“Kororareka.”
“North or South?”Nyree asked.She didn’t recognize the place-name.
“North,” Tawera said.
“Can you tell me the neighboring towns?”
He rattled off several Maori names, but she recognized none of them.
“When did you leave your home to come here?”
“1780.”
Nyree’s fork stopped several inches from her mouth.She set the utensil back on her plate.“1780?That’s hundreds of years ago.”But it explained his use of the Maori language and his garments.His full facial tattoos.Few men tattooed their faces these days.
She trolled back through her hazy recollection of early New Zealand history.They had signed the treaty of Waitangi in 1840, and missionaries had arrived in the early 1800s.Perhaps earlier.She needed to research on the internet.The problem was access was patchy, given the variable weather and their remoteness.She started eating again, her thoughts busy.Maybe she’d email a list of questions to Emma.No, Manu was the better contact since he was a taniwha, and as head of their tribe, he’d want this information.
“How did you travel here?”Nyree asked.
“I came on a ship with a sailor who hunted for seals and sometimes whales,” Tawera replied without hesitation.
Okay.Sealers and whalers.They’d visited Russell in Northland to provision.They’d drunk and whored and earned Russell the namehellhole of the Pacific.She tried to recall the Maori name for Russell and failed.Another question to add to her list for Manu.
Nyree waited for Tawera to tell her more, and when he didn’t, she prompted him.“How did you get on the ship?”
Tawera sighed and scowled at the remaining pasta on his plate.“It’s a long story.I’d hate to spoil the first meal I’ve eaten since I can remember.”
Nyree smiled.“Fair enough.Eat.We’ll finish dinner, and you can tell me while we have coffee and a biscuit.”
Tawera frowned again and glanced askance at her.“I don’t know this coffee.”
“That’s not important.You will learn quickly, although explaining your presence to Keith and Carolyn might be tricky.”
“I don’t wish to create trouble.”
“Eat,” Nyree said, and her calmness surprised her.She was sitting down eating dinner with a ghost who appeared to be holding down food and enjoying it.Peculiar.She had to tell someone, or she’d burst.Manu, it was, then.
Once they’d eaten, Nyree placed their dirty dishes and utensils in the sink and boiled the jug to make instant coffee.Tawera hovered nearby, watching her every action.Although it might’ve been creepy, the open curiosity she spotted in his golden brown eyes relaxed her.She opened a packet from her stash of chocolate biscuits and led the way to the lounge.
“This is coffee.It’s a hot drink.The biscuits are sweet and go perfectly with the coffee.”
“Thank you for sharing your meal with me,” he said, his manner formal.
“You’re welcome.You’re going to repay me by appeasing my curiosity about how you traveled from New Zealand, I mean, Aotearoa to South Georgia and how you ended up inside the rock.”She glanced at the fragments of rock still littering the worn brown carpet.“The gargoyle.”
“Why did you call me George?”
Nyree grinned.“That’s what you want to know,” she teased.“Of all the questions you might ask.”
“Yes.”He didn’t return her smile, but he didn’t give off creepy vibes either.
“I called you George because I didn’t know your name.Now I’ll address you as Tawera.I enjoyed talking to you, even though I might’ve sounded a little crazy.Giving you a name made you feel more like a friend.”
He nodded, his gaze thoughtful.“I understand.Now it is my turn to talk.I lived with my tribe and was a successful warrior.My father was an important tribal leader with an influential position.My older brother, Rawiri, was also of great consequence, especially given his age.He was atohunga—an expert—of tattooing.He is…was gifted and did my tattoos.We had different mothers.Rawiri’s mother died in childbirth, and our father took my mother as his wife.Rawiri was jealous of me.”
Nyree sipped her coffee.“What happened?”
“I fell in love with the woman my brother coveted and wanted for his wife.I knew Rawiri had approached Aroha’s father, and her father approved the match, but Aroha and I… Rawiri told me he understood and would stand aside to make his brother happy.”
