Free The Sheik and the Siren (Elemental Series) by Elizabeth Rose

man’s clothes from his body. It was the least he could do.
    He pulled on his shoes and spied a large trunk at the foot of the bed. He opened it to find tunics and hose and even a few gowns for a woman as well. He grabbed the first tunic he saw, and pulled it over his head. It was dark green with ornate gold trim and made for a much larger man, but it would do for now. Actually, he liked the fact it covered below his waist better.
    He strapped on his belt and donned his weapons, stopping quickly at a basin of water he’d brought there last n ight to splash his face. He felt the stubble on his face getting thicker. He raked his fingers through his tangled hair, and rushed out the door.
     
    Ebba was dressed and at the beach before any of her men arrived. Having spent the night in the ocean, surfacing several times when needed, the dolphins told her Ace’s ship was headed right for them before it was even visible on the horizon.
    “So they came back for him,” she said softly to herself, watching the ship approach. It anchored a ways out since it was too rocky and too shallow at the shore to dock, even for his carvel type ship made for shallower waters.
    S he watched as two men helped an old woman into the small boarding boat and lowered it into the water. One man stayed with the ship while the other climbed over the side of the ship and joined her. She wondered who they could be, and watched from the shadows. Then her men approached the beach, dragging their boats used for pillaging out into the water.
    “Call the dolphi ns,” Barnabus, called to her. Barnabus was an excellent swordsman at one time, but now had trouble balancing the weapon in his hand after losing two of his fingers in battle, not to mention losing one of his eyes.
    “Nay,” she called out, running out to stop them. “We are not pillaging this ship.”
    “Why not?” called out another of her men. “We’ve always done it before.”
    “Because this is my ship,” came a low voice from behind her. She turned to see Ace approaching the shore, lifting his arm and signaling to the small boat rowing toward them. “This is my ship and whatever I have aboard it, I would share. But any man that steals from me again would have to face the tip of my sword, and I warn you I won’t be merciful. So put your thieving boats back where you got them and instead, help my friends get to shore.”
    “Who is that?” Ebba asked him.
    “That is my first mate, Boots,” he replied. “I knew he wouldn’t desert me.”
    “But there’s an old woman in the boat as well,” she pointed out.
    He squinted in the sun and held his hand to his eyes. “Aye, there is.” Then he looked again and his eyes opened wide. “God’s teeth, I do not believe the old seer.”
    “Seer?” she asked. “Is that a woman who can see the future, like me?”
    “Aye, very similar as she has a gazing crystal as well. She is the old healer, Juturna. She’s been with every one of your elemental friends so I am not surprised she came to help you as well.”
    “I don’t need help,” she spat. “And I don’t even know the old woman. One seer on this island is enough, we don’t need another.”
    He patted her on the shoulder and reached o ver and kissed her atop her head, laughing.
    “Do not feel threatened by Juturna,” he said. “Give her a chance. It may be nice for you to have another woman on the island. Just think of her as . . . as a . . . grandmother.”
    He was going to say mother and she knew it, as she’d read his mind. And she was only too glad he stopped himself and said grandmother instead.
    She noticed he was wearing one of her father’s tunics, and she wasn’t sure she liked it. “Where did you get that tunic?” she asked.
    “I found it in the foot trunk at the end of the bed. I hope you don’t mind, but I needed something to cover my – my – I just needed a tunic, that’s all. There are gowns in there as well. You may want to cover up a little in front of