“It’s precisely that Chris has distanced himself from Maddie that is the reason she’s still at the dower house,” he explained. “She feels the children should be comfortable with her presence and know her well before the manner of our relationship is further defined for them.”
Achilles took a step toward him and stopped, saying, “I think this is wise. However, I also believe the manner of your relationship at this point is relatively clear, or as clear as their ages will allow it to be. Élan thinks the world of her and would benefit greatly with having a lady in the house that is not a servant. But allowing Christophe to act out, even silently, against the relationship you’re building with the woman you intend to wed might not be sensible.”
“Agreed. Thus, Madeleine and I will be speaking to him this afternoon.”
Achilles nodded but his gaze grew intense. “I bring this up, Lo, not only due to what Draven shared about Chris, but also because Alek brought gossip from the village.”
“Bloody hell,” Apollo muttered, knowing exactly what the villagers were saying without having that information imparted.
“It is now known wide that you intend to wed her. But your installing her in the dower house has brought up speculation that I’m sure won’t surprise you. It would not serve you well if Maddie were to hear it without it being in context.”
Apollo grew impatient with their discussion and repeated, “As I said, I’ll be dealing with these issues shortly, Lees.”
Achilles gaze did not lighten. It did the opposite as he asked, “Is Maddie all right?”
Apollo threw him a look before he sighed, leaned into a hand on the back of a chair in front of his desk and noted, “You’re far too observant.”
Achilles smiled a small smile. “You usually find this a boon.”
He did.
Since Achilles knew it, he didn’t confirm it.
Rather, he returned, “I’m uncertain I’m comfortable with the attention you’re paying to Maddie.”
Achilles’s smile died. “You can’t mean to imply—”
Apollo interrupted him. “Of course not. But I can handle my romantic affairs, Lees.”
“I’m aware of that,” Achilles retorted instantly. “But you grow close quickly. Very quickly. And Maddie is in danger.” His expression changed and Apollo braced at witnessing it. “You’ve lost a great deal, Lo.”
“I may have moved past that, cousin, but I do remember it,” Apollo told him.
“Is she sharing with you?” Achilles asked quietly.
“Yes,” Apollo answered.
“Are you sharing with her?” Achilles pressed.
Apollo straightened from the chair and again crossed his arms on his chest. “This is where I’ll put a stop to your prying.”
Achilles ignored that and carried on.
“She seems strong, surprisingly so after all she’s endured. Draven explained that she recovered from the attack very quickly. Yet, since her arrival home, I can’t help but think that something has changed.”
“Again, I’ll repeat that I’ll be dealing with these issues shortly, Lees. And that time would come a great deal sooner if we could end this conversation.”
Achilles studied him and Apollo allowed it.
For three seconds.
Then he uncrossed his arms and moved toward his cousin, stating, “We’re done with this. Let us find Frey.”
He stopped when Achilles put a hand to his shoulder as Apollo would pass him.
“We now live with many unknowns,” his cousin said softly. “For you, Maddie, your children, one less unknown, an important one, the solidity of your family, would be beneficial. Especially for Maddie as this is something she’s never known. She’s adapting to a land that’s very strange to her and doing it well.” His lips quirked. “She’s adapting to you and doing that well also. But with all that has occurred from Vasterhague to Brunskar, she is quite aware of the dangers lurking. She has lived long with dangers lurking, cousin. A foundation such as this, I can only assume, would go a long way to making her feel safe during troubled times.”
Apollo raised his brows. “But a month ago you felt this was moving too fast. Now you’re advising I speed things up?”
“But a month ago you had essentially just met. Now, I’ve seen her smile at you. I’ve seen you make her laugh. I’ve seen her do the same for you. I’ve seen how she is with Élan. She does not hide in the slightest that she feels deeply for you, cousin. For your children. You have all lost a great deal. It’s a beautiful thing, watching you become found.”
At his words, words he liked, Apollo sighed.
Then he shared, “She knows I wish to wed her, Lees. It’s she who wishes to understand herself better before she allows this to happen.”
Achilles dropped his hand from Apollo’s shoulder as his brows shot together.
“How can a person not understand oneself?”
“I’ve no bloody clue,” Apollo replied, shaking his head. “She’s explained it. It made sense at the time. Or more accurately, what made sense was the emotion she felt behind the words she said which didn’t make sense. However, they did to her and she meant them a great deal. What I took from that is that she needs time. I’m giving it to her.”
“This is uncharacteristic of you, cousin,” Achilles remarked.
Apollo held his gaze when he replied firmly, “I’m a man falling in love. We do many things that are uncharacteristic.”
He watched surprise suffuse his cousin’s features before warmth overtook them.
“This makes me happy,” he said quietly.
Apollo smiled at him. “It does me as well.”
Achilles smiled back. “Obviously.”
Apollo did not reply so Achilles spoke on.
“Now, I will cease causing a delay so you can see to important matters.”
“Why do I not think you’re referring to me speaking to Frey?”
“Because nothing is more important than the pursuit of happiness.”
