His chin jerked slightly back when I did, even as he blinked.
Then he smiled.
Slowly.
God, seriously, I’d essentially been looking at that face for over a decade and still, seeing it as Apollo, I wondered if I’d ever get used to his beauty.
He turned his attention back to the Drakkars.
I gave mine to Norfolk.
“Thank you for being so…” I tried to find a this world word since I didn’t think he’d get “cool” or “awesome” or at least not the ways I intended them. I settled on, “Lovely.”
“It is my pleasure,” he replied on a smile. “Ulfr is a friend, he is loyal to my cousins, the queen and our Winter Princess, and he is a good man.”
“He is all that,” I affirmed and he chuckled.
But he sobered before he noted, “You seem very used to the reactions to your resemblance to Ilsa.”
“Although I’ve never met her, in the time I’ve been in Lunwyn, it’s become very clear I look exactly like her so I’ve had no choice but to become used to them.”
“I must say, Lady Madeleine, that it’s not uncanny, the resemblance. It’s uncanny, the resemblance that includes the startling differences,” he remarked and I felt my head tip to the side in confusion.
“Would you mind explaining?” I asked.
“Only if this discussion doesn’t offend you,” he answered.
I shook my head so he continued.
“I could not know, I have not been around when Franka and Ilsa were conversing, but, like you, Ilsa would not countenance Franka’s rot. However, she would do that by walking away.”
I wondered briefly if that was the way I should have played it and this was brief because he went on.
“It’s more fun your way.”
I grinned at him and he returned the gesture.
“Have you met my cousin, Lunwyn’s Ice Princess, Sjofn?” he queried.
I shook my head. “No.”
“She will like you,” he told me, patting my hand in the curve of his arm. “Greatly.”
“Awe...” I started, stopped and finished more appropriately, “Well, that’s just grand.”
“Am I to set a course where Kristian cuts off his sister’s allowance?” I heard Apollo ask and I turned when I felt his hand come to rest on the small of my back.
In a sweet changing of the guards, Norfolk uncurled my hand from his elbow but gave it a squeeze before he let it go as he replied, “You may wish to give Franka some time to dress her wounds. Our Lady Madeleine proved her knives are sharper and she has greater skill in using them.”
Apollo looked down at me, his hand gliding along my back so he could curl it around my waist and pull me close. “Indeed?”
“Amateur,” I murmured, and he threw back his head and burst out laughing.
Norfolk added his chuckles.
Apollo stopped laughing and leveled his eyes at Norfolk. “I owe you a debt.”
Norfolk threw out a hand. “Not at all.” He looked to me. “It’s been a pleasure.”