Two weeks passed and Nicos did not return to the island. For Melanie, immersed in the delight of caring for her daughter, the time flew by. She could not imagine that she would have any use for a baby sitter but Maria proved to be a sweet girl and Melanie, to give her something to do, took to leaving her to watch Electra during the baby’s afternoon nap. While Electra slept Melanie swam in the cool, clear waters around the island or sunbathed on the island’s many remote beaches.
It seemed to her that every day Electra showed some new grasp of the world around her. She was growing fast and when sometimes Melanie found herself wishing she could share these moments with her baby’s father she quickly put it out of her mind.
Nicos had been very clear that once her job for the summer was over she was never to see Electra again. The thought overwhelmed her and sickened her heart. At her lowest ebb she even thought she hated him for it. She could not help it. ‘There are times when I want to kill him,’ she thought savagely, telling herself that with any luck Gabby would be back, broken arm mended, and she , Melanie, could be off the island and never set eyes on Nicos again.
But she had these few precious weeks with her daughter and she meant to make the most of them. Together she and her daughter explored the island. Electra loved to go down to the small harbor where the gaily-colored fishing boats clustered. The brown skinned fishermen waved and called out to her in Greek and delightedly she would wave her chubby little hand in return.
On days like this Melanie conceded to herself that she had been right to give her daughter up even if she had never fully calculated the pain the loss of her child would bring her.
‘’These are her people, her heritage,’ she acknowledged to herself. ‘This island will one day belong to her and its inhabitants will be her family. I have no right to keep her from that.’
Melanie tried not to count the days she had left with Electra. On a bright island morning she strapped her daughter into her buggy and adjusting the gaily patterned cotton canopy to shield her from the hot sun, set off down to the harbor. She was concentrating on easing the buggy over the bumps in the rutted track and it was not until she reached the smooth tarmac of the harbor walk that she looked up and out to sea.
Nicos’s deep keeled sailing boat was moored out in the bay as usual, its sails furled. But beyond it, further out in the deeper waters of the bay the “Athena”, Nicos’s 200 ft motor yacht stood at anchor, its steep white sides gleaming in the morning sun. Melanie’s heart lurched. Electra was pointing excitedly at it and chortling with excitement.
‘Yes, Daddy’s boat,’ she said absently her mind in a whirl, hoping against hope that only the captain and crew were aboard and not Nicos. But as she looked she could see a motor launch speeding away from the yacht towards the harbor's landing stage, a familiar figure at the wheel. Nicos was back.
She was dimly aware before she turned hurriedly away that he had a passenger beside him. She began to wheel the buggy as quickly as she could back to the path that led up to the villa. Electra, her morning’s fun curtailed, set up an indignant wail.
But the buggy encumbered Melanie’s haste and her speed was no match for Nicos’s long stride. Suddenly, he was beside her, a restraining hand on the buggy. With barely greeting for Melanie he unfastened the straps that held Electra and lifting her high in the air swung her round and round as she squealed with joy. Laughing, he carried her back to where the motor launch was tied up, leaving Melanie to trail awkwardly behind him.
As she drew close she saw the passenger being helped ashore from the launch was female, young, blonde and undeniably glamorous. Melanie felt an unwarranted surge of jealousy. The newcomer did not look to be in a very good mood. She stood shaking out the skirt of her white dress and rubbing at a mark where she had brushed against a damp mooring rope.
‘Nicos, I am wet,’ she complained.
Nicos, intent on Electra, said shortly, ‘Well, it is the sea.’ Melanie hid a smile. Nicos hated what he called “Princess Precious” behavior But, as if regretting his rudeness, his arms full of his daughter, he inclined his head towards Melanie and said, ‘Katerina, this is …’ The girl cut him off. ‘The nanny,’ she said dismissively.
Melanie seethed silently and resolved to keep Electra as far away from this woman as possible.