Yet another thing Apollo could not argue.
However, they had one other matter to discuss and it unfortunately took them out of discussions about the pursuit of happiness.
“An important thing of note that the witch shared with me is that she has not been able to find my twin from the other world.”
The warmth fled Achilles face and his eyes turned sharp.
“That does not seem to be good tidings, Lo,” he noted.
“I don’t believe it is. Neither does Valentine, who is speculating that he’s in this world, veiled by our enemy, but brought here in order to do ill.”
“If we remain in Lunwyn, with Frey here, the dragons and elves at his command, Lavinia and the green witch both providing their skills, they could be seeking non-magical means to bring harm to Maddie and the other women.”
“Precisely,” Apollo agreed. “And this other me has proved irrevocably he has no issue with bringing harm to Maddie and thus any woman.”
“I will increase the guard on the dower house and her,” Achilles declared.
“Also on Loretta, Meeta and Cristiana. They mean much to Maddie. If our enemy could get to them, they could be used to cause Madeleine harm.”
“Done,” Achilles stated. “I’ll see to this before I join you and Frey.”
Apollo lifted his chin.
Achilles nodded, and finally they moved to the doors.
* * * * *
An hour later, Apollo walked into his study, where he’d been told Maddie had gone to await him to take her to lunch with his children.
He found she was indeed there, standing at the side of his window, for some reason peering around the opened curtains as if she was using them to hide.
Whatever she was watching had her full attention. He knew this because she did not sense his presence and thus turn to greet him.
As he approached, he took her in wearing her dress that was nearly the color of the deep green of Valentine’s. But hers was knit, covering her from its ro
lled neck that went up to her jaw and down to the tips of her boots. Her extraordinary hair was mostly down, but the front and sides had been pulled away from her face and arranged in soft curls at the back of her head. The dress hugged her upper body magnificently, down to her waist where it flared into the skirt. But even the skirt clung to her figure, specifically her hips and arse, and it did this in alluring ways that brought to mind the fact that he needed to order a mirror to be installed in his bedroom.
Or hers should she elect to remain in the dower house for longer.
They could move it to his when she moved in.
But he wanted her to watch herself as he was taking her arse, something he greatly enjoyed but enjoyed more as she’d clearly enjoyed it.
Indeed, they could do much with a mirror.
And they would.
On these thoughts, he got close to her back and felt her jump when he slid his hands along her ribs.
She twisted her neck to look up at him and he smiled down at her.
“Hello, my dove,” he greeted.
Her hand cut to her face, her finger extended over her lips, and she hissed, “Shh!” before she turned to look back outside.
He felt his brows draw together as he moved his gaze to the window. Then he felt his lips curve up when he saw Hans speaking with Loretta out in the snow at the side of the house.
Hans was standing very close to the maid.
Loretta didn’t like this and was pulling back.
Thus Hans had an arm around her waist, plastering her to his side, just as he had his neck bent so he could bring his face close to hers.
“They can hardly hear us, poppy,” Apollo pointed out, still looking out the window.
“I’m concentrating,” she told him.
“On what?” he asked.
“Reading Hans’s lips.”
This surprised him so much he cast his gaze to the top of her hair.
“You can read lips?”
“No!” she snapped impatiently, not tearing her eyes from the window. “That’s why you have to shush so I can concentrate.”
His body shook with his laughter as he turned her resisting frame in his arms.
“Lo! I’m missing it,” she bit out irritably when he had her front to his.
“Perhaps we should let whatever-that-is play out without an audience,” he suggested.
“If we do, how can I report back to Finnie, Meeta and Bella?”
“You’ll just have to ask Loretta what occurred when you have that opportunity.”
Her expression changed to frustration when she shared, “She’s being closed-lipped about the whole thing.”
He was again surprised.
“I thought you women nattered about these things freely,” he remarked and watched her eyes narrow.
“We women are vast in number, Apollo. Some do. And some, like Loretta, don’t.”
He grinned down at her. “All right. Then perhaps you should allow her to share, or not, as she wishes.”
“What’s the fun in that?”
She had him there, so he didn’t answer.
Instead he changed the subject. “How’s her injury?”
He felt as well as heard her deep sigh as she gave into his demand that she leave his man and her woman alone, something she had no choice but to do with the hold he had on her, and she knew it.
Then she answered, “Healing nicely.”
“And has she recovered from the incident?”
Her eyes slid to his shoulder as she replied, “That maybe isn’t healing so nicely.”
“It frightened her,” Apollo deduced, and her gaze came back to him.
“It would anyone, Lo,” she noted. “Those things were creepy and there were a lot of them.”
He did not need the reminder of Maddie and her women out in the snow with a lot of “creepy” things.
Alas, he had it and they were discussing it, as they should. Avoiding it was not healthy.
Therefore, he pointed out, “She went to that forest of her own accord, poppy.”
“She did,” she agreed. “But that shit was extreme.”
This was terminology he’d never heard, not even from Maddie.
He still understood it.
