LITMIR.BIZ

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has not been pleased. He had noticed my sister and to him all the women of the island are more his than anyone else’s.’ She shrugged. ‘We thought it best to tell him she was taken against her will. He planned to go for her, but I told him...I told him I did not want him to leave for her. I told him he should think of me instead.’ Her face turned in the direction of the sea. ‘I thought I could give her time to return to us.’

      ‘Then I need the stones before I have to fight someone. I’ll dig tonight.’ He had to get the rocks back on the ship. If the winds changed, they needed to take advantage of it. Waiting around for months in a harbour with an angry man on the island wanting to stir up trouble wouldn’t be good for anyone.

      ‘I’ll carry the bag to your house.’ Benjamin reached to take the gifts. ‘It’s heavier than it looks. And then Gid and I can start searching. You know how much the sculpture means to your sister. Let me give it to her.’

      She stepped from his reach and pulled the canvas close. ‘My other sister is in the house. I’ll tell her Melina is safe and be back.’ She glanced at the trail they’d followed. ‘When Stephanos discovers you are here, I might need to soothe him.’

      He saw a shadow pass behind her eyes, something she wouldn’t speak of. Then she turned away, scurrying up the path.

      Even though her slippers looked to be no more durable than a few strips of leather, she moved as easily over the pebbles and stones as if she walked a hay meadow. He followed, unaware of where he put his own feet.

      * * *

      When she reached the steps which led up the side of her house, she put a foot on the lowest plank. He thought the whole house swayed with each movement and she had no railing to hold, but she made it to the top and darted inside, as nimble on land as she was in the sea.

      ‘Close yer mouth, Capt’n. And be glad yer brother’s not here to see you lookin’ at his wife’s sister that way.’ Gidley swallowed a chuckle, shaking his head. ‘The ship’d be needin’ a new capt’n.’

      ‘Ascalon needs a new first mate now.’

      Gidley grumbled while he scratched under his arm. ‘Yer wouldn’t give me the spyglass to look at her and then yer dropped it when your fingers fell open like yer mouth. Ain’t no way it survived a tumble down the rocks like that. Reminds me of the time we seen them lightskirts and I had to pay full cost and yer services was requested by the bawd. Yer could have bedded her and she promised yer afterwards yer could have one of the others at no cost.’

      ‘She was jesting.’

      Gidley snorted. ‘She’d ’a been bumpin’ yer head into the bed frame ’fore you finished sayin’ yer agreement. And me standing there and she didn’t even note my manly form.’

      ‘You overwhelmed her. She took one look at you and saw your experience showing through—’

      Gidley interrupted, waving a hand. ‘Save yer perfume-y words for them that wears such. I know better’n believin’ any yer treacle.’ Then he paused and squinted at Ben. ‘Well, in this case, yer might be right.’ He puffed himself taller. ‘Probably shows right from my eyes what I can do to make a woman beg for my attentions. Just takes once and they be talkin’ about ol’ Gidley for the rest of their lives...assumin’ they survive the pleasure.’ He turned to Ben. ‘I ever tell yer about that woman who fainted dead away at the sight of my manhood?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Well it won’t hurt yer to hear it one more time...’

      He let Gidley’s words fade from his hearing. He watched the fading sky, wanting so much to step foot on Ascalon and know he finally owned all of her—not just part.

      Gidley’s talk penetrated Benjamin’s thoughts when he heard the woman’s name mentioned. ‘Too bad that Thessa one sprouted legs.’

      Benjamin thought of Thessa in the sea. He couldn’t get the image of her stepping on to the sand out of his mind.

      ‘Capt’n, I can see what thoughts is in yer eyes. A sailor doesn’t need a woman to drag him down. ’Specially not for nothin’ permanent. Married man goes to sea—he drowns. You know it as well as I. Weight of leavin’ a family behind pulls him under.’

      ‘Nonsense. But a man can’t expect a woman to remember him when he’s been gone two years.’

      ‘Bet yer my braces it be bad luck to marry.’ He looped his thumbs under the leather straps holding up his trousers. ‘No. I don’t bet yer my braces. They’s my lucky ones. But I’m wantin’ to keep yer around, Capt’n. So just yer remember—yer can look. Yer can touch. Yer can promise. But yer can’t say no vows. Not even them short marriages a seaman can give a woman on an island he’ll never see again and her only knowin’ his first name and no other.’

      ‘I don’t want a woman. I want a ship. You know how I feel about Ascalon. Best ship I’ve ever sailed and better than gold. Even if that treasure’s only broken rocks—Warrington promised me a ship for them. And I’m taking the stones to him—with a ribbon ’round them. He’ll make good on the promise.’

      ‘Fine talkin’. But a mermaid flash a little tail at you and you be forgettin’.’ Gidley laughed at his own joke. ‘Wouldn’t mind staying on this rock pile, if I had me a mermaid. Long as I didn’t get finned in my man parts. No. I’m thinkin’ wrong. A mermaid would pull the life right out o’ me.’

      ‘There’s no such thing as mermaids.’ His mind flashed to Thessa stepping from the water.

      Gidley snorted. ‘I seen her and so did yer. She just sprouted legs. I know my history, Capt’n. On a moonlit night, don’t get in no water with her—she’ll turn back fish, drown yer and swallow yer just like yer a minnow.’ He raised a brow. ‘Yer has to promise me, Capt’n. No swimmin’ in the moonlight with the woman. All we’d have left o’ yer is yer boots. She may look tasty on the outside, but on the inside she’s all scales, bones and slimy parts.’

      ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

      ‘Ain’t a man alive now what’s coupled with a mermaid in the water. On land they be fine, but get ’em in the sea and they’s all bite.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I bet that other sister sports whiskers longer’n my own.’

      ‘She has big eyes and gills. Smells like bilge water. So get your mind off the women.’

      ‘Yer seen her last time?’

      Benjamin shook his head. ‘Just seeing if you’d believe my fables as well as you do your own. If you mention one more word of that superstitious muck you’ll be tied to the mast, heels up, singing hymns.’

      Gidley stopped for a moment. He mused, ‘Wonder if that one swimmin’ has one of them marks like her sister has.’ He touched above his breast. ‘Kind of draws a man’s eyes.’

      Instantly, Benjamin’s thoughts jerked back to Thessa’s body. The sight of her stepping on to land. His imagination searched her skin, though the shift hadn’t allowed him to see close enough for a birthmark. His brother had said all the sisters had a small skin discoloration of some sort. The earl claimed it a longing mark. A remnant of something a mother wished for before a child was born.

      Benjamin had no longing mark visible but when he looked at Thessa, he felt one deep inside his body coiling and bumping against his skin. He had no belief in mermaids or goddesses, but when he looked at her, he wished he did.

       Chapter Three

      Even before she left her house to return outside, Thessa thought of the captain standing at the base of her stairway, waiting for her to take him to the stones. She remembered his eyes, surprised at how she hadn’t wanted to turn away from him. He had lightness in his gaze which reminded her of the way the early morning sun shimmered across the blue of the sea—when the golden

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