deck for some of that restorative fresh air. Maybe it was just as well. Barfing was something a woman should do without witnesses. And yes, she was sure she was going to be sick.
“You do look a little green,” Athena said. “You might want to go lie down.”
She wanted to go, all right. Time to hang over the railing. She excused herself and bolted out of the room.
* * *
Trevor had seen the two women enter the dining room and had been following them in, determined to get a seat at the same table, when Harriet and the giggler found him.
“We saved you a seat,” Harriet said, taking him by the arm and hauling him toward two tables, each filled with students.
“Actually, I was going to...” he began.
“We had a bet,” Harriet interrupted him. “Hugh said you’d ditch us as soon as you could. I told him you were here to be with your brother and you weren’t that big of a jerk.”
Yeah, he was.
“Harriet, you guys are my brother’s responsibility, not mine.”
Her eyes got big. “Don’t you want to spend time with your brother?”
“I’ll have plenty of time to spend with my brother.”
“Hugh was right,” the giggler said in disgust.
“I’m not part of your tour, guys,” Trevor explained.
“You don’t want to sit with us at all?”
Great, now Harriet looked about ready to cry. Well, shit.
“Sure, I do,” Trevor said. “But I want to mingle a little, too.” Except the sisters had found a table for six and taken the last two seats. Too late to mingle. “But I’ll sit with you guys tonight,” he said to Harriet. “I don’t want you to lose your bet with Hugh.”
Harriet smiled. She wasn’t a bad kid, really. Just annoying. Even so, he vowed to make this the last night he sat with the German 201 class.
“What did you wager, by the way?” he asked as the girls towed him toward the table where his brother was holding a conversation with the class in German.
Harriet’s face turned red. “One of your chocolate bars. I was going to pay you,” she hurried to add.
“That’s good to know.”
“Um, are you going to be giving away some more of them?”
“I’ll give you a bar at breakfast,” he promised.
“Awesome,” she breathed. Then, to the giggler, “I told you he was nice.”
Most of the kids were nineteen and twenty and were excited at the prospect of getting to drink legally. Many of them already had beer and a couple of the guys were well on their way toward fueling their high spirits, laughing loudly and drawing irritated looks from the senior citizens seated at a nearby table.
“Ruhe, bitte,” Kurt said to them as Trevor settled himself on a chair between Harriet and the giggler.
Yeah, like that would shut them up. He felt a little like he used to feel at big extended family Thanksgiving meals when he and Kurt were relegated to the kids’ table. No room at the grown-up table. You kids are all sitting here. And don’t throw olives at each other.
Hugh was seated on the other side of the giggler and Harriet leaned across her and said, “I told you he’d come. You owe me a refrigerator magnet.”
Hugh made a face and took a drink of his beer.
“Make a bet with her tomorrow night,” Trevor said. “I guarantee you’ll win.” That made Harriet scowl and the giggler giggle.
Trevor looked longingly at the other tables where everyone was enjoying adult conversation. At his table one of the boys was demonstrating how to make a spoon stick to his nose. Another was breaking the sound barrier with his belch.
It was a long dinner.
“Bûche de Noël,” Harriet was saying when dessert arrived. “Do you know what that translates into?”
Trevor saw the elusive blonde at the other table get up and suddenly leave. To heck with Bûche de Noël.
“I bet Hugh doesn’t know,” he said, getting up. “Excuse me.”
“Where are you going?” Harriet called after him.
Wherever that woman is going. He gave Harriet and company a farewell wave and hurried out of the dining room. It was a small ship. He’d find her.
5
The top of the ship had a walking track and miniature golf course, lounge chairs and the requisite shuffleboard, all in demand in nice weather. But on this nippy night no one was up there watching the city of Amsterdam slip away into the darkness except Sophie, and her pleasure in that was tainted, both by the cold and her upset stomach. She could very well freeze