“Then let’s hope Hans can get through to her. If anyone understands shit that’s extreme, it’s Hans.”
“Good point,” she murmured, her gaze now moving over her shoulder as she twisted somewhat in his arms to look back out the window. “I’ll have to mention that to her.”
“I would allow Hans to try to break through, Madeleine,” he advised.
She looked back to him, her eyes wide. “Are you nuts?”
“No,” he pointed out the obvious.
“I have to meddle. It’s my sisterly duty.”
He was further surprised at another reference to the heretofore unknown sisterhood of women.
Then again, he’d seen it at work the night Loretta and Meeta forged into the cold, heavily armed, doing so on the dubious, but eventually proved correct knowledge that Maddie might need them.
And the knowledge of a sisterhood of women was far from unwelcome in times like these.
“Before going to lunch, we have things to discuss,” he told her.
Her eyes moved over his face before they caught his and she settled into his embrace, giving him some of her weight and lifting her hands to place them light on his biceps.
“What do we need to discuss?” she asked.
“After lunch with the children, I’d like you to remain at the house so we can talk.”
“We’re talking now,” she noted.
“We need time, my poppy, and privacy. I would delay until later when we go back to the dower house this evening after dinner, but it’s important.”
Her body stiffened slightly in his arms when she asked, “What are we going to talk about?”
“Amongst other things, the timing of your moving into this house,” he told her and her body stiffened more.
“Apollo—”
He spoke over her. “And after our talk, we’ll speak to Christophe together about his continued distance.”
At this, her body relaxed and he knew what that meant.
“I take it you agree it’s time we confront him about it,” he remarked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Though, I’m not sure I should be there.”
He shook his head. “In future, if there are issues that need discussion, outside of those that need to be dealt with man to man, you will be there. He must learn to get used to that and it’s best he do it now.”
Her head tipped to the side, her gaze went unfocused and her teeth came out to worry her lip.
He gave her a squeeze and she again focused on him.
“Do you disagree?”
Hesitantly, she said, “Not exactly. It’s just that I think my presence at this particular discussion may not be a good thing.”
“Explain,” he demanded.
“I can’t,” she returned. “I’m not a young boy who lost his mother and faces another woman in his life who looks exactly like her but is not her. I don’t know what he’s feeling. I just know it’s me who’s making him feel it.” She pressed closer and got up on her toes. “And although I agree wholeheartedly that this has to be discussed, I think you, particularly you, Lo, need to be sensitive to all that. It causes me pain to cause others pain, the others being people who knew and loved Ilsa. It causes me more doing it to Chris and I’d rather not do it and instead, give him my company when he wants it, not when it’s pressed on him.”
Listening to her, allowing her words to penetrate, he studied her exquisite face, the adorable freckles that danced on her nose, freckles that became more pronounced if she spent time outside, and he hoped they created a daughter that she bestowed those freckles on.
As well as her hair.
And those remarkable eyes.
Not to mention her sense of humor. Her bravery. Her fighting spirit. Her quick wit. Her loyalty. And
her drive never to give up even when the odds were against her.
To communicate all this, when she’d finished speaking, he pulled her deeper into his arms, dipped his face closer to hers and whispered, “You’ll make a wonderful mother.”
Distractedly, he felt her entire body stiffen as her face froze.
And it was distractedly he noted both because Bella ran into the room and said on a near shout, “Lord Apollo!”
He turned, still holding Maddie in his arms, but it was Apollo who grew still as a stone when he looked into Bella’s face.
“He’s gone!” she cried.
He dropped one arm but held Madeleine’s tense body tight to his side as he turned fully to the children’s maid.
“Explain, Bella,” he barked, the words harsh and abrasive as they scored through his throat.
“Chris!” she exclaimed and Apollo’s chest got tight as he felt Maddie’s hand come up and curl into his sweater at his stomach. “The tutor said he left to go answer the call of nature and when I went up to get them for lunch, he’d not returned.” She shook her head frantically from side-to-side and lifted her hands in a helpless gesture that made every inch of skin on Apollo’s frame feel like toxin was burning into it. “It’s been some time since he left the school room. We’ve looked everywhere and we can’t find him.”
“Oh my God,” Maddie breathed.
But Apollo moved.
He broke away from her but turned to her, leaned in and lifted a finger to within an inch of her face.
“You do not leave this house,” he commanded.
“Okay, honey,” she agreed instantly.
“Not for any reason, Madeleine,” he clipped.
“Okay,” she repeated. “Go,” she whispered, her heart in her throat making it croaky, her eyes bright with fear.
He turned and moved to the door as he ordered Bella, “Send a man to the dower house. Get Cristiana and Meeta here at once. And get Hans to bring Loretta inside.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied and he felt her dashing out of the study behind him.
But he didn’t look to see where she’d gone. He didn’t look back to Madeleine.
He moved with purpose to find his men, give orders and then find his son.
* * * * *
Apollo on Torment dashed through the forest at a full gallop, so fast he could feel his cloak flying out behind him.