a fitting for my gown for the Bitter Gales.

I had learned from my girls that the Gales was a big, resplendent ball which was preceded by a huge hunt – this one of two hunts and balls the King and Queen of Lunwyn threw every year. The Bitter Gales was held on the shortest, coldest day of the year, the hunt in the forest around Fyngaard and the ball in the Winter Palace and the Solar Gales was held on the longest, warmest day of the year thrown at the king and queen’s castle, Rimée Keep in a city called Snowdon.

One could say I was looking forward to the Bitter Gales like I would look forward to having bamboo shoots shoved under my nails, that was to stress attending it, not dressing for it since my gown was kickass.

This was because I would be attending with my husband.

In the last week and a half I had barely seen Frey and I had not spoken to him once and, obviously, he had not spoken to me. I’d seen him three times, all from a distance, all only in passing and only once did his head turn to me and when his eyes caught mine, he gave me a minor chin lift then he looked instantly away.

That hurt. A lot. Too much. More than it should.

But it did.

And the fact he kept away not only from my person but my bed also hurt.

A lot. Too much.

More than it should.

I now had four girls to guide my way and help me to understand this world better and they took this job seriously, were very informative and what made it fun was that they thoroughly enjoyed learning about my world too. So, in the last week and a half, I’d learned a lot about Lunwyn, about this world and mostly about Frey.

The good news was, my girls had asked around and he wasn’t sleeping with Viola as he had threatened or with any of my servants (the girls checked, they were, I was learning, thorough).

The bad news was, they had no idea where he was sleeping but it wasn’t at the Palace.

The good (ish) news was, in learning about my husband, I’d learned why my maidservants were so keen for me to hook up with him.

This was because sex was not at all taboo in Lunwyn. Brides were not expected to be virgins and sexual exploration for boys and girls started early, around fourteen or fifteen; in fact it was encouraged in order to prepare you for a fulfilling sex life during marriage.

“Dalliances” (as my girls called them) amongst unmarried people were frequent, often short-lived and were without any disgrace. “Affairs” or relationships between unmarried people lasted longer and were also frequent.

And, as a matter of course in their culture, with a man like The Drakkar on my hook, with his looks, wealth (and he was wealthy, I’d learned that too), aristocratic line and the sheer power he held, my girls expected me to be all for that and to want it, badly, and work for it, beyond anything, and they were, they made clear, there to help any way they could.

And when it became painfully obvious I wasn’t getting it, they did not pry but they exuberantly went about trying to get me to thaw my chill toward “The Drakkar” (as Frey was known and always referred to) and they did this by sharing a great deal about him.

I had learned he was thirty-six (shocking, he had the manner of a man much older though he didn’t look it). I had learned he commanded a fleet of five ships (five!) and all the men it would take to man those ships plus his own highly trained, personal raiding party of which Thad, Ruben and the other men I had met were members. I had learned that along with his lodge, his chalet, his hunting cabin, his fishing cottage and his ships, he also owned a chateau in the country of Hawkvale and apartments in a city in Fleuridia (which made it more of a bummer that we were not talking and it didn’t seem we ever would again because, I had to say, I would have liked to see all of these places).

Intriguingly, I learned that, although Frey was a Raider, he was not like the other ones who travelled long distances to pillage foreign, often more primitive lands, lands that did not have the resources to seek retribution against the Raiders or even Lunwyn for their raids.

No, Frey’s raids had purpose. They were, as the girls informed me firmly, just.

This was because the Frey who had betrayed his throne and cast the country into chaos had also sold or lost Lunwyn’s many treasures and sacred relics and those that weren’t sold or lost disappeared in a variety of ways in the ensuing centuries of turmoil.

And often, when not sailing on some secret mission for his realm (the girls and everyone knew of these but did not know details, obviously, because they were secret), he was sailing to retrieve Lunwyn’s lost riches. These included priceless scepters, chalices, crowns, orbs and objects that held Lunwynian, dragonian or elfin magic.

Frey had been very successful with these endeavors and on top of the extraordinary things he’d shared about himself, which would clearly demand the respect of all of Lunwyn for obvious reasons, he’d actually earned their respect by returning these important national treasures to their homeland after centuries of them being lost.

I had to admit, I respected him for these endeavors too. Not to mention, him going after them and securing them was cool, way cool, like out of an action movie cool.

I had also learned from my girls that the House of Drakkar might be the longest running noble House in Lunwyn and the first known rulers of the land (which, at that time, included Middleland where my Uncle Baldur now ruled) but it was currently the least respected and most definitely the least liked.

This was because, when the Frey that went astray did his dire deeds, the House of Drakkar, like Lunwyn on the whole, descended into chaos. Without A Frey or A Drakkar born to the line, the males of the House stopped their raiding and unrest and infighting prevailed and from the stories my girls told me, it was far from pretty. Brothers killed brothers. Wives poisoned husbands and (the very next day on one occasion) married her husband’s brother, uncle, cousin who she’d conspired with to take over the House. Sons plotted against fathers. And sisters competed bitterly to make the best match to strengthen the line of Drakkar.