Page 76 of A Girl and HER Prince
He wasn’t listening, just circling it.
She tried to get him to see reason again. “We couldn’t even get that out on the water.” It looked to be about thirty-six feet long, and she could see it would ride low in the water, as it was made of heavy pine. “It’s too heavy.” But it was a work of art. Her fingers trailed over the resin-covered hull; even the linen sails were perfection. “Odysseus would’ve sailed on something like this,” she said.
His gaze snapped to her. “What do you know about it?”
She laughed. “Nothow to sail it, if that’s what you’re wondering about.”
“I’ve sailed plenty of yachts before, some on my own, but never on something so primitive and yet… the wind is good today. We wouldn’t have to row. Livvy!” He turned to her in excitement. “We’ve got this! I could get us to the next island over.”
Her mind was blown by such an impossible task. How far was the next island over? It was Crete… about a thirty-minute journey on a regular boat. They’d be sitting ducks for whoever might want to take them out, but theycouldcome across a friendly vessel too. With these brisk winds, it was a perfect day for sailing, which meant they could find anyone out here.
Just roll the dice—sixes they found help farther out in the water… every other roll, they’d be dead.
Her eyes went to the wooden structure underneath the boat with its ancient wheels. Venice’s uncle couldn’t have put it on a more modern trailer?
“It’s about as heavy as some of my boats,” Venice said. “We just pull them into the water with my truck.”
There wasn’t a truck here, and it wasn’t as if they were on the Diolkos of Corinth, the famous roadway where the ancient Greeks carried their ships over land, though she had noticed there were boat ramps a little ways off. But nothing changed the fact that the replica of the Greeks’ great galley ships would be a lot more fragile than any modern boat would be. The slaves who would’ve manned such a boat would’ve pushed it out into the water with an intricate device of ropes and pulleys.
Would this massive structure survive the journey? If it didn’t, the boat wouldn’t last on the water either. It was better to find out now than later, she supposed.
“We have that forklift,” he said, “and… the donkeys.”
“Oh, no, no,” she said. “You leave Steve, BamBam, and Ronnie out of this.”
“Why not?” He threw a tense smile at her. “They’ll love it.” Livvy wasn’t so sure about that. “Look,” Venice found her hand, which was usually the way to make her say “yes.” She was annoyed he’d figured that out so fast. “If it turns out to be too dangerous, we won’t do it, but… Livvy, this is all we’ve got. This boat can save our lives.”
Groaning, she knew he was right, but all the risks were making her nervous about making it out of this alive… and yet, what choice did they have?
She nodded. “Let’s do this.”
They immediately got to work. She unloaded the packs from the donkeys and threw them in the vessel while Venice drove over the forklift.
The lines to move the boat out into the water were already in place, which she hoped meant that the Myrdons had taken the vessel out for a spin before this. She wasn’t looking forward to floating on a piece of wood in the middle of the sea, if not. Venice knew his boats and looked it over thoroughly to make sure it was seaworthy—apparently it was sewn together, he said—something to do with using ropes instead of nails to keep the ship together.
Yeah, that didn’t sound good either. She just had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
It took them the better part of the afternoon to get the lines all untangled and set up to prepare to move the galley. It was slow and labor-intensive work. The donkeys, however, seemed thrilled to have a job to do and strutted around importantly every time they were called upon to edge the boat out of its confines.
Finally, they were ready to roll open the garage doors to this boatyard, and signaling to each other, they began the process of moving the stunning piece of craftsmanship out into the open.
Venice was in the forklift. He poked his head out the side. “Don’t worry!” He patted the metal cab. “I’ve won a few drag races with these babies on my friend’s farm in Ireland.”
She snorted. That couldn’t have ended well.
If the consequences of getting caught weren’t so severe, she never would’ve considered risking such a fantastic creation, let alone their lives.
“Let’s just get this over with, Venice!” She guided the donkeys along, having to do some pulling herself. After a few minutes of this towing over the hard cement, she was getting hot. Livvy peeled off her sweater from her undershirt next.
After freezing these past few days, she never thought she’d be sweating like this. The sun was scorching hot overhead with a brisk wind. This was a perfect day for sailing if they could get this boat into the water.
Seeing a break in the cement ahead of them, Venice slowed and got out of the forklift. “We’ll need to even out that area ahead of us somehow,” he said. “Let’s gather some of that leftover wood in the boatyard and cover this pothole.”
She unstrapped the donkeys from the lines. “They can help us carry the wood over.” She was already getting worried about Venice’s injuries. He’d done too much today. “We need to check on your bandages,” she said. Last night when she’d rewrapped them, she’d seen an improvement, but all this hard labor might’ve torn open his wounds.
“You just want an excuse to touch me,” he said with a wicked grin.
She laughed as she got the rest of the donkeys untied. Apparently, she wasn’t coming fast enough for Venice because he dodged Steve’s curious nose and slid his hands around her waist. “Now you’ve got me,” he growled into her neck. “What are you going to do with me?”
