She nodded.

"You will be escorted back to her in the morning."

She again nodded.

He jerked up his chin. "Sleep well, Meeta," he muttered, turning from her, but before he could enter the room, she called, "Wolf."

He turned back.

"You will not know," she started quietly. "You will never know. I have lived a life in service. That forced on me or that necessary to put food in my belly, clothes on my back. In this world, all have their place. In her world,"-she inclined her head to the door-"I sense, they do not. In her world, I am her equal. Thus in this world, that is how she treats me. Even if I am in service to her, she never makes me feel this is the case. In this world, in my place, such as this is a gift more valuable than a hundred chests of gold. You can never understand this, but I do. And it is a treasure I wish to keep...for always."

"Then you shall keep it," he replied softly.

She dipped her chin.

When he regained her eyes, he said, "Thank you for what you did tonight, Meeta, and for all you do for my Madeleine."

Her mouth grew soft.

He nodded to her, finally turned to the door and entered the room.

Madeleine was curled up in a chair pulled to the windows. The curtains were open, and she had her chin to her raised knees, gazing at the village of Brunskar.

"My dove," he called gently and watched her body jerk, her head turning to him. "We must be away."

"Away?" she asked.

"To the children," he explained, walking toward her. When he got close to her chair, he crouched down at her side. "We will have a guard and a witch with us. The Keer parcel has been destroyed, the enchantments recast. We are safe to journey, poppy. But with what happened tonight, I do not wish to be far from you or my children."

She drew in a deep breath but nodded while doing it and unfolded from the chair.

He looked around the room. "Has Melba offered you a cloak?" he asked.

"No," she answered and when he looked back to her, she was again gazing out the window.

"Maddie," he called and her eyes came to his. "We will be safe, dove," he whispered.

Her teeth worried her lip but she nodded.

"Loretta is to stay here and rest, Meeta is with her. They will return tomorrow and we'll be away to Karsvall."

She nodded again.

He held his hand to her. "Let us find you a cloak and be on our way."

She took his hand without a word and followed him out. Most of the servants were awake, seeing to the rush of activity that ended the night. Thus they acquired a cloak easily.

However, Maddie swayed to a halt at his side when they hit the top of the steps outside the front door.

He looked into her pale face, understood her terror and bent instantly. He swung her into his arms and walked her down the steps as she held tightly to his shoulders, her cheek pressed against his.

She only let him go when he put her atop Anguish. He mounted behind her, leaned them both into the steed and kicked in his heels.

His men, Remi with the witch on the back of his horse, fell in around them.

The ride to the village was less than half the time it took when they rode to the castle in their sleigh. Once they reached the inn, Apollo escorted Maddie to her room, Gaston moving to stand sentry beside her door as he pulled her loosely in his arms just inside it.

"I will be back very shortly, poppy. I wish to check on the children."

She looked up at him, her face still pale, her eyes strange, but she nodded.

He would deal with her fears very soon.

For now, he bent to touch his lips to hers and as he lifted his head, he shuffled her backwards deeper into the room and lowered his voice to say, "I wish to be present when you disrobe, dove. Do not change. Tonight you sleep naked pressed beside me."

He watched with surprise and some confused disquiet as he thought he almost caught a wince before her expression cleared, she pressed into him and she whispered, "Okay, honey."

He drew in breath, let it go, gave her a squeeze and released her to see his children.

They were asleep in their beds, Balthazar in elan's room, Quincy in Christophe's.

He got nods from the men, returned them and made his way back to Maddie.

When he closed and locked her door, he found her again staring out the window. Her borrowed cloak was thrown over a chair. Her borrowed dress still on.

She'd fed the fire and lit a lamp by the bed.

But now, she stood unmoving, her eyes to the window.

"Close the drapes, dove," he ordered gently and again watched her start and turn to him.

She nodded and did as ordered as he walked to the side of the bed closest to her and sat down.

"Come to me, Madeleine," he said, his voice still gentle.

As he wished, she came to him and she did it close, stopping between his spread legs.

He lifted his hands and put them to her hips, his head tipped back to keep hold of her eyes.

"Are you sore from your endeavors tonight, my poppy?" he asked.

"I don't feel anything," she answered.

He didn't relish the way she said that, her voice strangely without emotion. However, he suspected after all that had befell her that eve, it would take much to process it, including time.

But he would be there to help her do it.

"You'll feel it on the morrow," he murmured.

"Probably," she murmured back, her eyes drifting.

"You're safe, Maddie," he a.s.sured her.

She drew in a breath and nodded to the headboard.

"Madeleine," he called and she looked back to him. "I wish to ask something of you."

Her eyes held his in a way he found strange, moving, yet troubling, even as she lifted her hand and cupped his jaw.

Once she'd touched him, she whispered, "I'd do anything for you, Apollo."

Her words, the way she said them, now full of emotion, the way she touched him, gentle and light, he felt his gut tighten.

Perhaps she wasn't processing what happened that evening.

Perhaps she was processing something else entirely.

His gut tightened further.

"Give me your foot," he directed, his voice suddenly gruff.

She tipped her head to the side, but dropped her hand and lifted her foot.

He slid her borrowed slipper off.

"The other," he said once he'd dropped it to the floor.

Her eyes on him, she did as bid.

He slid that one off as well.

"Now remove your dress, poppy."

She pressed her lips together but her hands did not delay in moving to the fabric, bunching it in her fingers and pulling it up and off.

She let the dress glide from her fingers to the floor and stood before him wearing nothing but an emerald green satin bustier that dipped low at the back, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s barely contained in the cups at the front, and it had bronze ribbons adorning its boning. She also wore a pair of matching satin panties.

He felt his c.o.c.k pulse as his gaze moved over her. Her soft skin. Her curves. Her abundant hair glimmering in the firelight. Her beautiful eyes directed at him.

There she was.

His Maddie.

Alive.

Breathing.

Beautiful.

His.

His voice was now gruff for more than one reason when he instructed, "Discard your panties, Madeleine, then free me and climb in my lap."

He watched her lids lower, her lips part and he felt both in his throat, his gut and his shaft. Then she slid her thumbs into her panties and tugged them down.

His c.o.c.k started aching.

She bent to him and he felt her fingers working at the b.u.t.tons of his trousers.

At that, his shaft throbbed.

She pulled him free and caught his eyes as she positioned; first one knee in the bed, then the other, climbing on.

"Guide me inside," he whispered.

She licked her lips and he felt her reach between them, her hand wrapping around him. He stifled the rumble rolling up his chest as she slid the tip of him through her wet silkiness until he caught at her opening.

Gazing at him, slowly, she glided down until he filled her.

Apollo wrapped his arms around her, head tipped back to keep her gaze, his voice nearly hoa.r.s.e when he kept whispering. "This is us, my dove."

"It is, Lo," she whispered back, her s.e.x pulsating around his shaft.

"You're safe," he repeated.

"Yes." She was still whispering.

"You're mine," he declared, his voice now almost guttural.

She closed her eyes, dropped her head so her forehead was resting on his and lifted both hands to wrap them around either side of his neck.

"Yes," she said quietly.

"Look at me, poppy."

Her eyes opened but she didn't lift her head.

"I wish to lie back and watch you take me."

Her forehead rolled on his as she nodded. "Anything, Apollo."

Gently disengaging from her hold, he lay back.

She kept his gaze as he did and once he was settled, his hands at her hips, she started moving.

Apollo watched.

And felt.