Christmas Eve Marriage

‘Well, first I think we should ring your mother and ask her why she booked a villa in the middle of nowhere, instead of a nice beach apartment near shops and restaurants!’

Clara grinned. ‘She did say it was isolated.’

‘It’s that all right.’

Thea eyed the view through the kitchen window without enthusiasm. Rocky hillsides, olive groves and the spectacular peaks of the White Mountains in the distance were all very well, but right then she would have sacrificed picturesque for the odd blot on the landscape, an ugly supermarket, say, or a nice plastic restaurant—preferably one that delivered coffee by the gallon and an assortment of calorie-laden breakfasts.

She nibbled her thumb as she tried to think, but her brain really needed caffeine before it would function properly.

‘We’re just going to have to ask the people in the other villas if they can let us have some bread or something until we can get to the shops,’ she decided eventually.

‘We don’t have to ask that grumpy man we met last night, do we?’

Clara looked a little apprehensive, as well she might, thought Thea, remembering their disastrous arrival.

‘I think there are three villas, aren’t there? We’ll try the other one first,’ she said, trying to sound positive. ‘Maybe they’ll be friendlier.’

They couldn’t be less friendly, anyway, she thought glumly. So much for her relaxing holiday. She hadn’t planned to kick it off begging for a bit of bread and water. Why did these things happen to her?

Oh, well. Better get on with it.

They got dressed, which in Thea’s case meant shorts and a T-shirt, while Clara simply pulled a T-shirt over her swimming costume, and then headed off in search of breakfast.

In spite of their hunger, they hesitated on the terrace and took in their surroundings. It was the first time they had seen the villas. Three stone-built houses were set around a communal pool that glinted bright and blue in the dazzling Greek sunlight.

‘Cool,’ breathed Clara. ‘Can I swim after breakfast?’

It was very quiet. The air was already warm and filled with the drifting scent of herbs, and Thea sniffed appreciatively. ‘Lovely…thyme and oregano…let’s get some lamb to cook tonight.’

‘Let’s get breakfast first,’ said the more practical Clara.

Their villa sat between the two others, looking directly out over the pool to the mountains beyond. On the right was the villa they had stumbled into by mistake the night before.

‘Let’s try this way first,’ said Thea, pointing left.

All was very quiet as they climbed the steps leading up to the terrace. ‘Hello?’ Thea called, but there was no reply. ‘Hello?’

‘I don’t think there’s anyone here,’ Clara whispered, affected by the silence.

‘It doesn’t look like it.’

Reluctantly, as one, they turned to look at the villa opposite. They had a much better view across the pool than from their own terrace, and they could clearly see the man sitting at a table under a vine-laden pergola. A little girl was slumped in a chair beside him, scuffing her shoes sulkily.

‘There he is.’ This time it was Thea whispering.

‘He still looks cross,’ said Clara.

It was too far to read his expression, in fact, but Thea knew what her niece meant. There was something off-putting about the body language on the opposite terrace.

She bit her lip doubtfully. She had already experienced the rough side of his tongue, and she didn’t fancy it again. OK, the mistake was theirs, but there had been no need for him to be quite that fierce, had there?

If she had any self-respect, she would go and find the car keys and brave the hairpin bends before she would ask him for so much as a glass of water.

It was a battle between pride and her stomach, and her stomach won. No surprises there then.

‘He’s probably got a nice wife inside,’ she suggested to Clara. ‘She might feel guilty about the way he shouted at us. We weren’t making that much noise.’

‘It was five in the morning,’ said Clara gloomily. ‘And you did crash into his car.’

‘It was just a little bump.’

Clara’s mouth turned down at the corners. ‘Maybe we should go to that town after all,’ she said, but Thea had stiffened.

‘Look.’ She nudged her niece as she spotted a cup and a cafetière on the table. ‘He’s got coffee!’

She felt quite giddy at the thought. She would do anything for a cup of coffee right then. ‘Let’s just go and see,’ she encouraged Clara. ‘He’s not going to be rude in front of his little girl, is he?’

Clara was clearly unconvinced, but she could see that her aunt was determined. ‘OK, but you do the talking,’ she warned.

Buoyed up at the prospect of coffee, Thea bore her niece around the pool and back past their own villa. It was only at the bottom of the steps that her nerve began to fail. Close to, the man’s face was very grim as he looked out at the view. He was evidently lost in his thoughts, and it didn’t look as if they were particularly happy ones.

He hadn’t seen them yet, and Thea faltered. ‘Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all,’ she muttered.

‘Go on,’ whispered Clara, giving her a push. ‘We’re here now, and I’m starving!’

Thea opened her mouth to argue, but just then the little girl spotted them and sat up curiously. She tugged at her father’s sleeve, and he turned his head and saw them lurking at the bottom of the steps. The intimidating brows rose in surprise and Thea gulped. It was too late to turn and run now.

Squaring her shoulders, she trod up the steps with an assumption of confidence, Clara following reluctantly in her wake.

‘Morning!’ She produced a bright smile, the kind of smile she might give someone she had never met before. Someone who had never shouted at her furiously.

He looked a little taken aback by her smile as he got to his feet. ‘Good morning.’

His voice was cool but civil. That was something, thought Thea, looking on the bright side. At least he hadn’t leapt to his feet and roared at them the way he had only a matter of hours ago. It wasn’t the warmest welcome she had ever received, but Thea had to admit that she probably didn’t deserve one of those.

‘Hello.’ She smiled a little nervously at the little girl and received a blank stare in return. Oh. That grimness must run in the family.

She turned back to the man. ‘We…er…thought we should come over and apologise for last night…well, this morning.’

Distracted by the smell of coffee, her gaze wandered in spite of herself over to the cafetière, and she had to force herself to look back at him. ‘I’m very sorry for waking you up and…er…and for crashing into your car.’

To her surprise, the sternness in his face lightened somewhat. ‘I think I’m the one who should apologise,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid I was very rude to you. I’d had a difficult day,’ he went on, his own gaze straying involuntarily towards his daughter, ‘and an even worse evening, so I was in a filthy temper long before you arrived. It wasn’t fair to take it out on you.’

An apology from him was the last thing Thea had expected, and she was completely thrown. ‘I don’t blame you for being annoyed,’ she said, stammering slightly. ‘It was very late and we were making a lot of noise, I know.

‘It was just that we’d had such a nightmare journey,’ she tried to explain. ‘The plane was delayed, of course, and then there was some problem with the baggage handling at the airport, which meant that we had to wait ages for our cases. By the time we’d found the car hire place, I was so tired I was like some kind of zombie—and that was before we had to find our way here in the dark.’

‘It’s not an easy drive at the best of times,’ he said, which was nice of him, Thea thought. Especially when she doubted very much that he would have found it difficult at any time of day. He had an air of calm competence about him that could be intimidating or incredibly reassuring, depending on how much you really needed someone competent with you.