I shook my head but said, "Yeah, I did. But I"m good. Really. It"s okay."
"It is not," he returned.
"Our progress would be slowed if she rides injured, especially if she can"t handle her own steed," the burnished-haired guy said and I looked to him.
"I"ll keep up," I promised.
His blue eyes moved to me. "And break your neck?"
"I"ll try to keep up without doing that," I offered.
He stared at me a moment then looked at his comrade. "I"ll speak with Derrik. She"ll need lessons and time for her injury to heal. We"ll send word to Apollo we"ll be delayed for two weeks."
Oh boy.
"Really," I stated hurriedly. "I"m fine. I can practice horse riding while on our, um...journey."
This gained me the dark-haired man"s eyes. "On day one, after our ride you"ll be nothing but aches and pains. The next morning, your body will protest at your simplest movement. You cannot take that while injured."
"How about I give it a try," I suggested, not wanting to delay because I really didn"t think Apollo would like it. Sure, he wouldn"t get word we"d be late for two months but then he"d have two whole weeks to stew on it and that probably wasn"t a good thing.
I came out of these thoughts when I noticed no one was speaking. They were all staring at me again.
Finally, the dark-haired man offered his big, calloused hand. "I"m Achilles of the House of Ulfr. Cousin to Apollo."
Yep. I was right. Family.
I took his hand and murmured, "Achilles."
"I am Draven of the House of Sinclair," the burnished-haired guy said and I let Achilles go to take Draven"s hand.
"Hey," I said and his eyes lit with humor.
"I"m Aleksander, of the House of Lazarus," the boy-man said, grinning at me and offering his hand. I took it and he finished, "Alek."
"Nice to meet you, Alek," I said on a squeeze and let him go.
"You"ll walk back, not ride," Achilles decreed and my gaze went back to him. "We"ll talk tomorrow to see how you feel. And when you"re well enough, Hans will instruct you on riding. He"s our most talented horseman."
"Really, that"s not-" I started but he moved closer to me. Not by a lot, it wasn"t an aggressive move, it was one designed to get my attention.
And it got my attention.
But the serious look in his eye, a look accompanied by not a small amount of kindness was what really got my attention.
"I have known those who life has taught to keep themselves isolated," he stated quietly. "It is always folly and never ends well. No matter what experiences we have, we must keep ourselves open to having more. Don"t you agree?"
I pulled in a breath and nodded, because he was right.
"The men are anxious to meet you and it would serve you well to meet them," he informed me. "We act as your guard as a duty and we very much understand duty. But we do that duty out of allegiance to Apollo and the House of Ulfr." He held my eyes but dipped his face an inch closer to me and his voice got lower when he concluded, "If the men were to meet you, madam, and you were to allow them to get to know you, I have no doubt they would act as your guard for much different reasons."
"The Ilsa of your world," I whispered, totally getting him.
"No, the madam who puts herself on the back of a horse while injured, determined to learn something new to her world. And the woman who takes a hand in greeting while looking steadfastly in your eyes, hers hesitant but unwavering. And last, the woman who would do her best to embrace a new world very foreign to her even when circ.u.mstances are not in her favor. I know all of this having officially met you moments ago and watching but for two days. What I want to know is what more there is to know."
Okay, maybe I didn"t totally get him.
And when he was done speaking, I was holding my breath and doing this because tears were stinging my eyes seeing as all he said was so nice.
Since he"d shut up and no one was saying anything, I realized it was up to me to break the silence.
"I was having a pity party," I shared. "I thought I"d gotten over it but maybe I was hanging onto some of it."
While I was talking, he"d moved slightly back and his brows had drawn together.
When I stopped talking, he asked, "A pity what?"
"A pity party," I replied. "I was feeling sorry for myself and being self-indulgent. It"s a weakness."
"It"s my experience that a weakness understood is no weakness," Draven put in at this point and I looked to him. "If you know you have it, even if you can"t control it, you can make allowances for it. It is those who ignore or don"t understand their weaknesses who are wasted by them."
I blinked.
Then I blurted, "Are you all philosopher soldiers, or what?"
This got me a smile from Achilles, a chuckle from Draven and a burst of laughter from Alek and I had to admit, all three felt good.
"Come," Achilles said, offering me his arm even as he tipped his head toward our horses, his eyes on Alek. "I"ll accompany you to the house."
I caught his eyes when he looked back at me, took his arm and whispered, "I"d like that."
He lifted his chin.
Alek jogged around us to the horses.
Draven grinned at me before he turned to his mount.
And Achilles tucked me close to his side and guided us forward.
"It grows late, madam, we must get you in your carriage in order to be back at the country house for dinner."
My heart plummeted, I turned, grabbed Derrik"s arm and leaned toward him, catching his eyes and begging, "No. Please? Can"t we stay in Benies for dinner?"
He stared his down his nose at me.
Suffice it to say, I freaking loved Benies.
Pol had taken me to Munich, London, Barcelona and Athens. We"d vacationed on beaches in the Bahamas, Antigua and Montserrat. I"d seen a lot, all of it amazing, including in this world where I saw even more during the long carriage ride into the city in order to "acquire" the things I needed (these, I found out, being jewelry, perfume, makeup, hair stuff, shawls and the like, and let"s just say that shopping in a parallel universe was the bomb).
But I"d never seen anything like Benies.
There weren"t any skysc.r.a.pers and there was nothing like an Eiffel Towers or ruins, but it was still beyond the beyond.
