“Your kingdom,” he said.
“Technically, my dad’s kingdom.” I smiled. “But yes, my kingdom too, since I am the Winter Princess.”
His face went very serious. “And you’ll be its queen someday.”
“Yes. The Winter Queen.”
“What would that make me? When we’re married and you’re crowned?”
When. I smiled. He was so optimistic. I let it slide, since he still had no idea what he was getting into.
I answered. “You will be the Queen’s Consort. Or the Prince Consort. Two versions of the same thing. It’s an official position. You’d be generally known as Prince Sinclair and would be referred to as Your Highness.”
The uncertainty in his eyes almost undid me. “That’s…nuts.”
I managed to hold on to my smile. “I know, it’s a lot to process.”
“I’m about the most unroyal person I know. I can’t imagine anyone calling me Your Highness.”
“You’d get used to it.”
“I suppose.” He went back to looking out the window.
He didn’t seem so optimistic now. I swallowed, trying to keep my melancholy at bay. I drove the crawler across the Meltwater River Bridge and hoped the visit to town would lift the mood again.
I parked in the first spot I found, not bothering with the royal reserved parking near the factory. “Ready to eat?”
He nodded as we got out. “Sure. Although I’m okay to walk around a bit first.”
“That’s fine with me.” My appetite wasn’t all that great after our conversation, but I held on to my happy face. “There are lots of shops to look in, and with the town gearing up for the Tinkers’ Tourney, there will be even more stalls and food trucks set up in Yule Square.”
“Can we go that way, then?”
“I was planning on it.” I tucked the keys in my pocket and took his hand. I narrated the walk by pointing out all the shops and interesting buildings along the way, but the walk was short since Yule Square was only five blocks away.
Music reached us before we saw the square, evidence of the festivities already going on.
Sinclair was smiling when we joined the gathering crowd, so I took that as a good sign. He looked around. “What is that delicious smell?”
I inhaled. “Could be one of several things. Kabobs, kettle corn, or candied chestnuts. There might also be some hot cider in there. Or some waffle cone sundaes. Could even be chili cheese fries, or fried cheese curds with gravy, or—”
“Okay, my stomach just rumbled.” He laughed. “Those all sound good.”
“Then let’s grab something and eat while we wander.”
“I’m in. Whatever we come to first is fine with me.”
That just happened to be spaghetti and meatballs on a stick—one of my favorites, I can’t lie. I love me some carbs. We got in line, but the people behind us quickly recognized me.
“Princess Frost?”
I turned, smiling. “Hi there.”
My greeting was returned with bows. “Welcome home, Your Highness.”
“Thank you. It’s good to be home.”
The people in front of us overheard. They moved aside. “Go ahead of us, please.”
“No, I wouldn’t dream of it. We’re happy to wait in line.”
They seemed unconvinced, but at the word we, all eyes shifted to Sinclair. The sly, knowing smiles followed. I knew they’d heard I had a boyfriend. As the saying went, royal news was everyone’s news.
Such was my life.
We got our spaghetti and meatballs on a stick and meandered through the square, eating and shopping and mostly being left alone. Although I could hear the whispers as people spotted me. I was used to it, but I could tell Sinclair was bristling a little.
“It’s no big deal,” I said softly.
“Really? It doesn’t bother you?”
“I’m used to it. And it’s not like they’re saying bad things. They’re surprised to see me. I haven’t lived here in a while, remember?” I was sure they were also talking about him. It was inevitable. He was with me, and he was incredibly hot. It was hard not to look at him.
He nodded in a thoughtful way, the wheels in his head obviously spinning. “If you’re okay with it, then so am I. Not like there’s anything to be done about it anyway, right?”
“Right.” I shifted my spaghetti on a stick to my other hand, then looped my arm through his. “Let’s go shop some more. And tonight, if you want, we can come back and check out the toys in the competition.”
“They’ll be here?”
“Yep. They’ll be unveiled this evening in the opening ceremony of the tourney, then for three days, they’ll be on display at the center of the square. Everyone can vote on which one they like the best, and the votes are considered, but the winner is chosen by a blind panel that may or may not include my uncle.” I lowered my voice. “It does.”
Sin nodded. “I definitely want to come back for that.”
“Me too. It’s a lot of fun. There’s fireworks, and the tinkers demonstrate the toys, and the whole thing is like a street party.”
He smiled. “It’s already like a street party.”
“Wait until you see it tonight, then. Most people are at work right now.”
“I can’t wait.” He tipped his head toward the waffle cone stand. “And I really can’t wait for ice cream. What do you say?”
“I say let’s do it. Hey, you’ve probably never had a choco-cicle have you?”
“Since I don’t know what that is, no.”
“You can get one by itself or stuck in your ice cream, which is what I do. It’s a chocolate icicle, basically. Hard chocolate shell with a gooey center of either fudge, marshmallow, or caramel.”
He shook his head slowly. “The winter elf metabolism is something else.”
We walked to the ice cream booth and got in line. When it was our turn, I ordered a chocolate-dipped waffle cone with rocky road ice cream and a marshmallow choco-cicle. Sin got the same cone with dark chocolate orange ice cream and a caramel choco-cicle.
