Three days later Yiannis came into the family drawing room while Thalia was reading her father’s latest paper on the muses of Greece. The information was going to be extremely useful when—if?—she and Yiannis stole the statue from Lord Yesterly.
She had begun to worry that he’d just been fooling with her when he told her that he was the one responsible for the other thefts of Greek antiquities. She still just couldn’t picture mild, sweet Yiannis breaking into someone’s home and stealing their things.
He came right in and sat down across from her with a gentle smile on his face. “You have a dark blue riding habit, don’t you?”
Thalia lowered the article onto her lap. “Yes, I do.”
He nodded. “Wear that tonight. I’ll meet you outside the stables at ten.” Without even waiting for her response, he got up and walked out of the room.
My goodness, she thought, we really are going to do this!
At precisely ten o’clock that night, Thalia slipped from her bedroom wearing her navy blue riding habit. She had pinned up the skirt so that it wouldn’t trail, and she would have an easier time maneuvering. But when she got to the stables, it didn’t seem as if there was anyone there.
A low whistle had her spinning toward the shadow by the side of the building. Yiannis strolled out grinning. “I’m so glad you came,” he said quietly.
“As if I would miss this!” she whispered back.
His teeth stood out in the dark as he grinned at her. “It’s one of the things I love about you.”
Love? Had he just said love? Before she could even process that or come up with an answer, he took her hand and led her around the corner. Back away from the main street were her horse and Buttercup on either side of the shaft of a wagon.
“It’s a shame to use such beautiful horses for this, but they’re the only ones we have,” he said as they approached the horses.
“Where did you get the wagon?” Thalia asked, deciding to put aside that word and all the emotions that had come along with it. She had to keep focused on what they were doing right now and couldn’t get distracted. This was too important and too dangerous.
“I borrowed it,” he said vaguely.
Thalia wasn’t certain she wanted to know much more than that so she let that go as well. Yiannis handed her up onto the bench. He jumped up next to her and took the reins.
It was a short drive to Lord Yesterly’s home. Yiannis pulled the cart up to a door in the side alley. When Thalia hopped down after him, he put his hand on her arm, stopping her from following him. “You stay here with the horses.”
“Where is the statue? How are we going to get it from the house without raising any suspicions?”
“It’s in the cellar.”
“You said that there was a guard there,” she pointed out.
“Yes. I’m going to have to, um, take care of him.”
“You’re not going to kill him!” she said furiously, but still trying to keep her voice low.
“No!” he said out loud. He paused and looked toward the street. Hopefully, no one had heard him. “No,” he said again more quietly. “I’ll just knock him unconscious.”
“Oh.” That still sounded pretty awful but not as bad.
“I assure you, I’m not a man of violence, but sometimes there are things that must be done.”
“Yes, of course. I understand. And then what?”
“Then we’ll have to lift the statue out of the cellar.”
Thalia looked up at the tree branches hanging overhead. “Do you have a rope?”
He gave a little laugh. “Yes. That’s precisely what I had planned. I’ll guide the statue from below and you can manage the horses. Does that sound like something you can do?”
She gave a little laugh. “Of course.”
“I thought so,” he nodded. They were in perfect accord. “I’ll see to the first part, taking care of the guard.”
Thalia nodded and watched him slip through the gate. While he was gone, she found the rope in the back of the wagon. She, too, went through the gate and then examined the tree just inside the garden. Luckily, there was a strong branch reaching toward the house and the cellar. It took her a few tries, but she managed to toss the end of the rope up and over the limb. Leaving one end dangling over the cellar door, she brought the other end out to where the horses waited patiently. She tied it firmly to shaft between them.
She then went back and slipped down the stairs to the cellar. She found Yiannis carefully arranging a large man on his back.
He started when she joined him. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to wait with the horses,” he whispered.
“I’ve got everything arranged up there. The rope is in place,” she said, nodding toward the stair, where the rope was hanging from door above.
