He pointed past the small square. "Three streets. Turn right, middle of the street with a large sign with a green dolphin." He smiled at her.
As she rose to leave, she felt gentle pressure on her arm.
"Be careful," he told her. He continued with a warning. "Many of the men who go there, are from the ships. There is much drinking, sometimes fighting. It is not a place for someone as young as you. It is not a good place to be if there is trouble. There, a man takes his justice with a knife."
Elyse nodded, thanking him. Zach's warning of thieves and cutthroats immediately came back to her.
Stepping from the restaurant, she looked at the late afternoon sky. She still had a few hours before she could find Santo at the Green Dolphin. Until then she would just have to keep out of sight.
* * *
His sale of the gold concluded, together with the arrangements for its transfer before sundown, Zach stepped out of an office in a building located in the Baixa, the central business district in Lisbon.
He'd sold the gold for a substantial sum. Payment would be transferred to his account in Zurich. He'd done business with Esteben Bautano and knew the man could be trusted, unlike other people he'd dealt with in the past.
He nodded to Sandy to be quick. He was anxious to get back to the ship, but his second mate wanted to make a few purchases in the open-air market that lined the waterfront.
Their last time in Sydney, Sandy had spent most of his time with the daughter of an Irish merchant. Zach suspected his friend thought himself to be in love. Taking advantage of the cool shade outside the shop, he waited, leaning back against a stone wall.
He watched as a beggar worked the opposite side of the street, cup clutched in an outstretched hand. The man wandered, apparently blind, tapping his way along with a cane.
Zach smiled to himself as he watched the man who seemed to have an uncanny ability for picking out the passersby with coin in his pockets.
The port was full of passengers arriving or departing for some foreign port. Several coins dropped noisily into the beggar's cup.
The man continued along the street until he rounded the corner. Then he became noticeably more surefooted. His pace quickened; the cane was forgotten as he slipped to the middle of the alley. The cup was upturned, the coins quickly stuffed inside the pocket of his pants. It wouldn't do for him to leave too many coins in the cup.
The man dropped the cape back into place, resumed his hunched, shuffling gait and tap-tapping, and returned to the street. Such was life in the street.
A group of boys caught his attention. They scattered down the street, begging for money, imitating the blind beggar, and stealing fruit from a sidewalk vendor. A particularly small lad, undeniably the youngest, boldly approached him.
Feet planted squarely, one hand placed on a hip covered by pants that had obviously known several owners, the boy peeked up with large dark eyes from beneath the rim of a soiled cap. The little beggar mimicked the common street phrases the others had used, holding out his hand.
He was getting started young, Zach thought with regret. The little fellow probably had six or seven brothers working the next street over, bringing home a good income for their family. Still, Zach never was able to turn his back on a child, especially not one as young as this.
He pulled a coin from his pocket. Holding it out, he spoke to the boy in his own language. The child snaked the coin from his fingers, mumbling a quick thank you, then starting to dart away, but something about him caught Zach's attention. A wisp of glossy, long hair slipped from beneath the boy's cap.
Quicker than the child could leap away from him, Zach reached out. With one hand he caught a wrist. With the other he swept the cap off from the child's head. A torrent of long silky hair cascaded down, transforming the boy into a wide-eyed, little girl.
She was a dark-eyed little temptress, part vixen, part alley cat. She struggled at first, until Zach reprimanded her. Then she hung back warily, bracing herself away from him on firmly planted feet. Her head turned, huge brown eyes like liquid amber contemplating her next move.
Zach dropped down into a crouched position to meet her at eye-level, and slowly drew her to him. He reached out, taking black silken hair between his fingers.
"So, you're not a boy at all," he commented and smiled when she looked over her shoulder, obviously looking for her companions. But they had already disappeared down the street. Her wary gaze came back to his.
"Why are you begging in the streets?" he asked in Portuguese.
"My mother and sisters are hungry," she blurted out.
Zach shook his head. "I don't think so," he continued in Portuguese. "Your cheeks are not sunken. I think your mother and sisters are well provided for and wondering where you are right now."
In spite of her initial wariness, the girl found herself warming to this tall, gray-eyed Anglo with hair like the sun. And when he smiled, he made her feel very special.
"So, why then are you begging in the streets where it is dangerous?"
A somber expression came to her face. She didn't know what this stranger would think or do to her. But the soft light in his eyes betrayed his stern expression. She looked up at him from beneath the sweep of long, lustrous lashes.
"To see if I could do it." She shrugged her slender shoulders, an impish light leaping into her dark eyes.
