Chapter 46
‘I am not sure about this.’
It was Margot speaking and it was early evening. They had taken a taxi from Oia to Fira and were standing in a queue ready to get on a cable car down to the old port where a small boat was going to take them from the shore to a luxury yacht. From their position here you could really see how steep the cliff face was, creating the most dramatic vista. Sunlight dappled blue domes, bright pink bougainvillea trailed over white walls and infinity pools speckled the landscape.
‘It is like a little house on wires,’ Horatio said, grinning. ‘When we get in I will jump about and it will rock like the bed of a prostitute.’
‘Horatio!’ Akis admonished.
‘You are disgusting,’ Margot said, glaring at Horatio.
Cara was very, very nervous right now. And sweating, despite their attempts to get into a little patch of shade.
‘You are OK,’ Akis whispered, his voice warm in her ear.
‘I’m not so sure about that,’ she answered, leaning against him a little.
‘Well,’ Akis said. ‘If you want the truth, I am the one who should be nervous. I have only just learned the song and I do not want to let you down.’
She slipped her hand into his, linking their fingers together. ‘You could never let me down, no matter what happens tonight.’
She meant that with her whole heart. Tonight, for her, may have started as a mad scheme Margot was concocting but now things felt different. For the first time in a long time, it felt like she had some control. She might still be feeling terrified about singing, about the song she was going to be singing, but she was determined not to make it about what had gone before. Maybe it would be an opportunity to exorcise her demons. And that sounded really weird as she was stood next to someone who was going to pledge himself to the clergy. Someone who had kissed her when they were wet from the sea and had kissed her again up against a grand piano. And she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about a hundred other places she wanted him to kiss her…
‘Cara, do you have the PowerPoint presentation all ready to go?’ Margot called as the queue moved a little.
‘I do,’ Cara said, coming back to reality. She indicated the bag over her shoulder that held a laptop, as well as a bit of make-up in case everything melted before she got on board, deodorant for the same reason, some hard sweets to suck before she sang because too much water to hydrate her vocal cords always made her feel like peeing and a tiny fully operational miniature of the Maxi-Go case.
‘So, let me get this straight,’ Horatio said. ‘We are going to an exclusive party on some boat of a millionaire and you are going to play a business presentation? I mean, do we all have to watch? Will it require me to pay attention and make notes? Because this is not like any party I have been to before.’
‘No,’ Margot said confidently. ‘Of course it is not like any party you have been to! You don’t regularly get invited onto the yachts of millionaires!’
‘Hmm, you are confident about that?’ Horatio asked.
‘What are you talking about, you stupid man?’
‘I think we can get on now,’ Akis said, indicating it was their turn to get into the cable car.
Cara saw that Margot was hesitating and she didn’t really know why. Her aunt didn’t have a fear of heights, or indeed of anything.
Margot stepped forward. ‘Akis, take Horatio on. We’ll be a second.’
As the guys stepped into the cable car and Horatio began to stamp his feet to check the stability of the floor, Cara stood close to Margot.
‘Is everything OK?’ she asked her softly.
‘Yes, of course,’ Margot replied instantly, stiff upper lip intact. ‘Why wouldn’t it be?’
‘Well, I know that this need to break into other markets, take Carried Away fully global, is really important to you. And I think I also know that seeing Raj again is… maybe something important too.’
‘Of course it’s important, Cara. He’s the only man I know that has the kind of money we need. OK, yes, theoretically I could try to woo that duke we met in Oxford, but to be honest with you I think he’s only land rich not cash rich and that’s no good to us.’
‘OK,’ Cara said. ‘So there’s nothing else?’
‘What?’
‘Between you and Raj.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Well,’ Cara said. ‘The white dress. In the boutique. The one you went all misty eyed over. I thought?—’
‘You’re being completely ridiculous now. And if we don’t get on this contraption we’re going to be late.’
Without saying any more, Margot strode into the cable car.
It felt like mere seconds until the machinery whirred and whined and the cabin set off.
‘Whoa, Margot,’ Horatio remarked. ‘It has quite the bounce to it.’
‘As will you,’ Margot said. ‘When I drop kick you out of here if you carry on.’
Horatio laughed. ‘I love it when you talk to me that way. So powerful.’
Cara watched the interaction between them. It was almost what Margot described as ‘playful sparring’. Horatio would look at Margot, Margot would look at Horatio and then look away. Breaking eye contact. Come to think of it, Margot did that a lot when Horatio was around… Cara then looked to the glorious view outside. Yes, perhaps it felt a little bit unnerving to be rolled off the top of the edge of Santorini in a rather flimsy-feeling structure, but what she could see on the way down totally made up for the tiny bit of peril at being suspended on wires. They were in the midst of the crumbling rocks, peeling away from the summit and taking a deep descent like they were abseiling the mound.
‘It’s incredible, isn’t it?’ Akis said.
‘It really is,’ Cara agreed.
‘This is something I did not think I would be seeing this summer.’
‘There are many things I didn’t think I would be seeing this summer,’ she said, looking from the view to him.
‘Ne,’ he breathed. ‘Simfono. I agree.’ He put his arm around her shoulders and drew her into him.
Except there was the matter of him becoming a priest. And she knew the score there. He had to take a wife before he became a priest or he would never be able to marry. They had such little time together.
‘I see the boat!’ Margot exclaimed, pointing a finger and her nail hitting the glass. ‘Look! You know, if you can tear yourselves away from each other for a second.’
‘What? The little boat to take us to the big boat?’ Horatio asked.
‘Don’t be stupid! The big boat! There! That one! With the helicopter on top.’
‘There’s a helicopter on top? Let me see this,’ Horatio said, pushing his face against the glass.
Now Cara’s stomach flipped as the realisation of what she was about to do really set in. It was going to be OK, wasn’t it?