Fossegrim

by Mary E. Twomey

  Oh, girlfriend. You done gone crazy.

  Crazy, indeed. Kirstie knocked me down and ripped out a fistful of my hair, shaking it in my face as she cursed me to the never-loving place we don’t mention in good company.

  Viggo, blessed Viggo, was on her from out of nowhere. His arms wrapped around Kirstie and he backed her away, her heels skidding in the dirt. He got in her red face and shushed her while she screamed at me.

  Erika ran to me and helped me up, brushing off my dress in fear. I ran back into the house. She followed after me, but I shut myself in Foss’s room, shrieking when I walked in on him changing. He did not have the grace to look abashed or say anything to excuse his partial nudity. He took his time shifting his clothes into place, chuckling at my hand covering my eyes and my head turned away from the sight. “Boy, you are a maiden.”

  Maiden or not, I don’t need to see his hairy mess.

  Erika knocked lightly on the door, three polite raps to let me know she was there. “Guldy? I mean, Mistress Lucy? Are you well? Kirstie didn’t mean anything by it. She’s just upset, you understand. Viggo will see to punishing her. She won’t try anything like that again.”

  Foss harrumphed and stomped over to me, looking me over to assess the damage. He glared at me as if I was the problem. “What did you do now? I got you a nice dress, gave you back some status, and you’re still causing trouble? I can’t leave you alone for a second! You’re the death of every man you know. Jens is lucky to be rid of you.”

  If I was a bull, I would be snorting steam. His verbal slap deserved a physical one. Now that I’d given myself permission to punch him, a hard shove didn’t seem like such a crime. I postured, pressed my hands to his chest and delivered a stiff shove, glorying in the effort that proved I’d stood up for myself.

  The victory was short-lived. When Foss mirrored my assault with a shove of his own, it knocked me on my backside in one fell swoop. I cried out on instinct. As my butt hit the ground, Erika burst into the room and threw herself on me, using her body as a shield between Foss and me.

  “Get out, rat!”

  I scurried to my feet and backed Erika against the wall, not willing to let her take any hits meant for me. I stared down Foss, who snarled at me. Two bulls locked in an eternal cage.

  Erika wrapped her arms across my torso and squeezed. “Master Foss, no!” she cried, the shock of his outburst clearly scaring her. Apparently his temper flare-ups weren’t quite so common when I was not in the picture.

  Maybe it was seeing the betrayal in Erika’s eyes, or maybe it was my constant state of dishevel that snapped sense back into him. Dollars to donuts, it was when it dawned on him how small I was in comparison with the two of them, and that I was standing in front of her to shield her from his wrath. Whatever it was, I was grateful for it.

  Foss’s temper calmed, and the tension in the room began to dissipate. Erika’s grip on me relaxed, and my arms lowered from their shielding position. “I… Erika, what happened with Kirstie?”

  With tears in her eyes, Erika whimpered, “N-Nothing Viggo isn’t taking care of, Master Foss. She just got a little jealous that you’ve made Mistress Lucy your mate. She let her temper get the better of her.”

  Say what? I crinkled my nose in distaste as the significance of the red dress dawned on me. Why no one let me help with chores, and they all treated me like I was someone to be feared and respected.

  “She ripped out some of my mistress’s hair and attacked her. Viggo’s handling it, sir.” Erika hugged me from behind. “Mistress Lucy didn’t do a thing to provoke her. You know how Kirstie feels about you. She thought you would make her your wife someday.”

  Foss deflated, shaking his head in disappointment at the drama. “Very well. You may go, Erika.” When Erika did not move, Foss rolled his eyes and displayed his hands to her. “Your mistress is safe.”

  I nodded to Erika’s questioning look, giving her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

  When she left, Foss sat on the edge of his bed and growled his frustration into his hands. “So it’s clear to you and there’s no doubt in your mind, you’re ruining every bit of my life. I don’t know how you manage to step on everything I have and then get me to feel sorry for you, but you’ve done it again. I meant what I said about Jens being better off dead than with you. You wear calamity like a wreath around your neck, and now it’s fallen to me to keep you alive for the rest of the journey. Your presence is a curse to me, and if I die in this, I’m certain the fault will rest on your bony shoulders.”