He looked incredibly impressed. “Well done! Now we just have to figure out how to get the statue over to the rope.” He took the candelabra from the table in the center of the room and led her to the side where a tall, slender object stood covered in buff-colored cotton.
“Is this it?” she asked, awe whispering her words even more quietly.
“Yes. But it’s going to be extremely difficult to drag over to the door.”
Thalia examined the statue thoroughly while Yiannis looked toward a table that was covered with artifacts, probably deciding which he wanted to take as well as the statue.
“I think we can probably just roll it over,” she said.
“Roll it?” Yiannis repeated incredulously. “You think we should lay it on its side—”
“No. I think we should just roll it,” she repeated, pointing down to the little cart on which the statue stood.
Yiannis covered his eyes with his hand and began to chuckle silently. “That’s how they got it over here.”
“Looks like it,” she agreed, smiling at him.
He bent and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. “I am so glad you’re here with me. You’re brilliant.”
Thalia could feel her face heat. She gave a little shrug and started pushing the statue to the stairs. It wasn’t as easy as it looked. It was an extremely heavy piece, so just getting it moving took a few shoves. Yiannis crouched and pushed at the cart, while she pushed the statue. Once it got started, though, it moved easily enough.
At the stairs, Yiannis secured the rope around the statue while Thalia popped up to the lane where the horses were waiting. On his whistle, she guided them forward. Just like with the little cart, it was difficult to get started, but once they were moving, things went smoothly.
Yiannis brought the little cart for the statue up along with the piece. They used it again to get the statue to the wagon, and then from the wagon down into the cellar at Barre House. Finally, after a lot of sweat and some cursing, the artifact stood proudly in the cellar next to the trunks Thalia’s father had brought from Greece.
As Thalia stood looking at the trunks and wondering what was different about them, Yiannis brought in the two crates of items he’d taken from Lord Yesterly’s. They had been opened, but not unpacked, so they had been the easiest things to take quickly.
“I don’t know what’s in them, but if there isn’t anything interesting, perhaps we can just return them at some point,” he said, setting the last one down next to the third trunk.
“That’s it!” Thalia said, finally.
“What’s it?” Yiannis asked, wiping the dust from his hands.
“There are three trunks! My father only brought two back with him from Greece.”
“Oh, yes. I bought another to hold the other pieces I’ve stolen,” Yiannis said matter-of-factly.
Thalia burst out laughing.
“What’s funny?” he asked, smiling at her.
She tried to stop to explain to him, but she just couldn’t. Tears started leaking from her eyes, she was laughing so hard. It had to be all the pent-up worry about stealing a statue and then the sudden release when they’d gotten it safely into her father’s cellar, but everything, the entire situation was just too funny. When she didn’t stop laughing, Yiannis began to chuckle as well. Soon the two of them were laughing right out loud.
When she could finally control herself, she managed to say, “I still can’t believe you stole antiquities from Lord Somner and the Habernathys.”
“Why not? We just stole a six-foot statue from Lord Yesterly.”
That started them laughing again.
“I can’t believe we did that!” Thalia said when she could.
Yiannis, still chuckling said, “I can’t believe it either. I have never stolen anything in my life. I’ve never done anything this outrageous. But these things are in much better hands with us than they were with their previous owners.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that.” She turned, still smiling at Yiannis. “We make an excellent team, you know.”
His smile broadened. “I know.” He took a step closer so that there was hardly three inches between them.
Thalia was no longer laughing, but her breath still hitched in her throat.
“I couldn’t have done this without you,” Yiannis said, his voice becoming serious.
“I would have never even thought of doing this if it hadn’t been for you,” she answered.
“I should hope not!” he said in mock surprise.
Thalia laughed again, but this time it was just a little giggle. Her amusement came to an abrupt end, though, when Yiannis caressed her cheek with his thumb. Suddenly, she could hardly breathe.
