Chapter Three #2
Her giant suitcase was filled to the brim, and she had to get Heather to sit on it so she could zip it up.
Theo’s was half empty. Which was lucky, because it meant that Nina could squeeze in all of her belongings that hadn’t fitted into her own case.
Including, as an afterthought, her climbing gear – a hobby she’d let slip away over recent years, and one that Sam had scoffed at when she’d once suggested they try doing some bouldering together.
But Sam wasn’t here to laugh at her, was he, so maybe she’d take herself off and do some climbing just to spite him.
Heather drove them to the airport and helped heave the cases out of the car.
‘Jumping jellies,’ she said. ‘I know the house needs work, but did you have to pack an actual kitchen sink?’ She handed Nina the last bag. ‘Have fun out there.’
‘You’ll come to visit, won’t you?’
‘Just try and stop me! I’ll be booking my ticket as soon as term’s finished.’
Nina gave her one last hug. ‘Right, come on, Baba. We need to check the luggage in, and the flight’s in two hours.’
She thought she saw Theo and Heather exchange a grin as she hurried him along.
Nina loved the smell of Greece, that warm, fragrant air that greeted them as they stepped off the plane into a balmy afternoon.
Already she felt her shoulders fall and the knots in her stomach untangle a little.
Her life had fallen apart in a spectacular way that she could never have anticipated, and she was filled with humiliation and hurt that two people she’d trusted had betrayed her so deeply.
She honestly didn’t know what she was going to do in the future.
But perhaps Heather was right. Perhaps this was a chance to reset.
And a few weeks in the sun wouldn’t hurt, would it?
‘Right,’ she said when they’d collected their luggage. ‘Let’s find a taxi.’
Theo’s head nearly swivelled off his shoulders. ‘Taxi? You think money grows on leaves? We get the bus.’
Two buses, it turned out, and a significant walk on either side of the journey, dragging heavy suitcases in the afternoon heat.
The walk along the pitted, dusty road was tricky dragging a huge suitcase, but the view was distracting enough to make it worthwhile.
The path was edged by olive groves, the grass yellow and dry, the air smelling of straw, but the trees and bushes were a deep, rich green, pink flowers bursting bright among the leaves.
Beyond, mountains rose, densely packed with trees that parted to reveal zigzagging roads of golden earth.
Nina quickly began to regret her choice of Mint Velvet track pants to travel in – what she wouldn’t give to be in a floaty skirt or even a pair of shorts right now.
She tied her hair into an impromptu bun, wiped the sweat off the back of her neck and dragged the case along as she trailed behind Theo.
‘Not so far now,’ he said cheerfully.
It had already been far, but Nina didn’t have the energy to point that out.
Eventually the winding road led to a cluster of buildings tucked into the foot of a hill.
At last they’d reached the little village of Metalios, their destination.
Nina looked around. The houses were not quite the white-walled blue-shuttered buildings she’d imagined, but were painted in a warm spectrum of colours, apricot, butter yellow, coral pink, all with roofs of terracotta tiles.
They came to a pretty little village square, the ground covered with smooth pale stone, and a large apple tree at the centre, surrounded by a small circular wall of the same white stone.
Two older men sat there, chatting in the shade, and a little black goat stood by them, chewing on an apple that had fallen from the tree.
At the end of a path lined with eucalyptus trees that led from the square stood a small cream-coloured church, its arched window frames and eaves a crisp white.
Nina watched as a gecko ran across the hot ground.
On the other side of the square was an undercover marketplace, and next to that a café where a few people sat outside under a vined canopy, drinking coffee and playing games.
Theo greeted them and they responded with a wave and a chuckle.
They talked animatedly for a while, and Nina leaned on her case, wondering whether she could ask for a glass of cold water.
Theo gestured to her and the man he was talking to smiled and spoke to her in Greek.
She lifted her sunglasses and smiled back, nodding, hoping that was the right reaction.
She wished once again that Theo had taught her to speak Greek when she was a child.
Still, she wouldn’t be there for long enough for it to matter.
She heard the word ‘Maria’ mentioned a few times, with much gesturing from the café owner and laughter and head-shaking from Theo. The men hugged and Theo set off again, at such a pace that Nina found herself trotting a few steps to catch up.
‘What’s happening? Where are we going?’ she panted.
‘The house.’ Theo gestured ahead, to two buildings a bit higher up the mountain, a little winding path edged with wildflowers leading up to them.
Nina’s heart jumped. The first house was beautiful, with pale pink walls, blue shutters and doors, and a balcony dripping with red flowers that overlooked the beach below.
With a last surge of energy, she marched on, imagining settling into the cool, welcoming rooms and changing into something more summery.
Theo walked up to the house, into a courtyard of patterned slabs that glowed in the sun and bright flowers that bloomed in blue pots, all sitting in the shade of a canopy that was laced with trailing leaves.
Theo knocked on the door.
‘Don’t you have a key?’ she asked.
‘Yes, yes, just getting it,’ he said. An elderly woman with her foot in a medical boot and thick dark hair that had a wide streak of white running through it hobbled out of the door. ‘Maria!’ he said, grinning and holding his arms open.
Perhaps this was the cleaner. Although Nina wondered at the family’s heartlessness at employing an old and clearly fragile woman for such a job.
The woman was chatting animatedly to Theo, wagging her finger as though he was a naughty child and waving the walking stick that she had been leaning on at him.
‘Ah,’ she said, catching sight of Nina. ‘You must be the daughter.’ She looked Nina up and down, taking in her smart, too-warm clothing and designer sunglasses.
She sniffed. ‘City girl, eh? Look like your mama, though.’
She turned to Theo. ‘The key?’ he asked in English.
Maria nodded and hobbled off, and Nina wondered who on earth this woman was, and how she knew her mum.
Her heart beat fast. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, so much she needed to know.
But when Maria returned, holding out a key that Theo took, Nina said nothing.
Just followed him back out of the garden.
As they reached the gate, she turned back to see Maria standing in her doorway.
Nina smiled. Maria nodded and turned away.
‘Who is she?’ she asked Theo, too distracted to wonder why they were turning away from this pretty house and walking a little further up the path.
‘Maria,’ he said, not very helpfully. ‘Here. Home!’
He gestured to the building they’d reached, a rather tumbledown house, bigger than the other one, that had no doubt once been beautiful but was now definitely more faded than grandeur.
The shutters hung skew-whiff, paint peeled from the walls and weeds sprouted between the slabs Nina and Theo stood on.
‘See,’ he said, his face pink with satisfaction. ‘Stunning, yes? Lovely view of the sea.’
Nina peered in through the broken window, looking up through the hole in the ceiling and roof. ‘And of the sky,’ she said.