Part 22 (2/2)

However, this discussion was prolonging a situation that I'd like to see done. Precisely getting in the sleigh, getting to the jail, seeing my parents and returning to the palace.

So I gave in, murmuring, ”As you wish,” pulled free of Noc and turned to the sleigh.

I felt movement around me as Noc reached in front of me to open the door to the open-topped sleigh. I also felt his hand at my hip steadying me as if I couldn't climb into a b.l.o.o.d.y sleigh on my own, something I'd been doing since I'd gained control of my legs and feet.

I clenched my teeth in frustration, attempted to ignore his touch, which was firm enough that I felt it even through my furs, my gown and my warm undergarments, and found my seat.

Noc found his beside me and Cora had entered the sleigh and was settling beside him.

I didn't stoop to looking around to see where the others had gone. I simply grabbed the fur throw that was at the ready for us on the floor of the sleigh to pull over my lap. It was large and long and while I did this, Noc adjusted it over his lap as Cora did the same.

All of us tucked in the sleigh together like bosom buddies on a jaunt (laughable), Noc reached forward to take hold of the reins secured before him.

I looked at the four horses attached to the sleigh.

For the horse's sake, two was optimal to share a load, even on a long distance ride.

Four to sledge through town was ludicrous.

Unless you were a royal.

And since Cora was, I supposed it wasn't outlandish.

What surprised me was that Noc took the reins when I was relatively certain that the other men mounted steeds.

I turned to him and asked, ”Do you not ride?”

I heard him click his teeth and watched him snap the straps, lurched with the forward movement of the sleigh, and then saw him look down at me.

”Ride?” he asked.

”A mount,” I explained.

”Not much of that kind of riding in my world, babe,” he stated, and I felt myself blink in surprise. ”Though I do ride, just not a horse. A hawg. As in a Harley.”

Cora piped in at this juncture.

”You have a Harley?”

Noc looked to his other side. ”Yeah.”

”Wow. Cool. Wish I'd gotten a ride with you before I had to leave our world,” she remarked.

”Didn't get to get on it much in Seattle,” Noc remarked. ”Figure that'll change in NOLA. Least I hope so.”

I heard this conversation but I was still back where it started.

”You ride a pig?” I asked with disbelief.

Both Noc and Cora's attention came to me and they stared at me mutely for a second before they both burst out laughing.

Well.

How rude.

I looked forward.

”Not laughin' at you, sweetheart,” Noc said gently, through laughter that was, indeed, at me. ”But you were bein' funny. We're talkin' about motorcycles. You don't have them here. We have automotive vehicles powered by gas. Move on wheels called tires. No animals needed. They go a lot faster. Most of them are enclosed, but not bikes, what motorcycles are sometimes referred to as, a brand of which is Harleys. That's what I've got. Those have two wheels, not four, and are open to the elements. You ride them kinda like a horse, except they're motor-powered.”

”Interesting,” I said like it was not.

However, it was.

What kinds of machines would these be, no animals needed? They seemed implausible and fanciful, just like what he'd shown me that first night we spoke-his ”phone.”

And yet that was real.

I had often thought of his gadgetry since, in the rare alone times I'd had, wis.h.i.+ng I'd taken hold of it, inspected it, tested its magic.

Animal-less ”vehicles” powered by gas I would adore the opportunity of seeing.

”It's cute, you not getting it,” Noc went on to explain, noting my continued mood (as he always did, he just often chose to ignore it). ”If you went to our world, you'd understand it.”

I did not share that I'd be quite interested in going to his world and seeing these fantastical contraptions at work.

I also did not share that it was not cute to laugh at someone who was ignorant about something for reasons not in their control.

I just looked out the side of the sleigh, not noticing the houses and buildings and people we sledded by, and barely noticing the whoosh of our transport, the one behind us, and the clomp of the many horses' hooves in the snow.

But I did vaguely sense that many watched us pa.s.s.

Then again, we were a grand procession with a king, a queen, a prince, princesses and The Drakkar. But even if it was only Dax Lahn, the fellow was such a sight to see with his large body, long, bunched hair, fierce face with its abundant dark beard and unusual clothing made of hide, all would stop to watch.

Truth be told, I wished to watch him ride. I was certain he'd be good at it (though, that wasn't the only reason I wished to do this, as fierce as he was, he was most a.s.suredly pleasing to the eye).

”You're right,” Noc muttered, pulling me from my thoughts of the Dax, and I felt his arm round my waist so my head snapped around to look up at him again, seeing he appeared contrite. ”Wasn't cool, us busting a gut like that. You don't know. And there's all sorts of s.h.i.+t about your world that I don't get or know about. I probably wouldn't like it much if I said something you thought was funny and you laughed in my face.”

”Yeah, that wasn't cool, Franka, really sorry,” Cora chimed in.

I did not know how to take this. Outside of a servant making a mistake and apologizing to me for doing so (as they should), I didn't think anyone had ever apologized to me. Certainly not when they'd done something wrong or hurtful. And absolutely not admitting they understood they'd done so and moving verbally to rectify that hurt.

”You cool?” Noc asked.

In that moment I did not wish to get into the fact that their usage of ”cool” was like Noc's usage of ”s.h.i.+t” and ”f.u.c.k” and a variety of others. In other words, these were all used frequently but with what seemed like different meanings.

We spoke the same language but it still felt like I was cast adrift in a foreign land with only a modic.u.m of understanding of the native tongue and I had to decipher all with only the barest of foundations.

<script>