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‘When they were excavating for the swimming-pool the ground gave way. My mother and Lara’s daughter went down with the rubble but they are both safe, thanks to Andreas. I think my mother tried to shield Martha with her own body when a plinth or something fell on them,’ Anna explained.

‘It could be another of these damned temples,’ Nikos guessed. ‘They’re all over the place. Does it mean that the pool will be a no-go area till they’re sure?’

‘I’m afraid so.’ She walked with him towards the bar. ‘There’s a ruined wall and some steps so they’re sure to explore further. Andreas believes it might be another villa—a Roman one—and that would mean terraces and gardens and perhaps a tomb.’

‘All those years ago,’ he mused. ‘Makes you think, doesn’t it? They were just like us—building their walls and working hard and having children and a home life with a temple or two in their gardens and, perhaps, a tomb. If it wasn’t a settlement that may be all they’ll find—an ancient villa by the sea with a few bits of pottery scattered about and a coin or two thrown in for good measure.’

‘That may be all,’ she agreed. ‘We’ll just have to wait and see.’

‘It’s been a disappointment to you,’ he guessed, ‘but don’t worry about it, Anna. Everything will work out for the best. How long do you think your mother will be in hospital?’

‘At least two weeks.’ Her smile faded. ‘If only this hadn’t happened to her, Nikos! She has suffered shock and she is so frail. Doctor Ioannu thinks she shouldn’t be here during the summer months because of the heat.’

‘In that case, you must bring her to the mountains,’ he suggested, summoning Paris to order drinks. ‘What will you have, Anna? You look so pale it will have to be something strong.’

She shook her head. ‘I’d rather go straight in for a meal,’ she decided. ‘Can I persuade you to join me?’

‘No persuasion needed!’ he declared. ‘But we will drink champagne. You are in need of it.’

They found an empty table overlooking the bay and suddenly it all seemed very unreal to Anna to be sitting there with Nikos eating the meal she had helped to prepare that morning when there was hardly a cloud on her horizon and the future had been full of hope.

‘Anna,’ he said when their coffee had been served, ‘I meant what I said. When she is well enough you must bring your mother to the mountains. We can easily arrange that,’ he added. ‘Take her to Stroumbi. My mother will be only too pleased to have her.’

She turned towards him, unable to accept his offer although her heart was full of gratitude. ‘I couldn’t make a convenience of your family, Nikos,’ she protested.

‘Why not?’ He covered her fingers with a warm, brown hand, leaning towards her. ‘I want you to belong to it. I want you to be one of my family, Anna, more than anything else, and your mother would be safe with us.’

‘I know.’ She gazed down at the pink tablecloth. ‘I know you would be kind to her, but I can’t make that sort of decision. Not yet.’

‘You will have to think of it before very long,’ he pointed out. ‘You will also have to think about the future of the villa. It’s too much for you on your own.’

‘I can manage,’ she said. ‘And, after all, it is our home.’

When they took a second cup of coffee out to the lounge Lara was coming across the hall from the front door.

‘I had to come over to thank you,’ she declared. ‘You have been so kind to Martha and we owe so much to your mother. She saved my child.’

‘Andreas had a hand in it, too,’ Anna reminded her. ‘If he hadn’t come on the scene so quickly things could have been so different. As it is ’

‘As it is your mother is in hospital and I feel very guilty.’ Lara’s large, expressive eyes were true mirrors of her genuine concern. ‘I wonder if we can do anything for her—bring her to the Crescent Beach or something like that. We have several private suites.’

‘That wouldn’t do,’ Anna said quickly. ‘She has all the comfort necessary at the hospital and excellent medical care. Thank you for suggesting it, though. She will appreciate your offer.’

‘I must go and visit her,’ Lara decided. ‘Do you think tomorrow, if she is well enough? Andreas would take me. I’m sure he will also want to go.’

‘Yes.’ Anna looked down at her empty cup. ‘Will you take some coffee with us, Lara?’ she asked. ‘I know you dine early.’

‘We dine whenever we have time!’ Lara laughed. ‘We’re not at the Crescent Beach on holiday, Andreas and I, and you know how busy you can be trying to work out all the problems of a busy hotel at one time. Without Andreas I could do very little at present. He has been— what is it you say?—a tower of strength to me these past two years.’

