The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) (4 page)

‘Sorry, Ally,’ he sighed. ‘I’ve never been very good at this bit.’

‘What exactly is “this bit”?’

‘Oh, you know. All the preamble, knowing how to play it. I mean, I respect you and like you, and I didn’t want to make you feel as though I’d brought you aboard for a roll in
the hay. You could well have thought that’s all I wanted, since you’re so sensitive anyway about being a female in a male world and—’

‘For God’s sake, Theo, I’m not!’

‘Really, Ally?’ Theo rolled his eyes in disbelief. ‘To be honest, these days us guys are all scared we’ll get slapped with a sexual harassment charge if we so much as
gaze admiringly in the direction of a woman. It happened to me once with another female sailor who was on my crew.’

‘Did it?’ I feigned surprise.

‘Yup. I think I said something like, “Hi Jo, so nice to have you aboard to liven all us boys up.” I was doomed from that moment on.’

I stared at him. ‘You
didn
’t
say that!’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, Ally, what I meant was that she would keep us all on our toes. Professionally, she had a fabulous reputation. And she took it the wrong way, for some
reason.’

‘I can’t think why,’ I commented acidly.

‘Nor could I.’

‘Theo, I was being facetious! I can see exactly why she took offence. You can’t imagine the kinds of comments us women sailors get. No wonder she was sensitive about it.’

‘Well, that’s why I was extremely nervous about having you aboard in the first place. Especially as I found you so attractive.’

‘I’m the polar opposite, remember?’ I rounded on him. ‘You criticised me for trying to be a man and not playing to my strengths!’

‘Touché,’ he said with a grin. ‘And now here you are with me, alone, and I work with you and you might think—’

‘Theo! This is getting ridiculous! I think it’s you who’s got the problem, not
me
!’ I shot back at him, by now completely exasperated. ‘You asked me onto
your boat and I came of my own free will!’

‘Yes, you did, but to be honest, Ally, this whole thing . . .’ He paused and looked at me earnestly. ‘You matter so much to me. And forgive me for behaving like an idiot, but
it’s been so long since I’ve done this . . . courting thing. And I don’t want to get it wrong.’

My heart softened. ‘Well, how about if you just try to stop analysing everything and relax a little? Then maybe I will too. Remember, I
want
to be here.’

‘Okay, I’ll try.’

‘Good. Now,’ I said, as I studied my sunburnt upper arms, ‘as I really am starting to resemble an overripe tomato, I’m going to go downstairs to take a rest from the sun.
And you’re very welcome to join me if you want to.’ I stood up and made my way to the stairs. ‘And I promise I won’t sue you for sexual harassment. In fact,’ I added
boldly, ‘I might positively encourage some.’

I disappeared down the stairs, giggling at the blatancy of my invitation and wondering whether he’d respond to it. As I entered the cabin and lay down on the bed, I felt a sense of
empowerment. Theo might be the boss at work, but I was determined to have parity in any personal relationship the two of us might have in the future.

Five minutes later, Theo appeared sheepishly at the door and apologised profusely for being ‘ridiculous’. Eventually, I told him to shut up and come to bed.

Once
that
had happened, all was well between us. And in the following days, both of us realised it was something far deeper than physical attraction – that rare triumvirate of
body, heart and mind. And finally, we immersed ourselves in the mutual joy of having found each other.

Our closeness grew at a faster pace than normal because we were already aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, although it’s fair to say we didn’t talk much about the
latter, simply glorifying in how wonderful we seemed to each other. We spent the hours making love, drinking wine and eating the fresh fish Theo caught from the back of the boat, with me lying
lazily in his lap reading a book. Our physical hunger was coupled with an equally insatiable appetite to learn everything we could about each other. Alone together out on the peaceful sea, I felt
we lived outside of time, needing nothing but each other.

On our second night, I lay under the stars in Theo’s arms on the sun deck and told him about Pa Salt and my sisters. As everyone always did, Theo listened in fascination to the tale of my
strange and magical childhood.

‘So, let me get this straight: your father, nicknamed “Pa Salt” by your eldest sister, brought you and five other baby girls home from his travels around the world. Rather like
other people would collect fridge magnets?’

‘In a nutshell, yes. Although I like to believe I’m slightly more precious than a fridge magnet.’

