“Ulfr, Ilsa of my world is married –”
He cut her off, “You have already told me that and –”
She interrupted him in turn, “To you.”
Ulfr’s body again grew tight and she heard him pull in a sharp breath.
Then he whispered, “To me?”
“To the you of my world,” Valentine explained.
Ulfr made no response.
Valentine continued, “This is not unusual. In fact, it’s highly usual.”
Ulfr’s eyes moved to study the sea but she knew he didn’t see it.
Then they came back to her. “This also matters not.”
Love.
Goddess, but this man could love.
Blinded by it.
“Ulfr –”
“It matters not,” he repeated.
“Ulfr,” Valentine leaned in, “it does. And it does not because she is deeply in love with her husband as you are with your dead wife. It does because the you of my world is not a good man. He is a bad man. A very bad man. Foul. Selfish. Criminal. Cruel. And the reason I had trouble finding her was because she is on the run from him. She will not want you, Ulfr. She will not want anything to do with you. If you bring her here to spend time with you, she’ll –”
“Bring her to me,” he demanded again.
She took a step toward him and, uncharacteristically losing control in defense of a fellow female (or at all), she hissed, “You must allow me to explain. He, the other you, who looks just like you and sounds just like you has not been good to her and when I say that, Ulfr, I mean in every way a man cannot be good to a woman. She fears him and she hates him with an intensity it will be impossible for her to grow to –”
“Bring her to me.”
“Ulfr!” she snapped and he leaned in threateningly, so threateningly, even Valentine reared back.
She might be a witch, a powerful one, but he was a man, a large one and a powerful one and she was human, not immune to being hurt and he was a man who knew what he wanted and would do anything to get it.
“This is my concern, not yours,” he growled. “Bring… her… to me.”
Valentine held his jade eyes.
Then she leaned back.
Then she whispered, “So be it.”
Apollo Ulfr leaned back too, his body relaxed and he stated, “Tomorrow. I will tell you the time and the place.”
Valentine nodded.
Ulfr did not nod back. He turned on his boot and walked away.
It was a good show and, even after that scene, Valentine enjoyed it.
Then, when she lost sight of him, she sighed delicately and turned back to the sea. Moving to the balustrade, she rested her hands on it and felt rather than saw the other presence who had been hiding in the shadows move out of them and come to her side.