  If he expected a response, I did not give him one. My mouth was sealed shut, lest I open it and let him know he’d hit an organ I needed to survive.

  “That being said…” Foss took the gold ruby ring off his finger and examined the cuts in the stone. He jerked me forward by my arm and closed my fingers over the heavy piece of jewelry. I gave the hammer and squiggly swirly design on the gold a look before I handed it back, but he shook his head. “It’s my signet ring. Not exactly how I imagined this moment. Not with Kirstie, either, but you’re the absolute last person I would want to be my wife.”

  My head shot up and my mouth fell open in shock. I shook my head, horrified that this was his proposal. I was appalled that he was proposing at all, really, but the double layer was that it was in the cruelest way possible. Forever I would remember the first man who proposed to me. These were my memories now. This was my life.

  I wanted no part of it.

  I shoved the ring back at him, mustering up the most hurt expression I could throw at him without tearing up and stomped toward the door.

  Foss was on his feet, but he was not as angry this time. He was defeated as he held the door shut to stay my escape. He drew a leather lace from his pocket and slipped the end through the ring. “Lift up your hair,” he instructed, this time without so much aggression in his words as he stood between me and the door. I obeyed, my doom sealed as he tied the leather string around my neck, marking me as his for the world to see.

  I was not his. I belonged to Linus. To my parents. To Jens. To me. I didn’t want his necklace where Linus should’ve been.

  When his arms retracted from my neck, I burst into tears, clawing at the leather and wishing for it all to just go away. For him to go away. For me to be gone.

  In a move so unexpected, it set loose more tears, Foss drew me into a hug, covering me with his massive arms. He sank down the length of the door to the floor, taking me with him. Because I had no one else, I cried into his neck, pounding my fist to his chest when the anger at the deterioration of my life grew to be too much. He let me beat on him in my pathetic state until I exhausted myself. I slumped in his arms and finally just let him hold me.

  A sort of peace settled in around us, unexpected in its beauty, but most welcome, given our usual state of unrest. His hand rubbed my back to comfort me, and I pressed my ear to his firm chest, confirming that yes, in fact there was a heart beating somewhere in the depths of him. This was not the life he wanted, either. We were united in our discontent, and for now that would have to be enough.

  He was agile as he stood, sweeping me up with him without too much jostling. Foss carried me to his bed and covered me with his sheet, doing the things I guessed he rehearsed in his head that he would do if he ever had a wife.

  In the quiet of the moment we reached a fragile truce of sorts. It was not forgiveness, but it was a start.

  He sat on the bed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, head down as he spoke to me in a quiet, even voice. “Tonight matters a lot to the mission. If I can’t get close to the portal, I won’t get out of this ordeal alive. You may not care about my life, but my household depends on me. I cannot let them down.”

  I lay on my back and blinked up at him, letting him know I understood the stakes.

  “You’re my… my wife now, so you have to obey me in public. If they see you disrespecting me, it’ll break down the chain of respect I need to keep a firm hold on my estate.”

>   I nodded slowly and tried to be a team player. If this was what was required of me, I would do it. I sat up in the bed facing him and drew my knees to my chest.

  Foss explained the way of the world, talking with his hand perpendicular to the bed for emphasis. “You’ll eat at my table, and when I say eat, I don’t mean push the food around on your plate. You’ll smile at my guests and be nice no matter what you think of them because you’re the lady of the house, and it’s your job to make the men feel welcome. You’ll learn how to oversee the servants in time.” He eyed me. “You’ll speak.”

  I was onboard until that last note. I shook my head to tell him that just was not possible right now. When my family died, I didn’t talk for a whole month, maybe more. I lost track of the days that piled up before Tonya coaxed a few words out of me.

  Foss nodded. “In time. Maybe Jamie will come out of hibernation by then. He’s better with your female emotions than I am.”