The owners of the booth tried to wave away our money, but I insisted. I wanted to be treated like everyone else, especially in front of Sin. Getting stuff for free had never sat well with me.
We walked on, our ice creams disappearing. Sin stopped in front of a hat shop’s window just as we finished the last of our cones.
He pointed to a green velvet brimmed cap with silver metallic ribbon trim and small silver rivet decoration on one side. “Think I could pull that off?”
“Sure. That’s a fancy version of the everyday hat a lot of the builders wear.”
“I am kind of a builder of doughnuts.”
I grinned. “You could make it work. You could make anything work. It’s one of your superpowers.”
“You’re very sweet.” He slipped his arm around my waist. “I am incredibly happy right now. And that looks like the kind of hat an incredibly happy man would wear in a place like this. It’s very festive.”
“Then we should go in and you should try it on.” I was bursting. Despite my fears about how Sin would react to my life in the North Pole, he was taking everything in stride and seemed to really be enjoying himself. Sure, it was early days. He’d only been here a couple hours and had yet to experience anything as formal as tomorrow night’s dinner, but I had hope.
He took my hand. “Maybe we should get matching hats.”
I followed him into the shop. “Let’s not get crazy.”
After a little more shopping (Sin bought the hat), a little more eating (peanut chicken kabobs, cheese curds, and chocolate mousse bombs drizzled with salted caramel), we headed back to the palace for a nap.
Sin drove the crawler, which he got the hang of immediately, and when we arrived at the portico to drop it off, I could tell he wasn’t quite ready for his turn at the wheel to be over.
“You can drive it tonight when we go see the toy reveal.”
“Yeah? All right. That’ll be fun
.” He handed the keys over to the valet. “Kind of makes me wish Nocturne Falls got more snow. Although after what happened with the yetis, I probably shouldn’t think that way.”
He did a big pretend shiver as he looked around. “Where are the yetis, by the way?”
“Far, far away in the polar forests. You won’t see them.”
“Good. I’m yeti’d out.”
We walked into the palace together, laughing at the memory. Our voices carried, echoing off the walls.
Sin looked around. “Where is everyone? I thought a palace would be busier.”
“I promise it’s plenty busy elsewhere. A lot of the staff are preparing for tomorrow night’s dinner. My dad is in meetings, and my mom is probably in her office working as well. Same for my aunt and uncle. There is so much to be done this time of year.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have come. I hate to think our visit is disrupting things.”
“No, not at all. Christmas prep is an ongoing thing in the NP, but in October it really ramps up. Doesn’t matter, though. This is standard operating procedure. A little visit from us isn’t going to even register. This place thrives on being busy, I promise.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
“Also, I can assure you that the lack of people around us is totally on purpose. My family is giving us space, so you can take it all in without the pressure of company.”
Light filled his eyes. “Really? That’s very thoughtful of them.”
“They really want you to like it here.” As did I. So very, very much.
“I do, I promise. I especially like the eggnog fudge your aunt left for me.”
I smiled. “I got some too. It’s great for breakfast.”
He made a face at me and laughed.
“Hey, I know we were going to take a nap since we got up so early and everything, but how about that tour? We could check on the cats, then I could show you around. We’d still have time for a little snooze before tonight’s festivities.”
“That sounds great.” He took my hand. “Let’s go see how the kids are.”
I loved when he called our cats that. And it got me thinking about us actually having kids. Sin would make a great dad, I had zero doubts about it. But how would the citizens of the North Pole take it when they realized their next king or queen would be half winter elf and half necromancer?
The thought made me sigh.
“You okay?”
I blinked at Sin. “Hmm? Oh, sure. Just thinking.”
“About?”
I smiled for his benefit and told a little white lie. “Which dress I’m going to wear for dinner tomorrow.”
“I’m sure you’ll look great in whatever you pick.”
As we turned down the hall toward our rooms, the Segways I’d asked for came into view.
Sin laughed. “I almost thought you asking for those was a joke.”
“You’ll be glad for them. Makes getting around this place a lot easier.”
“Good thing I’ve been on one before.” He stopped in front of his door, giving the people mover a funny look.
“What?”
“I was just thinking I’m surprised there’s no Segway tour in Nocturne Falls. I bet it would be a great business.”
“You’re right, it would be. Maybe no one’s suggested it?”
“Or the Ellinghams don’t want motorized tourists clogging up the streets.”
“That could be too.” I opened my door. “See you in a few?”
“You got it.”
When I went into the living room, Spider was nowhere to be found. Not that unusual. “Spider? Mama’s home.”
No answer. His bowl of Chicken Party had been cleaned out, but there was still lots of kibble left and plenty of water.
I went searching. He wasn’t sitting on any of the window sills or sleeping on the bed, but I finally found him on one of the shelves in the walk-in closet. “What are you doing in here, silly boy?”
He blinked and yawned. “Spider tired.”
“Too tired to have Sugar come over?”
He sat up, almost conking his head on the shelf above. “Spider likes Sugar. Sugar can come play?”
