late to heal it. You know I should have no right to the throne. My rights are an accident of birth. It’s you and Nikos…It should be you and Nikos. I’ve just got to figure a way around it. Thank you, Annia. Thank you for everything. And I’m so sorry.’
And she walked out of the cottage before they could say a word. She closed the door and she started to run.
‘You should go after her.’
Nikos stared at the closed door and his mother’s voice came as if from a long way off. ‘She doesn’t want me.’
‘I think she does.’
He shook his head. ‘She left, Mama. Ten years ago she left, and she had my son and didn’t tell me. She’s strong and independent and willful. And she wants to pursue her career.’
‘She doesn’t look like a woman whose career is everything.’ She hesitated. ‘Nikos, can I ask…? Maybe I should have asked this ten years ago. I did think of asking…but I knew it was none of my business. But now…When I see Athena so distressed…You and Marika…’ She paused. ‘Why did you and Marika marry before a Justice of the Peace and not a priest?’
He frowned. ‘Marika was pregnant.’
‘Father Antonio would still have married you.’
‘Neither of us wanted to be married in the church.’
‘I know that,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘We were upset about it-Marika’s mother and I. But you were both adamant. Why were you so adamant?’
‘Mama, enough. There are so many arrangements to make…’
‘Of course there are,’ she said softly. And then she smiled. ‘Christa, what is it that you’re making?’
‘A lady,’ Christa said. The dough now had a small blob, a bigger blob underneath, two arms, two legs and what might have been a skirt.
‘That’s lovely,’ Annia said and beamed. ‘You make yourself a lady. Nikos, you go and make one safe. And if you can make both of you happy in the process…It’s time Father Antonio was put to work.’
CHAPTER NINE
THEY took the limousine again, only this time Nikos was driving. Nicky and Christa were delighted to see each other-far too immersed in the novelty of each other to notice scenery. Athena had her nose against the window the whole way.
She and Nikos had been here before-as kids they’d explored most parts of the island, both on foot and on the back of a saddle-tough pony-but they’d never got past the gates of the Eagle’s Nest. The gates were twelve feet high and padlocked, with locks big enough to deter the most intrepid of explorers. Mind, a twelve feet high fence wasn’t actually what had stopped them. What had stopped them was the pack of dogs left loose to roam the grounds at will.
‘So…um…where are the dogs?’ Athena asked nervously as the gates swung open at their approach.
‘There was only one left when Giorgos died,’ Nikos said over his shoulder. ‘The old groundsman took him home with him. He says he’s turned out to be a pussycat. Do you think you can be royal without killer Dobermans?’
‘I’ll try,’ she said magnanimously, and found herself smiling. Despite the trauma of the morning, despite the confusion of her visit to Annia, suddenly there was a frisson of excitement. She felt eight years old again, nose pressed against the twelve foot gate-and suddenly the gate swung open.
‘Cool, isn’t it?’ Nikos said, and it was as if he’d guessed her thoughts. ‘The place has always been kept in readiness for a royal visit of up to a dozen guests. So there should be room for us.’
‘We’ll need four bedrooms,’ she said as a knee-jerk reaction. He met her gaze in the rear-vision mirror and grinned. And there it was again. That smile. Pure mischief.
The smile of the Nikos she’d once known…
They drew up before the main entrance. Here again were servants. Two servants.
Joe and Mrs Lavros from the palace.
‘I figured we’d go with staff we know,’ he told her.
‘I can make my own bed and we can make our own sandwiches,’ she said, lightness fading. ‘Why do we need anyone?’
‘I need Joe,’ he said flatly.
Once again he met her gaze and the message was unmistakable. Her lightness faded. Joe. Nikos’s cousin. Big, burly and totally dependable. Security.
‘And Mrs Lavros makes baklava just like Mama does,’ he said. ‘No aspersions on your cooking, Princess…’
‘You think I can’t cook?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘Mama makes great hamburgers,’ Nicky said, leaping to her defence. Then he hesitated. ‘One day last winter we made…bak…bakla…what you were just talking about…’
‘Let’s not go there,’ Athena said hurriedly. Nikos grinned-and Nicky grinned with him-and she suddenly had two guys with identical smiles and it was doing her head in.
‘So how did your mama’s baklava turn out?’ he asked.
‘We ate it with spoons,’ Nicky said, still grinning. ‘It was good but it didn’t look like the picture in the recipe book. And Mama had to spend half an hour scrubbing honey off the oven.’
‘I rest my case,’ Nikos said, opening the door of the car. ‘Mrs Lavros is here to stay. Okay, kids, it’s yours to explore.’
The kids and Oscar tumbled out of the limousine. Mrs Lavros and Joe smiled a welcome and took themselves off, and they were alone on the steps of a fairy tale. Two kids, two adults and one dog. Her family, Athena thought, and then stomped on the thought and concentrated on this truly excellent building.
It was a true fairy tale castle. Built two hundred years ago by a mad monarch with delusions of grandeur, all white stone, turrets and towers, it was like a sugar confection, a magic, secret fantasy.
‘Wow,’ Nicky breathed, awed. He was standing dumbstruck, staring upwards, seeing a white flag with blue stars and pale yellow stripes fluttering from the battlements. ‘What’s the flag for?’
‘It means the Crown is in residence,’ Nikos said.
‘The Crown…’
‘That would be your mother. Welcome to the Eagle’s Nest, Princess.’
‘Don’t…don’t call me that.’
‘We don’t have a choice,’ he said. ‘It’s time you acknowledged it. This is your place, Princess. You’ve come home.’
It was fabulous. The more they saw…it was more and more wonderful. The kids whooped through the castle with joy and wonder, and Nikos thought he’d been right to bring them here. He’d been right to include Christa.
The terrors of this morning had faded to nothing for Nicky. He was a kid in a fairy tale castle, he had an adoring little sister at his heels, he had his dog.
He had his mother.
He had his father.
All was right in his little boy’s world, and Nikos watched and listened to his excitement and found a peace settling on his heart that had been missing for ten years.
For ten years Thena had been gone. He had his family here-his daughter, his mother, his aunts and uncles and cousins. He’d built his fishing fleet, he’d succeeded on his own terms, he’d almost thought he had enough.
He hadn’t. Now, standing by Thena’s side as the kids led them on a tour of exploration, he knew his life had suddenly got better.
How to make it complete?
Ten years ago Thena had thought her career was more important than life on this island. He had one more
