Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bea poured Katerina a fresh cup of coffee and refilled her own mug. She probably shouldn’t—she’d had far too much of the stuff already, and her nerves certainly didn’t need the caffeine. She was jittery after last night, and of course she’d barely slept a wink.
“Thank you again for coming to stay with me, Katerina. I do feel a bit of a fraud, though. I promise you he was out there, and I probably wouldn’t even have called you if Blane hadn’t insisted.”
Katerina sipped her coffee, and Bea had the distinct feeling there was something she wasn’t telling her.
She’d felt it ever since Katerina arrived last night.
She’d been wonderful—kind and reassuring, offering to stay over, helping when the policemen came to check everything.
By the time she’d arrived, of course, the man had gone and left no sign that he’d ever been here.
Bea thought the policemen believed her, but she’d also rather had the impression that they didn’t particularly like her.
She brought herself back to the moment. She was tired and spooked, that was all. Everything would settle down again now. It had to.
“Bea, sit down,” Katerina said.
Bea blinked. She’d been hovering. She knew she had. It was hard to sit still when she felt she ought to be doing something and had absolutely no idea what that something might be.
“Please.”
Something in Katerina’s tone made her sit. “What is it?”
The other woman looked decidedly uncomfortable.
“Katerina, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry, Bea. I should have told you sooner, but I feel sorry for him.”
“Sorry for who? What do you mean?” She sat forward. “Do you know who he is?”
“I do. We’ve all been telling him there is nothing he can do. You bought the place in a fair sale. None of this is your fault.”
“What isn’t my fault? And what do you mean, we’ve all been telling him?” Bea stared at her. “Who is he?”
Katerina looked down into her coffee. “His name is Nikos.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that last night?”
“Because you had already called the police by the time you called me. He doesn’t deserve trouble.”
Bea sat back. “Well, neither do I, and I haven’t done anything wrong. Why is he trying to frighten me like this?”
“I don’t think he is trying to frighten you. He’s not very…” Katerina searched for the word. “He’s shy, I suppose. Not very good with people.”
“Well, what’s his interest in my house?”
“That’s the thing. It was once his.”
Bea drew in a breath and let it out slowly.
“Oh dear. What’s the story?” Then she stopped herself.
“But wait. I met the man who sold it. You introduced us, remember? You told me he’d grown up here.
His parents still owned the house when you first started looking after it as a holiday rental, and he’d already moved to Athens.
You said he never wanted to come back and live here after they died.
That was part of the reason I didn’t feel too bad about buying it.
It wasn’t a home somebody wanted and had been forced to give up. At least, that was what I thought.”
“And all of that is true.”
“So, who is Nikos?”
“He is the other brother.”
Bea brought both hands up to cover her face. “There’s another brother?”
Katerina gave her an apologetic look.
“Why wasn’t he part of the sale?”
“The house belonged to Stavros. Their parents left it to him. Nikos inherited a larger parcel of land.” She pointed toward the window. “The other half of your field is part of it.”
Bea’s shoulders sagged. “So as far as he’s concerned, I’m the bad guy here, aren’t I?”
“Not you personally. The sale. You are just the person who ended up owning what he thinks should never have left the family.”
Bea shook her head. “He wants the house back?”
“No. The land.”
“Well, the house rather sits on the land, doesn’t it?”
“Not this part. The field behind the house.” Katerina hesitated. “Where the old house is.”
“The old house?”
“The little stone house.”
Bea frowned. “You mean the shepherd’s hut?”
Katerina’s expression changed. “It was not always a shepherd’s hut. It was the family home. Nikos was born there.”
Bea blew out a long breath. “Oh, for heaven’s sake.
This goes from bad to worse.” She sat quietly for a moment, trying to rearrange everything she thought she knew.
“I can see he has a grievance,” she said eventually.
“I can see why it matters to him. But that doesn’t excuse wandering around here at night and frightening the life out of me. ”
“I don’t think he meant to frighten you, Bea. He is not a bad man.”
“Well, what exactly does he want from me? All I know is that he’s filed some kind of land dispute and everything has to go through lawyers. Why didn’t he simply come and speak to me?”
