Page 5 of The Midnight Blizzard (The Christmas Chronicles)

A babble of voices woke me up in the wee hours of the morning. It took a minute for me to regain awareness of where I was and why my arm was looped around a black-and-brown dog as opposed to Kodiak’s white fur.

“—cleaned by the time I get back,” a familiar voice was saying. A moment later, Jack’s face appeared over the side of Cinder’s stall. We both froze, staring at each other, and my heart stopped beating as Jack’s lungs inflated.

“You know what?” he called over his shoulder. “I changed my mind. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it today.”

“Sir?”

“You heard me,” he said with a half-smile. “Take a few hours off and get a little extra rest. I’m sure the prince will have plenty of additional tasks for you to prepare for the feast tonight.”

“If…if you’re sure…” the out-of-sight servant stammered, sounding as though he could hardly believe his luck.

“I’ve never been more certain. Go on before I change my mind again.” After a few moments during which a noise like a door banging closed was heard, Jack lowered his voice and looked at me again. “Noelle, what are you doing here?”

“Um, hiding…and sleeping.”

Jack opened the stall door and patted Cinder on the head as she barked joyfully and leapt up on her master. “I see that. Let me rephrase: why are you here instead of up at the castle?”

“There wasn’t any more available lodging, and since I’m in the process of trying to convict my stepmother of the crimes I’ve accused her of, I think asking to sleep on her couch might be a little odd.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you needed a place to stay? Where did you sleep before?”

My jaw jutted out defiantly. “I’m not a charity case. And I stayed with my friend Trista before, but she’s gone now.”

Jack flitted from stall to stall, letting out each dog, and didn’t say anything for several minutes as he hooked up his dogs to their harnesses and buckled them to the lines.

“There’s a spare servant’s room adjoining this barn,” he told me. “And it’s better heated than in here, I might add. Go rest somewhere that isn’t an animal stall. No one will be back there for hours.”

I bit my lip. The offer was tempting. “You’re certain no one will be in there?”

“Positive. The only servant who ever sleeps there is already up for the day, and he rarely sleeps there anyway. Like I said, it’s a spare room.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Yes. Go get your beaut—go get some rest while I take the dogs on a run. Once Beryl is up, I’ll take you to get Kodiak.”

“Thank you. ”

“You’re quite welcome.” Jack finished hitching the dogs up and jerked his head for me to get onto the sled. “Come on, we’ll take you around.”

“No one will bother you here,” he assured me as he let me in. “But the door locks if it makes you feel better.”

The room Jack brought me to was small but cozy. A neatly made bed stood beside a fireplace, and everything appeared perfectly tidy and organized, from the small bookcase to the wardrobe with thick jerkins and furs hanging in straight rows. Judging by the assortment of large fur-lined boots, gloves, and coats, it must have been intended for a groundskeeper needing to warm up and rest if he’d had a particularly long day.

Jack spoke, interrupting my perusal of the orderly room, and I sat my bag down on the bed a little harder than I’d intended. “I’ll be back in a few hours to check on you.”

He went back to his jumping, yelping dogs, but the second he shouted to them, they all went silent so the only sound was the slight whisk of the sled’s runners cutting through the snow. The door’s heavy lock gave a satisfying thunk as I slid it into place, and my eyes instantly fell on the bed. I’d only gotten a few hours of broken sleep next to Cinder and it was still early morning; the sun hadn’t even risen properly yet. A few more hours of sleep was just what I needed before I continued my quest to save my school.

A rapping at the door woke me. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed other than by the sunshine streaming through the window, doubly bright from how it reflected off the snow.

“Jack?” I called, still groggy.

“Yes. Let me in!” There was a slight pause, and he added, “Please. If you’re decent.”

“Why wouldn’t I be decent?” I asked with a laugh, rubbing my eyes and tugging the door open. Jack stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him.

“I don’t know; I don’t have any sisters. How should I know how girls dress when they sleep?”

“Oh, you were thinking about what I was wearing?” I teased, almost lifting my hand to brush snow from Jack’s hair before I stopped myself. It was too easy to be casual with him; it already felt like we’d known each other for years. Jack twisted his gloves, and his eyes darted around the room. By holly, I’d said something to make him uncomfortable again. It was too difficult to refrain from flirting with him. Should I apologize again? Act as though it wasn’t the flirting that it had been?

