Chapter 9
9
KASSIOPI CASTLE
Christos’s head was spinning and he didn’t even know why he was giving this whole scenario the room in there to rotate. This did not matter. His life was no longer here. His life was in Athens. His future was anywhere he wanted it to be. This tiny island, so all-consuming for some, was an insignificant Wonder Woman shaped part of Greece he didn’t have to remain forever wedded to because he had happened to be born here. He planted his hands on one of the Byzantine-era walls and took a deep breath. He was shaking, his blood pulsing. His godfather was gone. He had disconnected from him as much as from anyone else when he had moved to Athens. Vaggelis hadn’t deserved that. He had done so much for him over the years, so much for his mother and sister. Even when Andreas – his best friend – left, Vaggelis had been there for the family, to help try to pick up the pieces for them. They weren’t family by blood, but sometimes the family you chose was the strongest bond of all…
‘Wow, I need to… up my cardio if I’m going to be climbing up hills like that one.’
Christos whipped his head around to see Molly standing behind him on this terrace-like part of the battlements, hands on her hips, taking deep breaths. This woman, whoever she was, no matter how intriguingly attractive he found her, had just arrived here and inherited half of what he felt should have been his mother’s or his sister’s!
‘You don’t go to a gym?’ he bit.
‘No… well, I do… kind of… but it’s not great.’
‘Yeah?’
‘It’s… basic and, well, outside.’
‘Outside?’ he queried.
‘Yes,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘In England it’s crazy, right? Totally exclusive obviously and completely insane. So… what is this place?’
She stepped past him and right up to the outer walls with the spectacular views down to the water. So she had come here, taken things that belonged in his family, and now she wanted some kind of history lesson too?
‘It was used to defend the island years ago. It is part of a triangle of castles. There is Angelokastro over on the other side of the island and Gardiki in the south.’
‘Sorry,’ Molly said, turning back to him. ‘I didn’t come up here for a guided tour.’
‘No?’
‘No, I actually came to see if you were OK.’
His annoyance with her started to deflate. How could he be angry with someone for something that was his godfather’s fault, especially when she was now being nice.
‘ Ime kala . I’m good.’
‘You didn’t seem too good when Katerina announced we were sharing an inheritance.’
Sharing . The idea that he was sharing anything these days almost brought him out in hives. Sharing meant having to consider others. He didn’t do that. Couldn’t do that. The moment you did it was paving the way to be taken advantage of. Still, this wouldn’t be for long…
‘It was a surprise. To know that my godfather knew you and had left you some of his estate,’ he answered coolly.
‘Believe me, it was a surprise for me too. A shock that I had even been to this place,’ Molly said.
‘You have been here before?’
She nodded. ‘There are photos. Of me in nappies. Crawling on the floor and eating spaghetti with my fingers.’
He smiled. ‘The best way to eat it in my opinion. No falling from the fork.’
She smiled back at him. ‘Thank you for being kind. I will never show the pictures to you.’ She sighed. ‘Well, I don’t know what we do next but maybe you need to tell me a bit more about your godfather. The only things I’m getting from my mother is ouzo and boat rides and how you could see his underwear through his white trousers.’
Christos shook his head. ‘If he was wearing any underwear at all.’
‘I highly suspect she knows about that too,’ Molly said, nodding.
‘God,’ Christos said. ‘What a mess this is.’
‘Well, yes, we could look at it like that,’ Molly began. ‘But, my friend Siobhan likes to remind me that life is for living, especially the unexpected bits, and usually when unexpected things happen to me they don’t take the form of being gifted a boat and one leg of a cat.’
‘No?’
‘Do we have to decide which leg is ours?’
‘Do you have a preference?’
‘Maybe the one he doesn’t use to scratch? And I don’t want to take ownership of the long fang because that sounded creepy.’
He laughed. ‘It is creepy. And the cat is female. Armeena.’
‘I think I need to meet her.’
‘I think once you do you will wish you did not.’
