The Silver Thread (41 page)

“Meteorite,” he said, looking intently at her hand. “It’s a fallen star,
slunchitse
. I may not remember much of your film, but I do remember you being lit up as brightly as a falling star when we were walking along the Champs-Élysées back to the hotel. I told you that until I won my books back from you, that I would be wrapped around your finger. Now you won’t forget…although you don’t have to wear it if you don’t care to. Unlike your wedding ring, there are no strings attached to the one that I’m giving you.”

Annika held both her shaking hands in front of her, looking at the two rings. On her left hand, there was a flashy, twinkling platinum band inscribed with a promise of enduring love that would go the distance. On her right hand, there was a modest and unassuming fallen star that already had. It had journeyed from the edge of the universe, through space and time, just to be with her. Tears came out of nowhere and her throat choked up as she recalled telling Asbjorn so easily that she felt she may indeed have known Finn in another life. Maybe this was the proof. It surely couldn’t be coincidence.

“Should these be switched?” she whispered, looking through her tears from one ring to the other. “Did I make a mistake?”

“Your name is on our wall down in the library, and that’s not a mistake,” said Finn gently. “Your wedding ring is irremovable, and that’s not a mistake.”

“But I’m scared that it is. I trust you so much more than…” she couldn’t speak, she was crying too hard. He folded her into his chest, holding her tight as she sobbed. The protective warmth of their little bubble returned and surrounded her with an overwhelming sense of peace as he began to speak, soothing her with his deep voice.

“I care for you so much,
slunchitse
, but if you had married me instead of my brother, you would have remained a human. You would have grown old and died in front of all of us within a fraction of our lives. How could I ever be so selfish, to allow your flame to burn out so quickly, all for a fleeting handful of years to call you my own? I feel as though we’ve already spent a past life together, if not more. I have no scientific evidence to prove my theory. I only have faith in it, but it feels like the correct explanation. I don’t know what else could rationalize this force between us. It’s my belief that the universe meant for you and I to be together in a different capacity this lifetime.”

He tilted her face up toward him and brushed away her tears with his thumb, gazing at her lovingly through his loose brown curls. His soft brown eyes watered as he looked at her soul and said, “I know I’ve told you this before, Annika, but I really do like having you around.”

After breakfast the next morning, Ambrose filled a canteen with water from the pump at the kitchen sink and handed it to Annika.

“Let’s go check on that husband of yours, shall we?”

The two of them started off in silence, though it was more of the peaceful type than the awkward type.

“I hope you didn’t stay up too late crying,” he remarked casually as they ambled past the horses in the pastures.

“How did you know I was crying at all?” she asked, suddenly feeling less peaceful and more awkward.

“I have a wife and two daughters, and I’m the father of one notorious heartbreaker,” said Ambrose, smiling ever so slightly at her. “Trust me, I know the look.”

“I slept alright,” she said quickly, almost tripping on a root sticking out of the ground. “I slept just fine.”

“What’s one lass to do with so much love given so easily and freely to her?” he said, lifting a dark eyebrow at her.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “I don’t think I’m that big of a deal.” She felt unsure of offering up anything that had been said the previous evening in Finn’s room, and she definitely didn’t want to share any of the things that had not been said.

“I know you don’t think you are a big deal. That’s the problem. You are, in fact, a rather
big
deal.” Ambrose hummed to himself in thought before he continued. “I can’t imagine how difficult it was for you to go home after everything that happened to you here, and try to go about your normal life. Your family and friends thought you were quite unwell, didn’t they?”

“Yeah,” Annika said quietly as they passed under a low branch of one of the endless giant white poplar trees surrounding them.

“When we were speaking about holiday arrangements, it made me curious. Do you ponder much that you’ll outlive them all by a dozen lifetimes?”

“I don’t really think about it,” she mumbled. Ambrose slowed his pace and turned to her, looking at her sympathetically.

“Annika, you don’t have much more time with them, compared to what you have with us. I understand why you’re driven to cling to your former life. It’s secure; it’s comfortable; it’s familiar to you. However, you only have perhaps another ten to fifteen years before your family and friends begin asking why you haven’t aged along with them. I can assure you, it will upset them, even scare them, the more time that goes by and leaves you unchanged. If you were to have a child within the next dozen years or so, it will only magnify the situation. You ought to know, they don’t grow nearly as quickly as human infants.

“Yeah, about that,” Annika began, “How old are Stella and Sloan? They only look like they’re two and four, but that can’t be right. Talvi once told me that he’s twelve times older than me.”

“He is correct,” Ambrose explained patiently. “They appear that age in human terms, but Stella is forty-eight and Sloan is nineteen.”

