By the time the others left the water, she’d managed to compose herself enough to speak.
‘Lunchtime!’ she said, pinning on a fake smile. ‘Hopefully Louise has found us a table.’
At her request, Will ran over to tell Jon what was happening. Stella didn’t turn round, but was aware he was following as they strolled towards the restaurant.
Louise was on a bench seat behind a wooden table to the left of the taverna when they walked in, with a bottle of white wine in an ice bucket beside her. She was sipping from her glass, idly watching a man in white overalls collecting supplies from his boat, moored at the jetty below.
Every table was full and the atmosphere was buzzing, with cheerful-looking waiters scurrying back and forth, carrying trays of delicious-smelling food.
Amelia and Will said they were ravenous and Louise took charge of the menu. This was normally Stella’s job, because she was the one who really knew about food, but in truth, she was quite relieved not to have the responsibility today.
Louise ordered large plates of grilled shrimp, fried calamari, lamb slow cooked in olive oil, wine and herbs, and bowlfuls of chips. They also tried a rich, typically Cretan dish ofStaka, made with creamy goat’s milk and fried eggs.
Stella was hungry, too, and began to help herself. There was such a wide variety of different dishes to choose from, she hardly knew where to start.
Her mouth had started watering the moment she entered the restaurant, but when she began to eat, she found it difficult to chew. The food tasted oddly bland and got stuck in her mouth. She had to take sips of her drink to make it go down.
‘Is everything all right?’ one of the waiters asked when he saw how much was left on her plate at the end.
‘Delicious,’ she replied, anxious not to offend. ‘I’ve got a slight headache, that’s all. Please give our compliments to the chef.’
They took another taxi boat back to Porto Liakáda and plodded slowly up the mountain, carrying more bags of groceries they’d picked up from April’s supermarket.
Stella found herself thinking a lot about Hector on the walk and wishing he’d come, too, instead of spending another day on his own.
As soon as they reached the villa, she went to find him. He wasn’t in his bedroom or by the pool, and she thoroughly checked the whole place upstairs and down without success.
Feeling uneasy, she rang his mobile but it was turned off. She skirted round the garden next, calling his name, with Marina’s warning words about the sea playing loudly in her ears. Telling herself she shouldn’t listen and was being silly didn’t seem to work.
The garden felt eerily empty as the sun began to fade. When she couldn’t find Hector here either, her nagging apprehension turned into a silent scream. What if something had happened to him? What if Marina really did have special powers and had foreseen some disaster?
Without bothering to tell anyone where she was going, Stella grabbed her bum bag and hurried back down the mountain to the town. She was tired, aching and thirsty, but her mind was in turmoil and she couldn’t rest until she’d seen her son.
Her first stop was the harbour, where she scanned round, hoping he might be looking at boats or having a drink by the water’s edge.
She even checked far out to sea, cursing herself for giving Marina’s words any credence at all. Thankfully, there was nothing but more boats, bright white buoys and seagulls.
Her heart still thumping, she scouted round the nearby cafés after that, before heading into the supermarket. April was in a flowery apron, trying to mop the floor, with the baby at her feet, getting in the way.
‘Will you stop doing that, Nikos?’ she said, picking him up and plonking him to one side, away from the bucket of water.
He immediately crawled back to the wet patch she’d made and tried to grab the end of the soggy mop.
‘Jesus Christ!’ she muttered, before looking up and spotting Stella near the door. She wiped away some strands of hair on her hot, damp forehead and her face broke into a grin.
‘Hello! You back again already? Am I going mad? Didn’t I see you here about an hour ago?’
Ignoring the question, Stella asked if she’d seen Hector, but April shook her head.
‘He’s probably gone for a walk,’ she said reassuringly, placing both hands on top of the upright mop. ‘Mine are always wandering off. I can never find ’em when I want ’em and the little buggers never come when I call.’
The baby, who was still on the floor, screeched and held out his arms, wanting Stella to pick him up, but she was distracted and failed to notice.
‘Thanks! See you,’ she called over her shoulder as she hurried from the shop, scarcely hearing the furious shrieks from Nikos that followed her.
Looking left and right as she walked the length of the high street, she kept hoping to spot Hector at one of the stalls or in a café. It was about 7p.m. now and the place had filled up with diners and people just having evening drinks.
She would have popped into the old man’s shoe shop to ask if he’d seen her son, but she feared bumping into Marina.
