A Wintertide Spell Read Online Free

choice. It brought
to mind an obedient child, a just child, a child who would love books, and
learning, and law.
    But Geneva, her spirit drifting on
waves of cottony relief, now pictured a different child. She imagined a
beautiful girl, elegant and graceful. She imaged a girl whose long black hair
was the color of ebony, her skin the pure white of snow. Her lips as pink as
roses.
    Roses. She’d always wanted a child
named for roses.
    Geneva became aware of a musty odor
tickling her nostrils. That was definitely not roses. She glanced down. A small
object that looked like a wizened human finger lay between her milk-heavy
breasts.
    “What the fook,” she said, her
voice a rusty croak she hardly recognized, “is that?”
    “A birthing charm.” Reginald, his
hands eager, tightened the cord behind her neck. This drew the mangled pendant
closer to her face. It left a faint smear of brown on her sweaty pink
nightrail. He rose from the special seat behind her birthing chair and wrapped
his arms around her, cupping the item with his free hand.
    “My Queen, you and the Middle
Kingdoms will be thanking me soon,” he whispered. “You have no idea what I’ve
gone through to obtain this for us. Don’t let Naudo see it.”
    Geneva tried to inspect the hideous
object, but his hand concealed it. She didn’t like the tone of his voice and
his note of braggadocio. She didn’t like his smelly gift. She supposed his
other lover was the one who would now receive the rubies, the candies and the
flowers while she would receive dead things.
    She drew his head to her lips, but
instead of kissing him, she hissed, “Who is she?”
    “Who is who?”
    “The other woman.” Geneva dug her
fingers into his thick hair with a good portion of her strength, and he winced.
“The one you’ve been seeing in town. Your next great love.”
    Reginald blinked rapidly. “What are
you talking about?”
    “I followed you.”
    “You were in town today?” His hand
grasped hers and attempted to preserve his scalp. She felt a dull heaviness
increase in her loins, and she breathed deeply to postpone the next
contraction. Not now, my child. Wait one more moment. I need to murder your
father.
    “You’ll leave her, too, for number
three.” Tears filled Geneva’s eyes, and she could barely make out her husband’s
handsome visage. This last month had turned her into a regular waterspout. “But
I’m your Queen and you will not put me and your children aside. I won’t allow
it, do you hear me?!”
    “I haven’t left you. I love you.”
Reginald cupped her face in his smelly hands. “You and only you. How could I
love another when I have you? There won’t be thirteen women for me, now or
ever. Just one.”
    Tears spilled down her cheeks. She
wanted to believe him desperately. “The fairies are never wrong. And I followed
you.”
    Reginald’s firm, soft lips brushed
her own, and in a voice so quiet she could barely hear him, he said, “I may
have had dealings with…ah…a representative of the fairy black market this
afternoon. The charm had to be properly timed to your pregnancy in order to
work. I could get it no earlier than Wintertide Eve. I hurried as fast as I
could go.”
    “A charm?” Geneva felt hope leap in
her breast like the baby leapt in her womb, ready for release. “You were
seeking a charm this afternoon?”
    “The charm will—” Reginald began,
but Naudo clapped, which made a great deal more noise than might be expected
from such thin hands.
    “Your Highnesses, the babe is
ready,” he commanded. “It is time.”
    “Not yet!” Geneva yelled. She
wanted more answers from her husband before it was too late.
    Binny smacked the King in the back
of the head. “Sit your bottom down, sirrah, and help your wife focus. Do you
want to suffocate the poor child? She’s ready to be born.”
    Reginald sank abruptly into his
spot and grasped Geneva’s shoulders. He twitched the pendant around so it was
behind her head. “I’m ready