Page 122 of Summer in Greece

Tears welled in my eyes when I finally entered his embrace. ‘Oh, my darling, I’ve missed you so much! What are you doing here? Why didn’t you answer my letters?’

‘I wanted to write to you, but I have a terrible confession, agapi mou.’

‘I know, I heard. You have a wife and two little girls already.’ I stared at the ground, unable to look at him, my tears coming dangerously close.

‘What! No! Who has told you such a thing?’

‘It’s useless denying it. Your wife cooked a meal for Matron, only last month. Your children are beautiful, she says so.’

He cupped my chin and lifted my face so that I could not avoid his eyes. ‘My sister-in-law, Katerina, looks after me and my father when we stay on Kea, and we look after her while my brother is in the army!’

I stared at him while the news went into my head. ‘You’re not married? Oh! Then what is your big confession?’ He took a breath, his face colouring a little. ‘Manno, you’re blushing! Oh, my goodness, what is it?’

‘I am ashamed, agapi mou, you see . . . I cannot read or write the English alphabet. My sister-in-law, she found your letters two weeks ago. I kept them all, you understand. Katerina, she read some of them to me.’

‘Manno, you break my heart.’

‘I think your father has guessed the truth, that I love you, agapi, but he does not want his daughter to run away with a foreigner and live in another country. He told me I was too late, that my Gertie is happily married, and she has a child. He said if I really loved you, I would leave you alone. Is it true, agapi? Are you married to that malaka English soldier, Perkins?’

‘What could I do? I was having a baby, and you never replied! I needed a father for my child, and that malaka English soldier, as you call him, saved me from going to prison and perhaps from being hanged. What a mess this is! What shall we do?’

‘Leave him and come back to Greece with me.’

‘I can’t do that. If I leave him, he’ll tell the authorities the truth. Besides, he really loves me. They could hang me, Manno, don’t you understand? You see, it was me that went against orders and opened the portholes on the ship. Because of my action, the two-million-pound hospital ship sank before it reached the port. They could have saved it, repaired it, and gone on to save thousands of lives. I’m guilty of mass murder.’

‘How can you be guilty of mass murder? You’re a girl! This is crazy, you cannot stay with a man who blackmails you into having his baby!’

I stared at him, my heart thumping and my eyes full of tears. ‘No,’ I sobbed. ‘No, you don’t understand! Oh, why didn’t Katerina read all my letters? This is too much, Manno!’ Then I couldn’t speak for the sobs that were jerking my chest. The pain gathered and rose until it escaped in a great howl.

Manno pulled me against him. ‘Don’t cry, please! I’ll do anything you want, anything, but don’t cry.’

‘Manno, I love you! And Adam is your son . . .’

His jaw dropped, and for a moment he seemed frozen in shock. Then, he took me firmly by the shoulders and almost shook me, disbelief written on his face. ‘My son! You are telling me that this baby, right here, is my son? My son?’

I nodded. ‘I was a virgin, remember. You were my first love. I told you in my letters I was pregnant.’

Manno seemed too emotional to speak, then he exploded with joy. ‘I have a son! Holy Virgin Mary, I have a son!’ He crossed himself and then pulled me against him. ‘This is a miracle. Let me see him. Does he look like me? My son . . . oh!’

‘Yes, he’s starting to look like you. I don’t know how I’m going to explain his brown eyes and dark hair to my husband when he comes home, but it’s clear to see he’s changing to look a little more like you every day.’ I unhooked the elastic loops on the perambulator’s apron and pushed the hood down. Adam stirred and sucked his fist. ‘It is coming up to his feed time. I must return home.’ The pain of loneliness gathered in my chest. Manno, my love. I didn’t want him to leave, but he must.

‘He is so beautiful, yes,’ he said breathily. ‘Let me pick him up and hold him, my own son.’

‘No, it’s too cold. Come back to the cottage tomorrow morning. My father will be working at the hospital after eight o’clock.’

‘I can’t. My ferry ticket is for tomorrow morning. I must start back to the port. I don’t have the money for another ticket back to Greece.’ I could see he was distressed and it broke my heart.

‘Then come back to the house. I will speak to my father.’

‘I have spoken to him, agapi mou. He made it clear I was not welcome here. Thank the Virgin Mary I came across you, or I would never have known I have a son.’

‘Trust me. My father’s a good man. He’s only doing what he thinks is best. Allow me to go and speak to him.’

‘He will shoot me!’

‘No.’ I smiled. ‘Fathers do not shoot boys who make their daughters pregnant anymore. Trust me.’

‘I want you to know, I love you. When Katerina had read the first few letters to me, I went out and sold my boat to pay for a trip to come here.’