Unknown (15 page)

‘No—we are quite separate,' Anna put in.

‘But we aim to please.’ Andreas was still smiling, waiting for the decision he expected Mrs Pope to make. ‘There will be no inconvenience as far as you and your sister are concerned,’ he promised. ‘A maid from the Crescent Beach will come to pack for you and your luggage will be in your room whenever you care to come across.’

The generous arrangements began to appeal to Mrs Pope, but there were some questions still to be asked.

‘We have one full week of our holiday still to take,' she informed him. ‘I would not wish to undertake a second removal in a day or two.’

‘That will not be necessary. You will remain at the Crescent Beach, on full board, until you leave the island.’

Placated, at last, the lady nodded her agreement.

‘If you can assure me that my sister will not be unduly disturbed,’ she allowed, ‘we will accept your offer. I must say it is more than generous.’

‘It is a pleasure,’ Andreas assured her, tongue in cheek. ‘I hope you will be happy at the Crescent Beach for the remainder of your holiday.’

Mrs Pope turned away, completely amazed by her success.

‘Andreas, you hypocrite!’ Anna laughed under her breath. ‘Talk about a golden tongue! But you were always like that. I remember how you charmed everybody if you wanted something badly enough!’

‘I wanted that dreadful woman off your back,’ he said. ‘I know her type. She would have used her dissatisfaction like the Sword of Damocles for the rest of her stay and you have more to do than pander to her whims.’

‘You were magnificent.’ She was still laughing. ‘I couldn’t believe the change in her expression when you told her she would be living four-star at no extra cost for the remainder of her holiday. You were brilliant about Cyprus, too, and the way we like to treat our guests.’

‘I meant that bit,’ he said, taking her arm. ‘We have a lot of lee-way to make up on this island and I like to think I could be part of it. We can’t afford too many Mrs Popes if we want to be considered an ideal holiday resort. I know you’ve grasped all that, but sometimes it can be difficult.’

‘What will Lara say?’ she asked. ‘You seem to have taken the law into your own hands.’

‘I’m managing the Crescent Beach,’ he told her. ‘Lara can’t object when she taught me all I know, and I think she would have dealt with your problem in the same way.’

‘Only if the villa was part of her empire!’ Anna was the efficient hotel proprietress again. ‘You must let me share the cost—recompense you in some way,’ she insisted ‘After all, you are full board over there and Mrs Pope and her sister are only half-board.’

‘I’ve done my arithmetic,’ he said with a slow smile. ‘It will be well worth the extra cash.’

‘It isn’t business,’ she pointed out.

‘Perhaps not.’ He led her towards the office door. ‘I’ll pick you up at three o’clock for the hospital.’

She was ready at three, waiting in the hall when he arrived in the big white Mercedes she had noticed once or twice before in the grounds of the Crescent Beach.

‘It’s Lara’s car,’ he explained. ‘She’s going to be busy in the hotel all afternoon. Tomorrow she hopes to take Marty to visit your mother.’

‘Mama will enjoy that. She’s very fond of Martha.’

‘We all are,’ he said, helping her into the front passenger seat. ‘She is an exceptional child.’

They made the short distance to the hospital in record time.

‘This is slightly different to the pick-up,’ Anna observed. ‘I feel quite regal!’

‘Lara bought it a few days ago in Nicosia,’ he explained. ‘She likes a roomy car and she will need it in the mountains.’

‘Have you settled on a villa yet?’ The question was almost forced from her as she thought of them together.

‘I haven’t settled anything,’ he said as he negotiated a busy crossing. ‘It will be entirely Lara’s decision. She wants something apart—something away from the holiday crowds, preferably outside a village. Nikos might be helpful in that respect,’ he decided. ‘He knows the Troodos very well.’

‘But so do you,’ she reminded him. ‘Years ago they were practically our second home.’

She had not meant to bring up the happier past when they had skied at Plantres and explored the high mountain passes around St Hilarion rising far below. She had not meant to recall the past at all in case he might think her unduly sentimental or trying to assert some sort of claim on him now that he had returned to the land of his birth.

Her mother’s small cubicle was surrounded by flowers, gifts sent in that morning by people who had heard of the accident at the villa, pink and red carnations, and yellow roses, and pale irises the colour of moonstones, and great spikes of gladioli, and stralytzia like flaming swords in the sun.

