flashed her sister a grateful glance and took her cue, moving off the sofa on which she and Sophy and Michael were seated and kneeling down in front of Dimitra before taking her mother-in-law’s hands and saying softly, ‘I would like us to be friends and for you all to get to know Michael, Dimitra. I know it won’t take away the pain of your loss, but perhaps in time you could feel a little part of Theodore is still with you in the form of your grandson?’
‘Oh, my dear…’ Now the tears were pouring down Dimitra’s face as she held out her arms to Jill and Jill, still kneeling, hugged her mother-in-law.
Andreas cleared his throat before saying to a now silent and subdued Michael, ‘How about if I show you the pool? You would like this? And also your grandfather has something in the garages that might take your fancy. Have you ever sat in a Lamborghini, Michael?’
‘A Lamborghini? A real one?’ Michael was over the moon.
‘And there is a Mercedes too in your favourite colour,’ Andreas told the small boy in a stage whisper, ‘but don’t tell your grandfather I’ve told you. Perhaps you and your aunt would like to come and see now and we can have a cold drink by the pool, yes?’ The question was spoken in a tone which made it rhetorical.
Sophy stiffened slightly. It was one thing to remove Michael from the overwhelming emotions throbbing about the room, but from the way Jill turned and looked at her as Andreas spoke she knew her sister wasn’t at all sure about being left alone with Theodore’s parents, even if things did seem to be going well. And Jill was still the only person she was concerned about.
She squared her shoulders. ‘I don’t think—’
And then, to Sophy’s surprise and anger, she found herself lifted up from the sofa by a determined, strong hand at her elbow. ‘Come along, Sophy.’ Andreas was smiling and his voice was soft and pleasant, but the granite-hard eyes were another matter. ‘Ainka is going to serve refreshments in a few moments, so it is better I tell her now we will have ours by the pool in the sunshine. It is lovely there this time of the day.’
She glared her protest at his cavalier treatment. ‘Now look—’
And then she found herself literally whisked across the room and out of the door, Michael padding along behind them, and it wasn’t until Andreas had shut the drawing room door and had pointed down the wide expanse to his nephew saying, ‘That door down there, Michael. That is the way,’ that she came to her senses. And she found she was mad. Spitting mad.
‘Let go of me, this instant!’
It was a soft hiss—Sophy was well aware of Michael’s ever-flapping ears—but none the less vehement for its quietness, and Andreas immediately complied, his voice as low as hers as he said, as they both watched the small boy dance off down the hall, ‘Your sister and my parents need time to themselves, Sophy. Surely you see that? This is an important time for them all.’
‘What I see is me being man-handled and Jill left alone at a difficult time,’ she snapped hotly. ‘That’s what I see! And who do you think you are, anyway, telling everyone what to do?’
‘My parents’s son,’ he bit out with soft emphasis.
‘And I’m Jill’s sister,’ she snarled with equal ferocity.
‘What on earth do you think they are going to do to her in there?’ Andreas asked testily, lifting a hand to Michael who had now reached the end of the hall and was waiting for them.
‘I’ve no idea, have I?’ Sophy returned cuttingly. ‘Jill and I don’t know you or your family from Adam! All we do know is that, for some reason, you all fell out with Theodore years ago and there’s been no meeting point until now.’
‘You cannot lay that at my parents’s feet. My mother was inconsolable when he left Greece and would have done anything to bring about a reconciliation.’ He glared at her, only moderating his expression when Michael called to them impatiently. ‘And there was no “falling out” in the way you have suggested. My brother left Greece because he wanted to and in the same way it was Theodore who cut his family out of his life.’
‘He had a family, Jill and Michael,’ Sophy snapped back quickly. ‘And, from what I can gather, the fact that he married my sister was the final nail in his coffin. Well, let me tell you that he was lucky to get her! Darn lucky, in my opinion. Jill is worth ten of any high society girl he might have had paraded in front of him by your parents.’
‘Now, look here—’
‘I don’t have to look anywhere, Mr Karydis. Jill might be inclined to give you all the benefit of the doubt, but I tell you here and now that my sister and Michael are my only concern. I don’t have to like you, any of you, and I intend to make sure that Jill’s good nature is not taken advantage of. Now, you promised Michael a look at the pool and the cars, so I think we should get on with it.’ She glowered at him, her eyes shooting blue flames, before she turned to face Michael fully and arranged her features into a more harmonious whole.
As she went to walk away, she felt his hand catch her wrist again and she shot round to face him, grinding out through clenched teeth, ‘You touch me once more, just once, and so help me I’ll forget Michael is standing there watching us and give you the sort of come-uppance you should have had years ago.’
The stunned outrage on his face almost made her smile—almost—but she was too angry to fully appreciate that it was probably the first time Andreas Karydis had ever been well and truly castigated. And by a mere slip of an English girl at that.
As his hand dropped from her arm she swung round and made her way to Michael—who was hopping about with fretful eagerness—sensing Andreas was just behind her, and then they were all entering a long corridor leading off the hall. The kitchens were on one side and—according to Andreas’s terse voice—the resident housekeeper and the maid’s private quarters on the other.
Andreas stopped to poke his head round the kitchen door and ask that their refreshments be served in the pool area, and then they continued to the end of the corridor and passed out of that door into the grounds of the estate and into hot bright sunshine.
Sophy let Andreas and Michael walk in front of her once they were outside for two reasons. One, she wanted to let Andreas establish a nice easy rapport with Michael for the little boy’s sake and for the atmosphere to lighten generally, and two, she found she needed to dissect all that had been said and determine if she had been hasty at all. The truth of the matter was that she was feeling slightly guilty about some of what she’d said, and the more she went over their conversation in her mind the more she acknowledged she had gone too far.
She bit her lip as she glanced at the tall powerful man and small boy in front of her, the blistering afternoon sun beating down on one jet-black head and a smaller golden-brown one. Oh, darn it—what a way to set the ball rolling!
She had only been in Greece two minutes and she’d already dug a big deep hole for herself as far as Andreas Karydis was concerned! Not that it bothered her personally, if she was being truthful—he was a hateful, arrogant pig of a man and she thoroughly loathed him—but she was here as Jill’s sister and Michael’s aunt, and Andreas was Jill’s brother-in-law and Michael’s uncle. Unfortunately, the family connection was close.
They had almost reached the Olympic-sized swimming pool which glittered a clear blue invitation in the sultry heat but, although the magnificent surroundings and acres of landscaped grounds were breathtaking, their beauty