The party set off up the path to the villa, Nicos still carrying Electra, while Katerina clamped herself firmly to his side. Melanie, left to push the empty buggy, took her anger out on the wheels crashing them savagely over the rocks. Apart from his brief introduction to Katerina Nicos had barely acknowledged her.
‘Well, if he doesn’t want me here I don’t want him here, either, especially with his lady friend in tow,’ she muttered to herself, wishing fervently that she and Electra still had the island to themselves.
At the villa Nicos, still with his daughter in his arms, went straight to the terrace at the front of the house where, anticipating their arrival, cooling drinks had been set out on a low table. Nicos placed Electra carefully on a swing seat and pushed her gently to and fro. Melanie, left at the bottom of the villa steps, folded the buggy and wondered just what she was supposed to do now. The sound of Katerina’s tinkling laugh stiffened her resolve. She was not going to leave her daughter anywhere near that woman a second longer than she had to.
Marching up the steps and along the terrace she scooped Electra off the swing seat and up into her arms, announcing firmly, ‘It’s time for her lunch.’
‘No kiss for Daddy, then,’ said Nicos, meeting her eyes with grim amusement. The inference infuriated Melanie. She wanted to lash out at him. Before she could think of a suitable stinging reply, Katerina butted in. ‘Yes, take her away. Don’t babies have to sleep in the afternoon?’ She was rewarded with a daggered look from Nicos, but examining her nails, she seemed not to notice.
Melanie hurried from the terrace up to the sanctuary of the nursery. Once there, busying herself with her daughter’s needs and chatting to Maria, she began to calm down. ‘I’ll just go on doing what I’ve been doing since he went away,’ she told herself. ‘I’ll just pretend he’s not here.’ She gave Electra her lunch and Leaving Maria singing the baby to sleep she grabbed a towel and slipping a sarong over her bikini headed for her favorite beach. Cutting through the cool, clear waters invigorated her. Some way out Nicos had erected a bathing platform. She headed for it, slicing easily through the waves and climbing the ladder threw herself on to its comfortably padded surface.
She was drifting off to sleep when she felt drops of water splashing on her prone body. She gasped and opened startled eyes. Nicos, hanging with one hand on to the edge of the bathing platform was flicking seawater at her with his other hand.
Ignoring the ladder and hauling himself aboard he threw himself down next to her and closed his eyes. Melanie was acutely conscious of his nearness, the golden glisten of his wet skin and the sheer animal aroma of him. Her dismayed realisation of the affect he was having on her made her snap, ‘I came out here for some peace and quiet.’
‘Mmm, me, too,’ was all he said, contentedly.
Melanie sat up and looked at him. His eyes remained closed and a small smile played across his features. ‘What were you doing following me out here,’ she demanded. His response was a lazy, ‘Didn’t. Didn’t know you were out here.’
‘Well, sorry to disturb your peace and quiet. In that case I’ll leave.’ She scrambled to her feet and was about to dive into the sea when his hand shot out and grabbed her ankle.
‘No, you don’t. You’re not going anywhere.’
She tried to twist out of his grasp but he held her firmly. ‘Let me go,’ she protested.
‘I will if you sit down and behave.’
‘Behave?’ she gasped. ‘You’re’ the one misbehaving.’
‘Sit down,’ he ordered her. ‘Now we’re both out here we might as well talk.’
‘What about?’ she asked suspiciously,
‘Let me see,’ he said reflectively. ‘You
could start by explaining how you managed to bamboozle the staff at my London office, not once but twice.’
‘I thought you weren’t interested in my version of events. You certainly weren’t last time we met.’ The minute the words were out Melanie regretted them. Whatever possessed her to remind him of their last meeting? Shame shot through her as she remembered the way she had lain beneath him on the beach, urging him on, bringing him deeper and deeper into herself unto they had exploded together into ecstasy. She didn’t want to direct Nicos's thoughts in that direction. She hurried on, tripping over her words.
‘Your staff are not to blame. And nor is Gabby,’ she added quickly.
Gabby? You know Gabby.’ He sounded surprised.
Melanie sighed. ‘I suppose I’d better tell you the whole story.’