‘I had no idea I had so many friends,’ Dorothy smiled. ‘Such beautiful flowers! They make me feel better already, although I’m trussed up like a chicken and mustn’t laugh.’ She looked beyond Anna to the man standing at the foot of her bed. 'I knew you would come, Andreas, and thank you for the fruit you sent. The peaches are delicious.’

‘I remembered your preference,’ he told her, moving to take her hand in his. ‘Get well quickly, Mama!’ he said. ‘We’re going to miss you.’

Anna pretended to study the cards on the flower arrangements, her eyes blurred by tears. If only everything had been the same, if they had been coming to her mother with mutual love in their hearts this would have been a happy reunion.

‘I’m not going to be much use to Anna for a very long time,’ Dorothy was saying. ‘How stupid of me to fall down like that when she needs all the help she can get just now. It is our busiest time and even one pair of hands can make a difference.’

Andreas bent over the bed, taking her slender hands in his. ‘You are to stop worrying,’ he said firmly. ‘Anna and I will manage quite well.’

‘Does that mean you are going to stay on the island?’ Dorothy’s eyes were eager on his. ‘Does it mean you will be here for a while, at least?’

‘I’ll be at the Crescent Beach,’ he assured her, ‘right next door. I’ve already told Anna that she can count on me for help or advice at any time. It might go against the grain at first,’ he added with a brief smile, ‘but I think she will come round to my way of thinking in the end.’

‘It’s such a relief,’ Dorothy sighed, ‘knowing you will be there. The doctors are talking about a rest, about me going to the mountains for the summer, but I don’t think I can do that.’

‘Why not?’ he demanded. ‘We can fix something up in no time. You must stop arguing, Mama, and let us take care of you.’ He smiled at her disarmingly. ‘You wouldn’t exactly be an asset at the villa just now, you know!’

‘I don’t want to be a burden and now you are making it impossible for me to refuse to go,’ Dorothy declared. ‘Perhaps I’ll go for a week or two once I am sure that Anna can manage on her own,’ she conceded.

There was a tap on the door behind them and Anna turned quickly to see Nikos’ mother standing in the aperture, smiling in at them. Kiria Masistas was a small, dark woman with inquisitive black eyes like a bird’s and a smooth, round face framed by abundant black hair with no suggestion of grey in it anywhere. As a country matron in mourning for her late father, she wore black, but with a stylishness which suggested that her clothes had come from one of the grander establishments in Nicosia if not from Athens itself. The cross carried on a chain round her neck was of heavy gold and she wore a gold bracelet on her left arm. Anna kissed her dutifully on both cheeks.

‘How kind of you to come right away,’ she said, relieving her mother’s visitor of the large basket of fruit she carried. ‘We have been so anxious, Kiria Masistas, but now it seems that Mama will get well quite quickly if she continues to rest as the doctors advise.’

Helena Masistas went straight to the bedside, acknowledging Andreas with a curt nod.

‘Dorothy Rossides, what is this I find?’ she demanded with kindly concern. ‘You, of all people, in a hospital bed!’

‘Helena,’ Dorothy said, her sapphire eyes gleaming. ‘I thought you would come without delay.’

‘You knew I would come.’ They kissed, friends of old standing although their circumstances were so different. ‘Nikos has acquainted me with all the details including the fact that you saved the life of a child.’

‘Nikos has exaggerated,’ Dorothy assured her. ‘We were too curious, Helena, wanting to see how the new swimming-pool was getting on—altogether too curious!’ Helena regarded her closely. ‘Nikos was right,’ she declared after the briefest of pauses. ‘You are in need of a holiday when you are finally allowed out of here. You are in need of good mountain air, Dorothy Rossides, and we have plenty of that at Stroumbi. You will come straight to us from the hospital and Nikos will bring you.’ She held up her hand to obstruct any argument that might be put forward. ‘I will not hear of a refusal,’ she announced, ‘because it is already settled.’

Dorothy’s eyes went beyond her. ‘Andreas has come home,’ she said, smiling in his direction. Helena kept her back turned.

‘So I have heard.’ Her lips were firmly compressed. ‘I hope he will not cause you further heartache before he goes away again, as Nikos says he will.’

Anna’s heart was racing, wanting to protest, wanting to deny what Nikos had said, but already Andreas was answering for her, politely but to the point.

‘I will be here for some time, Kiria Masistas, doing all I can for Anna and her mother. I am working at the Crescent Beach next door to the villa and I have also bought some land on the other side.’

