“My son?” she returned.

“I’ll find him,” he told her.

She made no move for long seconds before she tipped her head to the side. “Are you going to take my cloak?”

“As you won’t be staying longer than needs be to explain why you’re here, it would be a waste of effort for you to be far from it.”

Again, her face tightened but Apollo ignored it and tipped his head toward his study.

“I trust you can find your way there. I’ll find Frey and we’ll attend you shortly,” he said.

“Would it be too much to ask if you could send a servant with a warm beverage?” she requested.

“Indeed, it would,” he stated vaguely and moved away from her in order to search for Frey.

He could be anywhere. At the dower house to collect Finnie. With his men.

Fortunately, on his way to Frey and Finnie’s room, the first place he intended to look, he ran into his housekeeper who was bustling his way.

“Do we have company?” she asked as Apollo stopped.

“We do,” he answered. “I’ll need hot tea served in my study. Also, set the staff to finding Drakkar and asking him to join me there.”

“Of course,” she murmured, nodding and turning to leave.

Seeing her do it, Apollo decided, since fate was not on his side in allowing him time to see to the variety of things he had to see to, he’d take his chances when he had them.

“Lucretia,” he called, and his housekeeper stopped and turned a questioning gaze his way. “It’s come to my attention that two maids were gossiping about myself and my family in the halls of Karsvall.”

Her face paled and her eyes widened. She understood the severity of this.

Apollo kept speaking.

“This will not be countenanced. It’s my understanding my son overheard their chatter. Although this is not a minor infraction, in this instance, I will trust you to find the two maids who participated in this behavior and deal with them. However, all the staff should know that if it should happen again, I will be dealing with them.” He paused and held her eyes before he finished, “Personally.”

“Of course, Lord Apollo,” she replied shakily.

“Now, please find Drakkar.”

She nodded and hurried away.

Apollo did not hurry to the study.

When he arrived, he found that Valeria had the wherewithal to divest herself of her own cloak, gloves and hat, for she had. She’d tossed them on one of the chairs in front of his desk and was sitting in the other one, drumming her fingers on the arm.

He closed the door behind him and her head turned his way.

“You do know, I journey from Brunskar on an errand of urgency and assistance,” she snapped as he made his way into the room.

“Actually, madam, I did not know that. I did ask your purpose here. You just didn’t answer,” he replied, moving to the side of his desk furthest away from her and leaning a thigh against it.

“Well, I have,” she retorted.

“And, pray, what is this urgent errand?” he queried.

“I fear I’ll have trouble sharing it, since my throat is still frozen from my mad dash across the tundra,” she said by way of answer.

Apollo studied the woman, a woman he’d never liked because she gave him no reason to, wondering how on earth she had birthed Frey.

Then he told her, “Tea has been ordered. As has the attendance of your son. Although there are those capable of great magic in this house, I’m afraid no one here is at my command to snap their fingers and provide either for you.”

She glared at him.

Apollo withstood it and suggested, “Perhaps we can begin this discussion prior to Frey joining us.”

“If we do, I’ll need to say twice what I could say just once.”

“You could also simply tell me what you have to say and I could go to the taxing effort of reporting it to your son.”

“I’m his mother,” she returned. “I would also like to see him, and my grandchild.”

She did not ask after Finnie. Although Apollo noted it, he didn’t ask after it for he didn’t care in the slightest about the answer.

And neither would Finnie.

When he made no response, her gaze turned shrewd and she asked, “You’re attending the Bitter Gales?”

He didn’t answer verbally. He simply inclined his head.

“And you’ll be bringing the other Ilsa with you?”

He responded to that, and even if the way she asked her question irritated him, he didn’t allow her to see it.

“Her name is Madeleine and she is my betrothed so yes. She will attend the Gales on my arm.”

The shrewdness left her face and spite replaced it, reminding him precisely why he’d never liked her, and she declared, “You must know what everyone is saying about you and this…Madeleine.”

“Indeed I don’t know,” he replied. “I also don’t care.”

“She will care, especially as you take her to the Gales.”

“That’s doubtful,” Apollo replied, and he would have believed this statement to be truth but weeks ago.

However, Maddie was vulnerable now.

He would have to have a word with Frey and Finnie, Lahn and Circe. At the Gales, they would need to keep an eye on his Maddie and assist him in keeping her away from those who would cause harm, either intentionally or not.

“Men do what they will and what others think matters not,” she returned. “Women are not made that way.”

Apollo shook his head. “I have had the unique and exquisitely pleasurable experience, madam, of learning with great fullness how each woman is quite unique. I’m certain there are some who are not made that way. I’m also certain there are those who are.”

She clamped her mouth shut and at that moment, thankfully, the door to his study opened and Frey strode in.

He took one look at his mother, his face hardened but his lips muttered, “Brilliant.”

Valeria’s back shot straight before she snapped to her son, “Is that how you greet your mother?”

“I would say it is, since it was how I did,” Frey replied, and Apollo fought back his smile as he looked to his boots.

“With the welcome I’ve received from the two of you, I’m uncertain I wish to relay the crucial message that’s been given to me,” she announced.

Frey stopped five feet from her and crossed his arms on his chest.

“I suppose you could make that decision. However, word has been received that father has wasted no time in petitioning the queen for a dissolution of his union to you. Should that happen, unless Calder is feeling generous, you’ll need to fall back on your own House to absorb your upkeep. As you’ve been rather unfriendly to them over the decades, it’s doubtful they’ll be keen to do that. And if I have a word with Calder, I fear he won’t be feeling very generous. So, in the end, you must hope Malcolm Turnish will take you to wife. But I assume your sojourn at Brunskar means Turnish has not offered you welcome.”