The Passionate Greek (13 page)

‘I have never lied to you,’ she protested.
He came close to her and looked into her eyes.

‘No, you didn’t lie. You just didn’t tell me
the truth.’

Melanie looked away discomforted. He saw his
arrow had hit home and pressed his advantage. ‘So my beautiful
stowaway, eavesdropping non-truth telling Melanie we will go out
again tomorrow. This time no swimming out to the boat. Be at the
harbor at 10.’ He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her
lightly on the forehead, then turned on his heel and left. Melanie
had never felt so confused. ‘I just won’t go,’ she told herself
angrily. ‘He’s arrogant, impossible and we’ll only end up having
another fearsome argument. What’s the point?’

She slept badly, tossing this way and that.
She woke early and went for a run on the beach before the sun was
up. By the time she got back Electra was just waking up. She bathed
and dressed her and was giving her breakfast when Maria
appeared.

‘There’s no need for you to come today,
Maria,’ said Melanie pleasantly. ‘I shall be here all day.’

‘Oh, no Miss Melanie,’ said Maria. ‘Mr Nicos
told me to come. He said you’re going out.’ ‘Mr Nicos is wrong,’
said Melanie. ‘I’m not going anywhere today.’

Seeing Maria looked worried Melanie told her
to stay and they would all spend the day together. ‘We can take a
picnic down to the beach and you can tell me all about your date,’
she said mischievously. Maria blushed and giggled.

By eleven o’clock the picnic was packed,
Electra strapped firmly into her buggy and they set off through the
villa gardens towards the path that led to the beach. Melanie was
bending down to adjust the buggy’s sun canopy when she heard
Maria’s startled squeak. She looked up to see Nicos bearing down on
them. Maria took one look at his set face and said hurriedly, ‘I
take baby,’ Wresting the buggy from Melanie she made off leaving
Melanie alone to face Nicos. He strode towards her his face
thunderous.

Where were you this morning? he demanded

‘Where I should have been. In the nursery
with our daughter.

‘You were supposed to meet me at the harbor.
I waited for an hour.’ Melanie was not going to be intimidated.
‘Serves you right. I didn’t say I was coming.’ The look on his face
would have made Melanie laugh if she hadn’t been so mad. ‘You’re so
used to getting your own way it never occurred to you that I
wouldn’t turn up, did it?’

They glared at each other. ‘I am not going
anywhere with you.’

‘Yes, you are,’ he said, and seizing her arm
practically dragged her down the path.

‘Let me go,’ she yelled at him. But he took
no notice and pushing her in front of him propelled her down the
path to the harbor. At the quay the fisherman looked on with
undisguised interest as Nicos frogmarched her along. ‘Everyone is
staring at me,’ she hissed at him. ‘Well, stop struggling,’ was all
he said. He dumped her unceremoniously next to a big iron bollard,
which secured the island’s motor launch. Swiftly jumping down into
the cockpit he reached up and hauled her in. In a trice he had
gunned the motor and was shouting at the boatman, ‘Cast her
off’.’

The impetus of the powerful twin engines
lifted the boat’s nose and Melanie was thrown back on the white
leather upholstered bench. She gazed furiously at Nicos’s back as
he punched out of the harbor at full throttle. Melanie was almost
pinned to her seat as she held on for dear life. Once on the open
seas he eased up and as the boat’s noise dropped to a less
precipitous angle Melanie was on her feet and tugging furiously at
him. His hands were clamped tight to the steering wheel and without
moving them he elbowed her off. Incandescent, she yelled at him
‘Where the devil do you think you’re taking me.’ He turned his head
towards her and over the roar of the engines he mouthed something
at her.

‘What?’

‘Moving close to her ear he shouted
‘Lunch’.

Melanie couldn’t be sure she had heard
right. Surely he’d not said ‘lunch’. She retreated to her bench
seat. It was obviously no good asking him anything in this mood.
She glanced around her. She wasn’t sure which direction they were
taking, but they obviously had not gone anywhere near the moored
yacht and seemed now to be quite far out at sea. A smudge on the
horizon looked like land to her. Was he taking her to some
island?

