Thank you so much to my editor incredimeters
There is sex in this story but it is not the main focus.
Book 3
The relief detachment that Queen Anna, had sent with spare food and horses had returned to the castle by lunch with Owen but without Josef. Elsie had been livid. She had wanted if only for an instant to freeze Owen where he stood. “I told you to keep him there and wait for relief,” Elsie bellowed.
Ever since she left Josef, it had become harder and harder to remain calm and centered. Her emotions had been all over the place. She was nervous to the point of being jumpy. Happy one minute and sad the next. What is going on with me, she thought, I was not like this with Josef.
Owen was on his knees and inspecting the floor tiles not daring to look up at Elsie. Instead, he looked to Queen Anna for protection. Anna had grown into her role as queen very well. Like so many other great rulers she had never wanted to be queen but was very good at it. Gone were the days of leaping before she looked and acting before she thought things through. All her failings were quickly over-shadowed by her fearless, never-give-up attitude and her caring ability to see the best in everyone.
Owen cringed, “yes, Ma’am. But I had no reason to hold him and to be honest, I am not sure I could have even if I had wanted to.”
“Did he say anything?” Elsie demanded.
Owen looked up at Elsie for the first time. “Yes, your Majesty. He said he need to see the barber.”
Elsie grunted and walked away towards the back of the hall.
Anna couldn’t help but chuckle. Elsie simply looked exasperated. Anna sensed the tension building in her sister and decided it would be best to get Owen out of here as quickly as possible. “Very well, Owen. You will find my sister took very good care of your horse, Traveler, I believe her name is. Why don’t you go and make sure she knows you’re back.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Owen popped up as though the floor beneath him was spring loaded.
Elsie paced back and forth in front of the couch, in the sitting area of her old room in the castle at Arendelle. She had washed, done her hair and changed, making sure to wear a real cloth dress this time, not an Elsie original, just in case her powers failed again. “I should have tied him up and slung him over the back of the horse,” Elsie said to an empty room.
“Elsie?” A soft voice interrupted her thoughts, causing her to jump and freeze the edge of the couch.
Elsie rounded on the person half expecting it to be Olaf, but was surprised to discover it was Anna. Being queen took up most of Anna’s day and so they saw each other mostly at meals and bedtime. Anna smiled. “Do you want to build a snowman?”
Anna of course didn’t really think Elsie wanted to build a snowman. For them the phrase had become their personal way of saying, “I know you’re hurting. How can I help.”
“I’m just having so much trouble controlling my feelings today,” Elsie confessed to the one person she knew she could trust.
“You are?” Anna asked. “To be honest I hadn’t noticed.”
“You mean I am normally like this?” Elsie’s face looked worried.
“Yyyyesss.” Anna said and then braced for the explosion.
Elsie thought back and knew that Anna was right. She also decided then and there she was going to do her best to find her emotional calm again. Right after this last tantrum.
“Why couldn’t he have just waited?” Anna shrank back on the couch. “Why couldn’t he have just listened?” Elsie asked.
“Because he’s a man,” Anna said with complete sincerity, while patting the seat next to her on the couch. “And all though they drive me nuts. I wouldn’t have them any other way.”
“That’s all fine and good for you. You’re married to Kris the most trustworthy guy on earth. I mean you can ask him to do something and you can trust that whatever you ask him to do it will get done,” Elsie reasoned out loud.
“Well,” Anna snickered, “I would agree with that statement for the most part. I would however add, ‘eventually,’ to the end of it.”
“But if I can’t trust Josef to even do one simple thing like stay put, can I ever trust him with anything?” Elsie asked almost in tears.
“Wait what?” Anna asked taking Elsie by the shoulders and forcing her to sit sideways so the two sisters were eye to eye. Anna scrutinized Elsie’s face as though looking for a small tick or spider. Elsie could not maintain eye contact. Anna Smiled. “You’re in love with him.” It was a statement not a question.
Elsie tried to laugh it off. “What? Noooo.”
“You are.” Anna’s smiled widened. Anna took Elsie’s hands and looked at her sister even closer. “You are. Oh, my goodness you are.”
Anna got up and started to prance around the couch singing “Elsie’s in love. Elsie’s in love.”
“What are you, Olaf?” Elsie asked.
“Elsie,” Anna stopped and rejoined her sister on the sofa. “I have seen that look in the mirror and on Kris’s face every day for over two years. I know the ‘love look’ when I see it.”
“How far did it go? Did you and he?” Anna tried to wink at Elsie but it looked more like she had gotten some mascara in her eye.
Elsie blushed and grimaced, “Yeeaah.” Elsie then began to inspect the ends of her braided hair avoiding eye contact with Anna as she drew out her answer, “We did. And it was amazing.”
“This is so delicious,” Anna’s face changed from happy to dead pan. “Elsie I will not discuss this with you any further. You cannot marry a man you just met. The party is over. Guards, close the gates.”
“Are you done?” asked Elsie with an equally dead pan expression on her face.
“No actually.” Anna extended her hand to Elsie. “You still need to pull off my glove and I need to run off and freeze the harbor. I may need a little help with that.”
Elsie buried her face in her hands. Anna got up and offered Elsie her hand for real this time. “Let’s go to dinner. If he has not shown up by the end of dinner, I will send a search party for him.”
“That worked really well in my case,” Elsie pointed out sarcastically.
“I know. It did. You’re here aren’t you,” Anna quipped then turned serious. “Besides I still have some something I want to discuss with you.”
Chapter 2
Anna and Elsie lived in one wing of the castle. The rest of it was a cross between a hotel and a museum. Most of the castle was composed of offices and conference rooms meant for handling the affairs of state. They only used the ballrooms for formal balls and while the kitchen could provide food for hundreds, it only had to feed thirty or so on a general day.
The two women walked arm and arm all the way to the private family dining room. Anna occasionally mumbled, “Elsie’s in love, Elsie’s in love” under her breath until Elsie finally fixed her with an icy stare and Anna stopped. A wave of nausea hit Elsie and she was suddenly so tired she had to sit down.
“Elsie are you ok?” asked Anna and Kai, the castle’s head steward who like usual had appeared out of nowhere, in unison.
“I’m fine, just a little light headed. It’s passing.” It was just like the other day when she had lost her powers but much less intense. And she wasn’t lying it was passing. Stranger still she felt her emotions simmering down too.