‘Have you found your villa in the mountains yet?’ Nikos asked signalling to Paris for more coffee. ‘We are curious to know where you will settle.’

Lara shook her head. ‘We have looked at one or two but have not yet decided,’ she said. ‘Andreas thinks that Pedhoulas or Prodhromos would be best for us because they are both very high and very beautiful. I could look all day at that wonderful view over the mountains to the Cedar Valley, and while we were there the cherry trees were still in bloom. They were like a white sea, stretching for miles.’

‘You would not be far from us in the Marathasa Valley,’ Nikos told her, ‘although the roads through the mountains are not very good. If you decide to come farther west I’m sure we could help.’

There was the slightest pause before Lara answered. ‘You are very kind offering your help, Nikos, but— perhaps we won’t be visiting very much.’ The latent sadness in her eyes deepened as she looked out through the long windows to the night sky beyond. ‘We will be going there for a rest and the wonderful mountain air.’

‘If you change your mind,’ Nikos said, not knowing whether to feel snubbed or not, ‘you can always call on us. As a matter of fact,’ he added confidentially, ‘I have just been trying to persuade Anna to bring her mother to Stroumbi to recuperate. We live outside the town and it is very beautiful there.’

Lara looked surprised. ‘And will you go?’ she asked Anna. ‘Andreas is always saying how much you value your home.’

‘I couldn’t leave here for any length of time,' Anna said. ‘Even though the swimming-pool may not be possible now I mean to keep the hotel going.’

‘Of course!’ Lara gazed at her inquisitively. ‘Is it really what you want to do?’

‘It’s what I have to do.’ Anna was remembering that first tentative take-over bid Andreas had made. ‘It will never be a great money-spinner but it is what we wanted to achieve—an hotel which is more like a home.’

Lara’s eyes sharpened. ‘It has much potential, as you surely must know.’ The shrewd businesswoman had taken over completely. ‘This site is just right for expansion and perhaps you should think about it.’

‘No,’ Anna assured her, ‘it wouldn’t make any difference. I have no desire to expand—or to sell,’ she added firmly.

Lara shrugged, smiling once more. ‘It is your own decision, my dear, but if you should change your mind in the near future ...’

‘I’m sure I won’t,’ Anna assured her. ‘When my mother is fit again we will carry on as we always have done, although I will try to send her to the mountains during the summer months.’

‘You will need help during that time,’ Lara pointed out, ‘and Andreas will be at the Crescent Beach for the greater part of the summer. I’m sure he would be glad to help you.’

Anna got quickly to her feet. ‘I couldn’t possibly ask him,’ she said.

‘Why not?’ Lara rose to go. ‘He knows everything there is to know about the trade, and he has served a good apprenticeship.’

‘Anna will be all right on her own,’ Nikos said quickly. ‘She has many friends to fall back on here on the island.’

‘I’m sure she has,’ Lara acknowledged, ‘and Andreas is also one of them, is he not? He will be most willing to do what he can.’

Anna walked with them across the hall. ‘Thank you for coming,’ she said to Lara. ‘Give my love to Martha and I hope she will soon get over her shock.’

‘She’ll be all right in the morning,’ Lara said. ‘You know what children are like, but I must really insist that Susan doesn’t neglect her duties in future. She is here to look after Martha and also to teach her the rudiments of English and arithmetic before she goes off to school in Switzerland some time next year. That is another reason for the villa in the mountains,’ she added. ‘There are too many distractions for them in a large hotel.’

‘Will you settle permanently in Cyprus?’ They had reached the main door and Nikos held it open. ‘Do you mean to make the new villa your home?’

Lara’s eyes took on an added brightness. ‘It’s my fondest wish,’ she admitted. ‘It is many years since I had an established home of my own.’

‘Always the businesswoman!’ Nikos remarked as she disappeared into the night. ‘Perhaps I should have escorted her back along the road, but I wanted to speak to you, Anna. I’ve phoned my parents about your mother’s accident and they will be visiting her at the hospital. Try to convince her to come to Stroumbi and we will look after her for you.’

She paused at the office door, the tears so near her eyes that she could not look at him.

‘You are all so kind,’ she said. ‘I’m sure she will want to come to you for a little while.’

‘For as long as she needs to,’ Nikos said firmly. ‘We are very old friends.’