He shoved something at me—a napkin folded around a breakfast pastry, which had gone cold in the time it took Jack to bring it to me from the dining hall. “I brought you something to eat,” he said, politely ignoring the moment of discomfort. “And I was going to take you to get Kodiak if you’d like to go.”

“Yes,” I agreed quickly, eager to move the conversation in a direction that didn’t involve me making advances that would get Jack into serious trouble. I scarfed down the pastry, pulled on my cloak, and followed Jack to the dog barn, where his team was still hooked up to the sled. “Your team just ran; won’t they be tired?”

“Do they look tired to you?” All of his dogs were jumping up and down, howling in excitement as Jack detangled their harnesses. “They always want to run.”

Within five minutes, Jack and I swept out of the barn. I tried to burrow my hands into the folds of the lap blanket, but it didn’t do much to ward off the cold that stung my eyes and fingers. Even with my cloak wrapped around me, I found it progressively difficult to talk as my shivering increased. It wasn’t until I was shaking all over that Jack noticed.

“Noelle! I’m so sorry; you’re cold.”

“You c-c-can’t control th-the weather,” I stammered, teeth chattering.

“Here.” After shifting the lead line to his left hand, Jack raised his right and bit on the middle finger of his glove, pulling it off his own hand then passing it to me. He did the same thing with his left, never taking his eyes off the road, but managing to strip off both of his gloves.

My fingers slowly closed around them. “W-w-won’t your fingers get c-c-cold?”

As a response, Jack conjured a small flurry of snow in his palm, swirling it around in the air and watching as it was blown away on the wind. “I don’t get cold. One of the many benefits of being a mage whose powers circulate around being able to control ice.” He let the snow float away on the breeze, then pulled his woolen cap off and attempted to one-handedly plunk it onto my head without looking at me.

“But you wear fur coats and woolen caps! ”

“I already get stared at and accused enough for just being a mage. I’m not keen on encouraging whispers about me. If mages want to continue to have privileges, we need to blend in.”

“Rights.”

“Excuse me?”

“Rights, not privileges. Mage rights are human rights, and you are just as entitled to them as anyone else.”

Jack grinned at me, glancing away from the road for the briefest second before his eyes snapped back. “You have no idea how good it is to have found someone who I can trust to always be on my side. Whoa!” Jack pulled on the reins to slow us down. The town’s street was fairly empty; it was too cold for anyone to linger outdoors long.

There were already fresh footprints in the snow leading up to Beryl’s door. While Jack staked the team, I looked into the large window of the dress shop next door to Beryl’s. A light-blue gown with ruffles down one side stood displayed in the window, complete with a white fur wrap. If only I had access to any funds at all, I would have bought a dress just like that. I refused to allow myself to think about what Jack would think or say if I wore something like that. It wasn’t fair to let my mind wander in that direction.

“Ready?” Jack said, sparing a single glance at the gown in the window before he nodded at Beryl’s shop. “It sounds as though we may need to rescue Beryl.”

I tore my gaze away and turned to Beryl’s shop, where raised voices could be heard from inside, though the exact words weren’t clear. When we entered, we discovered a large, beefy woman wrapped in multiple layers of furs standing nose to nose with Beryl, shouting about how a cream he’d given her for wart removal had stained her skin green .

“It’s only temporary,” Beryl was trying to explain. “Once it fades?—”

“You expect me to wait for this to fade?” she shouted, snatching at her skirts and hoisting it to expose her trunk-like leg. Her knee had indeed been stained a deep green in all the spots where warts still showed, little raised bumps that coupled with the emerald color to make it look as though she were slowly turning into a frog.

“It will fade in a few days,” Beryl insisted. “I promise. I wouldn’t prescribe anything that would turn you permanently green, and I did tell you it might before you began treatment.”

The woman, with her skirt still yanked up above her knee, took notice of Jack and me standing quietly in the room. “Agh, a mage!” she shrieked, dropping her skirts and flapping one of her fur wraps at Jack as though he were a troublesome fly. “Stay back!”

Jack sighed and though his neck tightened, he didn’t move a muscle, even though the woman continued to wave her arms about. Wasn’t he even going to defend himself?

“He isn’t doing anything,” I protested, drawing myself up to my full height and squaring my shoulders.

“He’s come to sneak a peek at a woman’s legs, no doubt!” the woman accused, glaring daggers at Jack, who remained so still he could have been an ice statue. His piercing blue eyes seemed to look right through her as his face became a model of cold passivity. “Why else would he be here?”

