‘Does your mother still live in Crete?’ Edie asked the artist, wanting to steer the conversation in another direction. Was she being too forward? After all, she and Marina had only just met.
‘No. Unfortunately, she died about ten years ago. I still miss her.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Marina shrugged. ‘It happens. Dad is the exception rather than the rule. He’s ninety-four, you know.’
‘Goodness! I’d never have guessed. He’s amazing! So with it and amusing.’
‘And annoying,’ Marina added with a laugh. ‘At times, anyway. But yes, he is amazing. His mind is razor-sharp. It’s just his body that lets him down.’
‘He’s lived a very full life,’ said Jean-Luc in a meaningful tone.
Marina glanced at her brother before focusing again on Edie.
‘He was a terrible philanderer in his younger days.’
Edie started. ‘Really?’ She was taken aback, not so much by the information itself but by the fact the artist had chosen to reveal it to her, a virtual stranger.
Jean-Luc snorted.
‘Don’t say you didn’t notice his roving eye! He must have lost his touch! God knows how many children he’s got. They’re probably all over the world. He was particularly partial to the Swedish girls who came here on holiday, so I gather.’
‘I don’t think there are any other kids,’ Marina replied dryly. ‘Just us. He would have told me.’
Edie cleared her throat. ‘Did your mother know – about all the affairs, I mean?’
At this, Marina’s eyes clouded over. ‘I’m afraid she probably did. But she chose to look the other way. It was self-protection, I expect, and also a desire to shield me. She was a very kind, loving person.’
Emboldened by her openness, Edie now asked about Katerina.
‘Why does your father dislike her so?’
‘Ah!’ said Marina, fiddling with the silver bangle on her slender wrist. ‘He could never get over the fact she turned him down. She was perhaps the only one who ever did.’
Good on her, Edie thought, though she didn’t say so. Mrs Papadakis instantly shot up in her estimation.
‘There are other things, too, but I won’t bore you with them now.’
Edie nodded. ‘Have you any idea how Katerina came to run Villa Ariadne? Who are the owners?’
Marina examined her nails, which were short, neat, square-shaped and painted orange.
‘Ah, now that’s another story, too. She has looked after it for many years. The owners are no longer here, but she runs it exactly as they always wanted. She only rents it to special people who will benefit from it – like you.’
At this, Marina fixed on Edie with her dark, deep-set eyes, lined with black kohl, and made her flinch.
Edie wanted to ask what she meant, and why she and Katerina behaved as if they knew something she didn’t. But for some reason, the words wouldn’t leave her mouth.
‘You know she has special powers, my sister,’ Jean-Luc blurted, arching one eyebrow. ‘At least, she thinks she does.’
Marina playfully slapped her brother’s thigh and the spell was broken.
‘Some people are so mundane,’ she said with a laugh. ‘If they can’t see it, they don’t believe it. I feel sorry for the poor things. There’s a whole world they know absolutely nothing about.’
8
Jean-Luc turned to Hannah and asked something in French. Edie was so distracted by Marina, she didn’t catch what it was. Then she noticed Jessica picking up her backpack.
