Page 15 of Seduction Under the Southern Stars

His eyebrows rise, as if he hadn’t considered that. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine he’d be pleased to know he fathered a child twenty-eight years ago.”

“Or maybe he’s only got girls. Or no children at all. He might be thrilled to know he has a son, especially one as successful as you.”

His lips slowly curve up. “Always looking for the silver lining,” he says softly. “You haven’t changed at all, have you?”

I look away, across the tops of the high-rise buildings, to the choppy waters of the harbor. Technically, he’s right—I’m the same person I always was. I dress the same, I have the same attitudes, the same interests. On the surface, I’m indistinguishable from the young girl I was when he knew me.

But inside, I’m completely different. I’m hollow, as if I’ve been scooped out with a melon baller. It’s not his fault. Or not entirely, anyway. Maybe he began the process, but my mistakes are my own, and I have nobody to blame but myself.

Chapter Four

Linc

Elora looks out of the window, and I frown. Superficially, she’s the same girl I knew back then. Neat, composed, organized. She still looks scholarly and bookish. Her blonde hair is scraped back into a tight bun, carefully sprayed so stray hairs aren’t allowed to escape. Her makeup is carefully applied, and I like the way her lipstick is an attractive pale pink, her lips neatly outlined.

Even though she never took ballet lessons—she would have laughed at the thought, because she wasn’t into any kind of sport or exercise apart from walking—there’s something elegant about the way she moves. She even sits in an elegant way, with a straight spine, legs crossed at the knees but aligned together, as if she’s had lessons in comportment.

She looks like the same girl, but there’s something different about her. Back then she was like a baby animal—a puppy, or a panda cub, a young thing that had never known violence or a harsh word. She was always happy, and nothing dampened her spirits. She was impossible to offend. Her infectious laughter and bubbly manner never failed to lift me. Now, though, there’s an indefinable sadness about her. And the way she hesitated before she came into the apartment, and how she asked me to lock the door… there’s something strange there.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “That’s not fair. You have changed. Of course you have.”

She looks back at me. “Everything changes.”

“That’s true. The Japanese call it ‘mono no aware.’ A state of awareness of the impermanence of things.”

“As opposed to Unsterblichkeit?”

I look at the runes on my forearm. “It was my attempt to convince myself that he couldn’t crush my spirit.”

“I don’t think anyone could stop you being you,” she says, and smiles. “So where did you go when you left New Zealand?”

I lower my arm. “Sydney first, to meet the organizers of The Archaeology Group. They had a space on a dig in Saqqara, and I was really into the Egyptians back then. I spent six months there, then did another six months in Israel on the Noah’s Ark mosaic. That got me interested in the Roman Empire, and when a space came up on a dig in Aachen, on a Roman fort built to keep out the barbarians, I transferred there. I spent two years in Germany. Then I went to Norway and took part in a couple of Viking excavations there and in Sweden. I like Scandinavia. Eventually I went to England, though, and fell in love.”

“With whom?” she asks.

I smile. “With the country and its archaeology. There’s so much, from all periods—prehistoric, Roman, Saxon, medieval… It’s amazing. I’ve worked on digs from Hadrian’s Wall, to a castle in Wales, to the Fens in East Anglia, to a plague pit in London. I’ve loved every minute.”

“So you’re a true field archaeologist,” she says. “I’m a little envious, I have to admit. I haven’t taken part in many digs at all.”

“Ah, come on. You’ve always been the one with the brains.”

She blushes then, which is kind of adorable.

I don’t know why I asked her to come up to my room. I knew that Joel wouldn’t tell her I was coming back to New Zealand, and I hadn’t expected to see her at all. But as soon as I did, it brought back all the memories of her, and all the feelings I had for her. I couldn’t have walked away if you’d paid me.

“I have taken a degree,” I tell her. “An online one, because people don’t take you seriously in this business if you haven’t got qualifications. But it is the practical stuff I love.”

“And that’s made you your fortune.”

I chuckle. “I wouldn’t call it a fortune, but yeah, I had a few lucky finds.”

“Hallie seems to think it was more than luck.”

“I suppose I have a knack for spotting things others have missed.”

She nods. “So… where do you live now?”

“I have a flat in London, but I work all over the country.”

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