‘How peculiar!’ Al said, scratching his head. ‘I don’t know what to make of her. What does she mean – the villa decides? It sounds like absolute rubbish, yet she seems so intelligent and plausible.’
‘I agree,’ Stella replied. ‘That’s why I did what I did and looked for Jon. I wanted to believe she was a total fraud, but something in me kept saying maybe she wasn’t, maybe I should listen.’
Al frowned. ‘Still, I can’t swallow the stuff about the villa having some weird power of its own. It’s just a house, for God’s sake. Bricks and mortar – or whatever it’s made of. It didn’t choose for you to come here. You looked online and bingo! You found it. It was the right price, available and it suited your needs; that’s all there is to it.’
Stella went silent for a moment, lost in thought. She was remembering Katerina’s words when they first arrived.
I think you’ll like it here, all of you. Villa Ariadne is a very special place. It’s like nowhere you’ve ever been before.
This trip had certainly been like no other holiday she’d ever had, and it wasn’t over yet.
A cloud seemed to appear from nowhere, casting shadows round the room. She looked at Al’s handsome, gentle face and wanted to cry.
‘There’s something I have to ask you,’ she said, swallowing. Her heart started to go bumpity-bump. ‘I don’t want to, but I need to know the truth.’
