‘But seriously, hiking’s a great way to see the bones of a country.’
‘If I recall, you like to roam the island at weird times of the day and night, don’t you?’
He’d made a few references to that night, and her near disaster with Thanassis, so let’s see how he liked it.
‘I don’t start at dawn every day, honest. That’s only for special occasions. But I do like to get going early.’ Will paused a moment. ‘Do you fancy hiking up into the hills with me on Sunday? Usually I go alone, but it would be fun to do it with someone else.’
He made it sound like she could be anyone he happened to fall over in the street. But she’d wanted to see what was beyond the old town, right out on the tip of the island, for a while. She was well over halfway through her contract at the language school already and it would be a shame to leave without seeing every inch of the place that she currently called home.
‘Yes, I’m in.’
‘OK, we need to leave early, as we’re moving into the hottest part of summer. It’s too far to walk all the way, if we’re going to get to the best views. So I’ll pick you up at eight, and we’ll take it from there. I’ll bring a packed lunch, to make up for the film.’
Grace couldn’t recall there being a car parked anywhere near his house, but maybe he had a spot round the back.
‘You’re on.’
At least she’d stopped thinking about Giannis and Elena for a couple of hours.
ChapterThirteen
Another week of teaching was coming to a close. Grace had just waved goodbye to the eight- and nine-year-olds she’d been with all morning. A talk on the weather had led to questions about where rainbows came from, which had got a bit technical for her liking. But an exercise to write a sentence using one of the colours of the rainbow had proved a big success and quietened everyone down.
Stelios’s mother, Konstantina, had brought his new dog, Mikey, a Maltese crossbreed, to meet her son from class, which had sent everyone crazy.
While they were fussing over the white ball of fluff, Grace had managed to ask about the boy’s grandfather. She couldn’t really ask Stelios anything in class. She didn’t want to make him cry in front of the others, and he seemed to be making such progress, joining in regularly and venturing his own opinions.
‘My father died at the weekend…’ The woman was obviously doing her best to hold it together. Grace didn’t want to push her, but she needed to know the basics for her pupil’s sake in case it impacted on anything the kids were learning.
‘I’m so sorry to hear that.’
Plus, she’d grown quite fond of the little boy. Boys were in short supply in her family. She had one sister, Angela, who also had two daughters, like her. They were all up in Scotland, and she didn’t see anything like as much of them as she wanted to.
She squeezed Konstantina’s hand as the woman tried to say more.
‘And the funeral was on Wednesday. We like to bury our dead quickly here. He had a good life, and he was ready to go.’
Grace thought it was a much better system than letting people lie around in cold storage for weeks. She hadn’t wanted to see Phil’s body again after he died. As soon as the light had gone out of his eyes, he wasn’t Phil anymore for her. Like Konstantina’s father, he’d had a good life, as far as it went, but it had gone far too soon, and he hadn’t been at all ready to go. Fifty-eight was no age. She wasn’t religious as such, but she did believe that Phil’s spirit had gone off somewhere else. Hopefully somewhere lovely.
Konstantina was waiting for her to say something.
‘It’s still hard, isn’t it, however old they are?’
The woman nodded in agreement.
‘In forty days, we will have his memorial, where we gather together and celebrate his life.’
‘That sounds like a lovely idea.’
Grace reached forward and hugged the woman hard.
When Phil had died, she’d wanted people to acknowledge what had happened. One neighbour had crossed the road to avoid her rather than have to talk about Phil’s death. For her, physical touch was an important part of showing you cared, and the Greeks were big huggers. She was sure her hug wouldn’t offend Konstantina.
They embraced for a few moments, and when they parted, the younger woman’s eyes were full of tears again.
‘Thank you.’
Konstantina pointed at Mikey.
