‘It seems funny to me that just weeks after informing you that he wants a divorce, he suggests you go out there to see his father!’ he’d exclaimed when Jane phoned to explain why she wouldn’t be able to see him for a few days. ‘Do you trust him? Are you sure this isn’t just a ploy to get you back?’
‘Oh, please!’At the end of an exhausting day Jane had found it hard to keep her patience. She’d already had a similar discussion with Olga, who wasn’t at all pleased that her assistant was taking a week’s unplanned-for leave. ‘Demetri wants a divorce. I’ve told you that. But—well, his father is very ill. He says he wants to see me.’
‘He says.’ Alex had pounced on the word. ‘So you’ve only his say-so that Leonides Souvakis is ill?’
‘Demetri wouldn’t lie about something like that,’ Jane had replied firmly, wondering why she felt so sure about it when Demetri had lied to her before. ‘Besides which, he’s already got a girlfriend. A Greek girl. He intends to marry her as soon as he’s free.’
‘I see.’
Alex had been somewhat mollified by her answer, but Jane had wondered if Olga might not be right in thinking he had more than a platonic friendship in mind. A friend wouldn’t have interrogated her, wouldn’t have behaved as if he had some right to question her movements. And when he’d asked how long she planned to stay in Greece, she’d been deliberately vague.
Now, stepping onto Greek soil again, she wondered if she had been wise in coming here. How was she going to feel, seeing Demetri again and knowing she was carrying his baby? For whatever he’d said, she was fairly sure she would see him. It would be totally out of character for him to neglect his parents just because he thought she’d prefer him to stay away.
Jane only had one bag, a bulky haversack that she could loop over her shoulder, but she was still one of the last to step ashore. There was no sign of Demetri, but she couldn’t help feeling wary. She knew it was twenty minutes’ drive from the small port to the Souvakis estate and she didn’t remember ever seeing a taxi. Or needing one, she reflected, remembering the sleek little sports car Demetri had given her to get about the island.
She was hovering beside the pile of produce that was being unloaded from the ferry when she saw a woman watching her. She didn’t think she’d seen her before, yet there was something vaguely familiar about her. Of medium height, with strong, exotic features, she was typical of many Greek women Jane had seen in the past. But her clothes and the way she held herself set her apart and Jane felt her heartbeat quicken when she started towards her.
‘Are you Jane?’ she asked, her accent making the words difficult to understand. Or perhaps it was the almost scornful way she spoke Jane’s name that made the difference. And the fact that, although they were strangers, she hadn’t used her surname.
And, because Jane was feeling tired and not altogether friendly, she replied, ‘That’s right. Have you been sent to meet me?’
The woman surveyed her thoroughly before responding and Jane was instantly conscious that the short-sleeved T-shirt, cropped linen trousers and canvas boots she’d worn to travel in suffered by comparison to a silk vest, a flaring peasant-style skirt and high heels. ‘I have come to meet you,’ the woman corrected her. ‘Kiria Souvakis thought it would be a good idea for us to get to know one another, neh? I am Ariadne Pavlos. Demetri and I are to be married when he is free of his marriage to you.’
Jane was taken aback, although she had to admit it was typical of Demetri’s mother to pull a stunt like this. Sending Demetri’s—what?—his new girlfriend…his future fiancée? His lover to meet her was a little brutal even for Maria. She wondered if Demetri knew of it. She supposed he had to. Little went on here without his being aware of it.
‘How nice,’ she said now, refusing to let Ariadne see that she’d disturbed her. She glanced about her. ‘Do you have a car?’
‘Veveha.’ Of course. Ariadne had clearly not expected Jane to take it so calmly. ‘It is over here. If you’ll come?’
The car was painfully familiar. Ariadne was driving the dark red sports car Demetri had bought for her. Maria’s doing again, Jane guessed, though Ariadne had to have gone along with it. She couldn’t decide whether Demetri’s mother was calculating or merely apprehensive.
Thankfully, the heat of the day was abating. It was late afternoon, and the island was bathed in a warm golden light. Summer came early to the Aegean, and, although much of the island was composed of rock and scrubland, here on the coastal plain flowers bloomed in ripe profusion.
Dumping her haversack into the back of the small car, Jane slid into the passenger seat beside Ariadne. ‘Endaxi,’ the other woman declared tersely. OK. ‘Pameh!’ Let’s go.
If she thought Jane might not understand her, she was mistaken. Despite the fact that she’d only lived on Kalithi for a little over two years, Jane had managed to acquire a reasonable grasp of the language. She’d had to, to run her small gallery. And Demetri had liked her to speak to him in his own language, particularly when they were making love…
The memory was disturbing, particularly as she was sitting beside the girl who would soon be Demetri’s wife. Unable to prevent herself, she ran a nervous hand over the slight swell of her stomach. Common sense told her she would have to tell Demetri about the baby. But the last thing she needed was for him to think she wanted him back.
‘You are staying how long?’
Ariadne’s question interrupted the uneasy direction of her thoughts, which was probably just as well, she told herself severely. She wasn’t here because Demetri had invited her. It was his father who wanted to see her.
‘I don’t know,’ she answered now, although she’d already booked her return flight for the end of the week. Her eyes drifted over the headland and the rugged cliffs that descended to the blue-green waters that lapped the shoreline. It was all so beautiful. She’d forgotten exactly how beautiful it was. ‘How is Leo? Demetri said he was feeling a little better.’
Ariadne took her eyes off the winding road to glance at her. ‘Kirieh Souvakis is —well,’ she replied after a moment, ‘a little—confused, isos. We have been very worried about him.’
‘I’m sure.’ Jane tried to feel sympathetic towards her. But she had the feeling Ariadne was more concerned about her being here than she was about Demetri’s father. There was a certain lack of emotion in her words.
‘Veveha, he is most anxious to she is most anxious to see Demetriee Demetri happy at last,’ Ariadne continued, apparently unaware of speaking out of turn. Or, more likely, she didn’t care what Jane thought of her. ‘It is not good for a man to be without a wife and family.’
Jane’s lips compressed. ‘Demetri has a wife,’ she couldn’t resist saying, and Ariadne gave her another knowing look.
‘Not for much longer, sostos?’ she murmured silkily. ‘Demetri tells me you are not going to make any trouble about the divorce.’
‘Does he?’ Jane was tempted to say he should have thought of that before he’d gone to bed with her, but it wasn’t in her nature to be deliberately cruel. ‘No, well, he’s probably right.’
‘Probably?’ Ariadne latched on to the word.
Jane turned her head towards the ocean again. ‘Where is Demetri? Back at the house?’
There was a petulant silence and then Ariadne said, with evident reluctance, ‘He’s away. On business. He won’t be back until the end of the week.’
Jane felt a pain twist inside her. But it wasn’t a physical thing, merely an acknowledgement that, despite the fact that Demetri was doing as he’d said, she was devastated