I placed my fists on my hips, feet splayed as I wished I were taller. “He’s here at my request,” I spat.

“He’s a mage,” the woman retorted, scorn dripping from her tone.

“And you’re being incredibly rude. Shall I hurl insults at you? I can already think of plenty.”

Beryl made a noise like a cat hacking up a hairball and ducked out of sight, straightening only after he had composed his face into an expression of grave solemnity again. The woman’s jaw dropped several inches. “Are you going to let a girl and a mage speak like that to me?” she snapped at Beryl. “Have them thrown out this instant!”

“He hasn’t done anything that would warrant such treatment,” I huffed, taking a step forward. Jack laid a restraining hand on my arm.

The woman’s eyes snapped from me to Jack to Beryl, then she let out a great sniff. “I shall take my business elsewhere. See that it teaches you a lesson!” With that, she stormed out, setting the bell to chiming behind her.

A ringing silence fell as the door thudded closed and we watched her struggle through the snow across the street.

“Well, that was highly uncomfortable,” Beryl said, his beard twitching. “You really need to stop picking fights, Noelle.”

“What was I supposed to do, let her talk about Jack that way?”

Jack wearily shook his head. “I’m used to it.”

“You shouldn’t have to be!”

A long howl came from the back room and my heart swelled. It was Kodiak.

“Kody?” I called, forgetting the frog-legged woman’s rudeness and searching for my dog. There was a frantic scrabbling at the door leading to the house adjoining the shop, accompanied by a young girl’s wild giggling.

“Peggy fell in love with your dog,” Beryl said, going to let Kodiak in. “He’s welcome to visit anytime.”

The second the slightest of cracks opened, Kodiak forced his nose through and exploded toward me in a flash of white fur. The enthusiasm of his greeting nearly bowled me over as he leapt up repeatedly, trying to lick my face and quivering with joy. I dropped to my knees, clutching him and burying my face into his neck. It seemed like I hadn’t seen him in a month.

Jack knelt next to us, one hand bracing my back so Kodiak wouldn’t knock me over, and allowed Kodiak to sniff his hand before patting his head and stroking his back. It took several minutes for Kodiak to unwind enough to finally lie down, still trembling with happiness, then he rolled over to expose his belly, waiting for us to rub it. As elated as I was that I had my dog back, I couldn’t fail to notice that Jack kept his hand on my back, even though Kodiak was calmer, and shockwaves of awareness spread from everywhere Jack touched.

Beryl, it seemed, had noticed as well. He shot a sly wink at Jack. “Things seem to be going very ice ly between you two.”

I couldn’t see Jack’s facial expression, but I felt his hand immediately withdraw from my back. “Yes, Kodiak looks much better now,” he said crisply. “Thank you for your help.”

“I’ve never seen a dog pine that much for his owner,” Beryl told us. “Except for the one time I had to patch up Ace for Jack here.” He slapped his friend on the shoulder. “How’s it going with…” He jerked his head at me and waggled his eyebrows at Jack.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jack stated firmly.

“Right.” Beryl knowingly tapped his finger to the side of his nose. “And I’m the Queen of Sorana.”

I pretended not to notice their exchange. It felt more unfair by the day that Jack and I were unable to have anything more than friendship, even when our connection was undeniable. If it was this obvious to Beryl, who else would suspect?

After thanking Beryl profusely for his help, Jack and I left. Kodiak wouldn’t hold still in the sled, so we let him run beside the other dogs. “How late is the feast supposed to run tonight?” I asked Jack.

“It’ll be early. We’ll have time after for that ice skating lesson if you’re still willing.”

“Of course. You won’t be caught up in work?”

“No. Stephen said specifically that I was to have a break after all the time I put in yesterday.”

“That’s kind of him.”

“He’s a kind person. I think you two will get along well.” Jack’s voice remained calm, but his shoulders grew slightly more rigid. “I recommended that he sit next to you tonight.”

“Oh.” I should have felt flattered, but I felt only disheartened. Perhaps Jack’s feelings for me were not as strong as what I felt for him. Our relationship could only ever be transactional. No wonder he had spurned my flirtations and refused to dance with me the night before. I thought I had made my intentions clear. “I’m not here to marry Prince Stephen, remember? I just need to find the will and get funding for the school. Once we get back, I’ll see if I can ask a different scribe to look. I asked two, but they both said no.”