The nearer they came to the smudge she could
make out white buildings on hillsides and a long, snaking
coastline. No, not an island. It looked very much like the
mainland. Maybe he’s going to dump me and leave me there, she
thought darkly. Nicos was slowing the boat and nosing into a small
harbor. Melanie looked around her. It wasn’t the port where they
normally set out for Skiapolos. She guessed they must have come
further up the coast. Nicos jumped ashore and tied the boat up,
leaning down to help her ashore. To her annoyance he looked pleased
with himself.

‘It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?’ he said,
gazing around the small harbor. Melanie refused to give him the
satisfaction of agreeing, but as she looked around her at the
colorful bobbing fishing boats and the bright awnings of the
tavernas lining the quayside, she had to admit that it was.

He led her to a nearby bar and without
asking ordered her a glass of Greek wine. It was like a ticket to
the past. It was his favorite of all Greek wines. Nicos had
introduced her to it on their very first visit to Skiapolos, amused
and delighted that she had never had it before. Why was he ordering
if for them now? Had he forgotten or was he remembering. She wasn’t
sure which.

Perhaps the drink was having the desired
affect but she suddenly felt very relaxed. She settled back in the
comfortable wicker chair and let her eyes wander over the scene. He
sipped his drink, watching her over the rim of his glass as she ‘I
knew you’d like it here,’ he said serenely.

His assumption that all was now well between
them made her cross again. ‘You brought me here by force. You
kidnapped me,’ she accused. ‘Kidnapping,’ he mused, turning his
glass round in his hands reflectively. ‘That’s a crime isn’t it?
Perhaps I am learning from you. Let’s see what you can teach me.
Oh, yes, how to steal someone else’s identity, how to forge a
contract, and, last but not least, how to stowaway on a yacht.’

She rose to her feet, nearly overturning the
small table. He put out a restraining hand. ‘I’m sorry, he said
contrite. ‘I can’t resist teasing you. I promise faithfully I won’t
do it again. Well, not over lunch, anyway’ he amended.

‘Did you really bring me here just for
lunch?’

‘Of course. But if there is anything else
you’d like to do please don’t hesitate to let me know.’ He looked
at her, his eyes alight.

‘I don’t know where I am with you,’ she
complained. ‘One minute you’re mad as a wasp and bulldozing me
aboard your boat and then you say you’re taking me to lunch calm as
you please.

‘I’m never in a temper for long. You know
that. I’m not saying I wasn’t pretty cross. You stood me up.’ He
looked astounded and Melanie had to laugh.

‘Not used to that, are you?’ she chided.

‘I was thinking things over last night,’ he
said. ‘I thought if we came here for lunch today we could maybe
talk things over. Maybe it’s time I explained a few things to you.’
He looked at her seriously. ‘I’m not saying it will change things
between us but I think there are things about me you need to
know.’

He summoned the waiter for the bill and they walked
together along the quay to a taverna where a cluster of outside
tables with blue and white checked cloths jostled each other for
space. At the entrance a portly figure bustled out and flung his
arms round Nicos, kissing him on both cheeks and babbling away
excitedly in Greek, none of which Melanie could follow.

‘George, meet Melanie,’ introduced Nicos.
Melanie found herself roundly kissed on both cheeks and her hand
pumped excitedly. ‘George is the owner,’ Nicos explained as they
were ushered into the dim interior and through to a vine covered,
sun dappled terrace. A lone table was set for two and the
proprietor pulled out a chair for Melanie with a smiling flourish,
gesturing for her to sit.

‘Our private dining area,’ smiled Nicos.
‘Only very honored guests get to sit out here.’

‘Mr Nicos is such a guest,’ said George,
looking proudly at Nicos. ‘Without Mr Chalambrous I would no longer
own this taverna.’

‘What did he mean,’ asked Melanie, as George
hurried off. ‘’He exaggerates,’ said Nicos dismissively. ‘It’s an
old family business and George’s father nearly ran it into the
ground. I just lent him some money when the old man died.’ ‘Lent or
gave?’ said Melanie, giving him an old fashioned look. ‘Neither
really,’ said Nicos, whose attention seemed to be fixed on the
menu… ‘George has no family. I gather I am going to be left the
taverna in his will.’ He smiled mischievously. ‘Maybe I’ll give it
to you and you can run it as an upmarket restaurant to service all
the luxury yachts that put in here.’