He had yet to see the cat since he had been back here. His mother and sister had not said she was no longer around. Not that he had asked…
‘So, we should, you know, find out what happens next, right?’ Molly said, fingers scooping her hair behind her ears as a gentle, welcome breeze arrived.
‘What happens next?’ he asked.
‘What we do with the things. The boat and the cat and the red truck.’
‘Two of those we should burn immediately,’ Christos answered.
‘Well, that isn’t for you to decide alone, is it?’ Molly stated.
He waved her comment away with a brush of his hand. ‘When you have seen these things there is only one way you will be thinking. Like me.’
‘And what do you think? Apart from the setting fire to things?’
‘We sell it all and we return to our lives with whatever money we can get.’
‘O-K,’ Molly replied.
‘So, good, we are agreed.’
‘What? No, I’m not agreeing to anything until I have seen everything.’
‘You really want to meet the cat?’ He raised an eyebrow.
‘Yes,’ Molly answered firmly. ‘And I want to meet the truck and the boat and the olive tree… and the apartment.’ She took a breath. ‘I mean, I might decide I want to live there.’
‘What?!’
‘I’m not saying I would but, you know, I’ve never owned a property before.’ She looked into the mid-distance, down over the rooftops and those harbour views. ‘My mum has never owned a property before. She did have a car once. For about six months until she realised she was actually using it for storage more than she was driving it and perhaps it would be cheaper to just buy a new wardrobe.’
‘You have the money to buy my share of the apartment?’ he asked.
‘Well, I guess that depends on how much it’s worth. We should get it valued.’
He laughed, then nodded. ‘Agreed. But, I cannot wait to show you. I think you will soon realise that my godfather may have had many things, but those things were not of the finest quality.’
‘I don’t know how you can be so mean about a cat,’ she responded, a smile on her lips.
‘Oh my God, Molly,’ he said, letting go of a tight breath. ‘What is going on here? My godfather making these random crazy choices for his belongings!’
‘Hey, don’t call me crazy,’ Molly replied.
‘You jumped across balconies yesterday. I feel the title is warranted.’
‘That wasn’t crazy. That was a tiny bit of danger. Sometimes you need a pinch of that.’
‘Is that something your friend says too?’
‘No,’ Molly said. ‘That’s all me.’
Wow. OK, now the fine hairs on his arms were standing to attention. This was new for him, someone affecting him like this. And before he could keep himself in check he was talking again.
‘Would you like to come to dinner with me tonight?’ he asked. ‘To talk about… the things.’
‘Oh, well, we could, I guess. It’s just my mum saw a blackboard advertising a quiz night tonight and there’s karaoke after and Siobhan is a big fan of murdering Adele – not actually murdering Adele, but, you know her songs and?—’
‘Where is that pinch of danger?’ he challenged.
‘You haven’t heard Siobhan singing “Set Fire to the Rain”.’
He smiled. ‘OK, I understand. You think we cannot discuss business over some of the best Greek food on the island. We need to keep things professional and espresso-based.’
‘I think,’ Molly began, her fingers brushing the rocks on the wall they were next to, ‘that my guard has been up ever since I started wondering why you tried to convince us you worked as a waiter at Virginia’s.’
He smiled again. ‘I do not think you needed to be convinced. You just needed a cold beer. An understandable situation to be in.’
‘So you don’t work there?’ Molly asked.
‘Why not come to dinner with me tonight and find out? We can eat next door to my maybe-maybe-not place of work. The restaurant is called Tavernaki. They do a fantastic dish with spaghetti. I do not know if you will be able to eat it with your fingers but…’
‘What time?’
‘Nine?’
‘Wow, OK, you know we have tea in the UK about six.’
‘Tea?’ he queried.
‘Never mind. Fine. Nine o’clock. And I expect to find out more about all the things that are soon going to belong to me.’
‘Belong to us ,’ he corrected. ‘And two legs of Armeena for my mother and sister.’
‘OK. Good. Well, I will stop talking and save my lungs for the trek back down the path and leave you to your being annoyed that I exist. Goodbye, Christos.’
‘See you tonight, Molly.’