Page 7 of The Sea Siren of Broadwater Bottom
But, in addition to the dubious nature of the mission he would be performing, Harrington suffered from attacks of asthma, and the adjustment from England’s dreary dampness to India’s tropical climate was challenging even for those in a robust state of health. Edward had done some research and had been alarmed to discover that more than half of all Englishmen who sailed to India perished within five years.
Edward had a terrible foreboding that if Harrington was forced to go to India, he would never see his brother again. And that meant that the earl must not find out about Harrington’s imprudent wager.
And the only way Edward could prevent that was to win the bloody contest.
He sighed. No matter how much he loathed the prospect of resuming his career as a classicist, there was one thing that was even worse, and that was letting his little brother down. If there was any chance that he could save Harrington from their father’s wrath, Edward was going to do his damnedest.
From her perch on his lap, Elissa cleared her throat and dabbed at her cheek with the sleeve of his coat. She had the biggest smile on her face. What had they been discussing? Oh yes, the translation. “It sounds wonderful,” she said.
“It is.” He laughed bitterly. “But listen to me—lavishing praise upon my enemy.”
Her eyes flew to his. “Your—your enemy?”
“Of course,” he said, guiding his horse to the left as they came to a fork. “I have to beat this mystery translator in the contest, after all.”
She gave a nervous chuckle. “But surely that makes this person your competitor. Not your enemy.”
“My enemy,” he insisted. “I mean to win this contest. Had it been the mystery translator I came across floating in that pond, I would’ve been sorely tempted to leave him there.”
She flinched. “I’m only jesting,” he hastened to say, but her sudden movement was enough to upset the lump of pondweed on her head.
The first thing that happened was for a slimy tendril of pondweed to snake its way down the side of her head. Elissa frowned and began patting her hair uncertainly.
Her searching hand startled a huge, black water beetle, which must have been lurking inside the clump of pondweed this whole time. It scurried straight across her forehead.
“Yeep!” she screamed, clawing at her face. “What is it? Get it off me!”
Edward pulled his gelding, who had begun dancing nervously, to a halt. “Bucephalus, stand!” he commanded.
Elissa screamed as the beetle scampered down her nose. Edward tried to grab it, but it escaped into her hair, causing her to arch her back in horror. She clocked him in the nose with her elbow as she raked her fingers through her hair.
“Everything’s all right,” he grunted, struggling to find it amongst her thick curls while avoiding her flailing arms. “It’s just a… water beetle.”
The beetle suddenly emerged from her hair, tearing across her cheek. Elissa screeched and swatted desperately at her face, finally launching it into a nearby bush.
She was breathing hard, as if she’d just fought off a wild boar rather than a tiny beetle. “There was a bug. A giant bug.”
“Indeed, that was the largest specimen I’ve ever seen.”
She cut her eyes to him sharply, and he came to understand that this had not been the correct thing to say. “But it’s gone now,” he added.
“It wasin my hair,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut with horror.
“Strictly speaking, it wasn’t in your hair. It came out of that lump of pondweed on top of your head.”
Her eyes whipped up to his. “What lump of pondweed?”
“Er—” In retrospect, perhaps it would have been better not to mention the pondweed. “Would you like for me to, uh—”
She cleared her throat, staring off into a copse of trees. “If you would be so kind. I should hate to find out if the largest water beetle you have ever seen has any brothers or sisters.”
She shuddered as he tossed a huge clump to the ground. “Thank heavens that’s over,” she said fervently.
“There’s just a bit more over here,” he said, sifting behind her ear.
“There is, is there?”
“And back here,” he grunted, struggling to dislodge a particularly stubborn tendril.
