Apollo

Chapter Thirty - PART THREE

A/N We're finally here – the last update on Apollo. So, this ended up longer than I intended it to be, but for some reason I get the feeling that you guys won't complain about it, haha. So for the very last time, here's this week's update – enjoy!!!

       

WHEN THEY FINISHED WITH THEIR OFFICIAL BUSINESS HE STOOD TO GO, bowing respectfully as he was expected to do before his queen. "I shall take my leave now, Your Majesty. Thank you for your time."

"Wait." She heard herself speak before she even knew she had opened her mouth. Then, with more control over her own words, she asked, "Will you...Will you stay for tea, Admiral? It is about to be teatime, and I imagine you are hungry."

    "I suppose I cannot refuse a royal decree, Madam," he jested, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Thank you, then. I will stay."

    Emmeline rang a bell and called for macarons and their finest pot of tea, and momentarily though they were both grey and old now they found themselves returning to the days of their youth, the first time they had taken their tea together in Lockhart Manor all the way in Portsmouth.

    This memory struck Peter with a thought.

    "How is your brother, Madam?—How is Duke Mayfair?"

    "He is well, the last I heard from him. It has been a week or so since he last wrote," she replied. "His wife Victoria – unfortunately she left us a number of years back, but he has recovered mostly from it. When she passed away he moved to live in London, in Wellington House where my father used to be. It isn't far from here; would you like to call on him?—We could go together, I do miss him."

    "That would be agreeable," he answered with a measured smile. "Madam—"

    "Please, Emmeline will suffice," she interrupted. "This is no longer official business, and I think, Peter, that we are rather above such frivolous formality."

    "Well, yes...Emmeline." He smiled at her, though his tone still betrayed some unease. He hesitated briefly before asking, "Are you happy? Married to His Majesty?"

    She paused to consider it, and found herself wondering how they would have been if they had ended up marrying. Would she be happier?—Was there a chance that their relationship could have fallen apart, just as quickly as it came to be? Her relationship with Alexander had never been quite as emotionally charged as hers with Peter had been, but it was stable at least, built on the solid foundation of a good friendship, and it had lasted well through the years. Yet was the ideal relationship one like that – not volatile, but never extremely passionate either? Or was it just the thought of young love that had made her romance with Peter feel so exciting?

    She would never know.

"Quite," she answered eventually. "He has rather grown on me. We never did have anything as intense as what I had with you..."—she took a breath to calm her heart—"but we are happy."

    "That is good to hear."

    "And you?—Is there any lucky lady I should know about?"

    "No, no, just the ocean and my men," he laughed. "I was – and am – happy a bachelor. My work has given me meaning, as it always has, and I am very content with where I am."

    "I'm glad." She smiled at him then, and it was genuine. "I suppose we may call ourselves friends?"

    "Yes, of course," he answered. "If you ever have anything I could possibly help with, please write to me. I will leave you my address before I go."