I did today? Climb up the mountain to get a good hike in?” she interrupted fiercely. “Or perhaps I should try running. I only jogged today, but maybe tomorrow I could try a couple hundred wind sprints like you—”
“You don’t need to run.”
“Running won’t hurt the baby.”
“Walking is better, and you know it. Tomorrow it should be mild. Good weather—”
“No!” She jumped to her feet, hands clenched. “I’ve walked miles on your paths and they just go in circles. I’ve climbed this mountain. I’ve done everything I can do here on Kamari, and I need a change now. Please get me off this rock. Please let me see something new.”
“You will be free to explore after the delivery—”
“That’s three months away.”
“I thought you had to study.”
“I do study. For hours and hours every day, but I’m going stir-crazy. I need to get out...go see something, or go do something.”
“There is nothing good happening in the outside world. You are safe here, so I prefer you to be here.”
“If I am truly your guest, treat me like a guest and not a prisoner.” She drew a short, raw breath as the possibility hit her. “Or am I prisoner?”
“What a silly question.”
Her chest suddenly hurt, the air bottled in her lungs. He’d brought her to this island far from everything...
He said he didn’t leave Kamari... He said there was no reason to leave Kamari. Her eyes widened. Was it possible she was his hostage? “Are you afraid I’ll try to escape? Run away?”
“That’s ridiculous. You’re getting yourself worked up over nothing.”
“Then why can’t we go out for part of the day? You said you had a boat. Let’s head to Amorgós, or even better, Santorini.”
“No.”
“Because I need to see people. I need to talk to someone. You’ve shut me out, and I understand why now. We have this—thing—between us and you’re trying to resist it, and I understand that now. But I am lonely. I’m overwhelmed.” Tears began to spill.
She struggled to wipe them away.
He swore in Greek and crossed to her side. “Don’t cry,” he said roughly. “Do not cry.” He wiped her cheeks dry with the pads of his thumbs. “Don’t cry,” he said more softly, his lips near her ear. “Because you make me want to comfort you, and kiss you, but when I kiss you, agapi mou, I want you, and I’m afraid if I claim you, I’ll never let you go.”
THEY TOOK A motorboat to Amorgós two days later.
On the way, Nikos told her that there was a devastating earthquake on July 9, 1956, just north of Amorgós, between Amorgós and Santorini. The earthquake registered 7.8 on the Richter scale, and a second 7.2 earthquake followed thirteen minutes later. Intense aftershocks occurred for weeks, lasting through the summer.
Fifty-three people died on Santorini alone, and villages were destroyed on many islands. Quite a few people left the islands.
“I would think the earthquakes would have created a tsunami,” she said.
He nodded. “Thirty-foot waves were reported all along the coast. And as difficult as this was, it’s always been part of our history. The volcanic arc stretches from Methana—” He broke off, seeing she didn’t know where that was. “Methana is a town on the eastern coast of the Peloponnese, built on a volcanic peninsula. And that volcanic arc extends from Nisyros Island in the west, to the coast of Turkey in the east. The arc is filled with dormant and active volcanic islands.”
“There are some still active?”
“Absolutely. Milos, Santorini, Nisyros.”
She of course had heard of Santorini but wasn’t familiar with the other two. “Fascinating, as well as a little bit scary.”
“Santorini always breaks my heart just a little bit,” he said. “The Minoan culture was beautiful and sophisticated. And it was all wiped away. One day you should go there, visit the excavation of Akrotiri on Thera. There’s a museum of found objects and some of the most stunning frescoes ever created. Many people believe that Akrotiri is the basis for Plato’s story of Atlantis.”
“I’d love to go there.”
“It’d be a shame to miss. Perhaps in June you can travel for a while before returning to the US.”
“You know I have the exam, so maybe you should take me there. Make it our next outing.”
“We’re not having more outings.”
“Don’t say that. Please. I still have three more months here. You can’t bring me all the way to Greece and keep me on your rock.”
“I don’t go to Santorini.”
“But you just said it’s amazing.”
“And it is. For others. But I don’t go. I won’t.” He looked away from her, gaze fixed on the shadowy island ahead of them. “And before you push and push and spoil the day before it’s even begun, I’ll tell you—it’s where my wife died. So I don’t go there. Ever.”
Georgia swallowed hard. It was the first time he’d brought up his wife, and there had been no tenderness in his voice, just ice. And grief.
They traveled the rest of the way in silence, but Georgia didn’t mind. She welcomed the sun on her face and the wind tugging at her hair and she used the silence to think about what Nikos had told her...not about Greece but about his late wife.
She wanted to know more but knew that this wasn’t the time. She didn’t want to upset him or spoil their outing. It felt wonderful to be off Kamari, and she was excited about having a new experience. They might be traveling only twenty-some kilometers but it felt like an adventure, and she didn’t care if they did nothing on Amorgós but walk around the little town and then up through the few houses before returning to the boat.
But as it turned out, there was plenty to do in the village of Katapola, Amorgós’s biggest harbor. True, there weren’t many shops, but Georgia just enjoyed exploring the town. Because everything was new to her, and it was her first real taste of a Greek village; she found it endlessly fascinating.
With Nikos at her side, she explored the pretty bay, dotted with fishing boats, white windmills and the traditional blue-and-white houses. Small cafés and taverns spilled onto the sidewalk facing the water, and on a side street they popped into a bakery so Georgia could admire all the different breads and pastries.
Georgia saw the woman behind the counter give Nikos a cold look, but he seemed not to notice, ordering one of each of the cookies so Georgia could try them all. She was about to ask him about
