In truth, he had found it difficult to believe this day would ever come. After sailing the Mirabel down to Fiumicino, he took her up the Tiber to Porto di Ripa Grande, just as before. He had contemplated keeping her himself to trade around the Mediterranean, but there seemed little point in returning to Sam only to spend so much time away from him. So, Hal could take her back to Rotherhithe. Olive oil seemed the most likely business venture for him now. Acquiring olive groves and trading his produce around Europe using Hal and the Mirabel, seemed a good solution.
The weather had been kind until the last day on the river, when rain and wind assaulted him and obscured his view of the city, invisible in the mist of rain as thick as a fog bank. The light was fading into evening when he finall
