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‘Sorry, you must feel like a tour guide.’
‘Familiarity breeds contempt. It is actually good to see these places anew through the eyes of visitors.’
The small smile curving her lips faded at the reminder of her status...visitors.
Oblivious to her abrupt change of mood, he expanded. ‘Many well-heeled Athenians come here.There is a thermal lake and people bathe there even in the winter. I will take you there.’
‘Before I leave, you mean?’
‘Who’s leaving?’
Tilda felt a stab of guilty panic.
‘Are you looking forward to the school tour tomorrow, Sam?’
Successfully diverted, Sam earnestly began to discuss in detail with Ezio the computer facilities, which he couldn’t believe were as good as the prospectus suggested. He was also extremely impressed by the calibre of some of the staff, many of whom had come to teaching from a diverse spread of interest and expertise.
‘How much farther to go?’ she asked during a lull in the conversation.
They had left behind the pretty beachside town fifteen minutes ago and turned off through two massive wrought-iron gates onto a private road. The loops, dips and sharp inclines meant they quickly lost sight of the lead vehicle, though occasionally they got a glimpse of a dust cloud. The one bringing up the rear hung back, putting more distance between them.
‘You wanted to knowwhen? Ten, nine...’
In the back seat, Sam joined in.
Tilda folded her arms across her chest. Did men ever grow up? ‘With this sort of build-up...’ she began. ‘Oh, my God!’
Ezio brought the four-wheel-drive to a halt. The pause meant the blacked-out limo that had been following them came to halt too further down the road.
‘Villa Amphitrite.’
‘The goddess of the sea,’ Sam said. ‘Well, you can see why.’
She really could! Set in the midst of formal gardens that stretched down to the sea, with a mountain backdrop looking out over it, the dramatic main structure was snow-white, including the roof, it seemed, giving the impression it was floating above the sea like a cloud.
There appeared to be two adjacent wings. One had a soft blue tinge and a square tower that stood in one corner looked gold at this distance.
‘That,’ Tilda breathed, unable to take her eyes off the spectacular sight, ‘Is not what I was expecting. When you said “villa” I was thinking something... I don’t know...less palatial, more rustic, with maybe a pool. Less historical ancient...more old.’
‘The original building was ancient but that fell into ruin many years ago. Some ancestor of mine bought the ruin because he liked the view.’
‘He knew a good view when he saw one.’
‘He was full of good intentions, so the family legend goes, the “mouth not action” type. He’d inherited money, so basically he just sat, looked at the view and drank a little—actually, a lot, by all accounts. By the time his equally languid sons had died, the place was a wreck and half the land that came with it was sold off.’
Well, nobody could say that Ezio had inherited the lazy gene! It was impossible to imagine his combustible energy ever slowing enough to allow him to relax, let alone laze.
‘It passed to my grandfather.’
‘And he was not lazy.’
Ezio’s white grin flashed. ‘No, that was the last thing you could call him.’
‘Well, it’s...’ She threw up her hands, genuinely lost for words. ‘I don’t know how you can bear to leave it? If I...’ She stopped, her eyes widening in self-reproachful dismay. She had almost done it again. It was only luck that Sam had stepped outside to take a million photos on his phone.
‘We should be careful, Ezio, with Sam...’
‘So what is your plan with Sam, so that we are reading from the same page when the time comes to tell him?’
