‘You are not going to submit the plan at all, are you?’ Elias guessed.
He watched Becky shrug. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Captain Rebecca.’ He sighed. ‘Because you are worried about what your sister will say?’
‘I care too much about people. You said so yourself.’
‘What worries you the most about your sister? Because I think I know you are not someone who cannot handle a little “I told you so”.’
Becky looked across the water then, as if gazing at the view might help her answer his question. He took a sip of his wine and gave her time.
‘I worry that she will realise I’ve been holding her up since our dad died. I know that sounds silly because, in some ways, actually most days, I want her to know that I am more than someone who butters bread for her business. But, in other ways, her realising that will probably mean this distance between us will get wider and wider until maybe it won’t ever be able to be bridged.’ She sighed. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want an MBE for services to Megan or anything, I think I just want her to take charge. That’s why I left on this housesitting break, to force her to take control, to back off a little and let her manage It’s A Wrap. I think maybe I’ve been doing too much handholding and maybe I’ve made her the way she is.’
‘Your sister needs to stand on her own feet and you need to discover where yours want to discover.’
‘Yes,’ Becky agreed, looking happier now. ‘I mean, if I send the party plan to the nursing home and we got the job I would feel compelled to follow it through and perhaps, after this break, I might want to do something else. Maybe I’ll be like Petra and travel some more.’
‘Really?’ Elias asked. His insides were quirking just a little. Knowing her base was in the UK, like his, had always felt like fate, but she wanted to explore and who could blame her?
‘I mean, I don’t really know. I don’t think I want to visit all the hotspots where they give out crap T-shirts and tattoo the wrong name on your arm but…’
Elias laughed then and brought a napkin to his lips.
‘How about you?’ Becky asked him. ‘When do you go back to the UK?’
‘I… am not sure.’
He wasn’t. He was still holding Chad at bay, leaving it twenty-four hours before responding to his emails, ignoring calls and blaming the time difference. Half of him was hoping Kristina was going to come back and he could have a frank and honest conversation with her about everything. The other half knew, as much as he had wanted to get in and take an inventory of the house, that wasn’t playing fair at all and any approach he made should be via her solicitor. But would he be the lawyer everyone wanted if he changed tack? His brand had been built on being cut-throat and taking risks… except it didn’t feel so good any longer.
‘My parents are… not together anymore.’
‘Oh!’ Becky exclaimed. ‘I didn’t think about Eleni being married.’
‘Because you thought she was my cougar.’
‘Well… Petra did more than me really.’
Elias sighed. ‘They are two very stupid people who choose not to communicate once there has been a breakdown in marital harmony. Instead they pretend not to care about each other, gossip about one another to their friends, then cry at night because they are not together.’
‘I… don’t know what to say.’
‘I know what to say,’ Elias replied, topping up Becky’s wineglass and swatting at a mosquito at the same time. ‘And I have said it to them both. But, as well as stupid, they are both proud and very stubborn. It will take a while for my words to sink into their incredibly thick skins. So, I think I will be here, until that has happened.’
‘You think it will work? That what you have said to them will make them get back together?’
Elias nodded. He was convinced. ‘Oh, yes, there is no doubt about that. It is simply a matter of when.’
‘And that is your professional opinion? As a divorce expert?’
‘It is my professional opinion as their son,’ Elias replied, taking another slice of bread. ‘And, as someone who has been through a marriage that never had any chance of working from the very beginning.’ He looked directly at Becky then, wanting to see the reaction in her eyes.
*
Elias had been married. Did that shock Becky? Not really. She had assumed the letter inked on his chest would stand for something or someone close to his heart. Although Becky had half-hoped it was a sister…even know he’d told her he was an only child. But what was more interesting was that he was telling her about his marriage now. Telling her because he wanted her to know… that he was single? Or that he was still married? Her pulse was beating in her neck as she tried to quell her feelings.
‘I am divorced, Becky,’ he told her. ‘Two years now.’
‘Oh.’ What did she say? The word ‘sorry’ wasn’t appropriate, was it?
‘I have not been back to Liakada since my wife left me because… it was the scandal of the village, the talk of the municipality of Thinali.’ He drank a large mouthful of wine.
‘What happened?’ Becky asked him.
‘What happened,’ Elias repeated, his eyes in the mid-distance.
‘You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to. I mean, if it’s—’
‘No,’ Elias interrupted. ‘I do have to tell you. I have to tell you because I have never actually told anyone else. That is, anyone else, who wasn’t involved in the divorce proceedings.’ He took a breath. ‘Becky, I have never felt able to sit down and tell anyone about it before because I’ve been too embarrassed and too stupid and too wrapped up in other people’s opinions and… life is too short to keep doing that anymore.’ He sniffed. ‘Otherwise, one day, I might be on a plane, in heavy turbulence and get diverted straight into the Alps and never get the chance to… start again.’
She reached for his hand, seeing all kinds of emotions written in his expression. She entwined her fingers in his and held on tight.
‘I’m listening,’ she answered.
Forty-Seven
Kassiopi Castle
Elias felt taller somehow and lighter, definitely so much lighter. Except for his stomach. His stomach was so full and heavy, if the rest of him hadn’t felt quite so elated he might be too weighted down to lead the way from the edge of the harbour up this steep and winding path to the ruins of the fort.
As he had opened up to Becky about Hestia and Thalia and that night in the village when his marriage had ended, all the hurt and anger and sadness came rushing out. In a flood of emotion Elias was trying hard to keep in check, amid the grandmother’s lamb and spaghettada, he had told Becky everything. And all the way through, between mouthfuls of the delicious cuisine, she had held his hand, whispering reassurance, telling him that everything was going to be OK. Somehow, the way she had said it, the way she had looked at him when she had said it, he truly believed her. Was it all going to be OK? Could it really be so?
He squeezed her hand now, slowing their pace a little as the humidity kicked in. It filled his lungs with warm air as the incline hampered any chance of normal, balanced breathing. ‘You are OK?’