Broken Dove (Fantasyland #4)(41)

I swiftly got his eyes and they weren’t flashing with amusement.

“Malevolent witches, yes. You, no. Not when you’re being as you are now. When you’re being churlish, yes.”

Suddenly, I felt like a bitch and it didn’t feel good.

“Apollo—”

Before I could say more (not that I had any clue what to say), he straightened in his chair, turned to me but tipped his head to the table.

“You’re finished?”

“Yes,” I said softly.

“Then we’re away to bed.”

Away to bed.

Crap.

He stood and reached toward the chair that held our capes.

I stood as well, starting, “Maybe we should—”

His eyes came to mine as he moved around the table holding my cape. “I’ll escort you to the hotel and give you time to prepare for bed. I’ll join you after you’ve had time to settle.”

All right then.

That sounded like a plan.

“Okeydokey,” I whispered and again watched his eyes flash, this one I’d not seen before.

I didn’t get a chance to get a lock on it before he was behind me and settling my cape on my shoulders.

I pushed my hands through the slits as he buckled on his cloak and I waited as he threw some coins on the table.

He then offered his arm and I took it. Like Derrik, he didn’t hesitate to pull me closer, tucking his arm with my hand to his side. Unlike Derrik, he did this in a perfunctory way, even if he did curl his warm fingers over mine.

Then we were “away” into the night on the swept-of-snow wooden walkways that served as sidewalks in this village.

That would be, away to bed.

Again.

Crap.

Chapter Eight

No Recriminations

“I’ll…uh, see you in a bit,” I said at the door to Apollo, who had unlocked it and threw it open, sticking his head in to take a cursory look around, but he did this and was now standing at its side.

“You will,” he replied, pocketing the key. “Lock up behind you.”

I nodded then watched as he turned and strode away.

He was out of sight down the stairs before I went into the room, closed the door and locked it behind me.

“Okay, what the f**k is the matter with me?” I asked the empty room.

Of course, I received no answer.

What I did was notice that the fire was dancing merrily in its grate, a large iron grid sitting in front of it with lips that curled into the stone so no sparks would fly out. There were big stacks of split logs, plenty of fuel for his lordship to keep the fire burning all night and not bother calling a servant to do it for him.

I also noticed that our trunks had been hauled up which meant I had my nightgown.

I didn’t go to the nightgown.

I went to the nightstand closest to me, opened the drawer and found what I always found when at an inn in Lunwyn or Hawkvale. A supply of rudimentary matches.

I lit the lamp by the bed then moved to the opposite side and lit that one as well.

I moved to the fire, carefully removed the grid, tossed the used matchsticks in, fed it more logs and returned the grid.

I stood back and stared at it.

I had no idea how long Apollo would give me to get changed so I knew I should get a move on.

But as I stared into the flames, I didn’t get a move on.

Instead, my mind was filled with other things and one of those other things was the fact that I kind of forgot why I was so pissed at him.

He’d saved me from Pol.

His reasons for doing this were because the wife he obviously adored had died and he wanted her back. Clearly being a man of action, when he found the impossible—that there was something he could do about that—he’d done something about it. This was slightly unbalanced, but I could get that.

But then he made the heartbreaking realization in having me, he couldn’t get her back.

Sure, he was a jerk about informing me of that but I could kind of get that too.

Then he’d understandably taken off to get his children to safety, and get away from me, the woman it hurt to even look at. But he’d left me in a beautiful house in a beautiful country with kind people. He’d given me gorgeous clothes. He’d provided me with a guard of great guys who saw me here, and in doing so gave me the best time of my life.

Now, he was forced to endure my presence and he was doing it as a kindness to me so I wouldn’t have to be around the this world children I couldn’t have in mine.

So he was arrogant and autocratic. He was the head of an aristocratic line in this world. What did I know of how they behaved? He was the only one I knew. Hell, others might even be worse than him.

And, truth be told, if I thought about it (which I hadn’t until then), his men said something about him.

Actually, if I really thought about it, Apollo had often displayed a sense of humor and he definitely displayed a sense of duty. He was clearly intelligent. He was also generous. There were reasons he inspired loyalty from those men, especially the ones from different Houses. They didn’t have to stay with him.

And he’d been displaying those reasons since the night I met him.

Chiefly, him traveling to another world to save me from Pol.

Okay, so this world was living under the threat of misfortune raining down on it through witchy she-gods.