Chapter Nine
My eyes fluttered open slowly and I rolled over, yawning. The sun wasn't up yet so I knew it was still sometime in the early morning. A small smile was on my lips and I realized that I had been dreaming, but I couldn't quite remember what I dreamed about. I blinked and stared at the wall, trying to remember.
Anna's lips suddenly crashed into mine and lingered for a moment.
"I love you." She said as she pulled away slightly.
"I love you, too."
Her lips were so soft...so sweet and gentle as they moved against mine...
Lips and teeth against my jaw line caused me to gasp, licking and sucking on my earlobe caused gooseflesh to rise all over my skin.
Anna ran her tongue along my bottom lip and by reflex, I opened my mouth and granted her access...she pushed me back against the wall...Her leg moved between mine.
"Anna," I groaned
I suddenly sat up in panic. I couldn't remember the whole dream, but that much I remembered and it was a rather unholy dream to be having about ones sister. I remembered accidentally kissing Anna the day before and realized, that was probably where the dream came from. Sometimes your mind could warp things and make them seem different. My mind must have taken the accidental kiss and turned it into being attracted to Anna.
Feeling a little better about the dream, I got out of bed and quickly changed. It was still too early for anybody to be up, but I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep so I walked over to my desk and gathered all my paperwork. I thought I might concentrate on it better if I was in my study and not in my own room.
Closing my bedroom door behind me, I started making my way towards my study. The halls were so quiet, nothing was heard except for the sounds of my feet pattering against the floor. Passing by Anna's room, I noticed that her door was cracked open a little bit. I stopped for a moment and stared at the door. I couldn't help it, I had to peek.
Slowly I crept the door open a little further and poked my head in. I smiled at the sleeping form on the bed. Anna seemed to be having a peaceful sleep, her mouth was hanging open slightly and a small stream of drool leaked out and down her cheek. Slowly I backed away and closed the door, then turned and continued to my study.
When I reached my study I shut the door behind me and sat down at my desk, then looked through the paperwork. There were a couple things from the Southern Isles, but nothing from Weselton, which pleased me. I was glad that they finally gave up trying to get us to trade with them, their desperation was starting to get ridiculous.
I scanned through the Southern Isles' paperwork, which mostly included trade agreements. I didn't mind trading with them. After the Great Thaw, King Magnus of the Southern Isles had sent a letter apologizing for his son's actions towards Anna and I, as well as our entire kingdom. At first I was rather weary, but the Southern Isles had always been a loyal trade partner in the past and they'd never done anything before to make us lose trust in them.
Hans acted on his own accords and King Magnus mentioned that he'd been punished severely once he got back to his own kingdom, so while I'd been weary of them, I didn't close off trade. They had things we needed and couldn't get anywhere else.
I scanned through the papers again, they were the usually papers so I signed and dated them after reading them thoroughly. I straightened all the papers together and set them aside, then sat back in my chair. That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would and wasn't sure what to do. I stood and walked over to the window. The sun was just starting to come up which meant people would start waking up for the day within the next hour or two.
I looked down at the courtyard below and squinted when I noticed movement. Looks like somebody is already awake, I thought to myself as I tried to see who it was. Whoever they were, they were rather small... suddenly they tripped and their head rolled away from their body.
Olaf, I smiled. I wondered what he was doing. Nobody was with him, he was just running around by himself. I watched him for quite some time before he noticed me standing in the window. He waved excitedly at me, so I waved back with a small smile on my face.
When Olaf turned away and went about his business, I turned back to my desk. Suddenly I noticed some papers laying on the left corner of my desk that I hadn't noticed before so I sat down to see what they were. My eyebrows rose when I noticed that one set of the papers was from the Northern Isles and the other set was from Corona.
We currently didn't have any trades going on with the Northern Isles and hadn't for years, and while we'd been close with Corona while my parents were alive, we've lost touch over the years. It was curious, what could they want?
I decided to go through the Northern Isles paperwork first, and it took quite a while. They felt the need to add so many unneeded details, that it almost took away from what they really wanted. After reading it through a couple of times, I could tell that they just wanted some of our crops. Simple as that. The letter never proposed what they could give us in exchange, so I tried to think of what the Northern Isles had that could benefit us. Nothing came to mind, so I would have to ask the council on our next meeting tomorrow.
