to England. Her task was done. She wanted familiar people, places. She wanted the love of her friends and the trust she couldn’t have with people who suspected her motives for everything.
So this might be the last time she’d be with Nikos. She treasured every moment.
“Did you eat?” he asked.
“With your grandfather and Eleani,” she said.
“She’s your grandmother, you can call her that,” he said slowly.
She shrugged.
“You know.” He took another bite, ate it slowly then looked at her. “Your mother could have come back and confronted her parents. She didn’t need to try to reconcile by mail. Did you ever think of that?”
“Of course I did. I even asked her several times why she didn’t. It was the family pride. She had as much as her father, I think. And I truly thought she was content enough with life in England. Her getting sick showed me how much she had missed Greece all her life. Even if she hadn’t reconciled with her parents, she could have made a good life for us among her friends and in familiar settings of her former home in Greece. But she refused to even visit.”
“Don’t tell me you never had a vacation or went on a trip,” he said.
“We took lots of trips, to the north of England, to Scotland, Wales.”
“That money could have been spent on airfare to Greece. So since she didn’t, how important was it to her to return to her parents? Maybe her death was just the excuse you needed to come here and meet Eleani and worm your way in.”
Sara took a breath with the shock. She thought they’d gotten past this with the dive and all. Nikos still thought she was after money and nothing else.
Slowly she rose, replaced the chair where she’d found it.
“Good night,” she said with dignity and left the room.
“Sara, wait,” he called, coming after her.
He caught up with her at the top of the stairs, reached out to take her arm to stop her from descending.
“Let me go. You’ve made your position clear over and over. I don’t know why I ever thought you were someone special. You are cynical and jaded and haven’t a trusting bone in your body. You should spend your life alone so you never have to wonder if anyone loves you or only your money. At least your parents have a life that they want—even if it didn’t include you. At least they reached out and tried. You do nothing but hide away in your resort and spurn anyone who tries to get close to you.” She yanked free and almost ran down the stairs.
“Sara, wait,” he called.
She threw open the front door and dashed out, but pulled it shut carefully behind her so no one else in the house would know how angry she was. It was hard to see the wide path in the dark, rainy night, but she could see lights on board the Cassandra and took off almost at a run.
Tomorrow they’d return to Thessalonika and the next day she’d be back home in London. She could hang on that long. She had to. What choice did she have?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“NIKOS?” Spiros said behind him.
Nikos slowly closed the front door he’d wrenched open after Sara had fled. Turning, he looked at his grandfather.
“Is something wrong?”
“No. Sara and I argued. She left for the boat. She’ll get soaked.”
“She can dry off there. Eleani had hoped she’d stay the night. I’ll have to tell her Sara has already left. What I won’t tell her is that she left so precipitously.”
Nikos headed back to the stairs.
“Are you all right?” his grandfather asked.
“I’m always all right.”
But it was a lie. Nikos realized that when he stepped back into his bedroom. His lonely bedroom. When he’d been younger, he’d been so full of hopes and dreams. He would not have a marriage like his parents’. He would find a beautiful woman who would love him. Who would want to have all the closeness of family he saw with his grandparents and that his own parents had spurned.
Ariana was that woman, he’d once believed. She had proved false and it had changed him. Now for the first time in years, he thought about his old dreams. A home, family, children. The insight that had shocked him before returned. Who would he teach about the island’s history and special places? Who would he regale with family stories, from the war to the rebuilding, to the exploits of his grandfather and father? If he did not marry, did not have children, the family ended with him.
But he needed more than children. He wanted someone who came to a marriage with dreams similar to his own. Was someone out there—waiting for him?
What if Sara’s dreams matched his? He could get past the way she’d used him if they did. Had the way she’d been with him only been talk? What if she’d been that way to gain his sympathy in case things didn’t work out as she’d planned, and she needed to enlist his help?
He looked at the bed, remembering that first moment when he’d awoken and had seen Sara. For a split second it had felt absolutely right. As if he expected her there, and there she was.
She’d never once asked for anything—unlike other women who wanted trinkets or wanted to be seen in nightclubs, not spend quiet evenings on the aft deck of a yacht.
Damn, if he could just trust his own feelings.
He had once before and had been proved wrong. Dare he risk it again?
The sun rose the next morning in a cloudless sky. Sara had her things packed before the Cassandra began its engines. She had sent a message to the house thanking them for their kindness and saying goodbye. She knew they might be up already, but she had no desire to speak to anyone.
Stefano brought her some breakfast, croissants and rolls, freshly baked by Dimitri. She hadn’t got the recipes she’d wanted. So be it.
She knelt on her bunk and looked out of the small porthole as they pulled away, watching as the house on the hill grew smaller until the Cassandra swung round and the house was lost from view.
She felt numb again. They would reach the resort before lunch. She’d contact the travel desk and see what the earliest flight to London was. She didn’t need to worry about leaving anyone in the lurch by her departure. The kitchen at the resort had made arrangements when she’d been chosen to serve on the Cassandra. The yacht wasn’t scheduled for another cruise that she knew of. By the time it was, its regular chef would be ready to come back.
It wouldn’t take her long to clear out her room at the resort. Maybe there’d even be a flight out today.
As far as her relationship with Eleani was concerned, she’d write. They could gradually build up a connection. Or maybe not. Sara had done as her mother had asked. Her life was not her mother’s. Eleani was a relative, but there was only a tiny bond between them. It might grow or not. Sara didn’t care at