When she was finally in her own room with the door closed between her and the outside world, she crossed to her window, stepping out on to the narrow balcony which overlooked the sea. Couples in their summer clothes were strolling along the terrace, hand in hand, and farther along the sandy beach other couples, arms entwined, were walking by the water’s edge blissfully happy in each other’s company as they gazed at the stars and thought about a happy future. She had never felt so much alone in all her life, yet she had made decisions in the past when everything seemed to be going wrong, making them for her mother as well as herself, but now it seemed that Dorothy’s decision whether to return home or retreat to the mountains would affect her future, too. Nikos wants her to go so much, she thought, and really it would be the best thing to do.

She would not think of Andreas nor of Lara, who was most surely his latest love. Lara had done so much for him so how could he not love her? She was beautiful, talented and kind, with so much to offer him, and now she was buying a villa in the mountains to be near him until they could eventually marry.

Was there a barrier, she wondered, something that might keep them apart for a little while—like a divorce, perhaps?

She thrust the suggestion aside, not wanting to think of it.

There
was much coming and going around the swimming-pool excavation next morning. Officials from Limassol and Nicosia had been alerted and the site was to be further explored, but it did not seem that much of importance had been found.

Andreas had come across from the Crescent Beach to go round with them.

‘How long will they be, do you think?’ Anna asked when they had not left by twelve o’clock. ‘I’ve phoned the hospital and promised to go in.’

‘I phoned earlier,’ he said, glancing at his watch. ‘I said we would be in this afternoon. They want her to rest.’

She hesitated. ‘Andreas, you needn’t worry about me getting in to Limassol if you have something else to do,' she said. ‘I can take the pick-up and be back in time for the dinner scramble.’

That won’t be necessary,’ he said in the arbitrary tone he sometimes adopted when she was being obstructive. ‘I’ll be going, anyway. Can you be ready by three o’clock?’

She nodded. ‘I’ll take her some fruit. Oh, dear!’ she added in a careful undertone as Mrs Pope swooped on them from across the hall. ‘Good morning, Mrs Pope,’ she offered politely. ‘Where are you bound for today?’

‘I was bound for your office,’ the good lady informed her vehemently, ‘but since you are here I’ll make my complaint right away.’ She glanced in Andreas’ direction. ‘Since early this morning my sister and I have been deafened by the most outrageous noise coming from the other side of the house. What it must be like for the guests on that side I shudder to think. Workmen everywhere, far more than there has been up till now. One cannot hear oneself speak!’

Anna suppressed an impatient sigh. ‘I’m sorry you have been disturbed,’ she apologised, ‘but there was—a nasty accident yesterday. My mother and little Martha Warrender were trapped by a fall of stone.’

‘I heard about that and I am sorry, but I don’t think it excuses the bedlam we have had to suffer this morning,’ the disgruntled lady pointed out. ‘My sister takes a little rest after her coffee break at eleven o’clock and today that has been impossible. If you have men at work you ought to control the noise they make as a concession to your guests.’

‘I did my best,’ Anna said, ‘but some officials from Nicosia came to look at the excavations in case the workmen have stumbled on something of archaeological interest. There has certainly been a house of some kind here in the past, or it could have been a seaside village.’

‘Indeed?’ Mrs Pope was vaguely interested. ‘All the same, I do have to lodge my complaint about the noise. It is quite distressing, and I expect you to do something about it as quickly as possible.’

‘Perhaps I can help.’ Andreas had stepped forward with his most attractive smile. ‘I suggest that you and your sister would be happier at the Crescent Beach for a few days until Miss Rossides has cleared up the problem of the extra workforce. Nothing more will be done with the excavations for the swimming-pool, I can assure you, but there could be some further digging to establish what has been found. I understand how you feel about the unexpected noise,' he added without a flicker of derision, ‘and I think you would be more comfortable at the Crescent Beach.’

‘But it’s a four-star hotel!’ Mrs Pope protested. ‘In no way could my sister and I afford the extra cost.’

‘It would not be expected of you,' he told her pleasantly. ‘Shall we just say it is all part of the service? In Cyprus we hope that our guests will enjoy every minute of their stay with us.’

Mrs Pope hesitated. ‘Does that mean the Crescent Beach and the Villa Severus are one and the same hotel?’ she enquired.