I curiously moved onto Corona's paperwork, and was delighted by the time I reached the end. They knew our Navy was lacking, and was willing to trade us building supplies for our apples. They suggested that the building supplies could be put towards building some more navy ships, which we desperately needed if we ever needed to protect ourselves, or heaven forbid, went to war. While we had decent enough soil to grow some good crops and apples, and being able to catch a lot of fish, we didn't have many materials that could be used for building anything.
Apparently, a disease of some sort went through and killed a large portion of their apple orchard, and while they could live without apples, they heard that we had the best apples in the land and were willing to trade so much for them.
I reached over and grabbed my quill and some paper, then began responding to the letter right away. I wrote that I wanted to do the trade, and even offered some grains since we had some to spare and they were giving us so much for so little.
Just as I was finishing the letter, a knock at the door startled me. I set the quill down and fixed my posture.
"Who's there?" I called out.
"Uh, Just me." Anna called from the other side of the door. My heart started racing. What was I going to do? I still hadn't seen Anna since I kissed her, I still don't know how she reacted...how she felt about it. Obviously, she was probably revolted.
"Elsa?" Anna sounded concerned when I didn't answer back.
"Yes? Come in." I responded. After a moment, the door slowly opened and Anna stepped in. She looked nervous. Was it my fault that she was nervous? Maybe she was scared of me.
"Is everything alright?" I asked.
"What? Oh, yeah." Anna said. "You were just late for breakfast so I wondered if you were alright. I didn't find you in your room so I came to check for you here."
"Oh! Is it time for breakfast already?" I looked at the clock, it was. "Did you eat yet?"
"No, I was waiting for you." Anna said, a smile forming on her lips. I stood, feeling a little guilty. She always waited for me, no matter what. She was always there, being her kind, loving self.
"Well lets go, then." I said, walking around the desk. "I bet you're hungry, I know I am."
"What were you doing up so early?" She asked on our way to breakfast.
"I just couldn't sleep." I said quickly. "I decided to get some paperwork done. It was a rather productive morning."
"It was?" Anna asked curiously. She seemed genuinely curious, and I thought that was kind of strange. Normally my paperwork and other queenly duties bored her. We reached the dinning room and went to our spots.
"Yes. I had some paperwork from the Northern Isles." I said. Anna raised her eyebrow, looking as surprised as I was when I saw the papers.
"We haven't heard from them in awhile." Anna said. "What was it all about?"
"They want some of our crops. Problem is, everybody seems to want some of our crops, especially our apples. I don't know if we have enough to go around." I said, sticking my fork into some eggs. "Winter's going to be coming up soon."
"What are they going to give us for the crops?" Anna asked. I shook my head.
"I'm not sure, they didn't propose anything and I lack knowledge of what they have to offer." Anna looked thoughtful for a couple moments.
"They have a lot of mines there, which we don't have any." Anna said after awhile. " We could ask for some of their ore. They also raise a lot of sheep, and we could ask for wool."
"How do you know all that, Anna?" I wondered. "You've always hated studying."
"Yeah, that's true. But it does come in handy." She shrugged.
"I didn't even know that and Greta was always hard on me about studying." I smiled. "Anyway, we could always use the ore, but that doesn't seem like a fair trade."
"If they really need the crops, they'll do it." Anna responded.
"Yes, they would. But I don't want them to have ill feelings towards us." I said. " They might not like it if we make unfair trades when they are going through hardships."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Anna said. " We could always use the wool too." I nodded.
"I'll discuss it with the council tomorrow." I said. "I'm not even sure we can spare the crops, I'll have to check on that." We ate the rest of the meal in silence. Anna was acting so normal, I wondered if she had forgotten that I violated her.
When we finished breakfast, we stood and I was about to excuse myself when I noticed that Anna was wearing a dress that I'd never seen before.
"Is that a new dress?" I asked her. "I don't think I've seen it before."
"Yeah." Anna said, looking away. "Greta had to have some new ones made. You know, because I can't fit into my other ones now." She patted her stomach and it was then that I noticed the bulge. The baby seemed to be growing rather quickly, Anna was so small to begin with.