  Understatement, buddy. Whenever I checked in through the bond with Jamie, he was either sleeping or mourning Britta and Jens. As much as I was hurting, I couldn’t put anything more atop Jamie’s shoulders. I worked on thickening the mental wall between us, knowing he couldn’t take much more sadness seeping through from my side.

  I held up my fist, but Foss did not understand the gesture. I molded his fingers in the same fashion and bumped his to mine, nodding that the motion sealed the deal.

  “Oh. Okay. Is that from your world? We don’t do that here.” He spit into his palm and extended it to me. I crinkled my nose in disgust, but eventually did the same, cringing when our wet palms touched. I wiped my hand off on his pants, making him laugh. “I guess it is strange. But look at you, learning your part. When we get to your land, I’ll make sure to play along with what’s expected of me.”

  I smiled and mimed my evil plotting face, feathering my fingertips together like a true villain.

  I don’t know how we managed it, but Foss and I got through the next few minutes without fighting. We talked and mimed amicably until Erika came to fetch us for lunch.

  Ten.

  Lady of the House

  Lunch was strange. I ate at a table much too tall for me not to feel like a child at. Brenda’s homemade bread and stew made my stomach scream and nearly jump out of my body to get at the food. For once I answered the call of my hunger’s incessant clawing. As I ate, I noticed Foss relax.

  The lively chatter that had happened the night before was muted as the servants watched us eat. Kirstie was still red-faced and filled with visible loathing toward me, but she did not fly across the room and rip out more of my hair, so I guess that was a plus.

  I grew self-conscious with seven dozen people watching me eat my roll, so I put it back on the plate and stared at my hands, wondering if I’d done something wrong already.

  “Is no one hungry today? Perhaps I should tell Viggo you’ve not been working hard enough.” Foss looked up at his head servant, gratified when they stopped staring at me and dug into their meal. “Will things be ready for my guests tonight?”

  “Yes, sir. We’re ahead of schedule in case Master Olaf comes early, as he did last time.”

  Foss and Viggo conversed about the party while Kirstie practically burned a hole through me with her heated stare.

  When the conversation fell to silence again, Viggo stood and held up his cup. “I see you’ve decided to make Guldy your wife, Master. Many happy years to you both.” He raised his cup in a toast to us, which many of the others mimicked.

  Kirstie did not salute us. Good for you, girl. I’d be pissed, too.

  Foss raised his hand to acknowledge the toast. He looked at me, and I could feel how utterly disappointed he was with his lot in life. I bore his discontent with shame, but reached out and held his hand to show his household we were a united front. It was my greatest acting feat to date.

  I watched Foss’s spirits lift a little. He sat up straighter in his chair, now that he knew I wasn’t going to be difficult. He placed a kiss to the back of my hand and thanked Viggo for welcoming his new… wife.

  I hated my life, but at least I wasn’t in danger of getting backhanded anytime soon, since I was holding the hand that would swing out at me if I took a step too far out of line.

  My first official task, after I ate enough lunch at Foss’s table for him to be satisfied, was to bring Jamie his new clothes and coax him out of his room for the party. Foss walked with me to the long hallway and pointed to the room at the end. “That’s the prince down there.” I bumped my fist to Foss’s and watched him smile. “Thank you. I know you hate this, but thank you for not making it all harder than it has to be.”

  I bumped the crown of my head to his chest, closing my eyes for a moment so I could pretend he was someone I sought comfort from.

  He sifted his hand through my curls, taking pleasure in the one aspect of me that did not irritate him. “We won’t be here forever.”

  We parted ways and I went to Jamie’s room with Erika, who was now my constant shadow. After an unanswered knock, I opened the door to find the prince on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The interruption from his seclusion drew his eyes, but he said nothing by way of a greeting.

  I put my hand on his forehead and then lifted his shirt to examine his ribs. His body was fine, but as I had been, he was buried in depression. He’d known Jens a lot longer, and he’d only just come out of his shell of proper behavior around Britta. Now they were lost to us. I understood.

  I excused Erika from the room and latched the door shut behind her. His food tray was untouched on the wood floor, so I picked it up and brought it to his bedside. When he did not sit up, I hovered over him and covered his chest in a hug so I could lift him up. When he was finally sitting upright, I settled in between his back and the headboard, rubbing his shoulders in solidarity. He leaned back against me and sighed, his eyes welling up at my touch that brought him comfort he did not want to feel.

