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He heard the squeak of horror in her voice and a smile played at the edges of his lips. ‘Don’t worry, Mia. I’ve never had to resort to voyeurism,’ he informed her drily. ‘I happened to look out of the window and saw you dive in.’
‘It was an awful dive.’
‘It could have been better,’ he agreed. ‘You should have kept your head down.’
‘I wasn’t actually asking for your advice.’
Theo decreased his speed and turned off down a smaller road leading towards the sea, his hands gripping the wheel tightly. He was behaving as if her technique had been his key consideration, when that had been the last thing on his mind. He had seen her splash into the water and had quickly moved away from the window because gazing at his half-naked wife had been doing dangerous things to his blood pressure.
But he hadn’t been able to get the image of a swimsuit-clad Mia out of his head. It had made his body clench with hunger as he had stared blankly at his computer screen, the complicated sequence of numbers making little sense. The only thing he could see was a green swimsuit clinging to the curves of her body and dark red spirals of her hair contrasting against the glimmering blue of the water. It had taken every ounce of his resolve to resist the temptation to set aside his work and go and join her in the pool.
‘We’re here,’ he said as they drove in through the big wooden gates of her grandfather’s estate.
‘I can see that for myself. I have been here before, Theo. Remember?’
Her words were spiky, but couldn’t disguise the unmistakable nervousness underpinning them, and although vulnerability was a characteristic he tended to avoid, for once Theo was curious. As they reached the front of the house, he cut the engine and turned to look at her, observing the strained set of her profile as she gazed straight ahead. ‘How does it feel, being back here?’
He expected her to cut off his question with an impatient aside or to tell him that was also none of his business. But to his surprise, she didn’t. She spoke as if he weren’t there. As if she had forgotten who he was, or where she was. ‘How do you think it feels? It’s...painful. It brings back memories I’d rather not have. It still hurts that he rejected me for all those years and made me vow never to set foot on his land again.’ She bit her lip. ‘But things change. I’m happy he’s asked to see me again. If he hadn’t... Well, I don’t think I would ever have returned, to be honest.’
Theo felt the stab of something uncomfortable as he got out of the car, intending to open her door but Mia had already jumped out. She was standing in the sunshine, looking up at the big white house with a wistful expression on her face, the flower-sprigged dress making her look so unbelievably pretty that for a moment he couldn’t drag his eyes away.
He had always come and gone as he pleased on the sprawling property and today that suited his purpose. It meant he could avoid bumping into any of the servants, because he was in no mood for conversation. He could see Mia’s gaze darting here and there—as if registering what was the same and what was different. And her sudden look of sadness produced in him a powerful stir of guilt.
‘Would you like to walk around first?’ he questioned abruptly. ‘Maybe acclimatise yourself with the place before you go in?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. I’d like that.’
In contemplative silence, Mia fell into step beside him as they began to walk through the extensive grounds, along shaded paths lined with large pots of neglected plants and unpruned orange trees. She started wondering if Theo was thinking along the same lines as her. Was he looking at the outdated rectangular swimming pool and remembering the way the two of them had dived and raced like fishes, their laughter pealing through the sultry heat of the Greek air? But now the pool looked forgotten, with fallen leaves floating forlornly on the surface.
‘Does nobody come here any more?’ she asked suddenly.
Theo shook his dark head. ‘Only me,’ he said.
Mia felt a stab of guilt. Theo wasn’t even a blood relation. She was, yet she’d stayed away all these years. She felt as if she’d had a raw deal with her family—as if she’d been short-changed on just about every level—and her grandfather’s snub had been the final nail in the coffin. But maybe she hadn’t been looking at the bigger picture.
Had she allowed her pride and hurt to keep her away from a place which had felt like the closest thing she’d ever had to home? She had been scared her grandfather might reject her, yes—but she had been just as scared of bumping into Theo. Had she subconsciously realised that his effect on her would be as powerful as it had always been, no matter how many years had passed—and wasn’t there something awfully sad about that? It was a myth that she had distanced herself from her husband and he no longer had any influence on her life. Behind the scenes it seemed he had never really stopped influencing her.
‘I’d like to go and see Pappous now,’ she said.
He nodded and they reversed their steps through the unkempt gardens to make their way towards the house, until they came to a halt in front of some shuttered doors on the ground floor.
‘Are you ready?’ he questioned, pushing open one of the doors. ‘You’d better prepare yourself, Mia,’ he added softly. ‘He isn’t the man he once was.’
There was a moment of hesitation, before she nodded. ‘I’m ready.’
No sound came from within and the silence felt immense as they stepped into the dimly lit room, where the air was cool and air-conditioned. A nurse dressed all in white sat motionless beside the bed and, catching sight of Theo, she nodded and rose noiselessly from her chair, before slipping from the room.
With a fierce knotting of her heart, Mia looked around, her gaze taking in all the paraphernalia of end-of-life care. The neatly lined bottles of tablets. The sterile dressing pack. A jug of water covered with an embroidered cloth and the glass beside it, the liquid untouched. The figure in the bed was covered with a sheet and completely inert but even from here she could see how much his once mighty frame had diminished. She gave a little snuffle. She wondered if it was that which made Theo reach out to touch her elbow. It was the lightest contact imaginable—yet wasn’t it crazy how that simple gesture could feel so warm and comforting? As if he were her rock and she could lean on him. Was her grandfather sleeping? she wondered. Or was it wishful thinking which made her imagine a faint flickering movement of his eyelids?
But before she had a chance to investigate a bundle of brown and white fur came hurtling across the room towards her, yapping and jumping up excitedly, its paws scrabbling wildly at Mia’s dress as the animal began to yelp with joy and confusion.
‘Tycheros!’ Mia whispered in disbelief, stroking his head and blinking back her tears as she crouched down and stared into the face of the dog she had rescued as a puppy. Instantly, the animal rolled onto its back, paws in the air as it bared its pink belly in a gesture of total trust and submission. ‘Oh, Tycheros,’ she said again, her voice catching as she whispered half to herself, ‘I never thought I’d see you again.’
‘Mia?’ An unsteady rasp rattled from the direction of the bed and there was a sudden rustling of the sheet. ‘Mia? Is that you?’
She could see now that her grandfather’s ancient eyes were definitely glittering but Tycheros was still barking and it sounded unrealistically loud in the subdued atmosphere of the sickroom. Mia tried to quieten him with a cautionary forefinger but the dog Theo had christened Lucky continued to jump up with whines of delight, its tail waving back and forth like the windscreen wiper on a car. ‘Will you take him outside?’ she asked Theo firmly and as he led the dog away, she walked slowly towards the bed. ‘Ochi, Pappous. It’s me. It’s Mia. Oh, Pappous!’
With great difficulty—and waving away her offer of help—the figure in the bed wriggled up to get a better look and it took all the fortitude she possessed not to recoil in shock when she saw the pain-filled face of her grandfather. Because Theo had been right—itwasa shock to see him like this.
