Chapter Twenty-Two
A day had passed since the carriage ride with Miss Sonja, and Selina was still unsure of what to make of their conversation.
This afternoon Magnus had decided to guide her on a tour of his own, to the cathedral where her coronation would take place.
As the royal carriage took them from the palace to the cathedral in the Old Town, Magnus gave her another history lesson—his favourite activity.
Which in all honesty she didn’t really mind, as she could tell history was one of his passions.
She wondered if his love of the subject had developed from reading with his mother.
Selina loved the nature drawings and postcards her father had accumulated for her on his travels, and she imagined history was the same for Magnus, a treasured and shared moment with his mother that had developed into an interest in adulthood.
See, Miss Sonja? He does have a heart and passions outside of the bedroom.
You know nothing! She admonished Miss Sonja silently in her head, but there were still so many unanswered questions when it came to Magnus, and she was afraid to ask them, in case it caused him to pull away from her.
She was slowly building a life with him and didn’t want to ruin it so soon.
‘Another woman,’ Selina said with a smile, and Magnus nodded.
‘Tell me about her. I am not familiar with her story.’ She didn’t actually give a fig about the saint’s history—maybe that made her a bad person—but what she really wanted was to watch Magnus, and asking him lots of questions gave her the excuse to do so.
They were facing each other, his long legs turned aside, his knees and calves occasionally brushing against her muslin skirts.
‘St. Sunniva was an Irish princess and nun who wanted to live in peaceful devotion. She arrived at an island off the coast of Norway with her fellow believers but was attacked in a Viking raid. She and her people hid in caves, which were then blocked by falling boulders. When the Christian king Olaf Tryggvason later excavated the island in 996 AD, her body was found intact, and she was sainted.’
‘A woman and a foreigner, this bodes well for me. Perhaps I will be accepted after all.’
Magnus gave her a sympathetic look. ‘That tea with Lady Nora upset you. You haven’t been yourself since. Would you like me to speak with the head of the Solberg family?’
‘Heavens no!’ Selina took his hand in hers and gave it a light squeeze, hoping to reassure him.
She didn’t want to admit that Lady Nora hadn’t been the only one to unsettle her.
‘It was no more than I should have expected. It will take time for people to accept me. But I am determined that they will! I thought about inviting some of the ladies of the merchant guild to the palace for afternoon tea… It might help me to know some women outside of the Solberg house.’
Magnus nodded. ‘As you wish.’
The carriage came to a stop outside the cathedral, and they made their way inside. Unlike the stave church, the cathedral was huge in comparison. It reminded her of Westminster Abbey with its imposing two towered front, gothic carvings, and looming gargoyles.
The archbishop of Thrudheim was waiting at the top of the stone steps to welcome them. He was the same cheerful man who had blessed their marriage, and Selina was glad to see him again.
The tour with the archbishop involved a slow procession through the cathedral and detailed plans of the anointing, or coronation as Magnus had taken to calling it, translated from the archbishop to Selina through Magnus.
As they approached the two stone thrones of Thrudheim in the chapel, Magnus murmured something to the archbishop, who promptly bowed and gave her a warm smile before leaving.
Magnus came to stand beside her. ‘Your eyes were beginning to glaze over. I thought you might appreciate a moment to gather yourself.’
Selina sighed with relief. ‘Thank you. There is so much to take in, and it is a little daunting if I’m honest… To think this whole cathedral will be filled with people…all to see me crowned as your princess. It doesn’t feel real!’
He pointed to the two throne stones, which she’d already learned were so ancient they predated the palace and the stave church.
Weathered by age, a little cracked in places, they were tall and imposing on their granite base.
Magnus had said they had once belonged in the Viking-age hall that the palace foundations were built upon.
But after a fire had destroyed the hall, only the thrones remained, and they were moved to the cathedral while the palace was rebuilt, but they were never returned.
The story had seemed far-fetched like many of the legends of Thrudheim, but staring at the two giant thrones now, she could well believe it.
They looked as if they could survive any disaster and seemed as old as the cliffs and mountains surrounding them.
To think she would sit on one in only three weeks’ time!
‘Have you…decided on your speech?’ asked Magnus quietly, drawing her attention away from the commanding thrones of Thrudheim.
Selina nodded eagerly. ‘I have! Well, mostly. There are a couple of changes I might still want to make, but I have already learned the majority of it. Margarite has been helping me learn the entire speech by ear.’
Magnus didn’t seem reassured by her report.
‘Perhaps you could try it now. No one is here, and you can practise projecting your voice to the chapel. You need to reach the back wall and even up to the gallery above. The chapel is designed to help carry a voice, but it still takes practice.’ He pointed at the wooden balconies surrounding them, and she swallowed nervously, realising how many people would be watching her.
His frown deepened with disapproval when she shook her head.
‘I will not spoil the surprise of my speech. But rest assured, Margarite and I believe you will be most pleased with it—and do not ask her about it either! She is my lady’s-maid, and I have sworn her to secrecy.
However, to please you, I will practise pitching my voice.
I will recite a poem, and you can raise your hand whenever you cannot hear me. ’
She held her breath waiting for him to agree or deny her proposal.
He folded his arms in front of his chest. ‘I would prefer to hear the actual speech.’
‘You either trust me to write it or you do not,’ she said firmly, tilting her head up in defiance. It seemed a silly thing to argue over, but she wanted to prove herself to him, and if he forced her to reveal it early, it would only prove he had no belief in her.
Magnus shrugged, but there was an uncompromising look in his eye that suggested he begrudged even this slight bending of wills and hoped to change her mind. ‘Let me hear you recite a poem, and then I shall decide.’
‘Fine, off you trot!’ she said, waving a hand towards the balconies.