  I kissed his temple and hugged him, running my fingers through his curly brown hair as I had done in the dream we shared in the night. I leaned him up against the headboard and pulled his tray onto the bed. Lifting the bowl, I spooned a bit of the stew into his mouth.

  “He’s gone,” Jamie whispered mournfully. “He’s gone, and Britta might be in a Nøkken jail right now. I denounced my family for her. We were engaged. I offered to take it back, due to the disrespectful way I asked her, but she refused. She wanted me, even though I’m laplanded. Even though I’m no one’s first choice. Even though I’m third-born. Even though I’m cursed. The most beautiful woman in the world wanted me.”

  My heart swelled and burst like a water balloon for Jamie’s plight. I fed him a few more bites before he realized he was being spoon-fed and took the bowl from me. “Thanks. Any word from the others? What’s Foss heard?”

  I shook my head, handing him his roll. I patted his pile of clothes, indicating he should wash up and change. He finished his meal in his haze and stood, taking his clothes out into the hallway.

  Seconds later, he burst back into the room. “You’re wearing a red dress!” he accused. His eyes fell to the ring on my neck. “Lucy! Jens’s body is barely cold! How could you marry another man? It can’t be Foss. You hate each other!”

  I stood and closed the door behind him so his voice did not carry to the servants. I touched the ring and shook my head, letting him know I wasn’t really married.

  “Why aren’t you talking?” He touched his throat. “Wait. I can talk, but you can’t?” He looked me over, taking in my sallow complexion. “Oh, you won’t.” He watched me tap the spot where my Linus ashes used to be, and I explained the significance to him without words. “Oh, Lucy. I’m sorry, liten syster. I understand. But why did Foss dress you up like the lady of the house? That’s his signet ring, you know.”

  As if on cue, Foss let himself into Jamie’s room, his voice low as he spoke. “Could you keep your questions quieter? I don’t want the whole household knowing our marriage is
a sham.”

  “What?” Jamie whipped his head between Foss and me, begging for an explanation. “How long was I in here for?”

  “Long enough.” Foss postured, causing Jamie to stand straighter. “You’ve had your time to mourn. Now you stand like a man. I’ve got men from all four tribes coming to a feast here tonight. I’ll try to persuade them to our side so I can get to the portal when it’s time. The portal’s been closed off since word spread of the Nøkken’s being destroyed. Security’s too tight for me to get through on my own, and then get out alive.” He pointed to both of us. “So I need you two sharp for tonight. Jamie, you need to lay your royalty on thick so they feel the need to impress you. And Lucy, keep the drinks coming. If they’re sloshed, they’ll be more likely to agree to help us.”

  I nodded, glad that I had a role in the plan.

  Jamie gestured to my dress. “Why is she wearing privileged clothing? Why’s your ring around her neck?”

  Foss grimaced. “I couldn’t think of any other way to keep her safe. It was a bad idea. The powers are coming tonight with their servants. Some of their men aren’t as well-behaved as mine, and I owe it to Jens to keep her maidenhood intact. He saved my life with the cave trolls.” He rubbed the back of his neck, hating having his gratitude known. “I was pinned down by one of them, and he killed it, taking a pretty bad blow so I could escape.”

  I cringed. I hated when he talked about my virginity.

  “Okay. Alright.” Jamie chewed on his thumbnail and looked me over. “Is there any way to hide her hair?”

  I motioned cutting it off, and Foss, of all people, protested the idea immediately. “No. My servants saw it first thing when we got here. There was no point in hiding it. Word’s already spread to Olaf’s camp that I have a Guldy on my property. It’s one of the reasons he’s agreed to come.”

  My nose crinkled in disgust. I didn’t want to be paraded around, but as I looked down at my dress and touched the braids and ribbons in my hair, I realized that’s exactly what Foss was doing. I was the prize pig, and he was bragging to all the locals that he’d bagged a blonde. Men are gross.