“It’s alright. I cook and we won’t starve.”
“We would if I cooked,” Eva quipped.
Stella smiled. Eva was starting to relax and allowed for the easy banter between herself and Zoe to shine through. Stella glanced at Tessa, whose smile was permanently etched into her face.
“Stella is the cook in our house,” Tessa said. “If you asked her nicely she may make my favorite dessert.”
“If we ask her nicely for your favorite dessert?” Zoe chuckled. “What’s your favorite?”
“Galaktoboureko.” Tessa put her hand on her heart. “That desert is just so creamy.”
“I think I can do that,” Stella replied. Tessa and Eva smacked their lips.
“Oh, now you’ve captured Eva’s heart. She loves that. She likes to try every Greek pastry shop to find out which one is the creamiest.” Zoe laughed.
“Ah, you have a sweet tooth,” Tessa said, making Eva smile. “I love sweets and would eat them more than I do.”
“Why don’t you?” Zoe asked.
“Stella is a meanie.” Tessa pouted. “Now that Stella has said she will make it, I’m much happier.”
“Does that mean you will listen and rest your knee?” Stella asked from across the room.
“Yes. I’m getting Galaktoboureko.” Tessa blew Stella a kiss.
Stella shook her head and laughed. She turned to Zoe. “Why don’t you show Eva your bedroom? Theo painted—”
“He didn’t paint everything, did he?” Zoe looked at Stella in alarm.
“No, darling, he said if he did that wall, you would kill him.” Stella chuckled.
“What was that?” Eva asked.
“I’ll show you.” Zoe took Eva’s hand and led her out of the kitchen.
Stella watched them leave. She turned to find Tessa’s gaze was on her. She lightly laughed and crossed the kitchen. Tessa very quickly sat down on the counter. “Look, I’m sitting.”
Stella shook her head. “You’ve been standing now for hours and that knee has got to be hurting.”
“It is a bit,” Tessa admitted as she reached out and brought Stella to her. "I couldn’t feel it earlier.” She opened her legs, wrapped them around Stella’s body, and captured her lips for a long passionate kiss. "Hello," she said as they parted.
“Kissing me won’t make me forget about this knee.” Stella kissed Tessa’s hand. “But it helps.” They gazed at each other and laughed at the same time.
“Sorry,” Tessa apologized. “I know I should be listening to you but…”
“I know, you’ve waited thirty years to see her.” Stella smiled. “What do you make of young Eva?”
“She’s shyer than I thought she would be. Was she like this at the cabin?”
“She was shyer than now. Once Zoe came back, she let her do the talking.”
“I want them to stay here, Angel. They have to. They don’t have a soul to look out for them.”
“They do now and we are not going anywhere.” Stella smiled. “We won’t abandon them.”
“Let’s go and ask them.”
“If they stay here, you have to stop staring at Eva all the time. Your eyes never leave her.”
“I know but…”
“Yes, you have been waiting thirty years.”
“No.” Tessa shook her head. “She reminds me so much of Daphne that I find myself almost calling her that.”
“She does look like Daphne but there is something different.”
“There’s a deep sadness there, Angel. I can feel it. She does look like Daphne so much. Now I know why Panayiotis said he couldn’t believe his eyes when Muller arrived with Eva. He nearly called her Daphne himself.”
“With everything going on, I forgot to ask you about Panayiotis’ visit last night. I never really got the chance to meet him when I’ve been to Larissa. Was he glad to see you?”
Tessa nodded. “He was very happy, and for a moment I thought he was going to cry.”
“What did he say?”
Tessa gazed into Stella’s eyes. “He couldn’t say much, he was with a young fellow who drove him out here. He said he will come by later and then we could talk.”
“I look forward to meeting him. Now did you get any inkling if young Eva is gifted?”
“I tried to read her but I couldn’t.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t? I know you were distracted and all but…”
“No, it’s not that. I just couldn’t get anything. If she is gifted, she’s blocking me but if she’s doing that, then her reaction was a lie when you revealed my gifts.”
