Chapter 4
We sat there for about an hour while the chat flowed between us.
Jillian appeared once or twice, looking harassed and slightly panicky.
Apparently there were problems with the showers in two bedrooms, and breakfast had been rescheduled for eight o’clock in the morning instead of seven thirty, because Costas had a darts match that evening and was evidently anticipating a late night.
‘I don’t care either way about the shower dribbling,’ Susan said. ‘I can always use June’s, and if I start to pong, just sit downwind of me.’
‘But it’s a basic human right,’ Dennis blustered, ‘and we were promised proper facilities, it says so in the brochure.’
‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ June said, finishing her coffee. ‘Nothing about water pressure.’
‘Well, I wish I had brought my tool bag,’ Dennis said. ‘I’d have it sorted out in no time.’
‘Perhaps it needs a good whack with a mole wrench?’ Beryl said. ‘You know, I’ve always thought that sounded a bit cruel. Why would anyone want to wrench a mole?’
‘Rick would,’ Anita said. ‘We had terrible troubles with moles across the lawn last year. He used to go out at night and sit for hours in a deckchair with a torch and a giant pepper mill as a weapon. He never saw a single one.’
‘I don’t think they were an anti-mole implement, I think they were invented by a Mr Mole,’ Will said.
It was unexpected and rather nice to hear him join in the conversation at last, and the thought appealed to me.
‘I can imagine him, dressed in a velvet waistcoat and plus fours. Whiskers twitching.’
‘Living in some underground office with tree roots across the ceiling,’ Will said with a grin.
‘Yes, but where are we going tomorrow?’ Dennis said irritably. ‘I haven’t come here to talk about moles, I’ve come for the painting.’
Susan rummaged in her handbag and pulled out a sheaf of papers.
‘It’s all in the email she sent us, didn’t you print them out?’
‘I told you I never print things out,’ Dennis said. ‘It’s a waste of the world’s resources.’
‘Then it’s a good job I did,’ Susan said, passing the paperwork across to him. ‘Look, the minibus will collect us at nine thirty and take us to a spot along the coast where there is a ruined monastery. There’s also a small café and information centre.’
‘Have you been here before?’ I said, turning my attention back to Will.
‘No. Crete and Kos years ago, before it got too busy. I prefer somewhere quieter these days.’
A flicker of some emotion passed across his face, and he picked his sunglasses up from the table and put them back on again.
‘I think this is lovely from what I’ve seen,’ I said. ‘So quiet and unspoiled. No famous people on yachts moored off the harbour. No huge villas full of celebrities.’
‘Not yet,’ Beryl said. ‘It just takes one Oscar winner or television reality star to spill the beans about it. I can just about remember going to the south of France with our parents in the 1960s. An absolute jewel. Beautiful and stylish with hardly any traffic. Now it’s very different.’
‘If you’ll excuse me, I need to make a phone call,’ Will muttered, and he went back downstairs.
I was a bit disappointed to see him go so soon. I would have liked to talk to him some more. Still, there would be plenty of time in the days ahead.
The rest of us chatted quite easily about ourselves, what we liked about painting and what we were hoping to accomplish during our stay, and then Jillian appeared half an hour later, looking rather agitated.
‘Where has Will gone now? I thought we could set off for our dinner now we are all together. The table is booked for six thirty.’
‘I’ll bang on his door as we go past,’ I said. ‘Where are we going?’
‘If you had come on my guided walk earlier, you would know,’ Jillian said rather waspishly. ‘The Blue Sea restaurant, by the harbour. The one with all the Greek flags if you get lost.’
Anita and I exchanged a look.
‘Told off,’ Effie murmured.
‘Will is in number nine. Now, let’s get going,’ Dennis said, ‘or we will be late. And then they will give away our table and we’ll have to scrape around for somewhere else with enough room for us all. And that will play havoc with my glucose levels.’
‘I don’t think he needs to worry,’ Beryl said as we went down the stairs, ‘it’s not exactly high season, is it?’
I paused as we passed Will’s room and tapped on the door while the others carried on down to the hallways.
He opened it after a few seconds and stood looking at me rather blankly. He was wearing a clean blue t-shirt and some rumpled shorts, and it looked as though he had been asleep.
‘We’re off to dinner,’ I said. ‘Are you coming too?’
