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Alexandros whispered something into his daughter’s ear that made Helena laugh and then they took their turn, neither one responding to his mother’s quelling pronouncement.
“I hope you do not allow your daughter to dictate the food served her because she finds it yucky,” Athena said to Polly with that superior tone she liked to take. “A child cannot be allowed to determine what is best for her.”
“My daughter’s diet is balanced and varied,” Polly replied mildly.
“It was not as if you had anything to say about what we ate as children, Mama. That was entirely the nanny’s purview.”
Had those words come from Petros, Polly would only have been slightly surprised, but the fact her husband had made the comment that could be taken as standing up for her was downright shocking.
Her mother-in-law looked every bit as astonished as Polly felt. “Alexandros, naturally, your nanny acted on my instruction.”
“If you say so, but no one of any intelligence would question the care my wife takes of our daughter. She is an exemplary mother in every aspect of that role.”
Warmth burgeoned in Polly’s chest, pleasure at that unequivocal vote of confidence from her husband filling her to bursting.
“I’m sure I wasn’t questioning her mothering skills,” Athena said repressively.
“I don’t want to play anymore,” Helena said from the circle of her father’s arms.
“Why not?” he asked her.
“It’s not fun now.”
Out of the mouths of babes. Athena joined them and sucked the fun right out of the game, but Polly honestly didn’t think her mother-in-law meant to do it. She was just so used to taking dig
s at Polly, she didn’t realize the damage she was doing to her relationship with her granddaughter.
Polly had seen how Athena wanted to have a warmer relationship with Helena, but seemed incapable of understanding how to make that happen.
“Why don’t we get out your Match the Cards game? Your yia-yia likes to play that with you,” Polly suggested to her daughter. Then she turned a conciliatory smile on her husband. “She’s probably getting tired.”
But Alexandros frowned at his mother. “I do not think that is the problem.”
Athena’s expression showed vulnerable confusion, and Polly couldn’t help feeling sorry for the older woman. So many of her machinations had led to final outcomes that were not to the widow’s liking.
A doted-on heiress and then spoiled wife, Athena was used to getting what she wanted from the people in her life.
It had taken a while for both Polly and Athena to realize that Athena’s attempt at excluding Polly from her social circle had backfired on her.
Polly had sought friendship with like-minded people, building the only kind of relationships she knew how. Real and based on shared ideas and attitudes. Those types of relationships engendered loyalty, both from her and the people she shared them with.
So, when Polly avoided social situations that would put her in proximity to Alexandros’s mother or sister, her new friends noticed. And they stopped inviting those two women to whatever the event was if they wanted Polly to come.
She didn’t join committees or charities which Athena or Stacia were attached to, and the same happened.
Athena had once accused her of doing it on purpose, but Polly hadn’t. She wasn’t petty.
No matter how her mother-in-law or sister-in-law had treated her, she had not set out to exclude them. However, by avoiding as many occasions as possible where she had to deal with being sniped at and undermined, it had happened inevitably. And honestly? It had made her life more pleasant.
But it had not been on purpose.
No more than this cooler relationship between her daughter and her yia-yia had been. Polly wanted Athena to enjoy the same pleasure of time spent with Helena as Polly’s mom did.
But despite the fact that Polly’s family only saw Helena a few times a year, the toddler adored them in a way she did not her yia-yia and Theia Stacia.
Because children might not understand the why, but they still picked up on the tension between the adults around them.
Polly was Helena’s person. She was the one grown-up that Helena had trusted since infancy to always be there, to soothe, to play, to care for her.