“All of them will say no,” Jack warned me. “And in order to stay, you’ll need to continually pass each event. They will likely dismiss up to ten girls by tomorrow morning. Stephen likes intelligent humor and archery. You could talk to him about those things. ”

I kept quiet. My usual talkativeness drained away as I realized the lengths Jack was going to in order to help me grow closer to the prince. Was he hoping I would end up with Stephen? The castle gates opened to allow the team into the dog yard. Kodiak bounded along beside Cinder, his tail wagging madly.

“Here.” Jack pulled the dogs to a standstill in front of the small room adjoining the dog barn. “The feast starts in a few hours. You can start getting ready.”

“I can help feed the dogs, then I’ll go back to the library. It doesn’t take me five hours to get ready, you know, and I don’t want to waste any time.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” As Jack handed me the lines and stepped out of the sled to open the barn doors, a whim popped into my head. “Hike!” I called to the dogs, cutting the line some slack. With a jolt, the dogs leapt forward. Kodiak sprang after us with a joyful bark.

“Hey!” Jack burst out of the barn, but he was too late. The dogs were off in a flash, circling around the perimeter of the yard while I whooped and urged them on.

Jack held his hands out and shouted as his dogs completed a full circle and came, panting, back to where we’d started. “Whoa!” He shook his head at me but was unable to repress the smile tugging at his lips. “You can’t be trusted with anything, can you?”

I offered him the lines as he slid in next to me. “Nope. I can’t be left alone or I get into trouble.”

“You know, I believe you. You’re a downright hazard.” His fingers tightened around my own as he took the lines.

“I hope you don’t give the prince advice on how to talk to women,” I joked, lingering a few seconds longer than necessary before I withdrew my hands .

“I give plenty of advice. I just never said it was good advice,” he quipped.

It didn’t take long to put away the dogs and sled. I helped brush the dogs down and hung their paw coverings up to dry as Jack divvied out the food into bowls on the floor.

“You have fur all over you,” Jack pointed out, nodding at my dress. I brushed away the hairs as best I could, but some of the fur from grooming the dogs still clung to hard-to-reach spots.

“Can you get the rest?” I asked, turning my back to Jack and pulling my hair over my shoulder.

He did so, but so lightly and hesitantly that I could barely feel him touching me. Would he avoid physical contact as much as possible? It would probably be prudent to do so, but I couldn’t rid my mind of images in which Jack had no such reservations, and my heart rate increased until it felt like a hummingbird was trapped within my chest.

“Back at Beryl’s shop,” I began, eager to say something , “how could you just stand there and take everything that woman was saying about you? She was so rude.”

“What else can I do? If I say anything back, it only confirms to the world that mages are dangerous. That’s what lost mages their rights in the first place; people feared us.”

“So you just allow people to slander you? There must be a better way. You’re the prince’s advisor.”

“That doesn’t matter when all people see is my white hair. There, I think I got off all the fur.” Jack brushed the handful of fur onto the floor to mingle with the straw.

“Father drafted several laws before he passed away; all we need is to find them and secure the rest of the signatures from the other lords so we can get mages more rights. We could even set up an awareness campaign or—” I broke off, wondering why Jack was smiling so brightly when I was getting so worked up. “What?”

“I just love how fiery you get. You aren’t even a mage and you care so much.”

“Of course I do. It’s your life and the lives of my students. I don’t understand how people refuse to see that mages are just as human as anyone else, and if that woman even had a shred of decency…stop laughing!”

Jack shook his head, still chuckling. “I can’t help it.”

“Fine, then. Laugh all you want.” I stuck my nose in the air in an exaggerated, dramatic way and adopted the sort of prissy voice my stepmother always had. I took a few prancing steps toward the exit before I dropped the feigned offense and falsely high voice. “Where should I meet you for ice skating tonight?”

“Meet here. It’s private enough.”

“We’re not doing anything wrong by being friends,” I reminded him softly. “We shouldn’t need to hide.”

“I wish everyone saw it that way,” he responded. “You saw how one person reacted today just being in the same room as me.”

“I should’ve slapped her. I wanted to.”

“I thought you might and was prepared to hold you back if you tried. As much as I appreciate your defensiveness, I’m glad you didn’t. She’s allowed to be wrong.” Jack held my gaze for several long moments. “If you read in the library, I’ll look into how the records room is organized and check the schedule of when scribes are in there. I can get that information better than you can. I’ll let you know after the feast what I find out.”

“Thank you.” I stared back at him, wishing desperately that we could be more than just friends.