“It was my pleasure,” he said. “I am always at the service of a lady in need.”
Dusty choked on a mouthful of chips, and Mia shot back with a yelp as crumbs sprayed out in all directions. It was clear that nobody was going to introduce Skye to Louisa, so this she did herself, pointing across the hillside to indicate which house was hers.
“You are the final arrivals,” Andreas told them. “The last lottery winners on Folegandros.”
“That can’t be right,” Skye said. “What about the sixth person? There’s still one property yet to be claimed.”
Andreas rubbed a hand across his jaw.
“Nai,” he said, sounding thoughtful. “There is another empty house here, but I do not think it belongs to the municipality. There must be some other situation.”
“Another owner?”
He shrugged.
“Perhaps so.”
The five of them stared across at the abandoned property, with its crumbling outer walls and collapsed roof. There were only two windows at the front, and each had been boarded with thick planks of wood, hammered in place from the inside.
“Whoever’s it is, they’re going to have a hell of a job on their hands,” Dusty mused. She had finished the first bag of chips and was now polishing an apple on the leg of her jeans. “Roofs don’t come cheap.”
“Your own foundations are some of the best,” Andreas informed her. “I did not have to do much to make the house secure.”
“The new supporting structure is your handiwork?” Dusty asked, and he nodded. “Oh. Well, I’m not sure I would’ve done it like that, but I guess it’ll do the job until I get around to replacing it.”
The genial smile fell from Andreas’s face.
“You do not think it is good enough?”
Dusty bit into her apple and chewed for a few seconds before replying.
“I’m sure it’s sturdy. It’s just a bit…unsightly.”
“It is traditional,” he said firmly as a still-blushing Louisa took the shopping bags from his hands. Andreas folded his arms across his chest. He looked seriously unimpressed. Skye met Mia’s eye, both women suppressing the urge to grin.
“Greeks have been constructing their houses this way for hundreds of years, and here on Folegandros, we build strong homes, those that can withstand the wind, the rain, and the earthquakes.”
Dusty began to twist the stalk off her apple, reciting the alphabet as she went. “…G,H,I,J—oh,J. Who do I know whose name begins withJ?”
“You’ll know your new neighbor Joy soon,” Skye said.
Dusty screwed up her features.
“Wrong sex but never mind,” she said, and having thrown the apple core as far as she could into the surrounding undergrowth, she headed back into the house.
“Sorry about that,” Mia said to Andreas. “She doesn’t mean tobe rude, she just likes to do everything her own way. Having the job she does can be tough—there’s still a lot of sexism in the construction industry, at least in the UK,” she hastened.
“Entáxei,” he muttered. “It is OK.”
Bruno sniffed at Mia’s pocket in search of more treats, and Andreas crouched briefly to pat him. Tigri, meanwhile, remained on the wall, washing his bottom and feigning indifference.
“I should let you get on,” Skye said. “Unpack and settle in. You know where I am if you need anything.”
Mia smiled gratefully, but Andreas continued to frown.
“I am not sexist,” he told her, “but I am right to be worried. Things here, they must be done a special way, to a standard that is very particular for this island. I’m not saying that it must be me who does the work, but it is important that you use the right materials and processes.”
“Dusty knows her stuff,” Mia assured him. “I’m sure she’ll do everything by the book.”
