It was she who interrupted this time, and she did it by snapping, “Hang on a ding-donged second.”
“Ilsa—”
“No.” She kept snapping and now she did it advancing; her hand up, finger pointing at him and jabbing the air. “You listen to me now and stop cutting me off. It’s rude.” She stopped moving and dropped her hand. “You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do; where I can go and who I can see.”
She stopped talking so he requested, “May I speak?”
“Only if you don’t piss me off when you do it,” she allowed and he really didn’t want to find her amusing.
But, damn it all, he did.
He just didn’t let it show.
“I’m afraid what I’m about to say will do that…if I take your meaning as I’ve learned what those words mean from Finnie, Cora and Circe.”
Her head tipped to the side. “Finnie, Cora and Circe?”
“Women here from your world married to men from mine.”
Her eyes got huge and that wasn’t amusing.
It was endearing.
Gods, but he’d made a colossal mistake bringing her here.
“What?” she cried.
He drew in breath and explained, “Finnie, the Ice Princess of Lunwyn, Cora, the Gracious, Princess of Hawkvale, and Circe, the warrior Queen of Korwahk, are all from your world.”
Her eyes got even bigger.
Thus more endearing.
Bloody hell.
“Cora, the Gracious is of my people?” she breathed.
“You’ve heard of her,” Apollo deduced.
She threw out a hand and exclaimed, “Hell yeah! Everyone raves about her in the Vale.”
“She’s much loved,” Apollo agreed.
“Totally,” she stated. “Holy cow. She’s from home?”
Apollo crossed his arms on his chest. “Your home, as is hers, is here now, Ilsa.”
“Well, yeah. I know,” she replied immediately. “But you know what I mean.”
“My point is, it would be good to stop thinking of the other world as home.”
She said nothing but the excited surprise drifted from her delicate features as she held his gaze.
He tried not to think that he rather enjoyed the excited surprise lighting her features and reverted to their previous subject.
“As I was saying, I’m afraid I’ll anger you with what I have to say but in this world you are a woman, you are my charge and you are an Ulfr. Further, you’re aristocracy by birth as well as marriage. Your father in Fleuridia was a count. Therefore, all around, you are an aristocrat and must behave in this world as one.”
Her tone was cautious when she asked, “I can assume it’s widely known your wife has passed.”