“The mermaid princess Arabella has been searching for a particular sailor for as long as I’ve been crossing the seas. She claims he’s her true love and that he vowed to return to her.”
“And this was how long ago?” Cali still didn’t have a good grasp on how old Bonnie was or how long she’d been sailing, much less mermaid lifespans.
“Long enough that the man probably doesn’t have any teeth,” the pirate said in a low voice. “But that doesn’t stop Arabella from looking for him on every ship she can catch. Usually, we don’t have to worry about it, but I suppose someone must have spotted your dwarf friend boarding The Cruel Mistress.”
Cali stifled the urge to laugh. “Are you telling me that mermaid royalty suspects Thrain might be her long-lost love?”
Bonnie’s lips twitched as she met the pantheri’s eyes. “That’s what I’m telling you.”
Cali snuck another glance at Thrain, who was staggering under the weight of the rope coiled around his stocky form. “Then why don’t we show the mermaid princess that this is definitely not her wayward lover, and we can be on our way?”
Bonnie released a weary breath. “I wish it were that simple, but things with the mermaids are never so easy.”
“Tsk, tsk,” a lilting voice came from the railing right next to them, and both the captain and Cali jumped back as a head appeared.
Lilac hair flowed down the creature’s pale shoulders, her skin shimmering like the inside of an abalone shell. Her lips were blood-red, and her eyes glinted black. She might have been the most beautiful creature Cali had ever seen until her lips stretched into a crocodile smile filled with knife-edged teeth.
The mermaid tilted her head as she eyed Bonnie. “Now, is that any way to talk about a friend?”
Nineteen
“I don’t know, Arabella,”Bonnie replied coolly. “Do friends chase down other friend’s ships?”
The mermaid tossed her hair, speckling the deck with droplets of salt water, before rearranging her lips into a pout. “This?” She cast a glance behind her at the other mermaids surrounding the ship and popping heads above the water. “This is a bit of fun.”
Bonnie hooked her hands on her hips, her expression unchanged. “We both know why you’re here, Arabella, but I don’t have the man you seek.”
The mermaid closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “But you have a man on board.” Her eyes flew open and flashed heat. “I can smell him.”
Cali snuck another look at Thrain, fighting the urge to roll her eyes as he struggled to untangle himself from the ropes. The mermaid wouldn’t be the first one to have said they could smell the dwarf at forty paces, but that was usually because he’d drunk too much brandy.
Bonnie took a step back and extended one arm toward Thrain with a flourish. “See for yourself.”
Arabella’s gaze snapped to the dwarf, and her eyes became slits. She tilted her body, so that she nearly draped over the ship’s railing, her shimmering tail arched behind her for balance. “Him?”
Thrain straightened under the mermaid’s scrutiny, glancing from the terrifying creature to Bonnie and then to Cali. “Me?”
Bonnie pivoted to face Arabella. “Are you satisfied that he isn’t your love?”
The mermaid’s shoulders sagged, and her tail drooped. “It’s been so long that sometimes I think I’ve forgotten what he looks like, or I fear that time has aged him beyond recognition.” She sighed and slipped down so that her forearms rested on the wooden railing. “But I know he wasn’t a hairy dwarf.”
Thrain’s brows knitted together into a solid line. “I’ll have you know, I’m precisely the right amount of hairiness for a dwarf.” He managed to cross his arms over his chest despite the rope ringing his body. “My cousin Rhoda has a bushier moustache than I do.”
The mermaid let out a mournful sigh, ignoring the dwarf entirely. “My love was tall and fair with eyes the color of a squall-tossed sea.” She drew in another breath. “And he didn’t smell of damp fur.”
Thrain opened his mouth again, but Cali shot him a stern look that told him to keep quiet.
Bonnie’s stance relaxed. “I’m sorry this isn’t your love, and I’m sorry yours hasn’t returned to the sea.”
Arabella rested her chin on her folded hands. “It’s been so long that I’m losing hope.”
Cali wondered how long it had actually been, and if the mermaid had any concept of human age. Was the mermaid princess searching for a man who was old and gnarled, or was he long dead?
The creature slid her gaze to the captain. “You were on land recently? Did you meet any man pining for his lost love?”
Bonnie rested a hand on the mermaid’s arm. “You know if I’d met such a man, I would have brought him to you.”
Arabella eyed her as if weighing the truth of her words. Finally, she gave an abrupt nod. “It’s true you’d have no use for him yourself.” She tilted her head. “I’m surprised you’ve allowed this man to join your crew.”
