style="font-size:15px;"> From here she was looking directly towards the mainland, some five or six miles distant, the mountainous horizon line hazed by heat. Close by lay another, very much smaller island, bearing what looked like the crumbling remains of a small tower on its highest point.
“Does the ruin over there have any significance?” she asked with interest, anticipating some historic provenance.
“It’s just a ruin,” said Dion.
“All that’s left of what was once a tiny chapel,” expounded his cousin. “We’ve never taken the trouble to explore its origins, but you’re at liberty to do so, should you wish it.”
Chelsea gave him a swift glance, struck by the strength of the carved profile with its high-bridged nose and clean jawline. His mouth was well-shaped, lips firm. Wonderful to kiss, came the unwonted thought, hastily discarded.
“That’s very kind of you,” she said, “but I’m hardly going to be here long enough to start looking into historical detail.”
“You have other commitments?”
“Well, no. At least, nothing concrete. I’m just going where the fancy takes me for the next few weeks-seeing as much of the islands as I can.”
“Alone?” The tone left little doubt of his opinion. “Is that wise?”
“I can take care of myself,” she returned without undue emphasis. “And travelling alone means I only have myself to please.”
“You have family back home?”
“Parents, yes.”
“They saw no harm in allowing you to do this?”
Her laugh was just a little short. “They have every confidence in me.”
“But obviously little authority over you.”
“In my country, women my age are considered old enough to govern their own lives.”
“In my country, women your age are normally answerable to their husbands,” came the unmoved response. “Is there no man in your life?”
“No one I plan on marrying, if that’s what you mean.” Chelsea was fast losing patience with this inquisition. “I’ve no interest whatsoever in marriage.”
Nikos gave her another of those swift, assessing glances. “You should think seriously about it while you still have the time.”
About to let fly with a pithy answer, Chelsea caught herself up. Considering the reason she was here at all, she was hardly doing her case much good by getting ratty with the man. She needed to cultivate him, not antagonise him. What she didn’t need at the moment was to let drop any hint of her true colours.
“I appreciate your concern for my welfare, kirie, really I do,” she said on a lighter note. “Few would take the trouble.”
The overture made no visible impression. “You were to call me Nikos,” was all he said.
Quiet up until now in the back, Dion obviously decided it was time he made his presence felt. “My sister will be happy to have you here,” he said. “She’s always complaining of the shortage of feminine companionship. Florina is unmarried too-although she hopes to be wed before too much more time passes.” The last with an odd emphasis. “You’ll like each other, I’m sure.”
Chelsea hoped he was right. Being here under false pretences was bad enough, without finding herself at odds with any member of his family. Abandoning the whole idea would probably be the wisest course, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Not while there was any chance at all of achieving her aim. Nikos would be a hard nut to crack, but she might just manage it if she put her mind to it. First and foremost, she had to get beneath that guard of his.
“If she speaks English as fluently as the two of you do there’ll certainly be no problem in communicating,” she said. “My Greek is pretty basic as yet”
“Travel broadens the vocabulary,” said Nikos. “As does tourism also.”
Chelsea’s brows drew together. “You’re involved in the tourist industry?”
“The whole of Greece is involved in the tourist industry,” came the dry return. “Our economy, to a great extent, depends upon it”
“I shouldn’t have thought you met all that many tourists yourself, though,” she ventured, unable to visualise this man mingling with the average package dealers. “The island being private, I mean.”
“Our lives are hardly confined to Skalos,” he said, making her feel a bit of an idiot
“Does Dimitris know yet that he’s to have a birthday party?” asked Dion, before she could make any further comment. “Or is it still to be a surprise?”
“Better he should be surprised rather than disappointed should anything go amiss,” his cousin replied. “Do you like children?” he added to Chelsea.
“I couldn’t eat a whole one,” she quipped before she could stop herself, drawing a splutter of laughter from the rear. “Sorry, that was crass,” she apologised, neither daring nor caring to glance in Nikos’s direction. She added cautiously, “I like some children.”
“You’ll love Dimitris,” Dion assured her. “He’s a real little character!”
“You’re welcome to attend the party if you wish,” invited his cousin, leaving Chelsea feeling that the younger man hadn’t left him much choice.
An opportunity to see the Pandrossos homestead was hardly to be turned down, however, though it seemed necessary to at least make the gesture.
“That’s very kind of you, she said formally, “but I wouldn’t want to intrude on a family occasion.”
Nikos drove the car between double iron gates, expression unrevealing. “Dimitris is the only child in the family, so we must go outside of it for companions for him. We have guests coming from the mainland too, so there’s no question of intrusion.”
“In that case, I’d very much like to come. “Thank you, ki… I mean, Nikos.”
His nod was a mite perfunctory. “Think nothing of it.”
Sparkling white in the sunlight, the house that came into view was more modem in design than Chelsea would have anticipated-a single storey spreading out in several directions, as if bits had been added almost as afterthoughts. A disappointment in many ways, she had to admit.
Nikos drew up before the arched doorway, but declined to accompany the two of them into the house.
“I’m invited for dinner tonight,” he said, “so I’ll see you then. Kali andamosi.”
The equivalent of “bye for now’, Chelsea surmised, not having come across the phrase before. She felt deflated as he headed the car back along the driveway, aware of having made a great deal less than a good start on her campaign-buoying herself up with the thought that she was at least no further away from achieving her aim.