She launched into an account of how she had assumed Stephanie’s identity, at first to gain an interview with Nicos and then to pass herself off as the replacement nanny. He sat up as she was speaking, alert now and listening intently. ‘Weren’t you afraid that the real Stephanie would get in touch with the agency and blow your cover?’
‘I did have a couple of bad moments,’ she admitted. ‘Stephanie telephoned the agency from the States asking about a tax form. Luckily it was me that answered the telephone.’
‘And the second bad moment?’ he asked.
‘Your office in London,’ she said. ‘They sent an airline ticket to Athens by courier to the agency in Stephanie’s name. ‘Which of course you couldn’t use,’ he commented. ‘What did you think was going to happen when you arrived here? You could hardly pass yourself off as Stephanie. The islanders know you.’
‘I figured that once I was here at least I would have some time with Electra. Anna might have sent me packing but I just hoped she wouldn’t.’
A thoughtful look crossed his face. ‘Ah, Anna,’ was all he said. ‘A law unto herself. And how does Gabby fit into this scenario?
Melanie looked uncomfortable. ‘She thinks I’m Stephanie. We kept in touch after we met at the interviews. None of this is her fault.
‘Don’t worry. I didn’t think you were in it together. I had my own doctor treat her broken arm. I have only had good reports of her and as soon as she is fit again she will be looking after Electra.’ Melanie’s face fell at the reminder that the care of her daughter was temporary.
‘You will have no job to go back to,’ Nicos was saying thoughtfully. ‘Did you consider that?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, but she hadn’t. It was as if her mind refused to function beyond her desire to be with her daughter.
‘You could start up a catering company again,’ he suggested and Melanie was reminded how interested he had always been in her work.
Her thoughts went cart wheeling back to the early heady days of their romance and that first evening when he had come to her flat and told her he was going to become a regular visitor.
He would park his sleek sports car outside her flat, bound up the stairs and enfold her in his arms. Often he gave no warning he was on his way other than a brief text. She might be curled up on the sofa tired out after a frantically busy day but Nicos only had to call and all traces of tiredness vanished. He loved taking her to dinner in the latest must- be –seen-in restaurants where the celebrity chef inevitably came over to say hello.
To her embarrassment Nicos would proudly introduce her as a fellow chef.
Nicos,’ she would protest laughingly. ‘I’m not in their league’
On some evenings the familiar sports car would be missing from the street outside her flat and Nicos’s chauffeur driven Bentley would be there to take them out to riverside country restaurants where they would dine in quiet oak lined rooms. Talk between them flowed easily while underneath every conversation a current of deep sexual attraction permeated their words.
On one such evening he had leaned across the table and taken her hand. ‘I want you to have my baby,’ he had said, looking searchingly into her eyes. ‘We are destined to be together. Tomorrow we will visit the house I have bought for us. You will like it.’
Melanie shook her head ruefully at the memories. So typical of Nicos to have gone out and bought the house in the anticipation that she would both have his baby and would also love the house in the English countryside that he had chosen for them.
But she had done both things. She loved the old Cotswold stone house from the moment she saw it, the many happy hours they had spent haunting antique auction rooms and country house sales furnishing it just as they wanted it.
Nicos was ecstatic when she became pregnant. ‘We will have the family I have always wanted,’ he told her happily. Nicos never talked about his own family. When she had casually asked he had fended her off, quickly turning the subject. One day he will tell me, she thought. It’s not important. What matters is now.
He wanted her to give up her catering business and she did so readily. . Her ambition, once so important to her, melted away with each pregnant month that passed
Nicos’s business interests took him away often but wherever he was in the world he telephoned her without fail every day. His sweet concern for her and their baby filled her with happiness... As the months of her pregnancy went by, cocooned in the comfort of his love for her, Melanie nurtured the growing life within her and was blissfully content.
