Intrigued, Katerina quite forgot about her dizzy fit and listened attentively while the younger woman began to outline a rather surprising proposition.
It seemed the venue in the nearby village where Henrietta traditionally held her wellness retreats was no longer fit for purpose.
‘It’s beginning to look awfully shabby,’ she explained, ‘and the owners aren’t interested in spending any money on it.’
She was searching for a new venue, somewhere big enough to accommodate up to ten people. She needed enough space to hold Pilates, yoga and meditation classes and offer treatments like massage and reflexology, plus a decent-sized kitchen for the chef, her husband, Mark.
She’d heard Villa Ariadne was spacious and beautifully maintained and wondered if Katerina would consider renting it out to her for certain weeks in May, June and July next year?
‘My clients are all respectable people, mostly professionals. I can assure you we’d take great care of the place and leave it exactly as we found it.’
Katerina frowned. The villa was empty now, and throughout the winter she had various improvement works of her own planned – including repainting the outside and replacing the swimming pool cover, which had been damaged in a mini-earthquake the previous month.
Crete was prone to frequent quakes, sitting as it did on an active boundary between two, giant tectonic plates. These would often collide, creating small tremors which sometimes went unnoticed. Thankfully large quakes were rare, though by no means unknown.
Villa Ariadne was very dear to Katerina’s heart. Up to now she’d only rented it to certain, select individuals, who’d been quick to grasp its uniqueness, and were open to all it had to offer.
Would groups of random women reap the benefits of their stay, or would the house be wasted on them? And strange as it sounded, would the villa itself object to being used in this way?
‘Certainly, there is enough space,’ she said slowly, ‘but I’m afraid I cannot agree to your proposal. I’m sorry, but the villa is simply not the right place for this sort of activity.’
‘I’m really struggling to find somewhere,’ Henrietta wheedled. ‘The other venue’s just not good enough. Most of my clients are going through a hard time. They often want to make quite big changes to their lives.
‘We believe in a holistic approach, focusing on the physical, mental and spiritual. In order for it to work, our clients must have comfort, privacy and, most of all, peace. We love helping people and we really do try to make sure they leave in a better place than when they arrived.’
Her evident passion for her work made an impression on Katerina and she wondered if she’d been too hasty to dismiss the wellness retreats. Perhaps there was something in them after all.
Pausing for a moment, she clasped her hands together in her lap, noticing they were still slightly trembly.
This wasn’t the first bad spell she’d experienced. In fact, she’d had several, though she’d told no one, not even her beloved Marina. Who knew how long she had left?
‘Come to the villa at around eleven o’clock tomorrow morning,’ she said decisively. ‘We can go over your proposal in more detail. I will ask Marina to be there too. I’m not promising anything, mind…’
‘Amazing!’ Henrietta said with a wide grin. ‘Thank you so much. See you tomorrow at eleven.’
Dawn was only just breaking when Katerina rose from her bed the following morning. She stood shivering and naked in her small bathroom while she washed herself all over in cold water, as usual, using a coarse flannel and her own, home-made olive oil soap.
After that, she dressed quickly and combed and pinned back her wiry grey hair in front of a small mirror. Then she had a cup of herbal tea, a slice of bread with a scraping of local honey, and she was ready.
The air was crisp as she hurried down the mountain towards Villa Ariadne, scrambling over the crumbling rocks and stones like a nimble goat. She loved this time of the morning and wasn’t going so fast that she couldn’t take in the lingering snow on distant peaks and the lush green vegetation that blanketed the slopes, along with wildflowers like poppies, yellow buttercups and delicate orchids.
Stopping for a moment, she picked a small bunch of blooms, which she wrapped carefully in a white handkerchief before putting them in a tan canvas bag on her shoulder.
I’ll open the shutters downstairs and some of the windows, she thought, as she bustled along. The villa is bound to be a bit stuffy. It’s been cleaned from top to bottom since the last guests but still, it doesn’t like being left empty for too long. It’ll need a bit of love.
On reflection, she had no intention, really, of renting it to the Englishwoman, but couldn’t bear to think of Henrietta seeing Villa Ariadne in anything but its best light. The house felt part of Katerina, like a much-loved relative, perhaps, or family friend. It mustn’t be allowed to let itself – or her – down.
Having unlocked the big, black iron gates outside the villa, she had to spin round and use all the strength in her shoulders, back and buttocks to force them open.
Then she paused for a moment on the gravel forecourt, gazing at the grand, rather majestic-looking building with a mixture of awe and affection. She gave a small smile.
‘Hello, my dear,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘We have an unexpected visitor today. I wonder what you’ll make of her.’
Once inside, she flung open the sky-blue shutters and let in some fresh air. Then she strolled round the empty rooms, taking in everything as if for the first time: the polished dark wood table in the hall; the fancy chessboard on an antique wooden table and the original artwork.
Everything felt peaceful, calm and orderly, almost as if the villa were slumbering, or just resting quietly until the next guests arrived to shake everything up.
Paintings adorned the walls of every room and quite a few depicted scenes from the ancient Greek myths, including Jason with his Argonauts and Perseus slaying the gorgon, Medusa.