‘Candy’s Place,’ Anna explained helpfully.

‘I heard you were interested in buying land,’ Helena acknowledged distantly. ‘You have chosen wisely with all that frontage to the sea. What do you intend to make of it? Another luxury hotel?’

‘I’m leaving it as it is at present,’ Andreas told her smoothly. ‘I’m not taking any chances when it could easily be part of new excavations on that side.’

‘People are digging everywhere these days,’ Helena sniffed. ‘Even in the mountains we are afraid to open up more land in case we stumble upon an ancient city and everything is taken over by the authorities, but at least we have our orange groves and the vineyards and the carob trees and plenty of good fresh air.’ She turned to Anna. ‘You must keep in touch with us, my dear, and whenever your mother can be moved you will bring her to Stroumbi.’

‘Helena, do you think it is wise for me to come straight away?’ Dorothy asked, looking over her friend’s head to where Andreas stood beside the door. ‘Perhaps I should go home for a while.’

‘That is foolish,’ Helena decided. ‘In a few more weeks the temperature on the coast will be unbearable and I know how you will insist on working if you are still at the villa. Come to the mountains and let Anna cope for a while until she has changed her mind about coming to Stroumbi permanently. That will make us happy, I can assure you.’ She smiled a little at a private thought. ‘We have always wanted her in the family and surely she will see how right it is now.’

‘You were ever a matchmaker, Helena!’ Dorothy laughed. ‘You have not yet learned to let the young ones decide for themselves.’

‘Sometimes they do not know what is best for them.' Helena cast another glance in Andreas’ direction. ‘They are foolish or ambitious or too fond of their own way. I can see no reason to let them spoil their lives for want of some good advice.’ She turned to go. ‘But we have tired you talking so much,’ she acknowledged. ‘Just remember what I have said. You are to come to the mountains and bring Anna with you.’

Andreas held the door open for her.

‘Nikos will bring you some flowers in the morning,’ Helena said, bending to kiss Dorothy on the cheek. ‘
Perastika
. I will come to visit you again quite soon.’

‘Kali andamossi!'
Anna said almost thankfully, seeing the fatigue on her mother’s face.

Dorothy closed her eyes as soon as Helena had gone. ‘She means well,’ she said, a note of apology in her voice as she met Andreas’ amused eyes. ‘She has so much authority on the estate that she exercises it everywhere without thinking.’

‘That was always her fault,’ he answered lightly. ‘I well remember her on the ski slopes telling everyone what to do till she had that accident herself.’

‘And never skied again,’ Anna remembered. ‘You needn’t go to Stroumbi, Mama, if you don’t want to. We can arrange something else.’

‘I would never hear the end of it if I didn’t go,’ Dorothy predicted. ‘When Helena makes a gesture it is foolish to turn it down and she is really trying to be kind. She does want to help.’

‘There will be time enough to make decisions when you are well enough,’ Anna said, bending over the bed, ‘and now you must rest and I’ll come back in the morning.’ She kissed her mother’s cheek. ‘They’ll take good care of you here.’

Andreas came back to the bed. ‘Sleep well, Mama,’ he said. ‘If you can have more than one visitor tomorrow Lara would like to bring Marty in just to say “Thank you”.’

‘I’d like that.’ Dorothy stretched out her hand to him and he crushed her fingers in his. ‘You will come too, perhaps?’

“Every day,’ he promised, ‘till you tell me not to!’ The sapphire-blue eyes were very bright as they looked back into his. ‘That will never happen,’ she said. ‘Andreas, it’s good to have you back.’

He held her hand for a moment longer. ‘It’s good to be back, Mama,’ he said.

Anna walked ahead of him along the corridor. ‘You’ve been forgiven,’ she said under her breath. ‘Mama could never hold a grudge for very long.’

‘And you, Anna?’ he asked, looking down at her as they reached the open air.

‘I—it isn’t important how I feel,’ she said unsteadily. ‘It was what she thought that mattered most, and what she needs now is peace of mind and no more work about the hotel. I’m going to make sure of that, at least.’

‘By marrying Nikos?’ he asked, his dark brows suddenly drawn together in a frown. ‘Is that the logical solution to all your problems?’

A hot colour flew to her cheeks. ‘You have no right to ask that,’ she retorted. ‘None at all!’

‘I have your interests at heart. We were brought up together, remember.’ He opened the car door for her. ‘In the ordinary way that should mean a lot.’