Chapter Twenty-Three
The house was quiet over the next few days, with just her and Theo.
Vassilis didn’t arrive for work, he didn’t call for her, he didn’t message.
And Nina was glad, the last thing she needed was to see him and have to deal with the turmoil of feelings that would bring up – rage at him for stealing the bracelet, confusion as to why, pain at his betrayal. Fury at herself for trusting him.
Angry, Nina slammed down the tin of paint a little too hard. None of it had been real, had it? All the time Vassilis was a thief, he was lying to her, watching her suffer at the loss of the bracelet and still not returning it. Had he ever even liked her?
She deserved better, as Heather had said when she’d told her the sorry tale over FaceTime. And she’d no doubt repeat it in a couple of weeks’ time when she arrived.
Theo ran into the room, staring around wide-eyed and clutching his hair.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ she asked.
‘Where is it, this burglar I hear? All this crashing and banging, I thought you were getting attacked.’
Nina laughed. ‘Don’t be so dramatic, Baba. I was just putting the paint down.’
‘Oh, oh, just putting this down she says.’ He flung his arms above his head and widened his eyes even more. ‘Never mind she’s giving her poor baba a heart attack.’ He clutched his chest and lolled against the wall, panting.
‘Wow, someone give that man an Oscar,’ she said, grinning. ‘I just slammed it down a bit. I was thinking about Vassilis.’
She pulled a face, and Theo nodded, serious now, pushing himself off the wall to give her a hug.
‘This boy doesn’t deserve you.’
Nina nodded, still in his arms, breathing in his comforting smell of cooking and aftershave. ‘I know.’
‘He is just waste of place, don’t even think of him.’
She smiled as he released his hold of her. ‘Waste of space, Baba.’
‘This is what I said.’
She prised the lid off the paint pot with a screwdriver and poured some into her tray, running the roller through it.
A nice crisp white; a good choice for the kitchen.
If she were decorating it, she would be happy with this as a base to build on, adding some nice details like authentic tiles and antique wooden shelving.
And maybe some turtle mosaics, she thought with a smile, remembering George’s suggestion, his expression full of eagerness.
But she wouldn’t be decorating it herself. And with every day that passed, another chance to persuade Theo not to sell to the hotel chain and potentially endanger the local wildlife was gone.
‘I don’t know why we’re even doing this,’ she grumbled as they painted the walls they’d already washed and sanded. ‘Can’t the hotel do it once they’ve bought it?’
He shrugged. ‘They can, of course, but I want them to see it at its best. Sell at top price, more money to share for my Antheia. Make sure you’re okay, like I promise your mama. And chop chop then, quick to it. We have the meeting set up in a few weeks and I want this place all slip and span.’
He slid her a sidelong look, grinning, waiting for her correction. But Nina frowned, too distracted by what he was saying to respond to how he said it.
‘You’ve got the meeting set up?’
‘Yes, but this is just a formality; Metalios is perfect for a hotel with the beach and the pretty village and the mountains, you see, they already have made plans, I have seen them.’
Nina turned to him, paint splodging from her roller onto the sheet they’d covered the floor with.
Some landed on her trainer. She glanced down, registering in some small part of her brain that this would ordinarily have caused her a lot of stress.
It didn’t bother her at all right now. ‘You’ve seen the plans? ’
‘Yes, yes, this is going to be very impressive, with a bar and they will add a pool area where the land is at the side, they will buy this land from us too, and there’ll be a restaurant and –’
‘So everything George said is true.’
Theo looked uncomfortable, scratching his head and getting paint in his hair, shuffling his feet. ‘Oh, well I don’t know what this George had been saying . . .’
‘Yes you do, Baba. I told you, and I told you what he said it will do to the turtles and the wildlife around here, and the village.’
He shrugged. ‘You know what these people here are like, so dramatic, saying it will be the end of the village, they always like to fuss. It was all a disaster when Yiannis added a bit of extra space outside the café, but they all love it now. Not enough happening to keep them all entertained, they need something to complain about. And you know, that old lady, she’s always making trouble.
’ He dipped his roller in the tray and started painting again.
‘Change is a good thing,’ he said firmly.
Nina felt as though her stomach had turned to ice. ‘So that’s what you and Maria were arguing about.’
He shrugged, staying carefully focused on the wall.
‘But this is your home.’ Her voice came out as a whisper. ‘Don’t you care?’
He turned to her then, his expression beseeching.
‘Of course I care, but I have spoke to the hotel man like you ask, and they have all the rules about the wildlife and so on, what you call it, eco-policy. So no harm will be done, no worries for my Antheia.’ He beamed, then wagged his finger at her.
‘And this is not my home. This, I’ve inherited, very lucky and I can use it to give you a chance for a happy life.
For a stable life, Nina. Where I grew up, we struggled, my parents working all the days and for what?