‘We’ll see,’ he said, nibbling my ear gently. ‘Did he take care of all of you by himself?’

‘No. We had Marina, who we’ve always called “Ma”. Pa employed her as a nanny when he first adopted Maia, my oldest sister. She’s practically our mother and we all
adore her. She’s from France originally, so that’s one of the reasons we all grew up fluent in French, apart from it being one of the Swiss national languages. Pa was obsessed with us
being bilingual, so he spoke to us in English.’

‘He did a good job. I’d never have known it wasn’t your first language, apart from your gorgeous French accent,’ he said as he hugged me to him and pressed a kiss onto my
hair. ‘Did your father ever tell you why he adopted you all?’

‘I asked Ma once, and she said that he was simply lonely at Atlantis and had plenty of money to share. Us girls never really questioned why, we just accepted where we were, as all children
do. We were a family; there never had to be a reason. We just . . .
are.
’

‘It’s like a fairy tale. The rich benefactor who adopts six orphans. Why all girls?’

‘We’ve joked that maybe once he’d started naming us all after the Seven Sisters star cluster, adopting a boy would have spoilt the sequence,’ I said with a chuckle.
‘But to be honest, none of us have a clue.’

‘So your proper name is “Alcyone”, the second sister? That’s a bit more of a mouthful than “Al”,’ he teased me.

‘Yes, but nobody ever calls me that, except for Ma when she’s cross with me,’ I grimaced. ‘And don’t you dare start!’

‘I love it, my little halcyon bird. I think it suits you. So why are there only six of you, when there should have been seven to fit with the mythology?’

‘I’ve absolutely no idea. The last sister, who would have been called Merope if Pa had brought her home, never arrived,’ I explained.

‘That’s rather sad.’

‘Yes it is, although considering how much of a nightmare my sixth sister, Electra, was when she first came to Atlantis, I don’t think any of us were looking forward to adding another
screaming baby to our family.’

‘“Electra”?’ Theo recognised the name immediately. ‘Not the famous supermodel?’

‘They’re one and the same, yes,’ I replied warily.

Theo turned to me in amazement. I rarely, if ever, mentioned that Electra and I were related, as it engendered endless probing to find out who really lay behind one of the most photographed
faces in the world.

‘Well, well. And your other sisters?’ he asked, pleasing me by asking nothing further about Electra.

‘Maia is my big sister and the eldest. She’s a translator – she took after Pa in her talent for languages. I’ve lost count of how many she speaks. And if you think
Electra is beautiful, then you should see Maia. Whereas I’m all red hair and freckles, she has gorgeous tawny skin and dark hair and looks like an exotic Latin diva. Though in personality,
she’s very different. She’s a virtual recluse, still living at home at Atlantis, saying she wants to be there to look after Pa Salt. All the rest of us think she’s hiding . . .
from what’ – a sigh escaped me – ‘I couldn’t tell you. I’m sure something happened to her when she went away to university. She changed completely. Anyway, I
absolutely adored her when I was a child and I still do now, even though I feel that she’s cut me out over the past few years. To be fair, she’s done that with everyone, but we used to
be very close.’

‘When you go within, you tend to go without, if you know what I mean,’ Theo murmured.

‘Very profound.’ I nudged him with a smile. ‘But yes, that’s about the size of it.’

‘And your next sister?’

‘Is called Star and she’s three years younger than me. My two middle sisters really come as a pair. CeCe, my fourth sister, was brought home by Pa only three months after Star, and
they’ve been stuck together like glue ever since. They both had a somewhat nomadic existence after leaving university, working their way through Europe and the Far East, although apparently
they’re now intending to settle in London so CeCe can do an art foundation course. If you’re going to ask me who Star actually
is
as a person, or what her talents and ambitions
are, I really couldn’t tell you, I’m afraid, because CeCe completely dominates her. She doesn’t speak much and lets CeCe do the talking for both of them. CeCe’s a very
strong character, like Electra. As you can imagine, there’s some tension between those two. Electra’s as high-voltage as her name suggests, but very vulnerable underneath, I’ve
always thought.’

‘Your sisters would certainly make a fascinating psychological study, that’s for sure,’ Theo agreed. ‘So, who comes next?’