Stella paused for a moment before she shook her head slowly. “No, that reaction was real. It was a full panic attack. I’ve seen too many panic attacks to know that was real.”
“Maybe I was distracted. I’ll try later.” Tessa replied. “I don’t think she is gifted because of her reaction.”
“What if she doesn’t know she’s gifted?”
“No, she’s now thirty years old, that’s too old not to know you a gifted. It may have jumped the generation again.”
“I’m going to send a telegram to Aunt Irene and let her know Eva is here. She did say the house will be ready for them by the time they get to Berlin.”
“Eva will want to meet her once we tell her about Irene.”
“I have no doubt that this will happen.”
***
Zoe pushed the door and entered her bedroom for the first time in eight years. She looked around and her eye caught a photograph that was prominently displayed. She bent down and picked it up.
An overwhelming sadness gripped her heart as she gazed at the smiling faces of her parents. They were seated, and in her mother’s lap was their five-year-old daughter. With shaking fingers, Zoe traced the picture. Eva put her arms around her and held her as she cried against her chest.
“Is everything going to make me cry?”
“Yes, love, we are going to cry rivers of tears,” Eva said quietly as Zoe held up the photo. “They are beautiful people.”
“They were.”
“That’s you?” Eva pointed to the little girl in the photograph. “What a cutie.” She kissed Zoe. “We are going to have the most beautiful children in the world,” she said. Still holding Zoe, she picked up another photograph. Zoe’s three brothers were holding her aloft.
“Your brothers were big boys. You don’t resemble Michael or Thieri, but you do look like Theo.”
“We can’t have everyone look alike.” Zoe giggled and wiped her eyes. Taking a last look around the room, she spotted her favorite doll. “Gypsy," she said softly.
“I don’t want to be nasty, but that is an ugly doll.”
Zoe looked at Eva. “Her name is Gypsy.”
“This is one very ugly doll, Zo.” They both broke up laughing. “Why did you name her Gypsy?”
“She reminded me of a gypsy fortune teller I saw once at the fair who had that expression on her face.” Zoe chuckled and then kissed the doll. “Michael found her at some market and I felt sorry that she was ugly.”
“Looks like someone really didn’t want her to be pretty. This is really a very sad doll.”
Zoe looked around the room. The walls were light beige and the baseboard was a deep maroon. The window had lace curtains over a heavy drape. She pulled it aside and looked outside. She smiled when she saw Mount Ossa in the distance. On the far right there was a row of dolls next to a large stack of books and an easel.
Eva was standing stock still in front of a wall that was one giant mural of Mount Ossa and the valley. “Oh, wow.”
Zoe came up to Eva and put her arm around her waist. “Mama and I worked on that. Well, Mama worked on that and I added the top of Mount Ossa. She was such a talented artist.”
“She passed it on to you.” Eva smiled and kissed the top of Zoe’s head.
“Evy, look.” Eva turned to where Zoe was pointing. In the middle of the room was a queen size bed. “I know where that came from.”
“I hope that’s not your parents’ bed.”
“It’s not my parents’ bed.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s the bed we used for guests. I know it because if you see here,” Zoe said and pointed to the side of the headboard which had a small carving of a monkey, “I drew that on there.” Zoe assured Eva, who was looking at the bed rather suspiciously. “We had a spare guest room with a double bed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t sleep in my parents’ bed. That would be just a little too much.”
“It would be like having them looking over our shoulder when you get mosquito bites.” Eva grinned. She kissed Zoe, the kiss becoming passionate. “I love you so much. You are the best thing to ever happen to me,” she said as she lowered Zoe to the bed. Eva brushed her fingers across Zoe’s soft lips. She smiled and captured Zoe’s mouth. Zoe moaned and they parted, both breathing hard, knowing they couldn’t go further.
“God, I love you,” Zoe whispered as Eva gazed into her eyes. Zoe tangled her hands through Eva’s dark locks and kissed her.
