Apollo

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A/N Hoorah for punctual updates! Here's this week's chapter – prepare for what ought to be the last bit of drama for Apollo!!

"SHE DID NOT DISAPPOINT AT ALL, DID SHE?" EMMETT REMARKED WITH A wide grin once his fiancée had left the dining room at the end of their meal so that the siblings could speak privately.

"I still worry," his sister confessed. "I would trust no one with your heart, you know it. But I have no choice but to believe what she says...believe that this is not merely an act. I have to because you love her, and I could never bear to keep you from the woman you love."

"So we have your blessing?"

"Yes." She smiled, resigned. "Emmy—I want you to know that if she really ever does swindle you of your fortune – but heaven forbid she does, for I will destroy her if she has the gall to even entertain such a notion –, you will never be turned away from my door."

"She will do no such thing. I know it, you need not fret over it." He chuckled. "Though I must admit that living in St James' Palace does not sound like a bad contingency plan. It is the most lavish home I have ever visited."

"I would imagine that that is to be expected," she replied dryly with an amused smile. Then, she asked keenly, "When exactly is the wedding? Do you need any help?"

"All I need from you now is your presence."

"You shall have it," she answered, a shadow of her smile still lingering on her lips. "I am happy for you, Emmett. I am happy that you are happy."

He hesitated. "What about you and the good prince?"

"Well, I would not have chosen this for myself, perhaps, but I am happy being married to him. He is good to me, and I try not to think of the other things that could have been – that has never brought anyone any joy," she said. "He is one of my greatest comforts...and my dearest friend."

"I thought I was your dearest friend," he exclaimed jestingly.

She laughed, and it was no less than music to his ears. "Not with all the headaches you have caused me recently over this Victoria Arden business, I'm afraid you are not."

"I'm sorry," he said, "I really am. For everything that has happened. But we will both be married very soon, and hopefully we can be once again the siblings we once were."

"We have always been the siblings we once were, Emmett, for what else has our conflict been borne of but love?" She smiled. "But I do know what you mean to say. Yes—hopefully we shall have less to fight over."

They were silent for a while, both thinking of all that had happened in the past year or so. They had both changed, as had their entire situation. Peter had gone away, to patrol the colonies, and Emmeline was a princess now. Victoria Arden was no longer considered an obnoxious threat, and Emmett was engaged to her and about to be a father. Perhaps neither of their situations were ideal – for she might have preferred being a captain's wife, and he might have wanted to be the father of his own child instead of Prince Javier's – but they were both happy, and they were together, and that was enough.

***

DESPITE WHAT EMMETT HAD SAID ABOUT NOT NEEDING HER HELP, Emmeline decided that she would most definitely have a hand in her brother's wedding. She offered them the palace chapel and engaged a bishop to officiate the ceremony. The royal seamstresses would tailor all their clothes, and the chefs were going into town to buy produce, as well as amending and upscaling their recipes as they prepared to cook up a storm.