The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sun deck and told him about Pa Salt and my sisters. As everyone always did, Theo listened in fascination to the tale of my
strange and magical childhood.
    ‘So, let me get this straight: your father, nicknamed “Pa Salt” by your eldest sister, brought you and five other baby girls home from his travels around the world. Rather like
other people would collect fridge magnets?’
    ‘In a nutshell, yes. Although I like to believe I’m slightly more precious than a fridge magnet.’
    ‘We’ll see,’ he said, nibbling my ear gently. ‘Did he take care of all of you by himself?’
    ‘No. We had Marina, who we’ve always called “Ma”. Pa employed her as a nanny when he first adopted Maia, my oldest sister. She’s practically our mother and we all
adore her. She’s from France originally, so that’s one of the reasons we all grew up fluent in French, apart from it being one of the Swiss national languages. Pa was obsessed with us
being bilingual, so he spoke to us in English.’
    ‘He did a good job. I’d never have known it wasn’t your first language, apart from your gorgeous French accent,’ he said as he hugged me to him and pressed a kiss onto my
hair. ‘Did your father ever tell you why he adopted you all?’
    ‘I asked Ma once, and she said that he was simply lonely at Atlantis and had plenty of money to share. Us girls never really questioned why, we just accepted where we were, as all children
do. We were a family; there never had to be a reason. We just . . .
are.
’
    ‘It’s like a fairy tale. The rich benefactor who adopts six orphans. Why all girls?’
    ‘We’ve joked that maybe once he’d started naming us all after the Seven Sisters star cluster, adopting a boy would have spoilt the sequence,’ I said with a chuckle.
‘But to be honest, none of us have a clue.’
    ‘So your proper name is “Alcyone”, the second sister? That’s a bit more of a mouthful than “Al”,’ he teased me.
    ‘Yes, but nobody ever calls me that, except for Ma when she’s cross with me,’ I grimaced. ‘And don’t you dare start!’
    ‘I love it, my little halcyon bird. I think it suits you. So why are there only six of you, when there should have been seven to fit with the mythology?’
    ‘I’ve absolutely no idea. The last sister, who would have been called Merope if Pa had brought her home, never arrived,’ I explained.
    ‘That’s rather sad.’
    ‘Yes it is, although considering how much of a nightmare my sixth sister, Electra, was when she first came to Atlantis, I don’t think any of us were looking forward to adding another
screaming baby to our family.’
    ‘“Electra”?’ Theo recognised the name immediately. ‘Not the famous supermodel?’
    ‘They’re one and the same, yes,’ I replied warily.
    Theo turned to me in amazement. I rarely, if ever, mentioned that Electra and I were related, as it engendered endless probing to find out who really lay behind one of the most photographed
faces in the world.
    ‘Well, well. And your other sisters?’ he asked, pleasing me by asking nothing further about Electra.
    ‘Maia is my big sister and the eldest. She’s a translator – she took after Pa in her talent for languages. I’ve lost count of how many she speaks. And if you think
Electra is beautiful, then you should see Maia. Whereas I’m all red hair and freckles, she has gorgeous tawny skin and dark hair and looks like an exotic Latin diva. Though in personality,
she’s very different. She’s a virtual recluse, still living at home at Atlantis, saying she wants to be there to look after Pa Salt. All the rest of us think she’s hiding . . .
from what’ – a sigh escaped me – ‘I couldn’t tell you. I’m sure something happened to her when she went away to university. She changed completely. Anyway, I
absolutely adored her when I was a child and I still do now, even though I feel that she’s cut me out over the past few years. To be fair, she’s done that with