"It's beautiful." I told her when I noticed the look of embarrassment on her face.
"You really think so?" She beamed at me.
"Of course." I responded. Suddenly she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. After a couple seconds of shock, I wrapped my arms around her to return the hug. Once Anna pulled away, I excused myself to go practice my archery. Anna looked disappointed, but got better once I told her that I would spend the evening with her.
I showed up to my archery lessons on time, unlike the last time. Henrik greeted me warmly and I smiled as I greeted him back. The older man was starting to grow on me and I was starting to enjoy his company.
"How are you, Your Majesty?" He asked.
"Please, call me Elsa." I said. "I'm doing just fine, how are you?"
"Great, such a beautiful day we're having." Henrik said. He handed me the bow but I noticed that there weren't any arrows nearby.
"I want to try something different this time." He said, noticing my confused look. " You seemed to hit the target right in the middle last time with your ice arrows, I want to explore that more." I nodded, as long as nobody was around I figured it would be alright.
I made my first arrow and aimed it at the target. I wondered what Anna was planning on doing the rest of the day. Would she sit in the library and read? Would she paint in her room? Play with Olaf? I wondered if she would talk to the paintings, or if she was done with that now that I wasn't locking myself away from her. I couldn't believe that I ignored her for so many years, she was so beautiful and kind...Sweet, loving Anna...And I was so mean to her.
"Uh, Your- I mean, Elsa?" Henrik said, snapping me from my thoughts.
"Yes?" I asked.
"You may shoot whenever." He said.
"Right. I know that. Okay." I shot the arrow and surprisingly missed the target completely. I stood there and stared at my ice arrow, sticking out of a tree yards away from the target.
"Don't worry about it, just try again." Henrik said, he sounded surprised. I made another arrow and aimed it. Suddenly, kissing Anna sprang into my mind. I shook my head to clear it, but Anna's warm, soft lips invaded my mind. I let go of the arrow and frowned as it went straight into the ground.
"Okay, try again." Henrik encouraged. I made another arrow and aimed it. Butterflies were fluttering in my stomach. I wondered if Anna liked the kiss, she didn't seem too disgusted by it. Was she somewhere in the castle, thinking about it? I imagined what would have happened if the kiss had continued. In my mind, hands wandered, teeth nipped, tongues soothed and lips danced. I shot the arrow, flinging it over the target and off into the distance.
"Are you doing alright, Elsa?" Henrik asked, sounding genuinely concerned. He took a couple steps closer to me. "You look flushed, maybe we should postpone our lessons."
"No, I'm fine." I reassured him. " I can do it, let me try again." Without waiting for him to answer, I quickly made an arrow and shot it. That time, I hit the target but it kind of just dangled off the edge.
"That's better!" Henrik said. I didn't feel like I did any better, but I kept going. Over the next couple of hours, I kept getting distracted. A couple of my arrows made it to the center of the target, but for the most part I kept missing.
"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Henrik asked. " You did perfect the other day with your ice arrows, and now you're barely hitting the target."
"Yes, I'm fine." I reassured him. "I'm just a little distracted today, I guess."
"Would you like to call it a day then?" Henrik asked. "You have been at it for a couple of hours now."
"Yeah, that might be a good idea." I responded. I handed the bow back over to Henrik with a smile. "Thank you, I'll do better next time." He nodded and I left. I wasn't sure what to do. Normally I would go look for Anna, but I still wasn't sure if she wanted to see me. I didn't have much time to just myself normally, I was always in meetings or with Anna. I decided to go to the library to read.
I scanned the shelves, not really knowing what I wanted to read. I liked reading a little bit of everything, though I never really read very many romance novels. Romance was more of Anna's book preference. Finally I spotted a book that Anna had recommended to me once, it was an adventure romance novel and she said it was one of the most adventurously romantic book she'd ever read.
I plucked the book from the shelf and turned it over, looking at it. I could tell that it'd obviously been read many times, judging by the falling apart cover. That was generally a sign that it was a really good book so I walked over to the chair by the window and settled down for a quiet day of reading.
