Free Lessons of Desire by Madeline Hunter

carving it right into the hillside."
    She noted how the road would be above the fishing villages. "Either way, one must climb up or down."
    "At least people will not have to rely on boats or donkeys. Arid the prospects from up there will be spectacular." He pointed ahead of them, down the coast. "Positano is right beyond that promontory. You can already see the old Norman watchtower 0II it. There are many of them on this coast, built to protect the medieval Norman kingdom that used to be here from the Saracen threat."
    She walked to the bow of the boat so she could see better as the tower came into view. The old, angular stone tower rose several levels high, medieval in its construction and isolated 0II its finger of land. Small windows punctuated it like those on an ancient castle. It appeared a foreign and northern intrusion on this sun-washed land.
    "Those high windows face due east and west," she said. "There is nothing between that one and the sea's horizon, and nothing between the other and the peak of the high hill. Will we be here several days?" "I expect so."
    She had lost track of the calendar while she was a guest of Sansoni. Now she worked it out. "The summer solstice approaches. I wonder if the tower will be used in some ritual."
    "This is a Catholic land. Such superstitions were suppressed thousands of years ago."
    Although Lord Elliot responded, she could tell he was not truly with her. A silence claimed him that had little to do with sounds. It existed internally, as if his life spirit had retreated to secret chambers of his soul.
    She regretted making even the vaguest reference to his mother's situation. It had slid out in her pique at his arrogance in assuming he was right and she was amusingly wrong. She should have known not to engage in an argument about how she thought and lived. When it came to such things this man was as foreign to her as the fishermen in these picturesque villages.
    They passed very close to the tower, cutting close as the wind billowed their sails. It appeared deserted.
    "Who is this friend we will be visiting?" she asked. "Since we will arrive soon, perhaps I should know his name."
    "Matthias Greenwood. He was one of my tutors at university."
    She swallowed her surprise. She knew Greenwood. She had tried in vain to locate his home in Naples. "Will he not mind that you have brought more baggage than he expects?"
    "He will be delighted lo have the company of the daughter of Artemis Blair. He stepped into her circle on occasion, I believe"
    "Yes he did. I met him several times, the last at my mother's funeral." Matthias Greenwood was one of many scholars who had come to honor the woman who confounded the world.
    He was also someone who might shed some light on the "other" man. She had thought this delay in going to Pompeii would be a nuisance. Instead Lord Elliot was helping her check one thing off her list of things to accomplish in this land.
    "He admired her. He said if she had been a man, she would have been recognized as one of the best experts on ancient Roman letters in England." Lord Elliot still spoke in a distracted tone, as if only half his mind paid a Hen I ion.
    Phaedra looked upon the town of Positano with more optimism, and not only because her mission might be furthered there. She did not conform to stupid social rules, but most of the world did. She had wondered how she would be received when she arrived with Lord Elliot. Traveling with him implied things she did not countenance and would not like lo have assumed.
    Mr. Greenwood would probably know better than to assume any tiling al all.
    She sensed her companion looking at her and turned her head. He had returned to the world, most thoroughly.
    "He often entertains a mixed entourage" he said. "There may be other guests visiting him. You will behave yourself, won't you?"
    She trusted he did not expect her to play the docile mistress in some vain attempt to become a woman these guests could tolerate.
    Even if she wanted