Page 41 of Summer in Greece

Could there be any record of Gertie having been in Kea? It was so long ago. Still, didn’t she remember Gertie saying the ship had some connection with the Titanic? Lost in her thoughts, she continued along the soft sand, crossed the narrow road, and sat at a pavement café.

According to the old postcards, the port had been little more than a kafenion, a general store, and a school when a half-drowned Gertie first arrived. Shelly spread the pictures across the table and studied them. They showed simple, square buildings with flat roofs, surrounded by houses that belonged, according to the shopkeeper, to fishermen, sponge divers, tradesmen and a shepherd.

Suddenly, Shelly realised she wasn’t alone. A waitress peered over her shoulder at the postcards. ‘You must go up the mountain tomorrow, far from the pirates, to see our beautiful city, madam,’ she said.

‘Pirates? City?’ Shelly blinked at her. The fish-shaped island of Kea was less than twelve miles across.

‘Christos will take you on the bus. There,’ she pointed across the road, towards a bend in the bay, near where her turtle’s eggs nestled half a metre below the sand. ‘Next to the taxis. Nine o’clock in the morning.’

Shelly peered at the harbour wall, wondered where the chest had stood, and planned to walk along there in the morning. She tried to imagine Manno. What did he look like? He had to be handsome and rugged, of course, because he was the lifesaving fisherman in young Gertie’s story. Did she fall in love with him? Shelly smiled to herself, recalling her own first love, the lifeguard, David, and remembering her overwhelming emotions.

‘Yiasas, Shelly Summer, we meet again!’ She jumped violently. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,’ Harry said.

Shelly placed a hand on her thumping heart. ‘I was daydreaming. Hello, Harry the diver, where’re you off to?’ His smile appeared wide and warm and she felt none of her earlier irritation. ‘Will you join me for a coffee?’ she asked, hoping to make amends for her abrasiveness.

He lifted one finger to the waitress, then sat opposite her. ‘Did you have a good day?’

‘Wonderful, I’m about to find somewhere to eat, any recommendations?’

‘Meat, fish, or vegetarian?’

‘I’m easy.’

He smiled widely again and raised his eyebrows a little. ‘Well, that’s good to know, but what about the food?’

She tutted, rolled her eyes and turned her head away to hide a smile.

‘There’s an excellent fish taverna in the next bay, I can take you,’ he said.

What did he mean . . . he would take her for dinner, or he would give her a lift? Unsure of herself, she glanced into his eyes, then turned away quickly when she felt a blush rising. What the hell? She never blushed!

‘Thanks, but I’d like an early night after all the travelling. I’ve a lot planned for tomorrow. Is there anywhere special closer to home?’

‘Here is as good as anywhere.’

‘I don’t see anyone eating.’

‘Too early, we’re not a tourist island. The locals don’t eat until after nine thirty.’

‘I see. I’d like to ask you some questions about diving around Kea, if I may?’

With an amused look, he nodded, down and sideways, the Greek way. ‘Anything you want.’

‘Will you join me for dinner, or is there somebody cooking for you at home?’ she asked.

‘No, there’s no one at home. I like your photographs.’ He nodded at the postcards.

Was that a deliberate change of subject? ‘Ah, I’m trying to understand my great-grandmother’s time here.’

‘You take pictures too?’ he asked, keeping his eyes on the postcards. ‘I noticed you had a professional camera when we met.’

‘It’s only a hobby. I do several things, mostly I’m a vet. Do you take pictures?’

‘Just underwater, for the website. Though I haven’t taken any for a while.’

‘Sounds like fun.’

‘I wonder if you’d like to look at the Britannic museum tomorrow? Well, it’s not exactly a museum yet, just a few bits and pieces and a film.’