‘Tiggy, who is easy to describe as she’s simply a sweetie. She graduated in biological sciences and worked in research at Servion Zoo for a while, before taking off to the highlands
of Scotland to work in a deer sanctuary. She’s very . . .’ – I searched for the word – ‘ethereal, with all her strange spiritual beliefs. She literally seems to float
somewhere between heaven and earth. I’m afraid all of us have teased her mercilessly over the years when she’s announced she’s heard voices or seen an angel in the tree in the
garden.’

‘You don’t believe in anything like that then?’

‘I’d say my feet were firmly planted on the earth. Or at least, on water,’ I corrected myself with a grin. ‘I’m very practical by nature, and I suppose that’s
partly why my sisters have always looked to me as the “leader” of our little band. But that doesn’t mean to say I don’t have respect for what I don’t know or
understand. You?’

‘Well, even though I’ve never seen an angel like your sister, I’ve always felt as though I was protected. Especially when I’ve been sailing. I’ve had a number of
hairy moments aboard, and so far, touch wood, I’ve managed to come out of them unscathed. Perhaps Poseidon is rooting for me, to use a mythological analogy.’

‘And long may that continue,’ I muttered fervently.

‘So, last but not least, tell me about this incredible father of yours.’ Theo began to stroke my hair gently. ‘What does he do for a living?’

‘To be honest, again, none of us is exactly sure. Whatever it is, he’s certainly been successful. His yacht, the
Titan
, is a Benetti,’ I said, trying to put Pa’s
wealth into a language Theo could understand.

‘Wow! That makes this look like a child’s dinghy. Well, well, with your palaces on land and sea,’ Theo teased me, ‘I reckon you’re a secret princess.’

‘We’ve certainly lived well, yes, but Pa was determined to make sure we all earned our own money. There have never been
carte blanche
handouts to any of us as adults, unless
it was, or is, for educational purposes.’

‘Sensible man. So, are you close to him?’

‘Oh, extremely. He’s been . . . everything to me, and to all of us girls. I’m sure we all like to think we have a special relationship with him, but because the two of us
shared a love of sailing, I spent a lot of time alone with him when I was growing up. And it’s not just sailing he taught me. He’s the kindest, wisest human being I’ve ever
met.’

‘So, you’re a real Daddy’s girl. Seems like I have a lot to live up to,’ Theo remarked, his hand moving from my hair to caress my neck.

‘Enough of me now, I want to know about you,’ I said, distracted by his touch.

‘Later, Ally, later . . . You should know the effect that gorgeous French accent of yours has on me. I could listen to it all night.’ Theo propped himself up on his elbow, leant over
to kiss me full on the mouth and after that, we spoke no more.

The next morning, we’d just decided to sail to Mykonos for supplies when Theo called me down from the upper sun deck to join him on the bridge.

‘Guess what?’ he said, looking smug.

‘What?’

‘I was just chatting on the radio to Andy, a sailing friend of mine who’s in the area on his catamaran, and he suggested we rendezvous in a bay off Delos for a drink later. He joked
that there was a bloody great superyacht called the
Titan
currently moored right by him, so I wouldn’t be able to miss him.’

‘The
Titan
?!’ I exclaimed. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Andy said it was a Benetti, and I doubt your father’s boat has a doppelgänger. He also said there was another floating palace approaching him, and he was starting to feel
claustrophobic, so he’s moved off a couple of miles to the bay around the corner. So, shall we drop aboard for a cup of tea with your dad on the way to see Andy?’ he asked me.

‘I’m stunned,’ I replied truthfully. ‘Pa didn’t tell me he was planning a trip down here, although I know that the Aegean is his favourite place to sail.’

‘To be fair, Ally, he probably wasn’t expecting you to be in such close proximity. You can double-check it’s your father’s boat through the binoculars when we get a
little closer and then radio the skipper to let them know we’re coming. It would be pretty embarrassing if it wasn’t your father’s yacht and we interrupted some Russian oligarch
with a boat full of vodka and partying prostitutes. Actually, good point.’ Theo turned towards me. ‘Your father never rents out the
Titan
, does he?’

‘Never,’ I replied firmly.

‘Right then, m’lady, take the binoculars and go back to relaxing up top, while your faithful captain takes the wheel. Give me a thumbs up through the window when you see the
Titan
and I’ll put out a message on the radio saying we’re approaching.’