Given the British had helped the Greeks with their war for independence, it shouldn’t matter if a young lady was of Greek descent.He found the thought rather enticing, especially now that they had visited Athens and spent time in several archaeological sites, including the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion and the ruins at Delphi.Should he ever see Lady Helen again, he would be able to regale her with stories of his time in Greece.
Tom scrambled down the ladder to discover his cousin waiting for an answer to his query about what—or rather who—he had seen onshore.“I was probably only seeing things,” he said dismissively.
David frowned.“Who did youthinkyou saw?”
His hands moving to his hips, Tom shook his head.“Someone we met in London.At that ball we attended before we left for Sicily,” he replied.“It’s nothing, really,” he added dismissively.
Chuckling, David considered the possibility.“Well, I suppose there are others who have ventured this way from England for their Grand Tours,” he said.“But...that man seemed a bit long in the tooth to be on his.”
“Watch who you’re calling too old to be on his grand Tour,” his father, Will, said as he joined the young men from inside one of the ship’s four cabins.At eight-and-forty, most might have thought the heir to the Devonville marquessate too old to be traipsing about the Mediterranean on a Grand Tour.His years in the British Navy acting as a commander followed by over two decades as foreman for his brother-in-law’s farms had served him well when it came to his physique, and it didn’t hurt that his male ancestors had all seemed to live well past seventy.
“Apologies, Father, but that man back there...”David paused to wave in the direction of the shore.
“What man?”
“It was more than just a man,” Tom said, when he joined his uncle and cousin.“Looked more like...like a family,” he added.“An older man and woman, then a younger woman and her babe.I think she was rescuing him from something.Something on the ground that was large and dark.”
“Whatever the man was going to shoot,” David said, his eyes rounding.
“That would have been a crocodile,” George announced.Three pairs of eyes turned to regard the captain of the ship and their dragoman for the trip to Cairo with curiosity.“Very dangerous, especially the large ones.”
Will’s eyes rounded.“I had quite forgotten about them,” he said under his breath.
“You’ve seen them before?”Tom asked in alarm.
“You all have.There were a couple of them at that menagerie we attended whilst we were in London,” Will replied.“The dark green reptiles with the long jaws and sharp teeth.”He pantomimed the shape of a crocodile’s head, extending his hands out in front his face.
“Oh, I remember now,” Tom murmured, his gaze going to the south.The family on the shore had long ago disappeared and been replaced with marshlands featuring water buffalo.
“Sir, will we be having breakfast anytime soon?”David asked George.
Their dark-skinned guide chuckled.“I have been cooking all night just for you,” he teased.“Please, help yourself at my table.”
David glanced at his father, as if seeking permission.
“Go on,” Will said.“I’ll be right behind you.”
“As will I,” Barbara, his wife and mother to David said as she emerged from their cabin.Dressed in a light yellow day gown made from sprigged cotton, she appeared well-rested.Despite her attempts to remain under cover from the sun, her complexion wasn’t nearly as pale as it had been when they left Oxfordshire the year-and-a-half before.“I don’t know why, but I’mfamished,” she claimed.
Will did everything he could do to hide the smirk that threatened.He might have been eight-and-forty, but he certainly wasn’t on death’s door when it came to pleasing his wife in bed.The cooler temperatures at night had helped, sending her into his arms as soon as he was under the cotton bed linens.From there, he was eager to warm her even further, delighting in her pleas for more and her attempts to keep the sounds of her pleasure from penetrating the walls.
“As am I,” Will agreed.He turned to George.“I wanted to thank you again for agreeing to take us to Cairo.I know packing enough food to feed these boys has to have overflowed your cargo space.”
George waved a dismissive hand.“I have four myself, so I know how they eat,” he claimed.“Besides, you paid well.You eat well.”
When Will took a seat at the trestle, an assemblage of heavy wooden planks secured to the deck above the cabins, he turned his attention back to his nephew.
Tom, lost in thought, was oblivious to his uncle’s gaze.He didn’t even help himself to any of the bowls of stewed fava beans, coddled eggs, fruit, or hunks of cheese.The loaf of bread, purchased from a vendor the day before, had been broken in half.A pitcher of beer completed the offerings.
When Will poured him a glass of beer, Tom finally emerged from his reverie.
“A penny for your thoughts?”Will said, helping himself to a few pieces of fruit and one of the eggs.
Tom shook his head.“I would only be cheating you,” he murmured.He took a drink of the beer, aware his uncle was watching him.A quick glance in his aunt’s direction proved she thought something was wrong as well.He was relieved when David settled next to him, commenting on the fine weather as he filled his plate and announced he had begun studying a book he had purchased in Alexandria.
“Book?”his mother repeated.“Don’t you mean a new library?”
David shrugged.“I thought it important I have the entire collection, even if it is all in French.”