She came to recognise that what she had at first seen as arrogance in Nicos often only hid surety of purpose. She learned to trust his judgement. He was right about so many things. But she couldn’t keep the dark thought from her mind. Yes, he was right about most things, except for the one thing that really mattered and in that he was so dreadfully and catastrophically wrong.
His voice broke into her thoughts and she started guiltily as if he could read her mind. ‘If you’re worried about capital to start up your business again I could always help,’ he was saying. ‘After all, it was me who wanted you to give up the company,’ he conceded. ‘I could never allow you to do that,’ she said. ‘Anyway, there is no chance I could start up again. You forget my business was based in the City of London. That’s a very small square mile. Everyone knew what happened even if they didn’t know the details.
‘Rumours spread and not always accurately. They wouldn’t want someone like me at their private lunches, listening in to their confidential conversations.’ She couldn’t help a note of bitterness creeping into her voice.
‘And now you have added forgery to your sins.’ But there was a smile in his voice.
He surprised Melanie with his mellow mood. Would now be the time to talk to him? Would he at last be prepared to listen to her? Could she make him understand? But he continued with his train of thought. ‘You could have faced charges signing Stephanie’s name on that contract,’ he mused. ‘But you did it anyway.’
‘I would have done anything,’ she said simply.
He looked closely at her and in the depths of his dark eyes she could have sworn she saw admiration. ‘You were very…’ he hesitated for a long moment, ‘resourceful,’ he finished. ‘I think I’m proud of you.’ He drew closer to her and moved the pad of his thumb gently over her cheek. She felt his lips softy on hers. . A searing regret coursed through her. He moved his lips over hers, tender, like a long time lover.
A shout carrying over the water broke them guiltily apart. A figure was waving from the beach. Unmistakably Katerina, her blonde hair and bikini clad figure cutting an undeniably attractive sight.
Melanie drew further away from him. ‘It’s your girl friend,’ she couldn’t resist saying acidly.
‘She’s not my girl friend,’
‘You could have fooled me,’ was Melanie’s response.
‘Jealous?’ said Nicos, looking pleased.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Melanie snapped.
She stood at the edge of the platform and raising her hands above her head prepared to dive. This time Nicos did nothing to stop her. She hit the water cleanly and struck out for the shore heading as
far away from where Katerina was waving as she could judge without ending up on the rocks. Wading from the shallow water on to the beach she found Katerina had walked along the beach towards where she had come ashore and was staring at her suspiciously.
‘Why aren’t you with your charge?’ the girl demanded imperiously. Her English, though excellent, was faintly accented. Melanie recalled that Nicos had said she was from an eastern European country.
‘I don’t think that’s any concern of yours,’ Melanie said coolly, determined not to lose her temper.
‘I will talk to Mr Chalambrous about this.’ Katerina’s voice was venomous. ‘The nanny should not be so familiar.
Melanie suppressed a smile thinking that if she did Nicos would give her short shrift. But he had obviously not told her that Melanie was Electra’s mother. Silently fuming but outwardly unconcerned Melanie sauntered along the beach and retrieving her sarong and beach towel from where she had left them started up the steps to the villa.
Half way up where the steps took a sharp turn and the view to the beach was clear she could not resist a backward glance. Nicos remained on the platform and Katerina was swimming out to him, with a surprisingly proficient crawl.
‘So, not so much ‘Princess Precious’ after all when it suits her, Melanie concluded with a wry smile.
Chapter Seven
In the nursery Electra was standing up in her cot and Maria was playing pat- a-cake with her to the baby’s glee. Smiling, Melanie picked up the warm bundle of her daughter and held her close. ‘Time for a paddle,’ she crooned to her. Every afternoon she took Electra down to the sea and dangled her in the gentle waves while Electra shrieked with joy. She set off, deciding to avoid the cove where she had left Nicos and Katerina, and choosing a beach where the waters were shallow and safe.
The island was ringed with small coves She could choose a different one every day and still there would be some undiscovered. Winding her way down the path she remembered that this was where she had first seen Nicos on his return to the island and she had felt she was being watched.
The Passionate Greek Page 6