Some of the buildings were painted a rich cream but most of them were painted in pastel colors and almost all of them had some magnificently dramatic black wrought iron work, either on balconies or on verandas or just decorating the fronts of windows.
And all of the buildings had flowers everywhere, blooming out of window boxes and pots on sills and steps and on flowering shrubbery.
In fact, shrubbery was a thing here, clipped in a variety of amazing shapes in front of houses or along boulevards or in small city parks. Anything from simple cones to fleur de lis to swans to entire people. I"d seen some fancy clip work in my time, but nothing thing like this.
So it wasn"t about architecture. It was about colors and embellishments, each building, shop or home seeming to try to best the one next to it, this making it all magnificent.
And then there was the hustle and bustle. So much was happening, people everywhere.
And their clothes! Mine were good but the women around me, their gloves, their hats, the feathers in their hair, the delicate shawls around their shoulders, the frilly parasols they used, their jewelry blinking in the sun.
Unbelievable.
Breathtaking.
And then there were cafes with outdoor seating, big striped awnings with scalloped edges, white ap.r.o.ned, black-breeches-wearing waiters with hair parted down the middle and oiled to their scalps and crazy-a.s.s mustaches scurrying to take and bring orders.
Then there were the patisseries with such concoctions in their windows, my mouth watered just looking at them. Derrik noticed, took me in one and bought me the best eclair and cream puff (yes, both, I couldn"t choose) I"d ever had in my life.
And there were also coffee houses.
And elegant restaurants (not yet opened; Derrik explained the formal restaurants only opened for dinner).
And the shops!
Shops carrying miles of bolts of fabrics in every color and pattern you could think of. Or big baskets of yarn. Or huge barrels of amazing-smelling spices. Jewelry. Ribbons. China. Crystal. Shelves and shelves of wine. Or with cases of dozens upon dozens of cheeses with sausages hanging from the ceiling.
Last, there was the Marhac Sea, a vast expanse of water that looked like an ocean that stretched the length of the city on the southern end, the sun blinking off the tranquil waters, the water itself giving the city"s air a crisp, clean freshness. Plus there was the cry of the seagulls screaming to anyone who lived landlocked that they were on vacation.
I loved it. I couldn"t get enough, take enough in. I wanted to stay there for days, not hours.
Of course, the shopping bit started out weird seeing as Derrik instructed me to get "anything you fancy," and since I was using Apollo"s money, I didn"t want to get anything at all.
Achilles, who had come with us, noticed and gave me a good talking to so I decided to get a few things to appease them.
Laures and Hans also came with.
Laures had dark hair, seeing as he was of the House of Ulfr, and dark brown eyes, like Achilles. But he was shorter (by a bit), also broader (by a bit) and he had a small half-moon scar around his mouth where a dimple would be that made his normal hotness hotter.
He and Hans (very blond, ice blue eyes, slimmer than the others but taller), also noticed my hesitancy and did something about it.
And what they did cracked me right the h.e.l.l up, seeing as they were genuinely trying to help me find things I liked but both had very bad taste so everything they showed me was heinous and I wouldn"t buy it in this world or any world.
I knew they were doing this so we could move along as shopping was clearly not one of their favorite pastimes. And they eventually caught on that I was playing with them when I dragged my heels in shops, hemmed and hawed on decisions about the various things they presented for me to hurry up and buy so we could get the f.u.c.k out and move on.
We all got into the joke and Hans and Laures began choosing a variety of intentionally hideous or gaudy things for me, none of which they bought for me, all of which made me laugh until my sides hurt.
Derrik shut this down (after the fifth shop) and told us to stay focused, though he did it with a smile.
All the men also noticed that I was wide-eyed with wonder, and enjoying myself immensely, so it was them who started dragging their heels or leading me down various avenues to show me fountains or statues or buildings of note.
Giving me a great day.
It had been a whole week since I"d been transported to this world.
Now, I knew all the men. They dined with me in the evenings (every one of them, as a courtesy at first, I guessed, but I was hoping was their preference now). One, two or most of them would always be at the breakfast table in the morning, coming or going or lounging with me and chatting while I ate.
There was Derrik, Achilles, Draven, Alek, Hans and Laures, There was also Remi and Gaston.
Hans had started my horseback riding lessons.
Laures, Gaston and Remi were teaching me to speak Fleuridian.
Achilles was teaching me a one-on-one board game called ricken that was a lot like chess but far more violent. In other words, every piece had a weapon and when you took it, you snapped the weapon off. Apparently "servants" mended the pieces when you were done playing, though I didn"t know how since they started out exquisitely carved and didn"t look mended.
I asked and Achilles didn"t know how either so I was getting what "servants" got up to didn"t concern their masters, just as long as they got up to it.
By the way, I sucked at ricken.
Also by the way, Achilles thought this was hysterically funny, as did Draven and Hans, who often watched, shook their heads and grinned at me with every move I made (you will note, they shook their heads and grinned, but they didn"t give me any advice).
But all the men were teaching me tuble, a card game that was a game of chance. We played it in the evenings after dinner. And I was good at that.
They were also teaching me how to cheat, which apparently you were supposed to do.
I was great at that.
And now they were giving me Benies.
Needless to say, the last few days had been better than the first few by, like, a lot.
This one the best of all.
And I didn"t want it to end.
So I had a feeling my eyes were beseeching when I looked up at Derrik and awaited his reply.
He continued to look down his nose at me with his clear blue eyes and I held my breath.
Then he murmured, "We"ll take you to dine at Le Pont de L"eau."
I leaned back, clapped my hands and cried, "Yay!"