here because of your sister’s whim—and my besotted brother and his wish to put in front of her whatever your sister asks for. This is for Melina.’
‘My mother is gone. You’ve taken my sister. Now you want the one thing left that has the image of my mother’s face.’
‘Yes. And if she looks like your mother, and you can rescue her from the earth, why wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t your mother wish to have her likeness freed?’
‘Wait until morning,’ she said, fighting to keep her face unmoved. Digging in the earth had brought back the memories of her mother’s burial. ‘The light is going and you will be able to talk with Stephanos then. It is worthless to dig her up if he will not let you leave the island with her.’
‘I suppose.’ His chest moved as he inhaled. ‘You’re right. I can’t risk destroying already worthless rocks. If you wish it, I will return in the morning and I’ll buy her before I dig.’ He looked at the earth and then snatched the shovel from the ground. ‘You will tell me tomorrow, won’t you?’
Her heart thudded. ‘I suppose I’ve no choice.’ When his ship left, she would truly be losing her connection to Melina. She’d never see her again. Not if a man had her who valued her. The earl would never let her sail away from him into seas that could turn angry. And the statue would be gone, too, just like Mana.
She crossed her arms. Turning, she held her chin high, back straight and moved to the trail.
His footsteps scrambled behind her and he grasped her arm. He stopped in front of her, still touching her. ‘I have funds...’
‘But what I want is my sister. Can you return her?’
He let out a breath. ‘I can’t give her to you. And truly, she is happy where she is. I am sure she misses you, but she’ll not be coming back. Women tend not to leave their children, and from the looks of things, she’ll be having many of them.’
‘Oh.’ Thessa thought of the nieces and nephews she would never see. Never. She jerked her arm free. The captain stilled.
‘You stole her,’ she said. ‘You took her from me for ever.’
‘She chose to go. Willingly.’
She lowered her eyes. ‘My sister would have died for us. That is why I do not...I have trouble believing she didn’t return.’
‘She sent me and I have brought you—’
‘Do not tell me,’ she interrupted. ‘I do not want to hear any reasons she didn’t come back to us. We will manage. I am to marry.’ She shrugged. ‘You must not let Stephanos know how badly you want the woman,’ she said. ‘The price will rise.’
He turned so he faced her directly and now intensity flared from his eyes. ‘You think he will not guess? A man doesn’t sail this far for no reason. He might think I returned for you.’
‘You’d not met me before.’
He looked at her and gave a little grunt of agreement, but something else was in the sound.
If the captain had met her on the first voyage, all three sisters might have gathered up the bits of the woman and taken her to England. But then they would have been stranded in the same country as their father. She wished never to see him again. Even when he told the truth, he added something or left out something. To him, deceit was merely a better form of the truth. If he was caught in a tale where he’d misled the listener, his eyes would gleam. To have this pointed out to him was to have his craftiness rewarded—an admission by the listener that he’d been outwitted.
‘You are sure my father is alive?’ she asked.
He nodded. ‘He was when I left England.’
‘I am not like my sister,’ she told the captain, speaking more easily in the shadowed world of the nightfall. ‘Either sister. Bellona does not worry. She knows we will care for her. We told her so over and over when she cried after our mother died. And Melina thought if she just searched enough she would find a way to keep our father. I...’
He waited.
She shrugged. ‘I am not sure what I am like.’
He examined her. ‘You don’t have to tell me you’re nothing like your sisters. Or any other woman. I knew that from the first moment I saw you.’
She darted her eyes back to his to see if he jested. His watched her and his lips parted. He looked at her the same way Stephanos did, but it didn’t make her uneasy. But instead of taking a step towards her, the captain moved the distance back.
Her teeth tightened against each other.
He turned, watching the skies. He studied the heavens, but she supposed captains did that often. And then he looked at the trees and the barren ground around them. Before his gaze finally returned to her, he put one hand on the back of his neck, then his arm fell and he looked to the sky again. ‘Will you swim with me?’
She studied his face. He spoke the words with more intensity than Stephanos used when he told her he wished to marry her. ‘It is either to be you or Bellona,’ the Greek had said. ‘I want you. Her, I do not like so much. But she will do.’
Thessa had challenged Stephanos that such threats would not sway either sister, but still, inside, she’d worried and known she had no choice but to agree to marriage.
She shook the memories away.
His vision locked on her and the muscles of his face hardened.
‘Swim?’ She leaned her head forward.
‘You cannot imagine how much it would mean to me.’
‘I cannot.’ Oh, but she knew what it would mean in her life. If she shed her clothing and moved into the water with him, she could have no recourse if he took her body. Stephanos would be enraged if he discovered it and the sea captain and his entire ship would be at risk—not that she cared at this moment. ‘You ask an improper thing.’
‘I know. But you are like the art on the walls of my London home, yet you are alive. I’ve never seen a woman such as you. Your sister doesn’t even come close. When I look at you, I see something I never saw before. When you swam it was as if you were free of the restraints of the earth, much like I feel when Ascalon is moving in a brisk breeze.’
She laughed. ‘A Frenchman told me I was an angel on earth and I didn’t take his offer either.’
‘He wasn’t wrong.’
‘You’ve been away from a woman too long.’
He paused, words low. ‘I always think that.’ She noted a faint apology in his eyes. ‘But this is not the same thing.’
She stood and pointed to the trail. ‘Go back the way you came. Take the second path in the direction of your right, and then—’ she waved her hand in the direction ‘—and then again right. You’ll see two houses close. The smaller one is the one you want. The woman there will swim with you, for as long as you wish if you have enough coin.’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘You’re