“That’s so crazy,” Annika said, shaking her head in disbelief. “And Anthea’s totally fine with changing diapers for another twenty years?” Ambrose gave a soft laugh.

“I don’t think anyone particularly enjoys that task,” he remarked. “It does make one think twice before making a baby. However, with you coming from a human family, you will have to think more than twice before making that decision. I know there is a lot in front of you that you would rather not deal with anytime soon. I would suggest, speaking from experience, to try and open yourself up to the realm of the uncomfortable and unfamiliar sooner rather than later. The humans in your life don’t know you the way we do. They certainly don’t know you the way Talvi does.”

“But that’s been the problem all along,” she pointed out. “We got together so fast that we hardly know each other! How can he know anything about me? Plus I know he keeps a lot of secrets. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know anything about him beneath the surface.”

“You knew enough about him to marry him in the first place,” Ambrose said, smiling to himself. “Surely you saw something in his soul that you couldn’t live without. When is the last time you looked at it, anyway?”

Annika shrugged. She couldn’t remember the last time she lovingly gazed into her husband’s eyes and lost herself in them, but now that she thought of it, it was probably right before, during, and immediately after their wedding.

“Do you know why he hasn’t a clue what your middle name is, or when your birthday is?”

“Well, I was gonna say it’s because he doesn’t give a shit, but I get the feeling you’re going to tell me it’s something a lot sweeter.”

“You are every bit as saucy as he claimed,” Ambrose said with a snicker. “But the reason he doesn’t know isn’t because he doesn’t care. It’s because when his eye is on the target, everything else falls to the wayside. He has seen the essence of your soul, Annika, and possessing your heart is all that matters to him. He knows only too well that you haven’t given yourself to him completely, and I told him that no one could honestly blame you for it. Don’t let his legions of fawning flatterers fool you; Prince Talvi is not the easiest to love, but there’s a diamond hiding deep within that mess of coal. He has a reputation about him as strong as any suit of armor. I’m afraid he’ll be trapped in it for long time, even though he’d like to be done with it. It is his own creation. You both have a lot of hurdles to overcome, to be able to trust one another, but please understand; now that you’re within his inner circle, he will fight for you to the death. You almost saw that yesterday, but thank the gods for Asbjorn stopping him just in time. I’m certain that the only thing which will enable Finn to forgive his brother is his incredible fondness of you.”

He looked at Annika, glanced down at the meteorite ring on her right hand, and then looked back up at her, letting his blue-green eyes shine. Annika tried not to blush, but it was too late.

“I know Talvi is incorrigible, impudent, impatient, and infuriating at times. I didn’t raise him to be that way; it’s simply who he is. But just as he is wild like the blizzard he was conceived in, he is also as loyal as the cold is to snow. I know your biggest fear is that you can’t trust him, but I think if you can learn to accept him for who he is, you’ll be able to let that fear go. Then you will know what to do with all of the love that’s being offered to you…from
everyone
around you. And then, you will understand what a big deal you really are.”

They walked for the next fifteen minutes in silence, until Annika smirked and finally asked,

“So, are you saying that it’s okay that he doesn’t know my middle name or my birthday?”

Ambrose let out a soft laugh and shook his head.

“No, that is really unacceptable,” he said quietly. “Please forgive me; I am not trying to make excuses for my son’s bad behavior, but you need to understand that he has never been in a serious relationship before. You might consider adjusting the learning curve for him. He has a lot of catching up to do. Now I know I left him right around here somewhere…” He peered around the tall silver poplar trees, looking for a sign of his son’s whereabouts. Then his eyes caught sight of a few tall mounds of dirt behind some bushes. He motioned for Annika to follow him a few paces behind, raised his forefinger to his lips, and together they walked closer to the mounds of soil, rocks and roots. Then he abruptly stopped and looked down.

“Badra’s beard, that’s quite a deep hole you’ve dug there, Talvi,” he said, dodging a shovel’s worth of dirt. “Surely you have found a few solutions to your problems.”

“A few,” came the reply from below.

“Care to share, so I can decide if you need to keep digging or not?”

“Why yes, I would, actually.” Another load of dirt came flying up and Ambrose walked to the other side of the hole and sat down, motioning for Annika to do the same a few feet behind him.

“Alright then, I’m listening.”

“Well, I admit I may not know much about merging two lives together, but I don’t think Annika knows much about it, either. She ought to be out here with me, although I doubt she could dig very deep, little thing that she is,” he said, sending another pile of dirt up. Ambrose winked at Annika and looked back down at Talvi.

“Why do you think that?”

