Page 110 of Villa of Secrets

Tassos lowered his gun. I lowered mine. Everyone sighed.

Before Josie untied his feet, I patted him down, until I recognised the jingle of money in his pocket. I retrieved the coins, took two, and put the rest back. I returned to Nathanial and placed the coins over his eyes.

‘Goodbye, sir,’ I whispered, standing to attention and saluting him. ‘I’ll see you in the Elysian Fields.’ I covered his face with rubble and rocks to protect him from vultures and foraging animals.

I returned to the back of the building. When the young German was out of sight, we checked the debris again for signs of life but found none.

We three, along with Kopay, moved into the hut on mount Filerimos. Over the next days, Tassos taught me to use the catapult and we became friends, although our relationship was purely platonic. Josie mothered us, cooking and cleaning. Because my old dress was in rags, she made me a sort of uniform with trousers out of a brown blanket that was going spare.

I continued to wear Evangelisa’s pretty dresses to commit petty acts of sabotage, and I found that particularly painful. Sometimes I’d try to analyse all that had happened, and I came to the conclusion that Evangelisa had saved Giovanni’s life. If my sister hadn’t been shot, Giovanni would not have signed up for the army, and therefore would have been in the villa at that fateful moment.

As the months slipped by, I realised Tassos avoided giving me missions that could put me in any actual danger when we tried to disrupt the Germans.

‘Is this the best I can do?’ I asked Tassos. ‘Cut phone wires and poison wells? I have to stop the war, for my family! Why are you suddenly afraid I can’t handle more serious action?’

He stared at me for a moment and then called Josie. ‘I don’t think she understands her situation,’ he said. ‘You’d better tell her.’

She took me into the hut and explained.

I was pregnant.

Chapter 46

Bubba placed her hand on her tummy and stared at it. Poor Rebecca, she thought. A mother never gets over the loss of a child. At least Bubba had shared thirty years of her beautiful daughter’s life, and now she knew the joys of caring for Sonia’s children and grandchildren.

So unfair that Rebecca has not experienced any of those pleasures yet. However, things were looking good, and Bubba had a feeling this time Rebecca’s dreams would come true. She looked up to see Papas Yiannis on his patio. She lifted the diary. He nodded and smiled sadly.

Bubba’s mind went to Sonia’s father, Giovanni. He had missed out on so much too. Not a day passed when she didn’t think of the shepherd boy and wish for the strength of his arms around her. Yet, life seemed to have evened itself out somehow. The court case was bringing everyone together, and that was all she wanted from it.

The truth was, Bubba was tired of living. She found herself thinking of Irini more often, and in her vanity, hoped her friend would see her as the young girl she’d been when they parted. She closed her eyes and saw a vision of Irini standing on the banks of the river Styx, waiting for her.

‘You’re always late, Dora!’ Irini said, and they laughed and kissed and walked hand in hand through the Elysian Fields.

*

Naomi, ironing, stopped for a moment to check on her grandmother. She stuck her head outside. Bubba had nodded off with a smile on her face and the diary in her hands. She decided to leave her in peace. About to return to her chores, the phone stopped her. She put the iron down, squeezed around the board and picked it up. It was Fritz with his arrival time.

‘That’s wonderful, Fritz.’ She hesitated. ‘Look, it’s unfortunate what happened. We got off to a bad start ten years back, but I want you to know that I regret what happened. I hope you understand and we can start again. I’ll see you later.’

She hung up and phoned Rent Rooms in Paradise to confirm a double room.

The day had been long and stressful. She still had ironing to finish, beds to make, and Bubba to see to. She heard a noise outside and stepped out onto the patio.

‘How are you doing out here, Bubba?’

‘I nodded off. It’s a beautiful sunset. Where’s Rebecca? She’s been helping me with my exercises.’

‘She’s shopping in town. Fritz is arriving this evening. I’m booking them into Paradise. How do you really feel about him coming over?’

Bubba paused, and then said, ‘I can’t say exactly. Just the mention of his name brings back the darkest hours of my life and all I lost. Nevertheless, I never thought I’d be able to read the diaries, and I can. It was difficult at first, remembering Irini and everything, but I managed to come to terms with it. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to behave myself. They’ve enough on their plate without me being cantankerous.’

Naomi hesitated. ‘I wonder . . . but, no, nothing.’

‘Go on,’ Bubba said. ‘Tell me.’

‘I can’t help wondering what he said on the phone to bring about this change of attitude.’

Bubba flashed her crooked smile. ‘The man should be a politician, the way he manages to soothe troubled waters. He told me he’d read the first two diaries and was saddened by the tragedy, but I was in danger of losing my granddaughter if I couldn’t move on from the past. He asked whether it wasn’t racism that took everything from me in the war. Yet there I was, being racist myself – hating him only for where he came from.’