“You can try that. Or just… give the cake to the chevalier. He not an ass…. but he enjoys them.”

“Perhaps he thinks because he is a bishop that he is exempt from going to hell for being naughty.”

“Him too. But if he’s Christian, how would you do the sacrifice? You could just send it to him by horseback. It will be moldy, but he probably won’t eat it given the insult it holds.”

She puts her face in her hand and shakes her head. Laughter ringing from her lips.

“You do that, my love. Perhaps the Dutch King…”

Ivar….

I’m wondering where your mind is right now.

It was certainly a beautiful surprise to wake up to! She couldn’t stop smiling.

She loves that he still finds ways to surprise her everyday. 💕

These are beautiful, Ivar. Thank you. I’ll have both put up in the sitting room.

she neared the other end of the house. Cheese! Camembert to be exact. She would recognize that smell anywhere! It was one of her favorite French cheeses.

The smell was too tempting to resist, so she took a seat. One small bite and a sip of that luscious liquid wouldn’t hurt, would it?

reflection of light then catches the corner of her eye and leads her to the wardrobe. A smile formed on her lips as she reached out to touch the brooch.

This house— she felt at home inside of it.

Another smell wafted into her nostrils as >>

herself sitting there with a cup of tea and a book. But her thought of that was quickly replaced by a unique smell wafting out from the room beyond the archway.

How intriguing…. a smell she did not recognize. It was strong and made her feel like she needed to sneeze. But nothing came out. A >>

Reaching out, she touched the stone walls of the house. It was cold and dry. The atmosphere was peaceful. It was tempting to take a seat against those pretty cushions. They were red (her favorite colour) with golden flowers embroidered on them. She imagined >>

MCC…? What did that stand for? A word or perhaps a number. Emma couldn’t think of exactly what at the moment. Her focus immediately went to how nice the warm sun rays felt on her back.

Everything seemed entirely too real to be a dream.
Was this what they called… lucid dreaming?

>>

of explaining these things.

“Then you are the one chosing to let all the unforgiveness weigh on you. Because eventually it does and its not pleasant. Ivar did his punishment and I followed him because of my love and loyalty. So I took the punishment with him.”

Emma sighed. She was honestly really tired >>

“I believe I would have. The only thing I would not have forgiven is if Ivar had actually been killed.”

Emma chuckled.

“She isn’t too bad. I feel quite protective of her. I was always fond of her mother and her late father.”

“Well…”

Emma pauses for a moment and looks at Benedict. She bit her bottom lip for a moment.

“I can’t entirely divulge why. But it has to do with her safety. Ivar is quite adamant on keeping her with us. I forgot what it was like having a teenager in the house. Our children are still in Portugal.”

Emma holds her head up and nods.

“I know, Isabel. But eventually we have to let go of the past.”