“Girls, Tessa and I—” Stella flung the door open and stopped.
Eva yelped and reacted quickly by jumping up from the bed. She practically fell into the nearby chair. Zoe’s face went a bright shade of pink as she lay on the bed and pulled the pillow from under her head. She covered her face with it and groaned in embarrassment.
“Oh, dear,” Stella said softly. Tessa came up behind her, oblivious to what had transpired.
“What’s the matter?”
“I didn’t knock.”
“Oh, Angel.” Tessa gave Stella a look before she went over to Eva and put her hand on her shoulder. “Please, excuse my Stella; she was born in a tent.”
“What I wanted to ask you both, before I rudely interrupted the kissing, was if you would like to stay here tonight.”
Eva nodded and looked at Zoe, who had taken the pillow off her face. “That would be nice.”
“You can actually test out the bed properly. I don’t think there are any mosquitoes, but you never know,” Stella teased, earning herself a wry smile from Eva and a mortified look from Zoe. “Please, resume your kissing,” she added.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Tessa chuckled and closed the bedroom door.
Eva looked at Zoe and they both started laughing. “Oh, dear god.” Eva put her hand on her heart.
“Why did you jump? You were blocking her view of me rather nicely.” Zoe laughed when Eva came over and resumed her place. “Hello.”
“This bed squeaks.”
“Yes, it does.” Zoe cupped Eva’s face. “I know how to make it stop.”
“Oiling the springs?”
Zoe chuckled. “No.”
“How did you find this out? Did you have a chance to test it out?”
“No. Michael showed me after he—”
Eva quickly disengaged herself from Zoe’s arms and scrambled off the bed. “Michael slept here?”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “You’re just too funny. Michael and his girl did not sleep here. Papa would have kicked his backside.” She took Eva’s hand and pulled her back to the bed. “What I was going to say before you did your road runner impersonation is that Michael showed me how to make the bed not squeak.”
“Oh.” Eva grinned. “Do you want to stay here tonight?”
“Yes.” Zoe nodded. “Does it make you uncomfortable staying here?”
Eva shook her head. “This is your home.”
Zoe stroked Eva’s cheek. “That isn’t the question I asked you. Does it make you feel uncomfortable, especially with Stella and Tessa in the same house?”
Eva shook her head. “She’s my aunty. I want to get to know her.”
“Alright then. We stay.”
“We lock the door.”
“We will also lock the door,” Zoe repeated as she tweaked Eva’s dimpled chin. They looked at each other for a long moment. “You are just so adorable,” Zoe said, and brought Eva down for a kiss.
Epilogue
Eva was leaning against the wooden railing on the front porch of the farmhouse. She brought her cigarette to her mouth and took a drag before she exhaled. She watched the smoke rise and drift off into the slight breeze.
The beauty of the full moon casting its glow across the fields was lost on her. Her mind was on the unexpected revelations that the trip to Larissa had brought. She knew this trip was going to be emotional, and it had lived up to that expectation, but a new complication had arisen.
Eva turned towards the sound of Zoe’s voice inside the farmhouse. Zoe’s laugh at something her aunt was saying made Eva sigh. Zoe—the young girl she had met so many years ago, the angry child who had blossomed into a beautiful, caring, loving woman.
Eva had come to Larissa in 1942 a broken woman, and now, eight years later, she was with the woman who had taken that damaged soul and given her so much to hope for and a future.
Eva could see Zoe through the window. “I love you so much,” she whispered.
Eva’s attention was drawn to the woman sitting in the sofa listening to Zoe. Her long black hair cascaded down her shoulders. Her eyes crinkled in delight at something Zoe had said.
Her aunt was alive—a woman Eva and her family thought had died in a fire before Eva was born, a woman with extraordinary gifts, a woman that could project herself across time and see the horrors Eva lived through long before they happened.
Who was Theresa Rosa Lambros?
What other gifts did this woman possess?
Why was Theresa here and what did she want from Eva?
So many questions ran through Eva’s mind. None of those questions were going to be answered that night.
