His face relaxed into a smile.
‘Glad you like it. I made the bookshelf myself and the kitchen units as well as the dining table.’
‘I take it you’re good with your hands then?’
As soon as she’d said it, Grace wanted to stuff the words back into her mouth. Will’s eyes met hers, and she could see the laughter in them.
‘I have my moments…’
Before Grace could think up a suitable retort, a pair of arms with long red fingernails at the end of them went around Will’s waist.
‘Will, darling.’
He spun round and the owner of the arms and the French accent was revealed to Grace as a dark-haired woman whose deep tan was the kind her daughters had warned her about. She wore a red mini dress which bore no relation to the party theme but did a lot for her slim figure. She’d completed the outfit with a pair of deely boppers with little silver moons on the end.
‘Celine!’
Will didn’t seem quite as thrilled to see Celine as she had sounded to see him. But it was none of Grace’s business. She’d better go and find Angeliki.
‘Grace. Can we…?’
Will was trying to ask her something, but she stepped out onto the terrace without a backward glance.
Angeliki was leaning against the wall chatting to an older man with sparse grey hair. Grace hadn’t asked her friend how old she was, but Angeliki had volunteered the information that she was in her mid-fifties. She had married young and divorced ten years later; it was work that had been the constant companion in her life. They’d skated over her time with Will, neither wanting to go into detail. The guy currently towering over Angeliki looked like he was in his seventies, or even eighties. Far too old for her glamorous friend. They’d agreed a signal if one of them was being bored to death; a stretch of the arm towards the sky as if cramp had set in. Angeliki was doing it now.
Grace stepped into the circle.
‘Excuse me. Angeliki, I’m sorry but I really need to talk to you about my… hamster. It’s urgent.’
Her friend managed to keep it together somehow.
‘Of course, let’s go somewhere quieter.’
Round the back of the house was a small vegetable garden with views up into the hills. Angeliki led Grace by the hand until they were out of earshot, and they both collapsed laughing onto a bench.
‘My hamster?’ Angeliki struggled to catch her breath.
‘Don’t be harsh. It was the first thing that came into my mind. You looked as though you needed rescuing.’
‘I most certainly did. He was asking me if I knew how to make bekri meze, drunken pork stew.’
‘Sizing you up as a potential wife?’
‘Housekeeper more like.’
‘You’re well out of that then.’
‘Agreed.’
Angeliki picked at some flaking paint on the arm of the bench.
‘Watch out for the lady in red.’
‘Celine? Yes, I’ve already had the pleasure. Who is she?’
‘Another ex of Will’s. Owns a boutique in the town. But unlike me, she’s not at all happy to be friend-zoned. Won’t accept it’s over.’
‘Okaay. And you’re telling me this because?’