To just manage. To just feed us. To worry and fret and not have no money for doctor when people get sick, to see us run around hungry and with holes in our clothes. ’
There were tears in his eyes. Nina had never heard him speak of his childhood like this. He rarely spoke of it at all. It hurt her to see him hurting, and she wanted to go to him, to hug him and tell him everything would be okay.
But she needed to be sure. George had said the buyers might not be one-hundred per cent honest, after all.
‘So the turtles will be okay, Baba? What did they say, did they show you a policy, or . . .?’
‘Yes, yes, it is all good,’ he said. ‘They have this eco-policy, they have special person employed to give them advice, make sure they don’t break any rules. I asked them special about the turtles, they assure me all is good.’
‘Okay.’ She considered. This was good news then.
Perhaps George had got it wrong after all; there must be a way to have the hotel complex and still protect the wildlife.
But she felt like she should be happier than she was.
‘Well, that’s good. Thank you, Baba.’ She hugged him.
‘If you’re sure you want to sell? Because there is another way, you know.
We could – we could do it ourselves, just a small hotel, you could cook and I –’
He laughed, and pinched her chin gently.
‘Nina, no.’ His tone was affectionate, but dismissive.
‘No more of this nonsense. You aren’t a child now, you must grow up, not keep living in this dream world where we escape to Kefalonia like this is some fairytale and everything works out all rosy.
We sell the house to the hotel, we get the good money. And this will give you the good life.’
He worked on, face turned to the wall, chuckling to himself and shaking his head as he slapped the paint on. And Nina left, her mind racing.
She hadn’t intended to come to Maria’s. She’d left the house with no plan, other than to be away from Theo and the thoughts churning through her mind, to give herself some space and clarity.
Yet she found herself marching through the old woman’s front courtyard, without even stopping to pet Milo as she trotted over, butting Nina’s hand and looking hopefully at her, as though she might produce an apple or carrot at any moment.
She knocked on the door and waited as she heard Maria calling grumpily to hold on, she was coming, she had a bad leg, and who could this be, she wasn’t expecting visitors anyway.
Her scowl lifted into a smile when she saw Nina, and the smile quickly became an eyeroll when she registered Nina’s expression.
‘Which is it?’ she asked, putting an arm around her and ushering her into the cool kitchen. ‘That bad boy Vassilis or that silly boy your baba?’
Nina didn’t need to speak.
‘Both, eh? What they do?’
And so she found herself sitting at Maria’s table, sipping coffee and eating baklava, and sharing all her woes.
Maria, who had been walking with almost no trouble at all without her boot, nodded and patted her arm, sucked in her lips and shook her head, pushed the plate of pastries over to encourage Nina to take another. She did.
‘I just feel kind of annoyed,’ Nina said, taking another bite and registering, despite her misery, the delicious sweet, moist almond flavour filling her mouth.
‘With which one?’
She shrugged. ‘Both,’ she said, the word muffled by food. ‘More than annoyed with Vassilis, I’m done with him. But Baba – even though he did what I asked him to and found out the plans for the hotel, I’m a bit fed up with the way he laughed at me suggesting we stay and run the house ourselves.’
‘Okay.’ Maria placed her coffee cup on the table with a clip, folding her arms and leaning forward. ‘First things, I am glad you are done with this Vassilis. Not a good boy, like I told you before.’ She pulled a face and lifted her shoulders. ‘Not like my grandson, he’s a good boy.’
She smiled, looking smug. Nina couldn’t disagree.
‘But this with your baba –’ She blew out a breath, her cheeks rounding out like peaches. ‘He always was a silly boy, so stubborn. You want me to tell him off? He is scared of me, I know it.’
Nina smiled. ‘I think I can handle it, I have an idea. Thanks, though.’
Maria sighed and patted Nina’s arm. The skin on her palm was plump and calloused. ‘Don’t be too hard on your baba. He grew up – not like you.’
‘He was just saying that they struggled . . . I didn’t really know. He never talks about it.’
‘Things were hard and so this is why he came to Metalios for the summers and stayed with his uncle, his mama and baba, they had to work and it was hard with money, so this gave them a bit of help. But Theo – I think perhaps this is why he was such a naughty boy, he always felt not so good as Sofia and Yiannis and all the others.’
‘Poor Baba,’ Nina said, her voice soft. She’d never thought much about Theo as a boy, and had never realised that he’d had it so hard. The image of him as a child, away from home and feeling inferior to his friends, brought a lump to her throat.
Maria grunted. ‘Well. He still was naughty. Very cheeky. But I think this is why he wants all this money.’ She shook her head, pulling the same face she used to make at Nina’s attempts at cooking. ‘He wants to make sure you have a better life.’
‘That’s what he said,’ Nina agreed. ‘But Maria, why can’t he see he’s already given me a better life? I don’t need all this money to be happy. I love this place.’
She looked up as she said this, gazing wistfully out of the open door, expecting to see the view of the sea. But her gaze fell on George, standing in the doorway, a smile playing on his lips as he listened to her.