Fantasyland 04 Broken Dove (15 page)

“Yes,” he agreed. “For this reason, you are not safe here without protection. You are also not safe in your world. But I would feel better and more in control of your safety if you were in my world. After we’re through this tense period, we can again discuss what your future in this world will be. But for now, I’m asking you to allow me to see to your safety. It would mean much to me to know I’ve kept you safe from him and kept you safe here as well.”

He could see by the warmth that crept into her eyes and the softness that had settled about her mouth that she was going to concede and he relaxed.

Then she didn’t concede.

“I cannot go to Karsvall,” she informed him.

“Ilsa—”

“I can’t be around your children.”

He took in another breath, and guessing at her hesitancy, he explained, “They’ve been told of you. They understand.”

She held his eyes a moment before she looked to the side.

He watched her profile and suddenly it struck him with a bolt that electrified his entire frame.

He didn’t know what she was thinking.

He couldn’t predict what would come out of her mouth. He couldn’t read the flashes in her eyes. He could barely guess at the expressions on her face.

Not like he could with his Ilsa.

She was new.

He understood she was new, he just didn’t understand she was
new.

Entirely
new.

Gods.

She looked back at him, right in his eyes, but her voice was so quiet he could barely hear her when she said, “I lost two babies. A boy”—she pulled in a soft breath— “and a girl.”

His gut twisted.

Oh yes, she was new.

And now he knew he’d mined some of those depths that lurked behind her eyes.

He just wished he did not know what he’d unearthed.

But more, far more, he wished those losses were not buried in her soul.

“Logically,” she continued in her quiet voice, “I understand that they are not mine. Irrationally, I’ve tried to convince myself that they aren’t what I could have had in my world. But I know with the way things are with our worlds that
they are.
”

“Ilsa—”

Her eyes swam with tears and she whispered, “I can’t do it. I…” She swallowed and admitted, “It would kill me.”

It was then he found his mouth saying, “Tonight you stay at The Swan and rest. Tomorrow, we’re away to Bellebryn.”

She blinked before she breathed, “What?”

“Tomorrow, we’re away to Bellebryn.”

“Tomorrow…Bellebryn…” She shook her head sharply then asked, “What do you mean
we?
”

“We means you and me.”

Her entire frame visibly locked tight.

“But I can’t… you can’t…” She threw out her hands. “We don’t even
like
each other.”

“I don’t know you enough not to like you, Ilsa,” he pointed out.

“Well, you weren’t fired up to
get
to know me,” she returned, the fire back in her eyes. “And the way you communicated that, I’m not
your
biggest fan.”

He fought his lips twitching, failed in that endeavor and her eyes narrowed on his mouth.

He felt her eyes there and he felt them elsewhere as well.

Bloody hell.

Bellebryn with Ilsa was not a good plan.

But to save her the heartache of meeting Christophe and Élan, it was his only one.

However, she would make the choice.

“You have two choices, my dove,” he shared. “Karsvall with the children or Bellebryn with me.” He began to move to the door. “You have until the morning to make the choice. I’m here at sunrise. I either take you back to my home or I take you with me.” He stopped with his hand on the doorknob, his eyes on her. “I’ll come prepared either way.”

“I…you…we can’t…that’s…” she spluttered.

“Until the morning,” he said as his farewell, opened the door, moved through it and closed it behind him.

He expected her to follow him, calling his name and pleading or spitting fire.

If he was honest, he wasn’t expecting it. He was hoping for either one, he didn’t care which. Though he was leaning toward spitting fire.

She didn’t do either.

He fought back the disappointment he knew it was unhealthy to feel, grabbed his cloak from the hook by the door and lifted his chin to Henri, the innkeeper. When Henri gave him a wave, Apollo moved out into the cold and buckled on his cloak as he headed to the stables where he’d put Torment to keep him out of the chill.

He led Torment out, mounted him and clicked his tongue against his teeth, leaning forward, digging in his heels, and Torment shot through the snow.

He rode home knowing he should be thinking about a variety of things, making plans, prioritizing conversations.

But he didn’t ride home thinking about any of that.

He did it wondering what her answer on the morrow would be.

* * * * *

As Apollo rode toward his stables, he saw Achilles strolling out of them.

He reined in Torment close to his cousin and swung off, leading the horse to his brethren.

Achilles looked beyond him, then back at Apollo.

“Maddie is not with you,” he noted and Apollo felt his mouth tighten at the familiar name they called Ilsa.

He forced it to relax in order to say, “Indeed. She’s to stay at The Swan this eve. Dispatch fresh guards to relieve the ones at the inn.”

Achilles nodded but watched him closely, his cousin’s eyes, Apollo knew, not missing anything.

“This is a change in plans,” he remarked.

“As has been everything when it comes to Ilsa of the other world since her arrival,” Apollo returned and lifted a brow. “Four months, Achilles?”

His cousin’s lips twitched.

Apollo found nothing amusing. “You know the dangers that lurk and thus the haste that should have been made.”

“She’s difficult to deny,” Achilles replied.

Apollo was already concerned about that. The steadfast Achilles falling to her charms made him more so.

“I’m sensing this,” Apollo told him and then shared, “Derrik and I had words.”

“I was afraid of that,” Achilles murmured.

Yes. Achilles didn’t miss much.

“He will not be in her company for some time,” Apollo stated.

