Chapter 45
And I very much hope you're enjoying your adventures.
Now, I shall bid you farewell until my next undoubtedly t.i.tillating missive where I'll regale you with news of the next set of garments I'll press on Brikitta and perhaps how I liked, or disliked, the soup I'd taken at lunch.
Until then...and until we meet again, Always yours, Franka Since he'd sent a letter from the port city in Lunwyn (the part of it that used to be Middleland), and he'd used Finnie's dispatch to do it, Franka should be getting his letter any day now, if she hadn't already gotten it.
That didn't stop him from walking into the room behind him, his bedroom in this huge palace that Disney animators would freak over, and go right to the desk in that room.
He sat.
He pulled out paper.
And he shared news that might be more adventurous than hers, but she wouldn't think so since she'd seen it and done it all before.
That didn't stop him either.
In fact, he wrote three pages of the stuff.
Then he sealed it and found Cora so she could send it.
This she arranged before she gave him a hat and took him to Tor's horse, Salem, an outrageously handsome animal (and one who could talk to him, right in his head, if that s.h.i.+t could be believed).
Before getting to that world, Noc had been horseback riding twice in his life.
He'd been on a horse a s.h.i.+t ton since they left The Finnie-Frey's kicka.s.s galleon that was straight from a pirate movie-in Bellebryn's port.
And off he went with Cora, having to pretend to be Tor until they left the city and galloped across a countryside where the air glittered.
f.u.c.king glittered.
It was amazing.
He missed Franka. He missed just looking at her, but he missed more how d.a.m.ned funny she was, how cute she could be and how her trusting him the way she did, the way she showed she did, the way he knew she didn't give to anybody (but maybe Josette, and perhaps the dead Antoine, but Noc didn't go there) made him feel.
But he sure as f.u.c.k was glad she'd made the decision she'd made.
Because he wouldn't have known what he was missing.
But he was sure glad he didn't miss it.
And he had it.
But in the end, he'd have her too.
Franka Two and a half months later Hey there, Sugarlips, I should not smile. I really should not. He was incorrigible. Even in the written word.
I nevertheless smiled.
I'm guessing you know Finnie and Frey have returned to Lunwyn since they should have gotten there a while ago and brought my last letter with them.
He was correct in this. They had.
Finnie wanted to continue on with me, but Frey wanted her home. She's getting along in her pregnancy and he wants her close to a doctor he trusts. That didn't go over real well with Finnie. She thinks like we do in our world, obviously, and most women work until they practically go into labor...
How bizarre!
And dangerous!
...and they had a big blowout about it. Frey won. Not because Finnie agrees with him that advanced pregnancy makes a woman invalid, when it doesn't. But he's a dude and dudes tend to express worry through anger and bossiness. She's been with him long enough to know that so they took off and pa.s.sed me off to Achilles, Apollo's cousin (in case you haven't met him, tho' with the incestuous way those Houses are, you probably have) who, with some of Lo's other guys, we went through Hawkvale and now we're in Fleuridia.
Gotta say, I'm not much of a fan of south Lunwyn. There's a bleakness to it that's actually pretty, in its way, but it's also depressing. I can see why that a.s.shole, Baldur, didn't like what he got in the cutting-a-country-in-two bargain. Doesn't excuse him being an a.s.shole, but I can see that.
Bellebryn and Hawkvale, I don't have to tell you, are f.u.c.king amazing. There's a lot of beauty in my world and you'll see that, I'll make sure of it.
But there's nothing like this. It's so pure, it's like magic. It almost doesn't seem real and the fact it is makes it even more beautiful.
It also makes me wonder what my world was like a hundred years ago, two hundred, a thousand. Was it like this? Did we f.u.c.k it up with all our garbage?
If we did, you'll see how much that sucks.
What's worse is that we're still doing it.
I won't get into that.
What I'll
Oh my.
He felt the same as me!
It has the magic and the beauty of Bellebryn and Hawkvale, but with sophistication. The food here is unbelievable. The wine, even better.
He was quite right!
People are friendly, but not in your face about it (that could be me having trouble getting around in Bellebryn and Hawkvale, looking like Tor-here, some look at me with curiosity, but most people don't pay me any mind at all, and gotta admit, that's a relief-I don't know how Tor does it, that's gotta suck).
Lahn and Circe went on ahead ages ago because Lahn, like Frey, wants Circe at their house in Korwahn when she's getting closer to the time. They asked me to meet them there and from what they said about Korwahk, I'd like to go.
But it's gonna be hard leaving here. We're headed to Benies to hook up with Apollo and Maddie. I figure my time is getting short, at most, I have three months left and it takes forever to get anywhere. We'll see. I'd like to take in all I can but if Benies is half as awesome as the rest of Fleuridia is, I gotta spend some time eating and drinking my way through it. So maybe we can talk Valentine into sending us to Korwahk some other time. It'd be good to catch up with Lahn and Circe and meet their new arrival after he or she shows.
