Dark Horse Read Online Free Page B

course, it was deciding which frock went with which emeralds. On the couch opposite, Shamshi was busy picking his hooked Arab nose, no help there, and Saunio sat stroking the pretentious beard that encircled his chin, while Nikias's face was, if that were possible, even more of a blank. He seemed more intent on pushing a sardine round his plate with the point of his knife, as though teaching it how to swim in the thick mustard sauce.
    'I'm right, aren't I, Claudia?' Leo asked.
    'Absolutely -' she began, then noticed that the sardine had stopped moving - 'not,' she finished firmly. The sardine continued smoothly on its course.
    'You disappoint me, Claudia, really you do. I'd thought better of a fellow wine merchant and estate owner.' Leo snorted. 'It's only a bloody fish, for gods' sake.'
    'A dolphin is not a fish,' Nikias pointed out, steering his sardine east to west now and avoiding an anchovy amidships. 'It's an animal, and a very intelligent creature at that. It's harmless, gentle, the children adore it—'
    'That's the whole point.' Leo's fist thumped the arm of his couch. 'The entire town loves that - fish. Ooh let's swim with it, ooh let's play with it, ooh let's sit on its back,' he mimicked. 'Thanks to that fish, half the island's tramped over my land. The point's one of the few places round here with easy access to a beach and you ought to see it, Claudia. So much ground's
    been churned up, it looks like a bloody battlefield. They're scum, that's what they are. Thoughtless, ill-mannered scum, and the mess they've left is disgusting.'
    'It's only scrubland that's been disturbed,' Nikias murmured. 'Try asking them to take their litter home.'
    'I don't need to ask a bloody thing,' Leo snapped. 'This is my property and these people, goddammit, are trespassing.'
    The Corinthian ran his tongue slowly under his upper lip. 'You've heard the stories of invalids being healed after swimming with dolphins? That crippled boy in the town? The cobbler's son?'
    'Cobblers is right.' Leo waved his chicken bone in emphasis. 'It's all in the mind. If they think they'll be cured, then the superstitious sods will be. Good luck to them, I say. Just don't expect me to put up with their blasted mess a moment longer, and since it's my bloody land they're trampling—'
    'Actually, it's my bloody land they're trampling,' slurred a voice from behind. 'And I've given them permission.'
    The woman swaying in the great double doorway was in her early thirties, no great beauty, but striking. With clothes well cut and hair well styled, she exhibited all the grooming and bloom of her class. As all eyes turned on the newcomer, Claudia noticed Saunio slipping quietly out through a side door.
    Volcar suddenly snorted awake. 'This'll liven up the evening,' he murmured, smacking his gums with relish.
    'Who is she?'
    'Don't y'know?' the old man sniggered. 'That's the wife!'
    Volcar wasn't with it. He'd woken up too soon, was still dreaming, poor old duffer. 'Leo hasn't actually got married yet,' Claudia pointed out gently. That was the whole point of these costly renovations. 'He's fetching a bride over from Rome in a couple of weeks, a rose-grower's daughter or something.'
    Volcar's chuckle was positively ribald. 'Didn't tell you, then, the crafty bugger? Not surprised, frankly. Should be ashamed of himself.' He leaned closer, but this time it wasn't to touch her up. 'All of a sudden, just like that, he upped and divorced her. Said Lydia wasn't giving him children,
    so he made a scything motion with his hand - 'end of marriage.'
    No. Not Leo. Surely not?
    'Tossed the poor cow out on her ear,' Volcar whispered. 'Built her a crummy little house on the point and - oh, sssh, sssh. I want to hear this.'
    'Lydia, you're drunk,' Leo said. The word 'again' all but hung in the air. 'Go home. Please.'
    'But this is my home, Leo. Or at least the improvements are mine.'
    'You're talking gibberish, woman. Go back. Sleep it