‘I think I’ll give it a miss,’ he said, rubbing one hand over his stubbly hair. ‘I’m just catching up with a few things.’
What things? I thought this was supposed to be a holiday?
‘That’s a shame. I’m told you know all about the Minoans. Ancient history, that sort of stuff. And I’d love to hear all about it.’
‘I know some of it, yes,’ he said.
We stood looking at each other for a few seconds until the silence became a bit awkward.
‘Do I know you from somewhere? Because you look really familiar.’
He hesitated and then imperceptibly started to close the door.
‘I won’t keep you. Have a good evening. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Well, my female powers of persuasion evidently needed a new battery. I left him to it and hurried to catch up with the others, who were already halfway down the road.
The thought that I knew him from somewhere nagged at the back of my mind. Had he been a neighbour of ours? Had he been in a boy band perhaps, or had he been a child actor or a disgraced politician? Nothing seemed to fit, and I was usually good at remembering faces.
* * *
When we arrived, The Blue Sea restaurant was empty except for us.
And we did have a really pleasant evening.
The group seemed to be already splitting into two smaller groups – Dennis, June and Susan had cosied up to Jillian at one end of the table and the four of us were down the other.
Jillian evidently had not got over her resentment that we had not gone along on her introductory walk and occasionally sent tight-lipped looks down the table towards us.
‘Now, this boat trip to St Joseph’s beach,’ Anita asked at one point. ‘I like the sound of that. Where does that go from, Jillian?’
‘Well, of course, and I hate to repeat myself, but if you had come on the guided walk this afternoon, you would know,’ she called back with another of her frosty smiles. ‘At the far end of the harbour. There’s a little shed there with a red star painted on the door.’
‘Does that mean it’s also a Russian safe house?’ Beryl chuckled, and Effie roared with laughter and leaned against her.
Jillian paused with a prawn halfway to her mouth and fixed her with a puzzled look.
‘Don’t mind me, Jillian, I’ve watched too many James Bond films.’
Jillian gave a heavy sigh. ‘The Greeks believe red is associated with change, and of course I am hoping this is what you will all find here. Change for the better.’
‘I hope so too,’ Dennis said. ‘I’ve been feeling my work is in need of inspiration.’
‘And this is exactly the place to find that,’ Jillian said with an approving nod in his direction.
‘It’s very beautiful, I must say,’ Susan said. ‘I think it’s going to make all the difference.’
‘As long as you don’t just paint flowers and kittens?’ Dennis said.
Susan pulled a face. ‘There’s nothing wrong with kittens—’
‘Oooh, there are kittens that sleep on the canopy over my balcony,’ I said.
Susan turned in her chair with a delighted smile and started telling me all about her cat who was nineteen and liked to sleep in the vegetable rack.
‘Oh for pity’s sake,’ Dennis said with a sigh.
* * *
I walked happily back through the warm streets to our hotel later that evening, full from my absolutely delicious meal (chicken souvlaki and tzatziki).
I was feeling unbelievably positive and unexpectedly happy about the week ahead.
Delighted to be here and excited about the prospects of the following day when apparently we would be treated to some wonderful views, a taste of ancient history and time to relax.
It all sounded exactly what I wanted, and I began to wonder why on earth I hadn’t done something like this sooner.
I only hoped my limited artistic ability would improve as the days went on.
Some of the group were obviously taking the experience a lot more seriously than we were and had been earnestly discussing the various shades of blue needed to capture the essence of our Mediterranean dream.
The benefits of indigo verses phthalocyanine, whether cerulean had any place here or should it be washed cobalt?
I just nodded and looked thoughtful as these discussions went on, wondering if I should hide Nicky’s school tin of watercolours from the possibility of scrutiny by Jillian.
Perhaps I should have bought something more impressive than an empty Play-Doh pot to hold my water?
Back at Hotel Costas, the four of us decided to go back up to the roof terrace so that we could look at the night sky somewhere without light pollution.
When we got up there, all the lights were on and we couldn’t see the stars at all.
Anita waved towards the wall. ‘There’s a light switch somewhere, over there by the bins. I bet if we turn everything off we will see the sky far better. There aren’t that many streetlights around here.’
Beryl and I went to look and found a bank of switches in a waterproof covering.
We stabbed at a few through the thick plastic until eventually the roof was plunged into darkness.
For a moment we all oooed and aahed appreciatively at the starry sky above us, but then there was a shout of outrage and what sounded like some very rude words from the pool area.