“Oh, for starters, she was going to go to work the very next day after Chivanni and I arrived at her house. I spent almost three months getting to her door, missing her terribly as I tracked her down, and then she simply said to me, ‘Sorry, I have to go to work.’ Can you believe the nerve?”

“That was incredibly insensitive of her. What did you do?”

“I wouldn’t have any of that nonsense, so I set her straight and made her stay home.” A wicked laugh rose up from underground and a large pile of dirt came flying up after it. “I told her that she was being a rude hostess and her wingless fairy friend agreed.”

“You’re right, she was being a very rude hostess,” Ambrose said, and shook his finger in silent reprimand at Annika. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment as she recalled being punished for her bad manners.

“She also lied to me from the get go. She thought she was pregnant, so instead of telling me right away, she tried to hide it until her mother accused her of having morning sickness. It turned out she was merely getting sick from eating animals, but still; my own wife lied to me, Father.”

“That can be a difficult thing for a lady to be forthcoming about, Talvi, especially when she knows her partner wants nothing to do with children. Your mother and I weren’t ready for Anthea when she came along, but such is life. It’s different when it’s your own child, but you won’t understand that unless the time comes.”

“Fair enough, but after all the trouble I’ve had in the past with Zenzi, surely you can understand—”

“That is in the past, and we are discussing your future,” he replied quickly, looking down at his son, which intrigued Annika greatly. “Do you have any other complaints about your wife that need sorting out?”

Talvi hooted a laugh and was all too happy to indulge his audience with his opinion.

“Her wingless fairy friend owns the house she lives in, and she owed him quite a bit of money, so I paid him in trade and she got angry at me for it.”

“Why did she get angry?” Ambrose asked. “I would feel relieved if someone did that for me.”

“That’s what I thought as well! I think she was brassed off because she wanted to pay the debt herself and I did it for her. I had the funds, and I didn’t want her to worry about it. Perhaps she’s jealous of my income. Those modern girls are really touchy about their finances.”

“Are they, now?”

“Oh, Father, you wouldn’t believe it! She was downright insulted that I should want to take care of her financially.”

“Well son, perhaps she is overcompensating a bit,” said Ambrose, stroking his graying beard thoughtfully. “Though you take for granted that on Earth, women have been subjugated by men for ages, and still are to this very day. Why do you think Anthea hates to travel there? It’s because she doesn’t want her children to be influenced by the blatant misogyny that still runs rampant in human society. It’s not the way it is here, where we value the attributes and celebrate the differences of
both
genders. Times are changing, thankfully, but you must be patient with those modern girls. They are trying to rectify centuries of oppression and backward thinking. It’s quite a task they have.” He winked at Annika and she winked back, nodding her head in complete agreement.

“Yes, I believe you’re spot on about that,” Talvi replied, and was silent for a few thoughtful moments before sending more dirt flying out of the hole. “But speaking of modern girls, Annika’s friend needed a place to stay, so I asked if she could move in, and that caused an entirely new set of problems. You’ll never guess her name. It’s the bee’s knees.”

“Her name is Bees Knees?” Ambrose asked with a grin.

“No, dammit, but I don’t believe you’ll guess it, so I’ll save you the trouble. It’s Patti Cake. Her last name is Kaeke, which is a sort of drum. Now how charming is that?”

“I’d say that redefines the word charming. So what’s the trouble with a charming girl named Patti Cake?” Some rocks and roots came flying out of the hole as Talvi went on.

“She’s such a delightful girl to be around, though she’s terribly clumsy and accident prone. She can scarcely go a day without injuring herself in some fashion, so it’s a good thing for her to have me around, but Annika acts as though I’m looking for any bloody excuse to grope her friend. I told her she was being irrational, but she didn’t believe me.”

“Were you inappropriate with her friend?”

“I didn’t think so, and Patti Cake didn’t think so, and the wingless fairy and Chivanni and Annika’s brother Charlie didn’t think so, but I’m not married to them, so what does it matter?”

“It matters to you, Talvi.”

“I don’t think how I feel matters very much to Annika. I’m just her toy, her pet. Perhaps that’s why I like Patti Cake so much, because she treats me like a friend instead of a lap dog. Annika leaves me home all day to go to a job she doesn’t particularly like, let alone need, and then I’m expected to be waiting faithfully when it’s time for her to come home. I want to take her to Rome, and she wants to sell guitar strings to snot-nosed children. I understand it’s because she wants to earn her own money, but I know that’s not the way she wants to do it. Since she was always away at work, I found myself spending more time with Patti Cake than with her, and then she became jealous of that too!” The irritation in his voice began to escalate, which corresponded with the amount of dirt flying out of the hole in the ground.