And poor India.
Chapter Thirty-Five
There’s a yacht far out to sea, drifting lazily in the glittering ocean as Rose stands on the beach ready for the morning meditation.
Xanthe’s gentle morning breeze lifts tendrils of her hair. She feels the breeze skate over her face, bringing the scent of the sea: salt, seaweed and some Greek magic.
The only fly in the ointment today is the threatening Instagram messager and the fact her friend in LA has finally replied.
Not in this business any more, Rose. But I’ve got a name for you. Contact these people and they use open source intelligence and linguistic profiling to find out if the account’s fake and to see who they are. It’ll cost you, though. These people are good but not cheap. And not always fast. Greece looks amazing in the pictures. Go you!
The group are beginning to arrive on the beach and Rose firmly closes the mental door on the Instagram menace. What is the point in helping people to be happy and calm if you yourself are not happy and calm?
Rose always believes that you can’t teach what you haven’t got.
‘Good morning!’ she smiles at the group, who are beginning to look tired under the pressure of work and long, therapeutic days.
India’s the only one who still looks bouncy and happy, today dressed in a yellow crochet mini-skirt and a white-flowered halter top that’s straight out of Twiggy’s 1960s wardrobe.
She’s a tall, lithe ray of sunshine and Rose is incredibly fond of her.
India has a sunny personality and is genuinely lovely to everyone in the hotel.
Bernard – Rose looks around to see if her smiling alligator is here – is the opposite. He’s settling down in a sunlounger on the edge of the group, beside Grazia.
Despite the whole no-phone-during-sessions diktat, Bernard is poking the screen of his phone while there’s another one beside him on a small table.
In the you-can’t-make-me stakes, Bernard is being spectacularly rude, which is hardly news given how the staff described him early on.
‘Grazia’s embarrassed by his rudeness,’ Adriana had said. ‘You can see her face whenever he does something horrid. She goes white around the mouth. But she never says anything to him. Why not?’
‘Why not indeed,’ Rose had replied. Now she can see how uncomfortable Bernard’s behaviour makes Grazia. Initially, she couldn’t read the other woman at all.
‘I’m sorry we let him in,’ Adriana had said.
The stakes had been so high and Rose had stupidly thought she could handle this incredibly rich man.
Big mistake. She’d forgotten the lessons from thesprinkling of narcissists she’d met when she was onThe Talisman Effect. They would stop at nothing to destroy people who questioned them.
Bernard has not become rich from behaving with decency. Rose can just about cope with the Instagram menace if it’s a person from the past, she might be able to confront them.
Bernard is too rich and powerful to confront. He can destroy Rose and the Villa Artemis.
Exactly how stupid has she been?
She manages a smile for the group.
Everyone is there except Dan.
Rose cannot fault him for trying to work on himself. He may still think it’s all woo-woo, but he’s working the woo-woo for all he’s worth.
She doesn’t have time to deal with latecomers.
‘We’ll start without Dan,’ she announces.
Everything is going to be fine. What rousing thought has she got for keeping her spirits up when a toxic troll is trying to destroy her life?
Oh yes: being a peaceful woman does not mean she is unskilled in the art of war.