Switching the lights back on, we saw Costas in the hot tub, mercifully covered by the bubbles, which had started up again. He was resting back on a plastic cushion smoking a cheroot, a bottle of ouzo and a glass balanced on the edge of the tub.
‘Costas! How did the darts match go?’ Beryl asked to try to mollify him when it seemed our attempts at an explanation were not going down well.
Costas made a long grumbling noise and said a lot of words, which Beryl couldn’t actually translate, but the gist of it was – not good.
‘éna dyskolo paichnídi. Such a hard game,’ Beryl said sympathetically.
‘I tried once, missed the board and stabbed myself in the foot,’ Effie added.
At last, evidently annoyed at his end-of-day relaxation being disturbed, Costas hauled himself out, revealing two things. Insubstantial swimming trunks that were not up to the task required of them and the possibility that he had werewolf somewhere in his ancestry.
The four of us scurried giggling to the other end of the roof terrace and tried to avert our gaze while he towelled down and then wrapped himself in a robe decorated with dolphins.
After hearing the roof door slam behind him, we crept out and resumed our stargazing, lying down on some of the sunbeds for a better view of the night sky.
It was breathtaking, better than anything I had ever seen.
The stars seemed to go on forever. In a funny way it made me realise exactly how small my problems were, and indeed so was I.
If the garage couldn’t fit my car in for its MOT next week, then I would just have to cope.
I needed to paint my bedroom ceiling now that I had fixed the damp patch, but really it wasn’t something to lose sleep over.
The stars were here before me and would be here long after I had gone too.
‘It’s a sign, isn’t it?’ Effie said, following my gaze towards the glittering constellations above us.
‘What? Not to disturb Costas in the hot tub?’ I said.
Effie shook her head and chuckled.
‘I’ve never seen a man that – what’s the word? – hirsute,’ Beryl agreed, and unfortunately at that point there was a great deal of childish giggling.
‘I had a lip wax before I came here. It looked like I’d a small badger nestling on my top lip. I hate to think what it would entail if Costas… Do you think Nina has to comb him out?’ Anita asked.
‘Stop it,’ I said, putting a hand to my throat to stop laughing, ‘it’s supposed to be very manly.’
‘I think we need to go to bed,’ Anita said, ‘and prepare for the morning. Breakfast is at eight, and then we are off to the ruined monastery. Perhaps a few hours actually painting will settle us all down.’
‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘After all, that is why we are here.’
Anita prodded at the light switch again and some of the bulbs around the roof glowed in the darkness.
‘Serious, intellectual and creative thoughts, girls,’ Beryl said. ‘We need to find the higher plane of beauty and artistic endeavour.’
‘Oh, I liked him. Endeavour. That actor, Sean someone, he was very watchable,’ Effie said, her eyes lighting up, ‘and I don’t usually like the slim, frail, damaged types.
I like a man I can get hold of. I’m a great feeder.
I think I must have been a mother bird in a previous life.
If I’d had children I would have been like a dear little hummingbird, with jewelled wings.
Flitting from flower to flower. They are supposed to be the best bird mothers. ’
Beryl gave a snort. ‘Rubbish, you would have been a penguin. They leave the fathers in the Antarctic blizzards to incubate the eggs for weeks on their own, and when the mothers come back, they just vomit up a load of fish.’
* * *
We trooped off downstairs again and went to our rooms.
‘I’m so looking forward to tomorrow,’ I said as Anita and I unlocked our neighbouring doors.
‘Me too. I’m going to really focus and get something done which I can be proud of.
Rick has already said he will pay to have my best one framed and has earmarked a space in the dining room where he says he’s going to hang it.
He has such faith in my abilities, which I fear are unfounded. See you in the morning.’
How nice, I thought as I made my way to my room.
To have a husband who was encouraging and supportive.
I could almost imagine the sneer Malcolm would have given as he struggled to find something positive to say about my paintings.
For a moment I was almost envious of Anita, because apart from anything else, she seemed to really like her husband.
Which sometimes – when the going got tough in a marriage – was more important than love.
The kittens were sound asleep on my bathmat again and woke when I closed the door, scarpering out onto the balcony in a flurry of paws and startled tails.
It had been a long and enjoyable day, and I was ready for my bed. Tomorrow, as Beryl said, we would get down to some work.