“I know you like her. I’ll see if she can come over. Do you need anything? I’m going back out for a little bit with Mr. Sinclair.”
He casually licked a paw. “Spider likes treats.”
“You just ate. Treats can wait until later.” I scratched his head, then kissed it. “Love you, baby. I’ll go see about Sugar coming over.”
I left my leather jacket on the back of the couch as I went across the hall.
Sin opened the door, revealing he’d taken his jacket off as well. Sweet fancy Christmas, he was handsome.
I contained my inner gushing to focus on the needs of my talking cat. “Can Sugar come over? I think Spider would love that.”
“She’s sleeping, but I could wake her up.”
“Um…” I looked around him at the precious little white cat sitting on the floor behind him. “I don’t think she’s sleeping.”
Sugar mewed softly and Sin laughed as he turned. “Well, she was sleeping.” He bent down and scooped her up. “Want to visit your boyfriend?”
She mewed again, making me wonder how much she understood. Just because she couldn’t talk like Spider didn’t mean she didn’t comprehend what was being said.
Sin scratched her neck. “I’m ready to go anyway.”
“Good. Me too.”
We put Sugar in my apartment, then climbed onto the Segways and took off in the opposite direction we’d returned.
“This is surreal,” Sin said, shaking his head in amusement.
“What is?”
“Riding Segways through a royal palace with my princess girlfriend.”
“Well, I never thought I’d be in love with a necromancer so…”
“Point taken.” He grinned and waved as we whizzed by a pair of housekeepers. “Where are we going first?”
“Service elevator, then down to the main floor. We’ll do the big rooms first, see the kitchens, the gym, the pool, the bowling alley, the skating rink—”
“You have an indoor skating rink?”
“Yes. Does that seem odd?”
“Only that it’s inside.”
“We have one outside too. Skating’s a popular sport.”
“I can imagine all the winter activities are.”
I smiled. “Kind of a natural fit.”
We drove onto the service elevator, rode down to the main floor, then got off and started the tour. I took him from room to room, stopping in each one to tell him what was special about it, or what I loved about it, or who had last been entertained in it.
Sin, being Sin, had to take it a step further.
In the ballroom, he insisted on waltzing me around while he hummed a tune. In the library, he plucked a book from the shelves and read me a passage in a British accent. He bowled three frames in the bowling alley, and when we arrived at the skating rink, I already knew what he’d want.
He got off his Segway. “I love how it looks in here. It’s got a 1960s cosmic vibe that I am totally down for.”
“It’s looked like this for so long we consider it historic.” I parked my Segway, climbed down and pointed to the nearest wall cabinet. “There are skates in the cubbies behind those doors.”
He laughed. “I’m good.”
“What? You don’t want to take a spin around the rink?”
“I have to confess, I can’t skate. I’m willing to try, but I might break something.”
I grinned and took his hand. “Wow, something the great Sinclair Crowe can’t do?”
“Yes, you’ve found me out.” He tugged me closer. “Do you still love me now that my shortcomings have been exposed?”
I leaned into him, still smiling. “I’ll find a way to carry on.”
And there, in the frosty blue light of the rink, he bent and kissed me, long and slow and soft.
My head spun in the most woo
zy, wonderful way.
“I’m glad,” he whispered. “I’d hate to think that was a deal breaker.”
“I’ll teach you. It’s not that hard.” I wrapped my arms around him. The only deal breaker would be his decision on this life.
He sighed dramatically. “I suppose I’ll have to learn. Skating is probably the national pastime. Or is that eating dessert?”
“Very funny.” I did laugh. “There are skating lanes in the residential areas. It’s actually a popular form of transportation.”
“It’s a small ask. I’m happy to learn.”
I pulled back to look into his eyes, almost afraid to ask my question but needing the answer. “What do you think so far?”
“Of the North Pole?”
I nodded.
He smiled. “I love it. I love this enormous house you call home. I love you. And I know there is a lot more to see, but the early morning has caught up with me.” He yawned. “I’m ready for that nap.”
“So am I.” He loved me and the NP. That was so nice to hear. “We can see the rest later. Let’s head back.”
On the Segways, the return trip took less than fifteen minutes, and when we arrived, we parked them in the hall where we’d picked them up.
I tipped my head toward my door. “You want Sugar back?”
“If she wants to come back. Otherwise, she can hang out over there. If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, but let’s see what they’re up to. And what they’ve destroyed.” I opened my door and went in.
Sin followed. “Hopefully nothing.”
We found them curled up together on the sofa, which had had all its pillows shoved off. They looked like a furry yin-yang symbol, exhausted from slaying the pillows.
I glanced at Sin.
He shook his head and whispered, “Let them sleep.”
I looked at the clock and whispered back, “Hour nap?”
“Sounds good. Text you when I’m up.”
“Same.”
He kissed me on the cheek and headed for his room.
Two hours and many texts later, we’d had naps and showers, gotten changed and were ready to head back out to town for the tinker toy competition unveiling. The crawler was waiting for us under the portico when we walked out the south exit.
Miss Frost Chills the Cheater Page 3
