by Liz Tyner
Thessa’s teeth clamped together. She had suspected as much. The only true fight she’d ever seen her parents have was when her father had suggested a man must have a woman to be inspired to paint. And they all knew he painted wherever he went.
‘What did my sister think of the woman?’
He moved earth as he talked—and used the tip of the shovel to pry loose other stones. ‘My brother told me Melina has nice thoughts of her. I am not certain when Melina met her, but it was before the ship was ready to sail back to Melos. I was to make the trip to return your sister to Melos earlier, but I delayed it after she decided to wed.’
‘She chose...’ her words were choked with disbelief ‘...marriage to your brother when she didn’t have to wed?’ Traitor. Melina was a traitor.
How many times had they sat in the night and said how mistaken their mother had been to marry a foreign man? If Melina was to do such a foolish thing as marry, why had she not stayed on Melos with them and simply married Stephanos? At least the sisters would be together then, and only one would have had to be trapped.
Thessa turned away from the man, not wanting him to be able to read her thoughts. She would have to go through with the marriage to Stephanos. She’d at least be able to provide for her younger sister and Bellona wouldn’t have to marry anyone she didn’t wish to. One of them would be saved.
‘I cannot believe she married willingly,’ Thessa said.
His hands paused. He looked at her. ‘My brother has the title. He’s not poverty-stricken. His house is near as big as this whole island. And woe to anyone who might stand in the way of a breeze of air that would cool Melina if the day is warm.’ He lowered his voice, speaking more to himself than her. ‘He is whipped by her skirts.’
‘I don’t understand what you mean. Men are not...like that.’
‘No. Well, most aren’t. But he’s always had a weakness of sorts. I’ve never understood it.’ He shrugged, but then grinned at her. ‘Sometimes, it is humorous to watch, though.’
‘And she is fond of him?’
‘Doesn’t matter much if she is, or isn’t. He’s at her feet.’
Her brow furrowed. ‘I cannot think that is true.’
‘If you say so.’ He lowered his chin. ‘And you? Are you fond of this Stephanos?’
‘I don’t have to be. He is of my home. He is a sturdy Greek. He will have fine children. They will eat well. His mother and I speak pleasantly.’
He turned his head from her. ‘So you’re not particularly fond of this man?’
She tried not to think of what she really thought of Stephanos and hoped she never found out what he did when he was away from the island.
‘I didn’t say I am not fond of him. I will grow close to him after we are wed.’ She hoped to teach him to bathe.
‘Yes.’ His words were overly innocent. ‘That’s how I’ve heard it works.’
She gripped the shawl. Her voice rose. ‘You know nothing of this island. Of the world I live in.’
‘No.’ He stared at her. ‘In truth, I know very little of England either. My world is the sea. My home the ship. My family the crew.’
‘In England, did you meet my father?’ she asked.
‘Once. Only briefly, years ago. I looked at his art. We talked concerning a painting I thought he might create for me. I’d seen his seafaring landscapes and portraits from his travels and liked them.’
‘He did not wish to finish something for you. Did he?’
Benjamin shook his head.
She tugged the ends of her shawl into a thick knot. ‘My father only paints what he is directed to paint from within himself. Otherwise he believes it is not truly inspired work. He believes no one can see the world as he does. And it is true. He did not see our mother cry each time he left for his home—he called London his home—and when she sickened, he did not see her die. He sees only himself in his world.’
She looked at the rubble they’d moved. ‘After the death, Melina wrote him many times. She sent letters with the ships leaving. He never answered. Only what is at the end of a paintbrush has meaning to him. Our mother’s dying meant nothing.’
He turned his gaze from the dislodged earth, watching her, and spoke softly. ‘By the time he found out about your mother’s death, it would have been too late to do anything for her.’
Her face changed, eyes narrowing.
‘It was not too late when he left.’ Her words were quick. ‘He’d only been here days. When he saw she was not well, he began to look for a vessel to take him away. He left on the first one that would carry him and it wasn’t to England. I asked at the harbour to see where the ship went.’
‘Sometimes...a man does things he should regret, whether he does or not.’ His movements stopped. He watched the end of the shovel. ‘My father died. I was there. But had my cargo been ready earlier...I don’t know.’
*
Benjamin sailed every voyage with the knowledge that when he returned home—if he returned—he would visit a different family than the one he left behind. And if he died at sea, he would be buried in the deep. His final resting place would be alone. Fitting.
He’d never truly thought he saw the world the same as his brothers, and after the first voyage he knew he did not. In two years, or more, at sea, much more changed than the people living their lives on shore realised. He’d never told anyone how unsettling it could be to walk back into the family estate and see the different fabrics and furniture moved in a room so much that it was almost unrecognisable. They thought they’d made no changes. But the world he’d left behind never was the same one he returned to.
Only the shades of the sea never changed.
Thessa turned away. She found a bit of the broken structure to sit on.
‘You do not have to marry Stephanos.’ He glanced away, planning to tell her of the dowry his ship carried for her. ‘Thessa, in England many men thinking of taking a wife would only have to look at you and would want to marry you. And with my brother’s help, you could find many suitable men to choose from. And if your younger sister is only half as comely as you, she would have no trouble finding a man who would wish to wed her. And then, there is also—’
She interrupted before he could get the words out about the funds.