Katerina shrugged. “As I told you, he is not good with people. And he sees you as a foreigner.”
Bea gave a small sigh. “Well, that’s fair—I am one. But I never wanted to be one of those dreadful expats who turns up somewhere and acts as though nobody lived there before them…” She let the words trail off. “And you truly don’t think he’s dangerous?”
“I know he isn’t.”
Bea studied her for a moment, then nodded. “All right. Then I suppose the next thing is to talk to my lawyer tomorrow and see where we go from here. Do you think Nikos would agree to meet me? With the lawyers there, I mean.”
“I think he would.”
“Would you ask him?”
Katerina nodded. “I will.”
“I’d like to hear it from him. Whatever it is he thinks happened, whatever he wants. I don’t want to keep arguing with a man I’ve never actually spoken to.”
Katerina’s shoulders relaxed a little. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
Bea was too, but there was no point in saying so. “Well, I know now. And I very much appreciate you coming over last night when I called. You didn’t have to.”
Katerina got to her feet. “I was glad to. You were frightened. You did not need to spend the night here alone.” She checked her watch. “But now I must go, if you feel safe.”
Bea nodded slowly. “After what you’ve told me, yes. I do feel safe.”
She did. But safe was one thing. Feeling secure in her own home was something else entirely.
She spent the rest of the morning pottering in the garden, though she couldn’t seem to settle to anything for long.
Every now and then she straightened and looked out toward the shepherd’s hut.
She felt a little guilty even calling it that now.
Nikos—the man from last night, who was also undoubtedly the same man she’d seen standing in the lane—had been born there. It had been his family home.
She shook her head. What a mess. She could see it from his point of view, she really could.
She’d always been able to do that—to see another person’s point of view even when she didn’t agree with it.
She liked to think of it as a strength, although Simon had always called it a weakness.
She had quite enough to think about without dwelling on Simon.
Blane, however, was a different matter. Her mind kept returning to him and how wonderful he’d been last night.
She hadn’t had time to process it all yet, but even the memory of his voice sent a little shiver down her spine.
And the fact that he’d called at all… She’d only meant to put him off with her text.
She hadn’t wanted to worry him, but he’d known anyway.
She smiled. All because she hadn’t called him darling in her text. He really was a wonderful man.
Although she did feel a little guilty about worrying him.
He’d gone straight into what she privately thought of as his super-security mode and made absolutely sure she knew what to do.
She’d called him back once Katerina arrived and the police had come and gone, but the connection hadn’t been very good, so she’d only kept him a few minutes.
She wanted to tell him what Katerina had explained about Nikos. Surely that would reassure him. But he’d said that he’d be in touch today, and it was still early morning in Montana.
She turned her attention back to the washing. She hadn’t managed to get all the cushion covers dry yesterday, so the ones for the bench upstairs were still out on the line. A short laugh escaped her when she spotted Pericles in the field.
“Oh no, you don’t.”
She was onto him now. She wasn’t leaving washing unattended while that goat was anywhere in the vicinity.
The smaller covers were dry, so she gathered them up and carried them upstairs.
The larger one could stay outside a little longer.
At least putting these back would give her something useful to do.
Upstairs, she stepped onto the balcony with the covers bundled in her arms—and stopped when she saw a white SUV coming up the lane.
It was ridiculous, but that old familiar fizz immediately rippled through her chest. It still happened whenever she thought about Blane, and she rather enjoyed it, but she absolutely could not start reacting that way to every white SUV she saw.
She smiled at herself as it came closer, and then the smile slowly slipped away.
It was a white Vitara. Not just a white Vitara, either.
As it came farther up the lane, she could see the dust on it, the dents and dings.
Her heart gave one enormous thump as the vehicle slowed near the house.
She stared as it rolled to a stop at the gate.
It couldn’t be. And yet when the driver’s door opened, there he was.
“Blane!” His name was out before she knew she’d called it.
He looked up toward the balcony, and that gorgeous smile broke across his face as he raised a hand. “Bea!”