Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“He had the right.” Nikos’s shoulders sagged.
It seemed he’d made his peace with the law, even though he was still at war with the reality.
“By the law, it was his. He can sell to who he wants.” He looked up, and for the first time Bea saw the emotion he’d been trying so hard to hold back.
“But the stone with my grandfather’s name…
” He swallowed. “He sells that to a stranger. He does not tell me. I hear from the village that my home is sold, and I am the last to know.”
Bea sat very still. She could feel Blane watching her now. No longer watching Nikos, but watching her, because he knew her. And he very probably knew what was coming.
“I’d like to say something,” she said. “And I’d be grateful if you both let me finish before either of you tells me I’m being ridiculous.”
Nikos looked baffled.
Blane came closer. “Bea.”
“You promised.”
“I promised to behave. Didn’t promise to agree, darlin’.”
She kept her gaze on Nikos. “The field behind the house. The one with the hut on it, where the stone is. I don’t use it.
I look at it, and I enjoy looking at it.
And I’ll be honest and tell you that I thought the hut was charming.
I thought of it as no more than a shepherd’s hut.
” She drew in a breath. “And I’m very sorry, because I think that must be a rather awful thing for you to hear. ”
Nikos stared at her.
“I think it should be yours. The hut and the piece of land it stands on. And the other half of that bloody field.” She glanced briefly toward Blane before continuing.
“I don’t know how to make any of that happen, and I’m sure the lawyers will have a great deal to say about it.
But that’s what I want. I’d like the place where your family began to go back to your family. ”
The silence that followed felt enormous. Nikos stared at her as though she’d spoken a language he understood even less than English. And Blane…
“No,” he said.
“Blane.”
“No. Hear me out. You asked me to let you speak, and I did. Now it’s my turn.” He came to the table. He didn’t quite loom, but he certainly made the terrace feel smaller simply by standing in the middle of it.
“That man”—he nodded toward Nikos, his expression not exactly unkind but certainly not gentle—“was outside your window at night. And you were scared, Bea. Don’t tell me you weren’t. I was on the other end of the phone.”
She opened her mouth, but he kept going.
“You called the police. You called Katerina. You stood in the dark in your own house and you were scared, no matter what you’re telling yourself now in the daylight. And I don’t think the answer to that is to hand him a deed.”
“But Blane, that’s not why I’m—”
“I know it isn’t. I’m telling you how it looks. If you give a man property because he frightened you and then told you a sad story, every soul in this village learns how it’s done.”
He shook his head.
“I’m not saying his story isn’t true. I believe every word of it.
I’m saying being born somewhere doesn’t give you the right to do what he did, and I’ll be damned if I’ll stand here and watch you reward him because you’ve got the biggest heart on this island and no clue how to stop someone from walking right into it. ”
It was perhaps the longest speech she’d ever heard him make. She sat for a moment and took it in.
Nikos had gone very quiet, looking between the two of them, and she suspected he understood most of what Blane had said without needing to understand every word.
“You’re right,” she said.
Blane’s eyebrows drew together.
“About all of it,” she added. “It will look like that. I know. And yes, it’s probably unwise. And he really did frighten me. I’m not going to pretend otherwise just because I’ve decided to understand why he did it.”
She turned to Nikos.
“You frightened me badly. You should never have come here like that, especially at night. Whatever this place is to you, it’s my home now, and you will not do that again.”
“No,” Nikos said quickly. “No. Never. I am ashamed.”
“Good.” Then she turned back to Blane. “And it’s still my land. And I still want him to have it.”
His lips pressed into a straight line. She watched him work through it.
It was easy enough to see. The man who had spent his life standing guard over the people he cared about was lining up all the reasons she was wrong.
He could throw every one of them at her, and she could see how badly he wanted to dig his heels in and win.
Not because he cared about winning, but because winning would keep her safe.
And she knew how incredibly important keeping her safe was to him.