Chapter 2Towards the end of their stay in Naples, his mission complete, Frank had hired a small villa along the coast. For a full week, he and Joshua were free from any outer demands. Standing at his easel in the art studio on St. Martin’s Lane on a chilly October morning, Joshua recalled those days of sunny relaxation, as they swam in an impossibly blue sea. Afterwards, they lay on the baking rocks to dry off, Frank’s long dark hair clinging damply to those broad shoulders, bronzed by the sun, displaying the defined muscles of his arms and chest. Noticing Joshua’s admiring glance, his shrewd heavy-lidded grey eyes full of tenderness, Frank surveyed Joshua’s lithe, toffee-brown frame and said softly, “You look like a merman, a siren from the tales of old, enticing unwary sailors to be cast
