‘Shout too!’ she says. ‘They could be looking for us!’
Privately, Dan doesn’t think anyone is looking for two youngish fit people who went off for a hike.
No point saying that.
‘Let’s head downhill,’ he says. ‘We’ve come too far up and that’s a mistake. We might be going around in circles. Let’s go down, straight down, OK?’
He holds out a hand to India who stares at it for a moment, before taking it.
Fifteen minutes later, they come to a gap in the forest and spy a glitter of sea.
‘The sea!!! There must be a road nearby,’ says India.
She starts to run and Dan keeps up with her.
‘Be careful,’ he says. ‘Don’t fall.’
But India’s too hyped up at the thought of safety now. She skips lightly over rocks and pebbles, dances over small plants.
And then Dan sees it, just as India shrieks, ‘Omigod, it’s a road!’ She stops running, backing into Dan in relief.
He catches her, supports her, both of them laughing manically with relief.
‘It’s a road,’ he agrees delightedly.
Chapter Thirty
When Dan and India walk tiredly into the foyer of Villa Artemis, dusty, sunburned, exhausted, it is filling up with people, all, it turns out, assembling ready to search for them.
‘India!’ screams Keera. ‘We thought you were lost!’
‘We were,’ says India, half grinning, half crying now because they’re safe and she feels shaky after the adventure of it all.
‘It’s my fault,’ says Dan, going straight up to Christos and a man in a police uniform. ‘I didn’t take my phone with me and India’s had no coverage and then ran out of juice.’
‘You’re here now!’ says Christos, vastly relieved as Rose hurries over to hug India. Grazia has to sit down on one of the cream couches as she’s overcome with an adrenaline rush.
‘I don’t think I can meditate tonight, Rose,’ India says, and Rose laughs with relief.
‘I don’t think any of us can,’ Rose says fervently. ‘We need tonight off after what’s happened.’
In the dining room later, Adriana insists that Dan andIndia have her special fish pie followed by bougatsa, the filling Greek custard pie that India has refused to eat up to now on the basis that it’s a fat-filled pleasure that girls should avoid.
After one forkful of bougatsa, India moans with pleasure and keeps eating.
She doesn’t know why Dan keeps glancing at her as she eats, but she laughs when she catches his eye.
Guilt, probably. He was the one who was supposed to know where they were going, idiot man. Nonetheless she blushes. The hike had been a funny kind of bonding experience.
‘You need food and to sleep,’ fusses Adriana, allowing them only a small glass of wine each.
Christos hovers with his special brandy but Adriana shoos him away.
‘Spirits will stop them sleeping, agapitós,’ she says.
‘What’s “agapitós”?’ asks India, now in a lovely happy haze of being physically exhausted, safe and satiated.
‘Beloved,’ says Christos, putting an arm around his wife.
