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“August? Who? No!” He slapped his chest. “I’m Dionysus, god of wine, women and song!” His voice echoed across the valley.
“You’re August and you’re adorable,” she said, still laughing.
Dionysus/August’s shoulders sagged. His chin dropped to his chest. He shook his head.
“Here I am, trying to throw you a nice orgy, and you’re mocking me.”
“Guess I didn’t drink enough? Bit too sober for Dionysus?”
“This was my fantasy,” August said. “I suppose I wanted to be with you more than I wanted to be with Ariadne.”
Lia suppressed a grin of pleasure at his words.
“I like your grape leaf crown.”
“Do you?” he asked, turning his head left and then right. “Fetching, is it?”
“I’m envious.”
“Want one?”
“Can I?” she asked.
“Of course.” He wriggled his fingers in front of her face. Lia raised her hand to her head and felt fresh cool leaves growing out of her hair.
“Very posh,” she said. “Can you manage a wardrobe change?”
“The ladies who serve Dionysus wear sheepskin.”
“Like condoms?”
“Those are sheep’s guts,” August said. “Sheepskins. Suede.”
“Maybe something in cotton? Little warm for suede.”
“If you insist, but we’re beingveryhistorically inaccurate.”
Lia tossed the cloak off her shoulders and found herself now wearing a soft white cotton gown exactly like those she’d seen in a hundred Renaissance paintings of Ancient Greece.
“Pretty frock,” she said. “Thank you.” She glanced around the scene before her—the meadow, the stone gate, the buttercup sun in the Aegean blue sky, August at her side in his crown and Pre-Raphaelite curls. “Why did you pick this place for us to play?”
“You said you wondered why Theseus left Ariadne on the island of Naxos while she slept, even after declaring his love and promising to marry her. He was forced to by Dionysus, who had seen Ariadne and wanted her for himself.”
“Didn’t Ariadne get a say in it?”
“She did,” August said. “She said, ‘Yes, I’d rather marry a god than a short half-mortal philanderer.’ Worked out better for her than Psyche. Dionysus and Ariadne had one of the few rare happy marriages in Greek mythology. Meanwhile Theseus continued to womanize all his life and died heartbroken after the death of his wife, mistress and son.”
“Ariadne dodged a bullet,” Lia said.
“No bullets back then,” August pointed out. “She dodged an arrow.”
“So did I.” She nodded with the realization.
“Did you?”
“With David. What if I hadn’t caught him kissing Mum? I might have spent weeks sleeping with him, falling more and more in love with him, totally oblivious that he was a complete bastard. And I never would have met you, then, right?” Lia asked. “Both Ariadne and I got screwed over. Then again, both Ariadne and I got to look ‘with mortal eyes on things rightly kept hidden.’” She smiled at August. “Just quotingThe Wind in the Willows.”
He put his hands lightly on her shoulders, met her eyes.
