Therefore, I decided to tread cautiously.

I closed the door and moved into the room, replying, “Hello, Mother.”

She stopped scratching Penelope and motioned with a graceful sweep of her hand to the bed.

“Sit with me, daughter.”

I nodded and went to the bed, sitting on the side. Penelope opened her eyes slowly, took me in then jumped down, waddled across the floor, hunkered in preparation to shift her massive bulk from floor to bed then she jumped up to the bed where she waddled to me and settled with her booty to the duvet but paws and chest on my thigh and I started scratching her ruff.

Penelope knew who her Momma was and I knew this because she purred, “Mrrrr, hullo, Mummy.”

“Hullo, baby,” I whispered to my cat, she purred louder then I looked to Queen Aurora.

She looked down at Penelope then up at me and her lips tipped up slightly. It wasn’t the first time I thought she was a lot like Valentine, except without the edge of creepy and weird.

“The dressmakers have already arrived with your gown but I’ve asked them to wait for a few minutes so I could visit with you,” Mother announced.

I took in a short preparatory breath and nodded. But I didn’t say anything. I wanted to see what she had to say.

She didn’t delay and when she spoke it was soft and almost gentle.

“I needed to discuss with you something that has been troubling me.”

I tipped my head to the side to encourage her to go on but spoke no words.

She took this in and continued, “I cannot imagine, Sjofn, that you would think it escapes me or your Father that there seems to be…” she hesitated, studying me closely, “distance between you and The Drakkar.”

Ho boy.

I was afraid it was something like this. And I was afraid something like this was something that would herald the return of the frost.

I bit my lip and nodded my head slightly to agree with her observation without saying anything and thus giving anything away.

She read my agreement and took in a slight, delicate breath.

Then she said, “This troubles me for it seems very…” she hesitated, “odd. Especially coming so close on the heels of your return, a return upon which, immediately, The Drakkar demanded your Father and my attendance to inform us that he was infinitely disturbed at the attempt on your life and we were to do everything in our power to keep you safe. Something,” she rushed slightly to say, “we would do, obviously, since you are our beloved Sjofn.”

I kept my eyes firm on her and didn’t speak mostly because I didn’t know what to say nor did I know what to feel at what she’d said about Frey.

I didn’t need to say anything. Queen Aurora was not near done.

“This disturbed him, as I am guessing with your detachment from your new husband you may not understand, because in the short time you were with him, he made it very clear that he’d come to care about you.”

I felt my heart clench at the same time my breath started escalating.

She kept talking. “It would seem, the way he spoke of you, he’d come to do this deeply. Perhaps,” she paused and continued to study me, “even more deeply than he understands. Definitely,” another pause, “more deeply than it would appear you understand.”

I kept silent and this was mainly because I’d started semi-panting and I was thinking I might be in the early stages of cardiac arrest.

“He called you sweet,” she whispered, her eyes intense on my face which I knew had grown pale at these words, words I liked, words that meant the world to me. “He said you had a strong spirit. He said everything you say, he finds interesting. He told us he enjoys your humor and your smiles.”

I swallowed, shocked these words could even come out of Frey’s mouth, even if he did feel that way, as well as stunned and experiencing the weird sensation of being both heartbroken and immensely pleased that he actually did. Then, as all this hit me, I pressed my lips together as my throat started to clog.

Mother kept going. “And he shared with us that he had vowed to you to keep you safe from harm and while doing this, he told us if anything were to befall you, he would unleash the dragons as vengeance.”

I blinked, not in confusion, but in total shock.

Queen Aurora didn’t miss it, as I was guessing she didn’t miss much, and she nodded.

“Yes, my dear, that is what he said. The Drakkar promised to unleash the dragons, beasts that have not flown across this land for well over a millennia. Beasts that could cause damage and havoc the likes of which cannot be borne. Beasts that are not called upon except to defend our frost-covered land or to utilize their awesome power as service to our people. Your husband made it clear that we were to make it clear to anyone who would listen that if anything were to harm you, he would call upon his beasts to wreak vengeance. And this, my daughter, is not an idle threat to make. This, Sjofn, is extraordinary.”

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

I said nothing and she moved, uncrossing her legs and shifting to the edge of her seat, she leaned forward, elbows to knees in a casual pose the like I’d never seen her adopt.

And then she kept going. “It is my duty as queen of this land and to service my husband who rules it, but also to be a good wife, to stay quiet, listen and observe,” she said softly then even more softly, she got to the meat of the matter by saying, “I know of Viola.”

I sucked in an audible breath and she nodded.

“I know of her, Sjofn, and I saw your face when The Drakkar ordered she attend the table.”

I couldn’t stop myself from closing my eyes and looking away in an effort to hide what her words were making me feel and the intensity of it.

I opened my eyes and looked back at her when I heard her shift and then I watched her move to stand in front of me, looking down.

“My dear Sjofn,” she whispered, “we women carry many burdens. This is one of them, I’m afraid.”

Then I held my breath as she lifted her hand and tenderly cupped my cheek before she continued.

“I, too, had an arranged marriage and I, too, struggled in the beginning to build my relationship and earn the love of your Father. I was enamored with him on sight, he was the most beautiful man I ever beheld but he was also so full of life, so full of humor, it was immensely appealing,” she unusually shared these juicy morsels and I felt my eyes sting with tears as she went on. “But he was king and could do as he would. That said, even though I understood, his dalliances wounded me and they did so deeply.” She leaned slightly closer and kept whispering. “And thus, my Winter Princess, I learned to do all I could to make it so he would not need such encounters. I did this instead of making it clear they offended me, something your Father disliked.” She leaned back and smiled a smile that almost, but not quite, reached her eyes. “However, he did not dislike my efforts to make him no longer seek these relations and,” she paused, her hand shifting to my jaw, her thumb then sweeping my cheekbone, her smile finally reaching her eyes, “he still doesn’t.”