Again, Achilles watched him closely, but he said nothing, only nodded.

“As you noted, plans have changed,” Apollo told him. “She has some concerns about being around Christophe and Élan. I’ve given her the choice to come with me to Bellebryn tomorrow or come here.”

He ignored Achilles’ look of surprise and carried on.

“She has until sunrise to make her decision. When I leave, if I don’t return, you’ll know she chose to come with me. You’re to stay here, as is Derrik. Dispatch Remi, Laures, Hans and Draven to follow us to Bellebryn. I’ll act as her guard on the journey. They’ll look after her in Bellebryn.”

“Four months ago,” Achilles started carefully, “you did not seem keen to spend time with her, cousin.”

“She and I have had a discussion that has changed my mind.”

Achilles blew out a breath and Apollo knew what that meant.

“It’s not that way,” he assured him.

“It wasn’t that way for Derrik either, in the beginning. And you should know it wasn’t that way for Laures or Remi as well. For Derrik, it took about a week. Remi and Laures fell not long after. And I have suspicions about Hans
and
Gaston.”

It was worse than he thought but not worse than he could imagine. Not after spending time with her, in the beginning
and
at the inn.

Still, he whispered an irritated, “Bloody hell.”

“The good news is, they’ll be an excellent guard. They’d lay down their lives for her,” Achilles offered.

“They lust after my wife,” Apollo bit out and watched Achilles tilt his head to the side.

“Is she?” he asked quietly.

And the second time that day, Apollo found his mouth speaking for him before his mind engaged.

“She will be.”

Achilles blinked and asked, “What?”

Warming to this thought, he explained, “The story being shared as people will see Ilsa and wonder is that she is a distant cousin of my Ilsa’s, widowed, and her parents have recently been lost. She’s come to Lunwyn for my protection. And it’s custom, is it not, for a widowed man to take to wife a widowed woman who is in the family, however removed, in order to provide her succor and protection?”

“By the gods, cousin,” Achilles whispered. “It is, but it will be lost on no soul for miles around and throughout the Houses that Maddie is the image of your departed wife.”

“A happenstance that will likely not be questioned considering I did not hide my feelings for my wife or the ones I held after she was lost. Therefore, it would not be a leap that I would be drawn to one who looks just like her.”

“Too true, but this is mad, Lo.” Achilles was still whispering. “Once the troubles are over and Maddie takes her place at your side, everyone will know she’s a replacement of the one you cared so deeply for and lost.”

Having just made this decision, he’d obviously not thought of that and it caused not a small amount of unease.

But he had made this decision. And Apollo Ulfr was many things, one of them decisive.

Therefore, he asked his cousin, “Have I ever cared what people thought?”

“No, but has it occurred to you that Maddie might?’ his cousin asked him.

It, of course, hadn’t, and this idea, too, troubled him.

But time never stopped and people accustomed themselves to a variety of things, given enough of it. They would accustom themselves to the new Ilsa. And if she was discomfited by it in the meantime, he’d just keep her close and not take her out in society.

He explained his decision by saying, “She’s been in the company of her guard for four months, Lees, and five have fallen. Derrik so deeply, he confronted me and asked to take her away.”

“Gods,” Achilles muttered, shock on his face, but not surprise.

The shock was that Derrik would confront him. The lack of surprise was that Achilles knew it might happen.

“Precisely,” Apollo said tersely. “She’s extremely spirited. She’s also exquisitely beautiful. And I know you have not missed there are other things about her which would pull at any man.”

“Have they pulled at you?” Achilles asked quietly.

Apollo didn’t answer.

Instead, he stated, “For her protection, I must take her as wife.”

Achilles remained silent.

Apollo did not.

“Therefore, if she chooses to stay here, I bid you to keep her protected from the attentions that might come at her, as well as see to my affairs and keep an eye on Christophe and Élan. Élan will have no issue with her. Christophe may have difficulties coping.”

Achilles nodded.

Apollo continued. “If she is to stay here, when I deliver her in the morning, I will collect Derrik and take him with me.”

Achilles nodded again.

Apollo went on. “Upon my return, we’ll see to a quiet wedding.”

Achilles didn’t nod at that. He held Apollo’s gaze and said nothing.

Apollo ignored the reservations in his cousin’s eyes and kept speaking.

“If she comes with me, dispatch the guard as I instructed, however not the men I chose. You choose who to send but send four of them. I’ll wed her along the way.”

Again, Apollo didn’t nod.

Instead, he advised, “I urge you to take some time to consider this, cousin.”

“I have no choice but to sleep on it,” Apollo replied.

He watched his cousin take in a breath and let it out.

Then he again watched his cousin nod. This did not surprise Apollo. They’d grown up together, alongside Laures, Draven and Derrik. Achilles knew when Apollo’s mind was made up, there was no changing it.

And Achilles would champion it, if not in word at that moment, when the time came, he’d do it in word and deed. For Apollo and, he was in no doubt, also for Ilsa.

Therefore, Apollo nodded back and ended the conversation by leading Torment into the stables.

* * * * *

His fist on his cock pumping, his eyes closed, the vision of her running her tongue up the underside was in his brain.

Her face, he knew.

But he’d never had that tongue.

Or those eyes.

Eyes that were burning on him now, burning on him and through him even if only in his imagination.

Fathomless.

A mystery.