Eva’s thoughts were interrupted when Zoe opened the door and stuck her head out. They smiled at each other for a moment before Zoe came out and joined her.
“It’s been a rough day,” Zoe exclaimed.
“I don’t think this will be the last rough day we have, love.”
“I know. I’m not sure what’s going to happen…”
“Maybe we can ask my aunt Tessa and she can tell us.” Eva put her arm around Zoe’s shoulders.
“How does that work, Evy?”
“I don’t know, and I’m not sure I want to know either.”
They remained silent for a moment. Zoe smiled at Eva. “I guess we will find out, won’t we?” She took Eva’s hand and held it.
“As long as you are with me, love, I’m ready to face whatever comes our way,” Eva said before she kissed Zoe lightly on the lips.
The End (For Now)
The Intertwined Souls Series Continues…
Awakenings
(Intertwined Souls Series Book 4)
The fourth installment of the Intertwined Souls series, Awakenings, continues the journey of two extraordinary women, Eva Haralambos and Zoe Lambros. Having gone back to Greece to reclaim Zoe’s inheritance after the Greek Civil War ended, they are now faced with unexpected revelations.
Eva not only has to deal with her wartime memories in a town that despised her, but she also has to contend with an unexpected figure from her past. The festive wedding of a wartime hero brings to light Eva’s strength in facing her fears and Zoe’s courage on dealing with her memories. They get help from two formidable women—Zoe’s Aunt, Dr. Stella Nikas-Lambros, an exuberant, zany character in her own right, and Theresa ‘Tessa’ Mitsos, the quiet, gentle soul with extraordinary mental abilities.
Eva and Zoe leave Greece with a new understanding of the past and a renewed purpose for their lives. In Germany they discover secrets that have spanned generations, and their journey together is once again altered in ways neither of them expected.
With hidden truths uncovered and a peek of their future, they can now work toward making their once impossible dreams come true.
About Mary
Mary D. Brooks lives in Australia and has been writing for forty years including short fiction stories for
various Australian magazines and some non-fiction articles. Mary published her first novel "In the Blood of the Greeks" in 2001 and it soon became evident that there was more to the characters and their story that needed to be told so the Intertwined Souls Series was born. Mary works as a web designer in addition to being the chief editor and owner of the AUSXIP Network. When she's not writing, reading, creating art or designing new sites, Mary travels when the travel bug hits and is always on the lookout for new adventures. Mary’s latest venture is to open the doors of her own publishing company AUSXIP Publishing.
Links
AUSXIP Network - http://ausxip.com
Official author site http://nextchapter.net
AUSXIP Publishing http://www.ausxippublishing
Social Media
Facebook: http://facebook.com/marydbrooksfiction
Facebook Intertwined Souls: http://facebook.com/evazoeseries
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Other Novels by Mary D. Brooks
IN THE BLOOD OF THE GREEKS
(Intertwined Souls Series, Book 1)
In the Blood of the Greeks is set against the backdrop of World War II. The novel begins in a most troublesome period of human history where subjugated by the might of Nazi Germany two women meet under extraordinary circumstances. This is the story of Eva Muller, the daughter of a German Major in command of the occupying force in Larissa, Greece in 1942.
Through the intervention of the village priest she meets Zoe Lambros, a young Greek woman with vengeance in her heart and a faith in God that has been shattered by the death of her family. Eva and Zoe must work together and overcome their hatred for each other while facing down their own demons. Hatred turns to friendship as they find common ground while helping Jews escape from the Nazis.
WHERE SHADOWS LINGER
(Intertwined Souls Series, Book 2)
Where Shadows Linger follows the ever popular first book in the Intertwined Souls Series, In the Blood of the Greeks. Having survived Nazi-occupied Greece and its liberation, Eva Muller and Zoe Lambros are still very much in love, wanting nothing more than to fulfil their dreams and hopes for the future.
Hidden Truths (Intertwined Souls Series Book 3) Page 28