But their voices were carrying to him across wind and verdant waves.
“The queen…” Temple’s lips moved, but from this distance, Apollo heard only every other word.“You must, Sybil…” A few more words missed.
Apollo slipped into the garden, a few steps down the path.A large potted palm offered a convenient hiding place.Eavesdropping was nefarious, but… so was he.
“Return to Yorkshire,” Temple said, louder, a command.“You must!”
“Absolutely not.”Sybil stood firm, chin lifted.She marched right up to her brother, then laid her hands on his shoulders.“Brother.Thank you.I know you worry.I know you love me.But I’m done running.It’s my notes you’ll be working with.Make me your apprentice.You owe me that much at least.If you deny me, I’ll simply find someone who’s brave enough to bring a woman into a forge.”
“Brave enough—” Temple hissed.He took a steadying breath.“We’re not talking about this right now, Sybil.”He ran his hands through his hair, jaw ticking.
“There’s Stone to consider.”Diana glanced toward Apollo’s hiding spot, head tilted.“Apollo says he’s gone quite mad.”
“Apollo…” Temple seemed to calm down, nodding.“You’ve spoken with him recently?I thought he’d run off on some sort of pleasure trip to the Continent.”
“He’s returned.”Diana spoke softly.“Came to see me, to let me know about Stone.”
“Can we trust him?”Temple asked.
“You’re the one who tasked him with spying on Stone to begin with.”
“You did?”Sybil sounded small, and Apollo couldn’t read the glance she slanted up at her brother.“When?”Something deadly there.
“Before we sent you to Yorkshire the first time,” Temple said, “and then he ran off to who knows where instead of doing what he promised.I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in an opium stupor for weeks.”
“No.”Diana considered the sky.“He was not.When I saw him, he looked perfectly healthy.Better than he has looked in quite some time, but also… I do worry about him.”
Temple snorted.
“Apollo doesn’t matter,” Sybil said.“Tell me about Stone.”
Apollo doesn’t matter.
Apollo doesn’t matter.
The truth of his useless life.
God, he didn’t want to hear another well-deserved, knife-tipped word.He turned toward the door.He lost most of their conversation as he picked his way carefully down the path, back toward the door.
“I’m done with this conversation,” Sybil said.“I should like to be alone.”
“Very well.”That Diana.“We’ll return tomorrow to talk some more.”
“I love you, Sybil.”Temple could say those words.Apollo could…
Apollo felt so heavy.So raw.He held his hands over his ears like a recalcitrant child refusing to hear his nurse’s warnings.
And in the muffled silence, Apollo did hear something—footsteps hurrying toward him.
No time to slip through the door.He darted behind a large pot and ducked down low as the steps came closer, as they passed him, as the door shut with a heavy clink.
He scrubbed his hands down his face.If they thought him useless, what would they think if they found him crouched behind a potted plant.
He stood.He still needed to find Sybil.Or he could simply go to Temple, tell him more about Stone, make him send Sybil back to Yorkshire.
“Apollo?”The shocked tenor of Sybil’s voice caught him like a winter wind, froze him solid.“What are you… How long have you been…”
He met her gaze, allowed himself to drown in those blue eyes.“I do often leave people without the proper words.”
