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She went over to the window and looked out at a vista of rooftops.
She felt ashamed. She was supposed to be here for her father, trying to infuse him with her own youth and strength, and instead she’d allowed herself to daydream—to remember things far better forgotten. A time that was past and done with.
Except…
The memory of that enigmatic e-mail message would not be so easily dismissed.
I am waiting for you.
It can’t be him, she denied, almost violently. I won’t believe it.
She grabbed a magazine from the table and sat down, only to open it at a page recommending Greek holidays. She looked at the crescent of bleached sand fringed by turquoise water in the picture and realised bleakly that there was no refuge from her memories.
They crowded her mind, filling it. Drawing her inexorably back to Myros.
She’d hardly slept that first night at the taverna. She had been too aware of the danger threatening her to be able to relax. And Draco was the most danger she’d ever encountered in her life.
No wonder he was a fisherman, she had thought, turning over restlessly and thumping the flat pillow with her fist. He knew exactly how to keep a woman hooked and helpless.
But he wouldn’t reel her in. She wouldn’t allow it to happen. She was her own person, and her plan didn’t include casual sex. It never had.
Draco had to learn that no matter how attractive he might be he was not always going to win.
And he’d soon find consolation. Every time he danced there’d be a queue of eager and willing girls vying for his attention. He wouldn’t have time to remember the one that got away.
She had nodded fiercely, and closed her eyes with determination.
When she’d awoken, early sun had been spilling through the slats in the shutters across the tiled floor.
The first thing she had seen was that all the things she’d used yesterday, including the beach towel, were lying pristinely laundered and neatly folded on the chair, and the white dress, which had been carefully draped there, had gone. Maria, it seemed, had performed a dawn raid.
Which I didn’t intend, Cressy had thought, as she slid out of bed and headed for the shower.
When she had gone down the outside stairs, Maria had been sweeping the courtyard. To Cressy’s embarrassment, it had been made immediately clear that she would be allowed to pay nothing for her night’s lodging or her meal. Nor would she be permitted to have the white dress cleaned.
‘It is my pleasure to do this for you,’ Maria declared. ‘Everyone say how beautiful you look in the dress.’
Cressy flushed a little. ‘Oh?’
‘Ah, yes.’ Maria gave her a roguish look. ‘And one person in particular, ne?’ She pointed to the table Cressy had occupied the night before. ‘Sit there, kyria, and I will bring you breakfast. Rolls and coffee, and some of the honey from my sister’s bees.’ She bustled off, leaving Cressy to take a careful look around, but she had the courtyard to herself, she realised with relief.
She consulted the list of ferry times in her bag, and saw that the first one ran in just over half an hour. She should make it easily.
Her meal also included fresh orange juice and a bowl of creamy yoghurt. By the time she got up from the table she was replete.
‘I can’t thank you enough,’ she told Yannis and Maria when they came to say goodbye to her.
‘You are welcome.’ Yannis’s hand closed over hers. ‘Welcome at any time. Your room will always be waiting.’
Cressy’s smile was a little taut. ‘Maybe—one day,’ she said. She hesitated. ‘And please would you thank Draco for me? He’s been—kind.’
She picked up her bag and headed down to the harbour, determined to be the first one on the ferry. But it wasn’t moored at the landing point she’d used yesterday. In fact she couldn’t see it anywhere, she realised frantically, shading her eyes and staring out to sea.
‘So you did not intend to say goodbye.’ Draco got up from the stack of wooden crates he’d been sitting on. The shorts he was wearing were just as disreputable as the previous pair, and he’d topped them with an unbuttoned white cotton shirt.
Cressy lifted her chin. ‘I—I left a message with Maria.’
‘Now you can give it to me in person.’
Exactly what she hadn’t wanted. She said stiltedly, ‘Just—thank you, and good luck.’
‘I believe in fate more than luck.’ He looked her over, smiling faintly. ‘Last night you were Cressida,’ he said. ‘But today you are Sid again. What will you be tomorrow, agapi mou?’
She shook her head. She said, almost inaudibly. ‘I don’t think I know any more.’
‘Perhaps you are being reborn,’ he said. ‘Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of your former life.’
She threw back her head. ‘But I don’t want that. I’m quite content with things as they are.’
‘Content?’ There was scorn in his voice. ‘Is that the most you can wish for? What a small, narrow word, when there is excitement, passion and rapture to be experienced.’
‘Perhaps,’ she said, ‘I like to feel safe.’
‘There is no safety, agapi mou. Not in life. Not in love. As you will discover when you stop running away.’ He shrugged. ‘But if you wish to return to Alakos and the comfort of your hotel, I will take you.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘But I’ll wait for the proper ferry.’
‘Then you’ll wait a long time,’ he said drily. ‘Kostas drank too much Metaxa last night on Alakos. There will be no ferry until tonight.’
Cressy gasped indignantly. ‘Is he allowed to do that?’
Draco grinned. ‘He does not usually wait for permission. It is my boat or nothing, pethi mou.’
She gave him a fulminating glance, then sighed. ‘All right. Your boat. Just as long as I get back to Alakos.’
‘Why the hurry? Are you so sure that Myros has nothing more to offer?’ There was an undercurrent of mockery in his tone.
‘I’m paying to stay at the Hellenic Imperial,’ she reminded him tautly.
‘Ah, money,’ he said. ‘That concerns you deeply?’
