Page 41 of The Little Greek Guesthouse

Nina found herself relaxing in his company; he understood her concerns and respected them. There was no pressure to downplay her fears or entertain him. No pressure to ‘be more fun’. They walked in easy silence down to the village, and she was grateful for the space to think.

The café was quiet and closed up. ‘Shall we just knock?’ George asked. ‘The lights are on; they’re still up.’

Yiannis opened the door, his smile turning to a concerned frown when she explained what had happened, missing out the part where she had left Theo on the stairs and walked out in a temper. Yiannis hadn’t seen Theo all day. He offered to help search but Nina politely turned him down – Theo had probably just gone for a walk; she wasn’t at the point of organising a search party just yet.

‘I wasn’t very nice to him. Baba, I mean,’ she said as they turned towards the path to the clifftop, one of Theo’s favourite haunts.

There was a moment of silence, and she wondered whether George was thinking that she wasn’t very nice generally. ‘Well, you were upset, weren’t you?’ he said. ‘About the bracelet. I’m sure he understands.’

Nina slid a glance at George, catching herself admiring his profile for a second as the moonlight threw shadows under the sharp angle of his cheekbones. She cleared her throat, and quickly looked away, towards the hilltop they were aiming for.

‘It was my mum’s,’ she said, the shock of the unexpected revelation beating through her. She never spoke to strangers about her mum, and yet, there was something surprisingly natural about having this conversation with George. ‘She died when I was a teenager, and the bracelet is really the only thing of hers I have. I mean, we have other stuff, but she loved that bracelet, she wore it every day and I know it’s stupid, but I feel like I have part of her with me when I wear it.’

‘That makes sense,’ he said. He stopped and looked at her. ‘I hope you find it.’

Nina sighed. ‘I don’t think I will. But thanks.’ She blinked away tears. ‘That’s why – I was just upset, you know. So I got annoyed with Baba and then I went out, even though I could see he was upset, but I just . . .’ She shrugged.

‘Ah, that’s families, isn’t it? He’s your dad, he’ll understand.’ He flashed her a grin. ‘I upset people all the time and they nearly always forgive me.’

Nina snorted a laugh, feeling momentarily embarrassed about the pig impression she was apparently doing. ‘I can believe it.’

He gave her a wry glance. She thought again of the turtles, swimming around the fishing boats as they sailed out to sea. The last thing she wanted was for her and Theo’s actions to hurt them somehow.

‘I was actually going to talk to Baba about the hotel and the turtles tonight,’ she said. ‘I don’t really – I mean, I didn’t think it was a big chain he was selling to, but now I’m not so sure. He’s been a bit cagey about it all.’ She sighed. ‘Obviously he wasn’t there, so . . .’

‘The thing is, it’s not just the lights,’ said George. ‘Though the lights are bad – they confuse the hatchlings, and put the females off nesting in the first place. Your place isn’t right by the beach, but if they have a bar or a restaurant or whatever facing that way it’ll almost certainly be enough light pollution to cause problems. But also, the tourists themselves, you know, they can crush the eggs or frighten the turtles away if they’re trampling all over the beach, and then you get people feeding them fish and it’s just –’

‘What’s wrong with feeding the turtles fish?’ she asked, adding, when he turned to her with a frown, ‘I mean, don’t they eat fish anyway?’

He was shaking his head. ‘Not really, they’re too slow to catch them naturally, so they eat crustaceans and stuff. If they get fed fish it’s like us eating McDonalds every day. And then it causes other problems, it draws them in to the harbour and they get caught in fishing lines or hit with propellers, we see a lot of that, and it makes them rely on being fed so it’s altogether – they’re just better off without us, to be honest.’

They had stopped again, catching their breath as they walked up the steep path, and Nina found herself staring into his bright blue eyes, lit with passion and a certain amount of fury.

He shook his head and took a step back. ‘Well, now isn’t the time to go into all this.’

‘It’s okay, it’s good to be so passionate about it.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Not everyone thinks so.’

‘Oh, yes? Your girlfriend doesn’t approve?’

She didn’t know why she asked, and regretted it immediately. His face closed off. He cleared his throat and glanced over his shoulder. Nina shifted, the awkwardness between them more palpable with every passing second.

‘No sign of Theo so far,’ George said, his voice loud with a false jollity. ‘Could he be at the top?’

‘Maybe,’ Nina said as they started walking again. ‘It’s one of his favourite places.’

George smiled, relaxing again now. ‘Yeah, him and my mum used to run away up here when they’d got into mischief, I think.’

‘So, your mum’s Maria’s daughter?’ She was happy to take his lead on the change of subject into more comfortable territory.

‘Yeah. I grew up near Cardiff but, you know, lots of holidays here. Same for you, I expect?’

Nina shook her head. They had walked up the path quickly, George making great long strides, and she was a little out of breath. ‘Sort of – but until this holiday I barely remember coming here. We came a bit when I was little, but after Mum died Baba just didn’t want to. They met here, so I think that’s why. He won’t – he hasn’t been able to talk about it. About her, at all, really.’

They’d reached the top, the breeze cool and smelling of the sea. Nina looked around. No Theo. She bit her lip; she was starting to feel properly worried now. Where could he be?

George was gazing at her, the wind lifting his sandy, sun-bleached hair, his eyes wide and solemn. ‘That must be hard,’ he said softly.