“Thank you,” he whispered before gently touching his lips to hers.
Thalia found her fingers interlacing through the hair at the back of his head and her lips slowly moving against his. His usual spicy musk was accentuated tonight with the lingering smell of dust and sweat from their exertions. It was incredibly seductive.
Yiannis deepened their kiss, his tongue searching along the seam of her lips. She opened to him and was immediately rewarded with the heat of his mouth, the sweetness of his tongue tangling with hers. She had never imagined a kiss could be so intoxicating.
When she surfaced minutes or hours later—she couldn’t tell—he was supporting her against him. She was grateful for his strength because she thought her knees might have just given out otherwise.
He buried his face in her neck and inhaled deeply. When he finally lifted his head, he said, “This is not a safe place for us to be. We have to return the horses and the wagon I borrowed.”
“Yes,” she said, feeling as if she had fallen into a wonderful dream. She shook herself out of it, though. There was still work to be done. He stole one more quick kiss before they parted to carry out their tasks.
When Yiannis began to worry about wearing a hole in the carpet of his bedroom, he realized that it was time to speak to someone. He had been pacing ever since he and Thalia had parted. The problem was that the only people he knew in London were the very people he shouldn’t speak to about this until he’d made up his mind.
But there was no other choice. He didn’t know anyone else well enough.
Never in his life had he missed his large family more. He could hardly believe he felt this way, considering how many times he’d cursed his family’s intrusions into his personal life, but now that he needed them they were thousands of miles away. With a shake of his head and almost absolute certainty that he had lost his mind, he pulled his traveling desk onto his lap and wrote a note to Fungy, requesting him to come to Barre House at his earliest convenience.
The hour couldn’t come fast enough.
Yiannis was in his room when the footman knocked on his door to inform him that Fungy and Lord Pemberton-Howe were both awaiting him in his lordship’s study.
He went down immediately, although he did take a moment before entering the room to clasp his hands together—both in a moment’s silent prayer and to wipe away the sweat from his palms. With a large inhalation, he opened the door and went in to meet his fate.
Both men were sitting by the fireplace chatting.
Yiannis stepped up to them and bowed. “Thank you both for meeting with me this morning.”
“Of course, of course, my boy. What’s this all about now?” Lord Pemberton-Howe asked, indicating that Yiannis should sit in one of the chairs facing him. His lordship squinted at him as he took his seat. “You’re looking tired, Yiannis. Is everything all right?”
Yiannis could only shake his head. “I haven’t slept.” He took a deep breath and then realized that there was nothing for him to do but delve right in. “A few days ago, Fungy asked me what my intentions were toward Thalia,” he told the two men. “At the time, I was still angry with her for withholding information about both the shipment from Greece and the start of the war, so I told him that I had absolutely no intentions concerning her.” He stood up and started to pace behind the chair he’d just been sitting in. “Since then, Thalia and I have, er, reconciled our differences, I suppose you could say.”
“I’m very happy to hear that,” Lord Pemberton-Howe said. “You two did seem to be on good terms the past few nights at dinner.”
Yiannis paused in his pacing to face his host. “Yes.”
“And so do you now have intentions?” Fungy asked.
“I don’t know,” Yiannis answered honestly, pausing his incessant pacing. “I mean, yes, I do, but perhaps I shouldn’t. The problem is that I shouldn’t be discussing this with either one of you until I’ve made up my mind, but I need someone to talk to. My father and all of my friends are in Greece or elsewhere in Europe. You are the only two men I know well enough here, and yet you are Thalia’s father and brother-in-law.” He shoved his fingers through his hair and started moving again. “I just don’t know what to do. Who to speak to. How to make up my mind. This could be the most important decision of my life and yet…”
Fungy stood while Yiannis was talking and pacing. When he finally petered off, he took Yiannis by his shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. Yiannis could swear he was laughing at him, even though his face wore its usual mild expression. “Yiannis, first you need to calm down,” he said.
