‘Any last questions?’
Maddie put up her hand.
‘Are we going for lunch now?’
Alexa’s face fell.
‘Yes, follow me.’
The covered terrace with its rough stone floor, gleaming farm machinery and tools placed at apparently random points, had been cleverly put together, thought Sofia. Tables covered in blue and white checked tablecloths, with vases of fresh greenery were matched with white painted chairs and there was even the odd chicken clucking in between the tables. Sofia wondered if they’d been let out only five minutes earlier solely for their pleasure. Since when had she become quite so cynical?
The Americans were oohing and aahing away like crazy, cameras at the ready.
Alexa beckoned them all in out of the sun.
‘Choose a table, please, and sit down.’
Sofia made for one laid for three in the corner, next to a large terracotta pot overflowing with blue flowers and a view of the hills behind. There was bread on the table along with a jug of wine. It was a loaf of the yellow corn bread that they’d had at quite a few of the local restaurants.
She’d already broken her no bread rule for the good stuff several times. There was bread and then there was Greekpsomi. So fresh and springy. Maddie broke off the end of the loaf and stuffed it in her mouth as Alexa spoke again.
‘In a moment you will each be given an individual cheeseboard, which has on it three different goat’s cheeses, all made here with milk from our own goats. One has been matured for a year, another for two years and another for five years, and it will be very interesting for you to taste the difference.’
Alexa raised her voice a notch.
‘Accompanying the cheeses will be three different types of honey, again from our own hives. It has been said that our thyme honey…’
‘…is the best on the island,’ the three friends chorused together in time with Alexa, confident she couldn’t hear them from where she was.
‘Definitely related to Maria,’ said Maddie as she poured out three large glasses of the white wine and clinked glasses with both of them.
‘Yamas!’
Charlotte looked in Alexa’s direction.
‘Aren’t we supposed to wait for the food?’
‘Bollocks to that.’
Maddie was already on her second glass by the time the rectangular wooden boards were brought out and laid before them.
The three selections of cheese were cut into triangles, fanned out and placed at regular intervals along the wooden board, interspersed with little white china dishes of honey as well as grapes, apricots and nuts, with big bowls of diced tomatoes and olives to share on the side.
Charlotte whipped out her phone.
‘Oh, isn’t it pretty, like a still life. This is great for the blog. You can see the variations in colour in the cheeses. The older one is darker and creamier and has a rougher surface.’
‘Gold star for the blonde in the corner,’ said Maddie, breaking off another hunk of bread.
‘Are you finished, Char? I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of just looking at it.’
Everything else was forgotten for an hour or so as they nibbled away at the various cheeses, discussed the different intensities of flavour, took guesses at what the bees had been feeding on when they made the honeys, and refreshed their palates with the sweet juicy tomatoes and plump olives.
Maddie’s call for another jug of wine and more bread was treated with slight surprise by their waitress who nevertheless recovered herself quickly and went off to fetch them.
‘That was absolutely stunning.’ Charlotte put down her napkin. ‘But I’m beat. I really can’t manage those last few bits of cheese.’
‘Hand them over.’ Maddie rubbed her stomach. ‘I’ve still got a little corner left I can tuck them into.’
