LITMIR.BIZ

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not show notice for me. It will not do you well.’

      ‘I would not be a true man if I did not show concern for a woman.’

      She puffed out a grumble. ‘Englishman. Full of pretty speech.’

      His hand dropped and he met her eyes. ‘I’ve never seen so much beauty on an island.’

      If she wanted out of his grasp, she had only to take a step. She didn’t move.

      ‘Why have you not already married this Stephanos?’ he asked.

      She gave a shrug. ‘I am waiting for the house to be finished.’

      ‘If we find the stone, then will you take me to Stephanos so I can purchase it tonight and leave straight away?’

      She laughed and he instantly tensed.

      ‘It’s not the kind of thing you can put in a small place. Did you not see the marble Melina took?’

      He shook his head. ‘I saw the wrapped parcel. Not inside it. My brother said it was a carved stone. That was enough for me.’

      ‘It was part of an arm.’ She moved her hand from fingers to elbow. ‘Not much, and yet bigger than my own. The rest is part of a woman’s shape, but I would wager it would take two men to carry each half of her.’ She looked at him, her eyes telling him she questioned his wisdom.

      Thessa turned and began moving up the path. ‘The rocks are on the highest part of the island. You can still see walls from long ago which have crumbled to the ground. And I warn you, Stephanos will not let you take them from Melos easily. If someone else wants a thing, it becomes valuable. You will have to pay twice. Stephanos holds the land, and Melos, in his palm.’

      He took her arm and stopped her steps. Watching her expression, he asked, ‘You’re sure the statue Melina wants is broken?’

      She nodded.

      Warrington had sent him on a voyage for some damaged statue? His brother’s nursery maid must have bounced him on his head thrice a day.

      But his brother was besotted. Warrington did have a tendency to choose a wife who was a bit cracked. His first wife Cassandra had been full cracked and on the jagged side. Melina was only normal-woman daft.

      ‘Your sister knew this?’ he asked.

      Thessa nodded. ‘Yes. She insisted I view it when she first found it. We helped her dig and we covered it back afterwards. And we all talked about the look of her.’

      ‘What was it about her appearance?’ He released her arm.

      ‘She looks like our mother did. And that made us sad because the statue was so destroyed.’

      ‘Destroyed?’ He heard his voice rise. For the cost it had taken to get his crew to the island a second time, an Italian sculptor could easily have been commissioned to do a statue of Melina and probably both the other sisters.

      Thessa sighed. ‘She saw our mother’s face in the woman, so to her, this was a treasure. She is not like me. She thinks with her heart.’ Her lips turned up, but her eyes didn’t smile. ‘She’s insensible that way.’

      Benjamin shook his head. ‘I understand...quite well.’ His brother Warrington hardly thought at all when he was around his wife though, unless it was of her. The only thing he’d been firm about was in not letting her take another voyage. But from the look of relief on Melina’s face, she’d not minded. The woman had been fish-belly white on most of the trip to England.

      Thessa stopped and stared at him. ‘Did she describe the stones to you?’

      ‘No. She assured my brother you would know exactly what it was and where to find it.’

      ‘It is a woman. Both arms are broken. My sister left with one of them. The other we did not find, but parts of it.’

      He stopped moving. ‘Are you sure this is the statue Melina wants?’

      Thessa nodded. ‘You would have to understand my sister. She thinks leaves and feathers are beautiful.’

      He grimaced. ‘I do not think my brother knows what he sent me to retrieve. And I hate to say what he will think when he realises he is trading his share of my ship for a long-buried statue of a woman with no arms...’

       Chapter Four

      Thessa looked at the captain as he turned to examine their surroundings.

      Fading light touched a lengthwise section of column splintered long ago. Mounds of near-barren dirt pressed against the forgotten rock, with only occasional vegetation grasping for life among the harsh environs.

      She could forgive him for gazing at her with such intensity, if he would keep his eyes from her for a bit longer so she could examine him. He reminded her of the rocks that jutted from the sea. Majestic. Feet staying in water. Daring the world to try to move them. Commanding. But he wasn’t a rock and he would not treat her as another wave to be brushed aside.

      She tapped the tip of her spade against the ground. ‘I don’t remember just where the statue is buried. I helped my sister dig so many places and there were so many bits of chipped rock. It didn’t seem possible we’d need to dig up such rubble again.’

      ‘What do you think was once here?’ Benjamin asked.

      Thessa turned a half circle, examining the area as if she tried to see through his eyes. ‘A site to speak to the heavens?’ Laughter bubbled in her voice. ‘A place to hide from your mother who wishes you to weave when you do not wish to?’

      When he saw her humour, he watched her again, eyes speculative. His mouth opened, then he chuckled. ‘I would have thought you would hide at the shore or in the water.’

      She frowned and shrugged. ‘It would be the first place she looked... I think she was half spirit herself sometimes, always knowing where to find us.’

      ‘Just a mother’s way.’

      She studied him. ‘Do you not believe in things you cannot touch? On voyages, you do not think some unseen spirit creates the wind?’

      He shook his head. ‘I think there are things unexplained, but that doesn’t make them magical. It just makes them not understood. Men used to say a ship could sail off the end of the earth. But I think that was a tale started by seafaring men to make them appear brave. A man gets a little ale in him, a woman sitting on his knee and he’s likely to spout nonsense just to watch her eyes widen or hear her gasp.’

      ‘And she’s likely to pretend her awe just to see if she can convince him she believes his nonsense.’

      ‘So, do you believe in mermaids?’

      She pressed her lips together before shaking her head. ‘Mermaids all died out because they couldn’t find a mate worthy of their esteem.’

      He looked at her and then laughed. ‘We have to be thankful women are not so particular.’

      ‘True. We aren’t.’

      He looked around. ‘So where is the treasure?’

      She knelt, using the spade for balance, and picked up a shard of marble. ‘As a child I heard the stories of spirits roaming here.’ She turned the rock in her hands over, examining. ‘My mother must have said that to keep us from roaming too far. When the sun is overhead, I do not believe in the spirits, but in the dark...’ she met his gaze, and smiled—almost laughing at her next words ‘...I would not want to trip over one and discover myself wrong.’

      ‘Any bones ever found?’ he asked.

      She shuddered. ‘No. We would not disturb a final sleep. But this is not a burial ground.’

      ‘Why do you not think so?’ He walked beside her.

      She

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