‘Words so sweet.’ She laughed, moving her head back and tilting her chin to the sky. When she lowered her head, her voice became soft. ‘But Stephanos will do for me. He is of my country. I do not want to make the same mistake my mother did. Stephanos will stay here. His family is here and he loves Melos. I will have a home that I know.’
He let out a breath and turned to look at the island, so different from his birthplace. The trees weren’t even the same—more like aged fingers reaching up to the leaves. The ground was hard to till. Even when the air didn’t have the taint of sulphur, it didn’t smell the same as the English countryside.
‘Think hard about what you want.’ He looked at the horizon, wishing he could see the Ascalon. ‘Your sister, Melina, chose a different path.’
And then she stood and stepped beside him. She shut her eyes and shook her head gently before she viewed his face. ‘She thinks English.’ Thessa smiled apologetically. ‘She has the tainted blood.’
He forced a glare into his eyes and she chuckled in response.
‘Our father made her learn to write,’ she said. ‘She is like him—art fascinates her—or what she thinks is art. I am different. Even my bones know what I must have. This land, where I can speak my mother’s language and see my mother’s people, and know every one of my true family. To me, painting is a lie. It is beauty that someone imagined.’
Then she turned and, with the grace of an empress, picked up one of the small stones he’d tossed aside and threw it against one of the broken archways jutting from the earth. ‘I will wed Stephanos. Then when Melina is forgotten by the Englishman, I will have a home for her.’
When she mentioned marriage to Stephanos the image of her in another man’s bed st
opped him. This was not an English society woman with constant chaperones. Her sister had given her body to his brother, Warrington, for ship passage.
He turned, anger gripping him as the knowledge of how likely it was that this Stephanos was already rutting with her. Benjamin knew if he were betrothed to Thessa, in a remote location, not a night would go by without her in his arms. And he’d swim with her and they would be like two sea creatures floating in the waves. He’d throw out every piece of nautical artwork he’d left in London if she’d just shed her clothes and bathe in a warm sea with him.
‘Your face is angry. Why?’ she asked.
‘I told you. My knee. It pains me.’
Her face tilted to the side, studying him, and her mouth opened slightly. Her eyes didn’t leave his and she nodded. ‘My father said that castor oil was medicine for his complaints. He left some. We can return to my house for it.’
He frowned. ‘No need for any bitter mixtures. I have a bad enough taste in my mouth from being on land.’
*
Thessa took a step back to escape the dirt from the shovel. The captain’s coat pulled across his shoulders, and his hair curled different directions at the ends. Never before had a man’s movements interested her so, but she supposed she’d never really watched a man work—unless she counted watching her father paint and she would have called that torture. This was not.
She spoke, afraid if she didn’t, he’d somehow be able to sense her watching him. ‘When the man from the museum in France visited, he asked if anyone had seen anything of value. Anything of history? After the man left Melina began secret trips to the highest part of the island, searching. Mana was sick, but Melina would not stop hunting the island.’
She’d dug and discovered the woman. ‘She didn’t want Stephanos to know we’d found something which might be worth coins, so we covered the marble—deeper.’ She tossed the rock to the ground. Thessa had been as certain that statue was worthless as Melina had been certain it was valuable.
But the one time Thessa had looked into the stone face, she’d refused to look at it again. Stone and cold and beneath the ground and resembling her sick mother.
And when she’d returned home and looked at her mother, shivers took over her body. She’d had to leave the room so her mother would not see her tears.
‘My mother always welcomed my father home,’ she said. ‘She was like the statue...waiting. Not complaining.’
Thessa tried to push her memories away. She’d wanted her mother to tell him never to come back. And then, when her mother was dying, her wish happened, but then her mother needed him more than ever. She was dying and he didn’t care as long as he could escape. How could he have not wanted to spend every moment with someone as wondrous as Mana? Thessa kicked some of the dirt in the direction of the shovel.
Her mother was buried, just as alone, on another part of the island. Deserted in life and death.
The captain never looked her way, intent on the mixture of dirt and broken bits of an archway.
The movement of his shoulders kept her attention and took her mind from the past, and she watched him, reminded of the water currents just before they broke into waves.
In a fair fight with Stephanos, she could not guess who would best the other. Their bodies were similar in size, but Stephanos... Everyone on the island knew of his temper and he did not fight fair. No one would have expected it of him.
Grumbling, the captain used the end of the tool to scrape dirt from the white mound he uncovered—a rock.
He put the shovel on the ground and dropped to his knees, pushing aside the dirt with his hands. Rough hands, comfortable with the soil now sticking to them. He pulled aside a section of the wall which had been trapped under stones, unearthing in moments what would have taken her half a day to uncover.
‘Nothing,’ he rasped out and stood, his left hand briefly massaging his shoulder. Then he looked at her and his face stilled. ‘But, then, you knew that, didn’t you?’
‘You come here to take her and leave. My father took my mother’s heart and left. You took my sister.’ She shrugged. ‘I cannot help you. I want to help my sister, but I cannot help you.’
He threw down the shovel. ‘I don’t want the artefact. Your sister does. You have to know that. Yes, the stone will help me secure my ship, but I am 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.’