He laid the menu back on the table and
looked across at her. ‘Have you thought what you will do when the
summer is over?’ Melanie’s heart lurched. She didn’t want to think
about it. All she wanted to do was live in the present and take
each day with her daughter as a gift. She couldn’t bear to think
ahead to the day when she had to leave the island for good.

But Nicos persisted. ‘I think you should go
back into catering. You were very good. You could open a small
restaurant?

‘What with? she said feelingly.

‘I could finance it,’ he said. ‘That would
be two restaurants I’d own,’ he laughed. Melanie was affronted. ‘I
wouldn’t dream of taking your money. I’ve told you that before. You
think you your money can solve every problem....’

‘No, I don’t think that,’ he said. ‘I know
very well that it can’t. It can’t solve us, can it?’ He looked
sadly at her and she looked away.

‘We were so happy once, he said. ‘If I could
bring those days back I would. But what happened between us can’t
be put right.’

‘We could put it right, but you would have
to change,’ said Melanie.

‘I can’t change,’ he said. ‘What I believe
and the principles I live by are paramount. They can’t be altered,
not for you, not for anyone. I believe in loyalty and promises that
must be kept,’ he said resolutely.

‘And what if I told you that they are my
principles also.’

‘Then I would have difficulty in believing
you.’

‘Why? Because of what happened to me. You
think I wasn’t loyal to you, but what if my promises were made a
long time ago to someone else?

‘Once you were in my life I expected you to
be loyal only to me, to make promises only to me.’

‘And promises made to someone else before I
met you don’t count. Do you think that’s fair, do you think that’s
reasonable? Melanie was trying hard to keep her tone level. Somehow
she had to get through to him. ‘If you would only let me
explain..’

‘I don’t need you to explain. What I know, I
know.’

‘But that’s just it, Nicos... ‘You don’t
know, you only think you do.’

‘There is another man involved in your life.
That’s all I need to know ‘

Melanie had tried hard to keep her temper in
check in the face of his intransigence. Now it broke like a too
full damn. Her voice remained level, but the tone was venomous.

‘You and your principles,’ she said. ‘Does
it ever occur to you that others have them, too? If you got down
from your high horse just once in a while you might listen to
reason. But from now on I am perfectly happy for you to believe
what you want of me. I know the person I am and I can live with it.
You don’t know me. I’m not even sure you ever wanted to. You just
had some picture of a perfect woman who was to be your everything.
Well, I hope you find her, but I very much doubt if she even
exists.’ She slumped back in her chair, exhausted by her
emotions.

Nicos had sat impassively throughout her
diatribe, only the flickering of his jaw muscles betraying his
agitation. Melanie saw and was glad. Suffer, it’s your turn, she
thought furiously.

Finally he broke his silence, ‘I didn’t
bring you out here today to quarrel,’ he said.

‘Why did you bring me,’ she shot back.

‘I wanted us to be somewhere quiet,
somewhere private away from Skiapolos where I could explain
something to you. There are things I want you to understand about
me.’

He leaned back in his chair and sighed.
‘Yesterday we were having a wonderful day together; it couldn’t
have been more perfect. Yet we ended up quarrelling furiously. I
wondered why, wondered what set us against each other.

Melanie interrupted, ‘The same thing that
always does. The fact that you won’t listen to my explanation.

‘No, it wasn’t that, not this time,’ he
said. ‘You thought I was saying you weren’t a good mother and you
were quite rightly angry. But I wasn’t talking about you. You are a
wonderful mother. I could never fault you.’

‘If you think that then why not let me be a
mother always – not just for this summer,’ she interjected hotly
but he ignored her outburst.

He looked down at the table. ‘This is not
easy for me,’ he said. ‘I don’t like talking about it, but I think
you deserve to know something about me.’ Melanie looked at him,
uncertainty written across her face. ‘You don’t need to tell me
anything you don’t want to. If it’s not about Electra or not about
us then it’s not for me to know.’

‘But it is. What I am about to tell you has
formed me and made me think and behave the way I do today. I hope
it will help you understand why there are things that I can’t
accept.’ His jaw tightened and his face had gone pale under his
tan. His distress was a tangible thing and Melanie was suddenly
unaccountably afraid for him. Pain was etched visibly into his
face.