One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 28

‘Oh my God!’ Margot exclaimed. ‘It’s a building site!’

The taxi hadn’t really known whereabouts in Notos they wanted to go until suddenly, when they mentioned whose wedding they were attending, the penny dropped. The taxi driver had smiled, nodded and said, ‘Like the sleeping beauty.’ Now Cara could kind of see why. Right ahead of them, towering up over everything in the vicinity except the tall, lean cypress trees, was a castle straight out of Disney. However, it looked very much still under construction. There were workmen in jeans and vests, some actually working, others on a smoke break, and most of the fa?ade was covered in tarpaulin. It didn’t look like something ready to be blessed today and, unless all stops were pulled out, not something ready for an impending wedding.

‘I wonder if Sofia knows it looks like this,’ Margot continued, with a good degree of pleasure in her tone.

‘Margot, are you sure about being here?’ Cara said. ‘Don’t you think it’s better that you rest? Considering you were in hospital first thing this morning.’

Margot was a little unsteady on her feet, despite all this ‘carrying on as normal’ bravado.

‘Stop asking me that. I said I’m fine. Even more fine now I’ve seen this. Where’s my phone? I want to take photos.’

It did look very incomplete. From plants that had obviously been brought for the occasion, drooping in their pots, to the unfinished turrets at the top. It wasn’t so much a feast for the eyes as a poorly packed and insufficient shoddy picnic.

‘Oh, Cara, thank God, you’re here!’

It was Anastasia, sweeping down the half-built pathway.

‘Hi,’ Cara greeted. ‘Wow, this looks so… substantial.’

Anastasia scoffed. ‘It’s a fucking mess is what it is. My mother is splitting her personality between screaming at Stavros, the project manager, and crying with Pappa Spiros.’ She then did a double take, looking at Margot. ‘What happened to you? You look worse than this castle.’

‘Believe me,’ Margot replied. ‘If you had seen me at 8a.m. you would think the way I am now is nothing short of miraculous. Now, take me to your mother, I know exactly what to do.’

‘I am not sure that is a good idea,’ Anastasia said. ‘She is trying to stop Wren arriving and that involves telling Cosmos about how this place looks and he will start to cry and of course my mother is already saying that it is the Diakos curse and?—’

‘There’s a curse?’ Margot said, her demeanour now suggesting that despite looking like she’d been target practice at a shooting range, she had never felt better.

‘Erm,’ Cara said, linking her arm through Margot’s. ‘Why don’t we take a little walk.’ She addressed Anastasia. ‘Is there somewhere nearby we could get a coffee maybe? Or a glass of wine? Until this is all sorted out.’

‘I think we’d need to drink a whole vineyard to have enough time for anyone to sort this out,’ Margot remarked.

‘Well, perhaps there is no need for us to be here anyway,’ Cara continued. ‘This blessing event sounds much more like a family occasion.’

‘Oh no,’ Anastasia said quickly. ‘You have to be here. All the main guests of the wedding have to be here, or the blessing won’t work.’

Cara frowned. They were ‘main’ guests? Was this a title Margot had managed to get them because Cara was booked as the wedding singer? Something she still hadn’t told anyone apart from Margot that she couldn’t do.

‘Let me see your mother. I can talk to whoever is in charge of this shambles and get things moving. I am an expert at getting people to do what’s needed, aren’t I, Cara?’

Was the maharajah not a ‘main’ guest? Surely royalty would be one seat below the immediate family…

‘Cara!’ Margot barked.

‘Sorry, yes, yes you most certainly will be able to make a difference in this situation.’ She hoped she had heard enough to get a grasp of what she needed to say.

‘Sofia!’

‘Oh, no, it’s my grandmother,’ Anastasia said. ‘She wasn’t supposed to be here! But she seems to find out about everything she is not supposed to.’

Cara turned to see Irini, making her way along the road, leading Pig.

‘I thought it was a blessing of snakes not donkeys,’ Margot said, sounding confused.

‘Listen,’ Cara said, taking charge. ‘Why don’t you two go into the… erm… castle and I will make sure Irini and Pig are OK until everything’s decided.’

‘I don’t see a pig,’ Margot remarked, putting a hand to her head as if she was concerned this was as a result of concussion.

‘Come, Margot, perhaps my mother does need someone to make decisions for her right now,’ Anastasia said. ‘And who better than an old friend.’

Cara watched them go, making sure Margot was steady walking on the rather rough ground and then she turned her attention to Irini and Pig.

‘Yassas,’ Irini greeted. ‘Is Akis here?’

Pig rubbed his face on Cara’s shoulder and almost made her topple over.

‘Oh, no, he isn’t. Not yet. We arrived a bit early and?—’

‘Look at this!’ Irini said, arms up in the air as if she was beckoning the heavens. ‘I have never seen something look so ugly. I mean, look at it, all thick boulders of grey blocks. What is it supposed to be? A prison?’

‘I think it is actually meant to be a castle,’ Cara said. ‘I am sure it will look a lot more… fairy-tale wedding venue when it’s finished.’

‘The only way this could look better is if it was flattened by a wrecking ball and all the trees they tore up were replaced!’

Cara swallowed. They’d cut down trees to build this? Her mum would be chaining herself to the building and protesting if she were here. And it didn’t sit well with Cara either. Corfu was so green and beautiful, an abundance of olives, figs and almonds. This ‘castle’ couldn’t have been more out of place.

‘Sofia, she thinks this is all my fault,’ Irini continued, leaning a little on Pig. ‘When she was young we did not have much of anything and Sofia, she craved everything we did not have.’ She shook her head. ‘But this… this is out of control.’

‘Yiayia, perpátises?’

It was Akis arriving.

‘Ne, epeidi boró,’ Irini replied.

‘Signomi, Cara,’ Akis said, turning to her. ‘I asked my grandmother if she had walked here.’

‘And I said “yes, while I can”.’

‘OK,’ Cara said. ‘Well, I’m getting quite hot here in the sun and I don’t think we’re really allowed near the?—’

‘Holy shit!’ Akis exclaimed, as if he had only just noticed the building ahead of them. Pig brayed as if in total agreement.

‘Yes! All the shit from the heavens has landed at this place where your grandfather and I once danced,’ Irini said, shaking her head. ‘It always used to feel so magical to me.’

There was sadness in the old woman’s voice and Cara watched her eyes going back and forth to the building work and then to the trees, their branches being tickled by the light humid breeze.

‘Come, move into the shade,’ Akis seemed to tell them both. ‘I will go and find out what is going on.’

‘What is going on,’ Irini said, ‘is that some people here pick and choose when to support the gods. Sofia is so fixated on the Diakos curse but does not care that she stamp all over Phaunos, the god of forests.’

Cara put a hand on the old woman’s arm.

‘I will be back,’ Akis said, striding off.