He was right again. That would be good.
And I liked how he said "talk Valentine into sending us" because he'd said "us."
Though even as much as I liked it, I wondered at it.
What did "us" mean to Noc?
What did it even mean to me?
Those questions gave me the unusual sensation of my heart fluttering in my chest at the same time dread settled heavy in my belly.
I set both aside and refocused on Noc's missive.
One other thing I gotta do is make sure Valentine transports the five cases of wine I've bought from the vineyards we're stopping at along the way. Have a word with her about that, would you? And just to say, sweetheart, the way me and the guys are going, by the time this letter gets to you, that could be fifteen cases of wine.
This would mean I'd have Fleuridian wine in the new world.
And Noc to share it with (for it didn't even occur to me that he wouldn't share it).
Excellent.
Okay, not much else to say. Glad to read you're getting on with things and you're liking doing that. Looking forward to getting the full scoop, baby. Feels like time has flown at the same time it feels like it's dragging. There's a lot I'd love to know that's going on with you and can't wait to hear it.
Now, I should go. We make Benies in two days but only if I get my a.s.s to bed so I can climb on that d.a.m.n horse tomorrow and hold on. Achilles doesn't f.u.c.k around with taking in the countryside. At least my a.s.s is used to sitting that horse and doesn't hurt so G.o.dd.a.m.n much (along with the rest of my body) at the end of the day. I'll miss a lot from this world when I leave it, but I sure as f.u.c.k will be happy to see a car.
I grinned at the letter and read Noc's last.
So I'll end it here. Still miss you. It'll be good to see you again, Frannie.
Take care of yourself, your family and Josette. Say hey to them all for me.
You, me and a slice of pizza, babe.
Soon.
Lotsa love, -Noc- Him and me and a slice of pizza.
Soon.
Very soon. Brikitta had grown quite heavy with child (even if she was such stylishly, her pregnancy wardrobe was stunning, if I did say so myself).
The wait for my new niece (I hoped) or nephew (I would not be disappointed) I felt was close to over.
Yes.
Soon.
Noc.
Me.
And pizza.
One Month Later The midwife at the other end, as Brikitta sweated and grunted and moaned and gritted her teeth audibly in a highly unladylike manner, I had the dubious (at that point) honor, at Brikitta's request, of attending the birth and holding her hand through it.
It was a hand I'd feared she'd break for it seemed she was tiring greatly but her strength had not been affected in the slightest.
And it was at that juncture I feared she was tiring greatly for the midwife kept summoning her to push, her entreaties seeming more and more urgent, and my sister-in-law was drenched with sweat, her hair, her s.h.i.+ft, the bedclothes, and her face had gone from red and pained to drained of color and the pain had drifted from her eyes, a vagueness setting in.
"She mustn't lose consciousness," Hilde, Brikitta's sister, who'd arrived two weeks ago to be present at this very moment, hissed.
I looked across the bed to her, a woman a.s.suming the same position as I, on her feet, bent double, holding her sister's hand. Her expression had been joyful and encouraging these last hours, now it appeared anxious and borderline panicked.
I then looked to Brikitta and saw not only her eyes had gone vague, her head was lolling on her shoulders.
"She must push," the midwife pressed and the urgency was gone.
Fear was threading her tone.
And that fear threaded through my veins.
"The baby's just about to crown, I can feel it," the midwife went on. "She needs one, hearty push. If I can get hold of him..."
"Her," I snapped, not for myself (solely).
My sister-in-law wanted a girl.
My brother didn't care, but Brikitta had confided in me she longed for a baby girl that she could dress and Kristian could dote over and Timofei could love and protect.
I had no idea if the child was a girl. I was not a seer (I'd tried, I'd failed), as Valentine was not.
But I had hope.
"Whatever it is," the midwife snapped back, "make her push. If we lose her now, we could lose them both now."
"That is not happening," I shared haughtily, watched her open her mouth to speak but I turned my head from hers, tightened my hand well beyond the strength Brikitta had been using, feeling her bones and flesh crunch in my grip, and I bent over my sister. "Awake!" I commanded.
Her eyes fluttered and her head again drooped.
I yanked her hand hard so her back left the bed, Hilde cried, "Franka!" but Brikitta focused on me.
"Look at me and push," I ordered.
"I'm so tired, Franka," she whispered.
"I'm quite certain you were tired of me being an unceasing b.i.t.c.h for five years but you never let me beat you," I retorted.
She blinked at me.
"Push," I charged.
"I don't...have much...more..."
I yanked her again, heard Hilde's surprised cry, but my maneuver had the desired results. The fading Brikitta focused again.