‘You know it’s rude to point.’ Sofia threw down the last of her coffee. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me.’
‘Hmmm. Anyway, meet down here in an hour and bring?—’
‘Sensible shoes, a hat and a bottle of water.’ Sofia’s eyes met Maddie’s.
‘Yes, we know, mum.’
‘Don’t call me that. It makes me sound old.’
Sofia reached over to stroke Charlotte’s arm.
‘As if. We love you looking out for us and our potentially wrinkly skin.’
Maddie looked down at her own hands.
‘Potentially wrinkly? I think I’m there, big time.’
Sofia leapt up from the table and started walking away.
‘No! Never! I won’t listen.’
Charlotte made a face behind her friend’s departing back and bent down to whisper to Maddie.
‘She’s in a right tizz. I’ll try and find out more later when you’re out.’
Maddie replied with a thumbs up, but her mind was elsewhere.
The beauty all around made it easy not to think about how far they still had to walk, and Maddie was grateful for the break it gave her from the thoughts buzzing around her head. The constant butterflies in her stomach weren’t helping either. She’d made out to her friends it was just a casual drink with Thanassis, but deep down she knew it was something more. She wasn’t quite sure what exactly, but she’d find out in a few hours’ time. Not that she was looking for any sort of relationship with the man, but there was a connection there that couldn’t be denied. It made her feel she’d agreed to something naughty, which although exciting, was tinged with all sorts of guilt.
‘Look at that!’
Sofia pointed skywards.
A brightly coloured bird flew over their heads and settled in one of the trees at the side of the path. There were trees as far as she could see, all the way down to the water far below, a splash of blue in a forest of green interrupted only by the oleander shrubs dotting the hillside with pink and white splodges.
The wild nature of this place was much more her cup of tea than the barren hills and stark landscapes of the previous island, beautiful though it had been in its own way.
Charlotte pointed ahead.
‘We’re nearly there.’
Someone really needed to give the woman a little flag to hold aloft.
A few houses with whitewashed walls and pots of red and pink geraniums on their steps appeared in front of them, but the properties were still very spaced out. Their gardens boasted rows of vegetables and the odd fruit tree, along with plenty of old machinery and even the odd car now and again, rusted right through and used as a chicken coup or a mini greenhouse. While she was admiring the flowers growing in a particularly wrecked model, a feeble cry stopped her in her tracks.
A tiny ginger kitten was stuck under the bottom of a blue painted gate, trapped by its bigger, stronger grey sibling who was holding it down with both paws.
‘Get off her, you bully.’
Maddie wasn’t sure why she was convinced the little ginger kitten was a girl, but she would have happily put a bet on it.
The grey kitten skittered off into the undergrowth, but his sister stayed where she was on her back, mewling.
‘Hey, sweetie, are you OK?’
Her advance towards the kitten was halted by a big tabby that shot out of a bush the other side of the gate and licked the ginger kitten on the head while staring straight at Maddie.
‘OK, I’ve got it, mum. It’s easy to do. You take your eye off them for a minute, and they start fighting.’
