Daughters of the King |✓|

Chapter Twenty-Three

Zelle and I wore our thickest scarves as we walked the perimeter of the lawn, arm-in-arm, making paths in the snow with the dog bounding at our side. It always wanted to be near Zelle. Even animals recognized her sweetness, it was that irrefutable.

A week had flown by already with Gunnar in the house, and it hadn't been as difficult as I thought to avoid him, since he avoided us with meticulous precision, me especially. Bohdai had become his right hand, ensuring he never encountered any of us, as Gunnar spent most of his time working towards organizing the house for the major's arrival. Which was expected for tomorrow.

Major Wolfe Rasmussen.

My mother had learned his name, and from what I could gather, was still holding onto the hope of marrying me to him. Sooner rather than later, since the presence of Gunnar in the house both worried and infuriated her. She harassed Bo endlessly with inquisitions about him, but the answers were never to her satisfaction.

"How's your foot?" I asked Zelle during our second round.

"It's fine, Olya," she said, her eyes smiling above her scarf.

She liked to brush off my worrying, as though my displays of affection embarrassed her. As though she didn't feel worthy of them. Which is why I always sought to prove her wrong on that matter.

I smiled back at her as we huddled close for warmth and walked on, the dog running circles around us, the sun blinding and heatless, reflecting off every shiny surface of the wintery wilderness we found ourselves in.

"Are you worried about the arrival tomorrow?" she asked me.

"I am. Mostly for my mother's sake."

"She has been quite agitated lately," Zelle acknowledged. "I wonder what she could be thinking."

"I never know what she's thinking," I said, but I fought to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

I didn't want Zelle to know the extent of how broken my relationship with my mother was. I didn't think it was in anybody's best interest to reveal her toxicity when tensions were so high in the country. Better for us to keep a united front, no matter how false it was. It had always been that way between us, anyway. Even before, in our old life, we'd been reluctant accomplices.

"I hope the major's stay won't be long," Zelle said. "So things can go back to the way they were before."

"Perhaps they never will. Spring will come soon, and although things calmed down a bit in winter, they can only pick up again once the weather starts to clear. And then who knows what will happen."

"That's true," she said. "It's funny. I thought that once I'd be living in the King's Country that I would be safe. And I am, in a way. Living by your side, I've lived more comfortably than I ever dreamt possible. But I guess safety is not what I thought it was. It's much more fragile than I expected. Sometimes I think it might vanish in a puff of smoke."

I felt her words as viscerally as if they'd been my own. Zelle and I were as different as two people can be, and yet I understood her perfectly in that moment. Our lives and experiences were nothing alike, but there was a kind of symmetry in the way we perceived the world—in the way we felt fear.

"I know what you mean." We smiled at each other from behind our scarves.

Then she shivered, and said, "Should we go inside now?"

"Already?" I teased.

"I'd like to be able to feel my toes again," she said, and I laughed. "I'd also like to do another session."

"Why? Have you sinned today?"

She just giggled. "You should join me."

"Maybe I should," I replied, as we made our way back towards the house, to its promise of warmth.