Page 21 of The Little Greek Guesthouse

She glared around at the group, only to find that they were already trickling away, dragging the makeshift placards behind them. The leader followed her gaze and puffed out a sigh of irritation, running a hand through his hair, leaving it in haphazard spikes that, in other circumstances, Nina might have found endearing.

‘Right, well,’ he said. ‘Yes, we’ll – we’re going now. But you, you . . .’ He pointed a finger at her as though she was a naughty kid. Enraging. ‘You be warned. We – this isn’t over.’

‘Oh yes it is,’ she muttered as they both turned their back and stalked off in their opposite directions.

Nina was shocked to find Theo standing on the doorstep, watching everything as he sipped on a cup of steaming coffee. He raised a hand. ‘Bye, George.’

The protest leader turned and waved as he walked. ‘Bye, Mr Pappas.’

Nina was flabbergasted. ‘I – what? You know him? Well don’t wave to him, he – he graffitied our door and he woke me up with all that nonsense about tourists and he ruined my dress and he was very rude to me actually!’ She could feel a hot flush of rage storm over her cheeks. Theo’s chuckle in response did nothing to lighten her mood.

‘Well. He has been up to the mischief,’ he said, raising an eyebrow and attempting to hide his grin behind his coffee cup.

‘Just made one for yourself, did you?’ she asked crossly, barging past him into the house.

‘More in the pot.’ He followed her in.

Nina turned on him, hands on hips. ‘Why aren’t you more annoyed about this? They – they’re accusing us of all sorts of nonsense and they’re vandalising our house!’

He shrugged. ‘George is this kind of boy, gets worked up like this, but it all blows away again. Gale in a teapot.’

‘Storm in a teacup,’ she muttered as she stomped up the stairs to her bedroom. It was only then that she caught sight of her reflection and realised she was sporting a massive birds’ nest of a bedhead. Well. It didn’t matter what that bonehead of a protester thought of her anyway, did it, she thought as she dragged a brush through the tangles, an image of those eyes flashing through her mind.

She needed more than coffee to calm her, and she wanted to be away from the house. Without telling Theo where she was going – she was still irritated by his lack of outrage about the protesters – she went to the café, almost tripping over Milo as she stood in a corner, quietly chewing the edge of a tablecloth.

A second cup of coffee, with the milk heated, just how she liked it, soon had her properly woken up as the caffeine zinged through her veins. Yiannis smiled as he refilled her cup. ‘Breakfast?’

‘Kagiana, please,’ she said.

He nodded, slipping her a small look. ‘No Theo this morning?’

‘No.’

Nina didn’t feel like elaborating and, not one to pry, Yiannis just nodded and went into the kitchen. Unlike Theo himself, Nina thought, whose eyes would have lit up at the opportunity to find out some gossip. He would probably have asked as many nosy questions as he could get away with and then come charging up the hill to the house, bursting to tell her all the juicy details he’d discovered. He wasn’t malicious, but he was incorrigibly nosy. She couldn’t help but smile as she pictured his round cheeks flushed and his eyes bright with excitement at whatever silly news he’d found out.

She was still annoyed with him, and the fact that he was making her smile when he wasn’t even there and she was trying to be annoyed with him was annoying her even more.

It wasn’t really Theo’s fault though, was it? It was those stupid protesters, if you could really describe that rag-tag bunch that way, who had caused all the problems. And their leader the worst of all.

She had no issue with people caring about the environment or wildlife or whatever had so clearly got under his skin; she admired that passion. He obviously cared very much about turtles; she could see that in the flaring of those bright eyes and the intensity of what he was saying. Nothing wrong with that. But what kind of an idiot painted graffiti on someone’s door and organised a protest – she was being generous in calling it that, but still – before they’d checked all the facts? She could believe that there were some tourists somewhere who were thoughtlessly causing damage to some turtles. But she and Theo were quietly minding their own business, and they didn’t deserve to be attacked by a mad stranger in their own home.

‘Oh dear,’ a voice said at her shoulder. ‘You look like you need an ouzo.’

Nina looked up to see the dark-haired woman she’d seen at the beach smiling down at her, her eyes warm. She sat at the table with Nina and immediately two children raced over, the little one crying and the other shouting in Greek. At this commotion, Milo gave them a baleful look and trotted out to the village square.

The woman at the table rolled her eyes at Nina as she scooped up the crying child. ‘I know the feeling. Shame it’s too early, huh?’

Nina smiled and watched as she soothed and calmed the children, wiping eyes and noses, giving hugs and kisses and coaxing smiles. Nina felt a pang for Heather, knowing she would be equally calm and comforting with distressed children. The woman pulled the child on her lap into her, stroking his hair, and smiled at Nina. ‘His brother played with his toy and wouldn’t return it straight away. End of the world. I hope you don’t mind me sitting here? You looked like you need a distraction, but perhaps . . .’

‘Oh no,’ Nina said. ‘Very happy for you to sit.’

The woman smiled again, her face open and warm, and Nina was genuinely glad she’d come over. ‘Eirini,’ she said, placing a hand on her chest.

‘I’m Nina.’

She laughed. ‘Oh I know. I’m married to Yiannis’s son, Alex. Yiannis has told us all about Theo and about you coming with him.’

Once again, Nina thought of asking if Yiannis had mentioned her mum; he’d known Theo since they were boys, surely he must have met her. But Nina had only just met this woman and she didn’t know how to broach the subject.