Despite his height, Will couldn’t see over the top of the downed monolith.“This is solid granite,” he remarked in surprise.
“Pink granite,” Mahmood affirmed.
“It must weigh...”He shook his head, about to say ‘a ton’ when he realized it would have weighed more.
Far more.
“Over three-hundred tons,” Mahmood stated.“Quarried and brought here by boat.”
“Is that possible?”Stella asked, her query addressed to Harry.
The earl shrugged.“You’ve seen enough pyramids to know that it is,” he replied.
She was about to argue and realized he had a point.The blocks for those structures might have been limestone, but they were sometimes larger than the monolith.
Mahmood continued the tour, pointing in the direction they had been going.“The farther we go, the more treacherous our journey, so please be careful.”
Seeing she wasn’t currently clinging to David’s arm, Tom hurried to offer his arm to Helen.She gave him a passing glance before placing her hand on it.
“Do you find it interesting?”he asked.
“Very much so,” she replied.“And you?”
“Well worth the trip and a few mosquito bites, I think.”
The two of them picked their way among the rubble, Helen occasionally having to grip his forearm when her half boots threatened to slip on the smoother rocks.
“Diana must be thrilled by all this,” she said.
“I think she and David memorized everything they could,” he remarked.“If someone decides to excavate this temple, my brother may lose her,” he added, although his self-conscious grin betrayed his tease.
“What will she do when you return to England?”
He shrugged.“Probably look for Roman ruins,” he replied.“We certainly have evidence enough of them on our property.”
“You do?”she asked in surprise.
“Coins, mostly,” he replied.“We find them when we till the soil for planting in the spring.Not many, but it can be like a scavenger hunt when we find one or two.We never find more than that, but who knows what she’ll unearth?”He paused before the top half of a statue.“She probably wishes she had her shovel so she could dig this out,” he remarked.
“Would you help her?”Helen asked.
Tom nodded.“If I had a shovel, yes,” he replied.From the look on her face at hearing his response, he knew he had answered correctly.“I apologize for not coming out of my cabin in time to escort you this morning,” he added.
“Oh, it’s quite all right.Penton saw to escorting me,” she replied.
“Has he already proposed marriage?”
Helen blinked as she turned to stare up at him.“No,” she hedged.
Tom displayed a look of relief.“He made quite a spectacle of himself in Greece with his pretend betrothal to Miss Jane Fitzsimmons,” he murmured.“Now Mrs.Michael Henley.”
Her eyes widened despite the viscount having admitted to being part of a fake betrothal.“Did he throw her over?”she asked with worry.
He shook his head.“Broke it off so she could wed Diana’s brother, Michael,” he replied.“They arranged the betrothal during the Morganfield ball,” he added, arching a brow as if to emphasize his point.
Helen inhaled softly.“The night you kissed me,” she said, her attention on her mind’s eye.
“Indeed,” he responded.