Magnus gave a grumpy huff but did as he was asked, and a short time later he was up at the far back of the balconies. ‘Proceed!’ he shouted down, and she became uncomfortably aware of the distance between them.
It is no further than a playhouse, and those actors are able to project perfectly fine! she thought and readied herself to recite one of Aunt Mary’s favourite Shakespearean sonnets.
‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.’
As she said the words, she focused on Magnus’s face and the way his jaw slackened, and his eyes widened through her impassioned recital. After a long moment of silence, she shouted, ‘How was that?’
Magnus blinked and moved to the front of the balcony. ‘Beautiful…’ She was about to cheer with delight when he spoiled it by adding, ‘But I wasn’t able to hear some of the second stanza.’
‘You didn’t raise your hand!’
He chuckled at her scowl. ‘It was only a few words. Do not worry, I trust you to make a beautiful speech, Selina. But let us practise a few more times until you are confident. And you must confirm the running time of your speech by the end of the week so that I can inform the master of ceremonies accordingly.’
Selina nodded, a grin of triumph spreading across her face. Her rigid husband had acquiesced to her request! She would ensure her speech was the best coronation speech Thrudheim had ever received, and she was delighted that she could keep it a surprise from Magnus until the day of the coronation.
They spent some time perfecting the right pitch and volume for her to be heard without straining her voice, and after about an hour she was confident she could recite the whole poem without Magnus ever raising his hand.
She was certain it was a compromise he’d been reluctant to make, but the fact that he had conceded reassured her that her prince wasn’t the monster Miss Sonja had claimed him to be.
Selina was convinced that some great misunderstanding must have caused a rift between the three siblings, and she was now determined to discover it and help heal the rift in any way that she could.
To do so, she needed to hear from each of them and learn what she could about what had caused them to break apart. But she also knew she had to tread carefully or risk breaking Magnus’s trust.
As they returned to their carriage, Selina said thoughtfully, ‘You know, I have learned so much about Skadisberg—its history, rulers and houses, but I feel as if there is something missing…’
Magnus tilted his head as if puzzled. ‘I have tried to teach you all that I can, but there is bound to be much that you will have to learn in time.’
‘But all I have seen is Skadisberg. You cannot explain the history and character of all of England by focusing solely on London. As much as I love it, it does not reflect the country as a whole.’
‘That is true.’
She was pleased he agreed with her. It would make her next suggestion even more reasonable. ‘Perhaps we could join Hans in the summer lodge for a week? See the mountains, mines, and Viking burial mounds I have heard so much of.’
Magnus handed her into the carriage; she loved that he did so.
He regularly helped her these days, intervening before the servants could do so.
She liked to think it was a demonstration of his care and respect for her…
although, perhaps she was reading too much into the gesture and he was simply impatient.
As he sat down in the seat opposite her, he said, ‘Hans will need to return to the palace soon. Perhaps it would be best to check on him. See if he has come to any decisions about his future.’
Selina valiantly stopped herself from screaming with excitement. ‘Marvellous! I cannot wait! When can we leave?’
Magnus chuckled. ‘I thought you loved cities with their constant entertainments. Now you are desperate to enjoy the countryside?’
Selina nodded eagerly. ‘I know it must seem strange, but honestly, as long as I have you for company, I am more than happy to go to a cathedral, a lodge, or up a mountain. I am never bored or lonely when I am with you.’ A blush heated her cheeks when she saw the momentary shock slacken Magnus’s jaw.
‘You are my only friend here. Margarite is wonderful, but she is still a paid servant. But you…you accept me for who I am. Regardless of my faults. That is true friendship… I think.’ She felt like a fool by the end of her garbled speech, but she had meant every word, as well as some others she’d dared not speak, like I want you to love me, as a friend and as a wife.
Magnus cleared his throat and tugged at his coat as if to right it, although there wasn’t a single wrinkle in the cut of his clothes.
‘I am flattered to hear that, Selina… A trip to the countryside will be refreshing. Usually, we celebrate Midsummer in Skadisberg, but a change might be pleasant. I suppose I can rearrange most of my commitments, and then we could leave tomorrow. But we will need to be back in time for the coronation ball, so a few days is all we can manage.’
‘Ahh, yes,’ she said and smiled. ‘Another ball. This time before the event!’
‘It is tradition. A way to welcome our guests and ingratiate you to them prior to the official ceremony,’ Magnus said, his lips twitching with amusement.
‘Will we have to leave early again?’
‘Afraid not. At this ball we are expected to remain for as long as possible…unfortunately.’ His eyes fixed on hers with implied meaning.
Selina’s cheeks were now burning, but she quite liked this playful side of her husband. ‘A pity indeed.’
Magnus surprised her by suddenly pulling on the cords of the carriage curtains, which swung closed, covering them in relative darkness, with little light coming in from the cracks.
She wondered what he was doing until she was pulled into his embrace, and he kissed her thoroughly, pressing her against the windows and ravaging her mouth with a hunger that left her needy and breathless.
When the passion threatened to engulf her and she began clawing at his waistcoat and jacket, he held both of her wrists away from his body and firmly shook his head. ‘We must wait until tonight. I have a meeting in Parliament in less than half an hour.’
‘Oh, have I made you late?’ she gasped, trying to fix the curls that had unravelled from her bun. She was embarrassed by her own wanton desire and wondered why he’d kissed her so passionately if he’d had no intention of making love to her.
He stroked a knuckle down her jaw, but there was a serious look in his eyes that made her heart lurch with worry. ‘Yes, unfortunately… But we are not far from Parliament.’ To her surprise, the carriage came to a halt, and Magnus chuckled. ‘See, we are already here.’
Magnus stepped from the carriage with a dismissive wave. He did not look back as he strode from the carriage towards the parliamentary building or even when the carriage pulled away with her still inside.
With a heavy heart she retied the curtains.