‘I like to get my money’s worth. But I’m sure you’re far above such considerations.’
He lifted a negligent shoulder. ‘It’s easier not to think about it, I promise you.’
Cressy bit her lip, aware that she’d been ungracious about his undoubted poverty.
She said, ‘You must let me pay you for the trip.’
He sent her a quizzical look. ‘Did Yannis and Maria ask you to pay for the meal last night—or your room?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘They didn’t. But…’
‘And I am no different. There is no charge.’ And there was a note in his voice which told her not to argue.
She sat tensely in the bow as the caique pushed its way through the sparkling sunlit water. The faint early haze was clearing and it was going to be another scorching day, she thought, lifting her hair away from the nape of her neck.
Draco said from the tiller, ‘You are too warm? There is an awning…’
‘No, I’m fine,’ she assured him quickly. ‘It’s just so—beautiful.’
‘I think you are falling in love, agapi mou, with my country. You will never want to go home.’
She stared at the horizon. ‘I think my boss would have something to say about that.’
‘You are indispensable?’
‘Hardly. I don’t think anyone really is. We just fool ourselves, then we go, and our space is filled, and no one even remembers we were once there.’
‘That is a sad thought for such a lovely day,’ Draco said after a pause. ‘But you will be remembered always.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Ah, but you will,’ he said. ‘By your lover, for one—and your father, for another. And I—I will remember too.’
‘You will?’ She sent him a look of disbelief. ‘That’s nonsense.’
‘Of course I’ll remember. It is not every day I meet a girl with hair like the sun, and moonlight in her eyes, who is called Sid.’
Her heart twisted slowly and painfully. To cover the sudden emotion, she pulled a face. ‘I knew I’d regret mentioning that.’
‘There is nothing to regret. It is good that your father had this special name for you.’ He smiled at her. ‘Sometimes when I look at you I can see the little girl you were.’
Cressy turned away and stared at the sea. She said flatly, ‘She’s been gone a long time.’
‘You will find her again when you hold your own daughter in your arms.’
How simple he made it sound, Cressy thought, her throat aching. And how unlikely it really was.
She straightened her shoulders. ‘Alakos doesn’t seem to be coming any closer.’
He said, ‘I thought you would wish to pay a last visit to our beach.’
‘And I thought I’d made it clear I wanted to go straight back.’ There was sudden ice in her voice as she turned on him, but Draco did not appear chilled.
His eyes met hers steadily. ‘You offered to pay for your trip. This is the price—that you swim with me just once.’
She said acidly, ‘Dancing last night. Swimming today. Do you set up a full fitness programme for all your women?’
He spoke very quietly. ‘That is a suggestion that de-means us both. But if it is really what you think, then there is no more to be said.’
She watched him move the tiller, heading the caique out into the open sea.
Then she looked back at the horizon and found it suddenly blurred with unshed tears.
It was a miserably silent journey. To Cressy’s surprise, Draco avoided the main harbour and sailed round to the hotel’s private bay, bringing his craft skilfully alongside the small jetty.
In a subdued voice, she said, ‘I don’t think you’re meant to be here.’
He shrugged. ‘Does it matter? I shall soon be gone.’
His touch completely impersonal, he helped her ashore, and put her bag on the planking beside her.
She said in a sudden rush, ‘Draco—I’m sorry—I didn’t mean what I said. I—I don’t want us to part bad friends, but I’m just so confused. I can’t seem to get my head together…’
He nodded, but the bronze face showed no sign of softening.
‘Then start listening to your heart instead, Cressida. And when you do, you know where to find me.’ He pointed towards Myros. ‘I shall be there—waiting for you.’
She stood on the jetty and watched until the boat was a mere speck, but he never looked back.
Cressy jumped as the door to the visitors’ room opened and the consultant came in.
‘Miss Fielding.’ His handshake was limp for such an eminent man. ‘You’ll be pleased to hear that your father is making good progress. If it continues, we should be able to send him home next week.’
‘Oh.’ Cressy sat down on one of the uncomfortable chairs. ‘Oh, that’s such a relief. And the operation?’
‘As soon as we consider he’s fit enough.’ The consultant looked vaguely round. ‘Is your mother not here? I should speak to her about his future care.’
Cressy said evenly, ‘My stepmother is—away.’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Building up her strength to nurse the invalid at home, no doubt. Admirable.’
Cressida bent her head. ‘Now may I go back to my father, please?
‘You’re going to be all right, Dad,’ she whispered to the still figure in the bed. ‘Isn’t that wonderful news? I just wish you’d give some sign that you can hear me. Although I do understand that you’ve got to rest.
‘And I can work for you, Daddy. I can deal with the bank, and the mortgage company, and everyone. I can’t get your money back, but maybe I can stop you losing everything else. I’ll talk to them—I’ll make them listen. Because I need to work—to stop me from thinking. Remembering…’
In spite of the heat, she shivered.
She had gone straight up to the hotel, she recalled, and lain down on the bed in her air-conditioned room and stared up at the ceiling…
There was a vast, aching emptiness inside her. A trembling, frightened nothingness.
She thought, What am I doing? What have I done?
Draco’s face seemed to float above her, and she closed her eyes to shut him out. But she couldn’t dismiss her other senses so easily. Her skin burned as she remembered the sensuous pressure of his body against hers. She seemed to breathe the scent of him. To feel the brush of his lips on her flesh.