Obediently, Yiannis took a deep breath. It did make him feel slightly more in control.
“Good.” Fungy let go of his shoulders and took a small step back. “Now, if I am understanding you correctly, you are contemplating… What? Marriage to my sister-in-law? Is that right?”
Yiannis nodded, afraid that if he actually said anything he’d work himself up again.
“All right, then. It’s quite simple, actually. Do you love her?”
“How could I not? She is the most wonderful, beautiful, intelligent girl I’ve ever met.” He stopped himself. He could have gone on but wanted to do his best to remain calm.
Fungy’s lips twitched, but he got them under control quickly. “Good. And what about finances? I’m afraid I don’t know your family. You are an artist? An archaeologist?”
“Not someone who earns money from his work, in other words,” Yiannis agreed. “It is true.”
“But you come from one of the Phanoriote families, do you not? Your father once told me that there was landed wealth, which has more recently shifted into business,” Lord Pemberton-Howe interrupted.
“Yes, that’s correct. One branch of my family owns a shipping business, but my grandfather owned warehouses. We do more of the on-land movement of goods.” He paused. “I’m not directly involved in the business, as my father hasn’t been. But we have wealth. It allows us to work in our chosen field.” He turned to Fungy. “You wouldn’t need to worry that Thalia would ever want for anything, I assure you.”
His friend nodded. “Excellent. That’s two barriers gone. Are you worried that she doesn’t love you?”
Yiannis began to pull at his hair once again and was having the hardest time keeping his feet rooted to the ground. “I don’t know that she does. I’m also worried because once the revolution is over, if not before, I will most certainly want to return to Greece. I don’t know if she would be willing to live there.” He turned to Lord Pemberton-Howe. “And I don’t know if you would allow her to do so.”
His host sat back, interlocking his fingers across his chest. “It’s a valid concern.” He thought about it silently for a moment. “I believe that if you waited until the war was over, I would have no objections. And I’m certain that Thalia would be very happy to move there. She grew up there, you see. She knows the country, she knows the people. Personally, I think she would be a great deal more comfortable living there than she would here, to be frank.”
Yiannis felt as if a great weight was being lifted from his chest. “Truly?”
“Oh, indeed. In fact, she asked me not too long ago if I would send her there. Of course, that was after I had learned about the revolution, so the answer had to be an absolute no. But if it hadn’t been for that, and if she had had someone to go with, I would certainly have considered it.”
Yiannis was beginning to feel positively giddy. “You wouldn’t mind if she moved to Greece with me?” he asked, just to be sure he was understanding his host correctly.
“If you were married, no.”
Yiannis looked back to Fungy. “Then it’s just a matter of whether she feels the same way about me as I feel about her.”
His friend nodded. “It does seem that way.”
“But how do I know? I can I find out how she feels?”
Both men began to laugh. Yiannis had never seen Fungy laugh before, but he clearly found his question thoroughly amusing. Somehow, Yiannis didn’t see the humor in it though. He was confused.
His face must have shown how he felt, because Fungy reached out and put a hand on his shoulder again. “You must ask her,” he said succinctly.
“Ask her?”
“Yes! Ask her!” Lord Pemberton-Howe said, still chuckling.
“Ask her how she feels or ask her to marry me?” Yiannis asked.
“Both,” Fungy answered. “If the answer to the first is that she loves you as much as you love her, then ask the second question. It’s that simple, honestly.”
“You could always throw her an apple,” Lord Pemberton-Howe suggested, a smile playing around his lips.
“An apple?” Fungy asked, turning to his father-in-law.
“Yes, yes, it’s an old Greek tradition. You throw a girl an apple. If she accepts it, she loves you,” Lord Pemberton-Howe explained.
“The apple of Aphrodite,” Yiannis agreed.
“Ah,” Fungy nodded. “The goddess of love.”
Now Yiannis just needed to get an apple, which was a much easier dilemma to solve.