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Chapter Twenty
After Arne fell asleep, so did I. Lucky I hadn’t promised to wake him. The thought had occurred to me, but I preferred he rest as long as he needed to. The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes to see Leif and Gunnar standing over us, looking stern.
Leif arched a brow. “What are you two doing here?”
I tried to move, but Arne had shifted farther onto my lap and had his arms around me, effectively pinning me down. I pointed to him and put a finger to my lips. “Shh. He needs his rest.”
“I’d say you both need your rest.” Gunnar did stern better than Leif. It came naturally to him. “But instead of going to bed, you chose to huddle here in what has to be a majorly uncomfortable heap on the office couch.”
I pushed tangled strands back from my face to see them better. “You’re going to wake him. You can yell at me later.”
“Janis, let us at least move him off you so you can stand up. He’s out like a light, and I don’t think he’ll even know.” Leif shook his head.
“I’m asleep, not dead.” The words came from the man who did not loosen his grip on me. “So don’t talk as if I can’t hear you.”
“Then get up so Janis can move. How long have you been stuck there?” Gunnar perched on the arm of the sofa next to me.
I shrugged. “What time is it?”
“Seven.”
“Seven?” Arne was off me and on his feet so fast, he nearly knocked Gunnar to the floor. “I only wanted to sleep an hour. I’ve lost precious time.”
“What is he talking about?” Leif followed him to the desk. “Do you think you can get by on zero sleep, Arne? And still build an entire power grid?”
Gunnar helped me stand and supported me until the pins and needles in my feet abated. Then we also headed for the others.
“Quiet. I think…I dreamed…yes!” He lifted his finger from the diagram and grabbed his keyboard. “I know we checked it, but it can’t be anything but the…” Fingers rapidly tapping, he muttered, too low for my hearing to register.
But when he jumped up and grabbed me, spinning me in a circle, not only I heard, but the whole wing of the castle. “I know what it is! It has to be! Yes. Of course!” He hugged me and planted kisses all over my face, ending on my lips.
Eleanor came racing in. “I was on my way when I heard the commotion. Did you say you solved the windmill problem?”
Arne gave me another smacking kiss then let me go so fast, only Leif catching me kept me from tumbling. “I did! I solved it! Look right here.”
As the two of them bent over the diagram, I caught the words circuit and not closed and replace defective part, and then… “I don’t think we have another.” Arne sagged, bracing himself on his palms.
Eleanor yanked her phone out of her pocket. “Two-day shipping. It’s the best I can get, but if you’re right—”
“I’m right!”
“If you’re right, we’ll have your windmill functional for the ceremony.”
“Couldn’t you just let it run, even if it’s not charging the batteries? Nobody else would even know,” I suggested, but the looks they turned on me could have fried fish.
“No,” Eleanor said.
“Only if we want to ruin the turbine,” Arne explained. “And we don’t want that.”
I learned something new every day.
I left them to it and headed for the hallway and then my bed. Leif and Gunnar flanked me both then and after I crawled under the covers. I snuggled between them, for the first time with more than one of my mates in bed with me, and it wasn’t about sex. I closed my eyes and slept until dinnertime, when I awoke alone. At some point, they’d had to go about their day and their tasks, but they left behind their scent and their imprints in my pillows. My new suite was almost done. The giant bed I’d bought would hold at least four people. Because sometimes I just wanted everyone I loved close by.
The long days continued, but I made sure everyone got some sleep every night. It wasn’t as if I was helpful in technological ways. I just had the power of the queen to order them night-night. The kitchen staff, however, burned the midnight oil the night before the event because we expected a huge crowd for the ceremony.
Tables covered with colorful cloths were on the meadow nearby, laden with every kind of delicious food the kitchen could produce. Roast chickens, potato salad, fresh vegetables from the gardens with several kinds of dips. Pies, cakes, and cookies… Barrels of ale and cider, as well as root beer and lemonade for the teetotalers. And while it had been advertised as the palace providing all the food, nearly all the guests arrived with dishes of their own. Artfully arranged tables were now bountiful with the kind gifts of my subjects.
We had scheduled the event for late afternoon when the winds would likely be most cooperative, but it had been an unusually still day, and I was fretting.
