‘You are,’ she said bluntly. ‘You said I’m struggling to care for her. Tell me in what way I’m struggling?’
‘Look at this place,’ he said before he could stop himself-and her simmering anger exploded.
‘I’m looking. I can’t see a palace, if that’s what you mean. I can’t see surround-sound theatre rooms and dishwashers and air-conditioning. I can’t see wall to wall carpet and granite bench tops. So how does Zoe need those?’
‘It’s falling down.’
‘So if it falls down I’ll rebuild. We have isolation, which Zoe needs until she gets her confidence back. We have our own private beach. We have my work-yes, I’m still doing research and I’m being paid a stipend which goes towards Zoe’s medical costs, but…’
‘You’re paying Zoe’s medical costs?’
‘Your investigator didn’t go very far if he didn’t find that out. Her parents hadn’t taken out medical insurance,’ she said. ‘In this country the basics are covered but there have been so many small things. The last lot of plastic surgery was on her shoulder. The surgeon was wonderful-that’s why we used him-but he only operates on private patients so we had to pay.’
‘
‘Whatever.’
‘You can’t keep doing that.’
‘Try and stop me,’ she said, carefully neutral again. She’d obviously decided it was important to keep a rein on her temper.
‘Where does that leave you?’
‘Where I am.’
‘Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a damaged child.’
She put her drink carefully down on the packing case that served as their outdoor table. She rose.
‘You know, I’m not enjoying myself here and I have work to do. I correct assignments online and I try to do it while Zoe’s asleep. When she wakes we’ll drive you back into town. But meanwhile…Meanwhile you go take a walk on the beach, calculate cat food costs, do whatever you want, I don’t care. I believe any further dialogue should be through our lawyers.’
And she walked deliberately inside and let the screen door bang closed after her.
CHAPTER FOUR
SHE was true to her word. She wouldn’t speak to him until Zoe woke up. He took a walk on the beach, feeling ridiculous in his ridiculous uniform. He came back and talked for a while to a little black cat who deigned to be sociable. Finally Zoe woke, but even then Elsa only spoke when necessary.
‘I’ll give you the address of my lawyer,’ she said.
‘I already know who your lawyer is.’
‘Of course you do,’ she said cordially. ‘Silly me.’
‘You’re being…’
‘Obstructive?’ she said. ‘Yes, I am.’
‘What’s obstructive?’ Zoe asked.
‘Not letting your cousin Stefanos have what he wants.’
‘What does he want?’
‘You might ask him.’
Zoe turned to him, puzzled. ‘What do you want?’
‘To get to know you,’ he said, refusing to be distracted by Elsa’s anger. ‘Your papa was a very good friend of mine. When he left Khryseis we didn’t write-he wanted a clean break. I should have made more of an effort to keep in touch and I’ll be sorry for the rest of my life that I didn’t. That he married and had a little girl called Zoe…that he died…it breaks my heart that I didn’t know.’
‘It makes you sad?’
‘Very sad.’
But apparently Zoe knew about sad-and she had a cure.
‘When I’m in hospital and I’m sad, Elsa tells me about the fish she’s seen that day, and shells and starfish. Elsa keeps saying the sea’s waiting for me to get well. She brings in pictures of the beach and the house and the cats and she pins them all over the walls so every time I wake up I can see that the sea and this house and our cats are waiting for me.’
His gaze flew to Elsa. She was staring blankly ahead, as if she hadn’t heard.
But she had heard, he thought. She surely had.
And he knew then…As he watched her stoical face he realised that he was threatening her foundations. He was threatening to remove a little girl she loved with all her heart.
He’d never thought of this as a possibility. That a nanny could truly love his little cousin.
He’d come here expecting to meet Mrs Elsa Murdoch, paid nanny. Instead he’d met Elsa, marine biologist, friend, protector, mother to Zoe in every sense but name.
After the shock of learning of Zoe’s existence, his plan had been to rescue his orphaned cousin, take her back to Khryseis and pay others to continue her care. Or, if Zoe was attached to this particular nanny, then he could continue to employ her to give the kid continuity.
It had to be option two.
Only if he broached it now Elsa might well lock the door and call the authorities to throw him off her land.
So do it when? He had so little time.
‘I need to go back to Khryseis tomorrow,’ he told Zoe and glanced sideways to see relief flood Elsa’s face. ‘Elsa’s said she’ll drive me into town now. But I’ve upset her. She thought I might want to take you away from her, and I’d never do that. I promise. So if you and Elsa drive me into town now, can I come and visit again tomorrow morning?’ He looked ruefully down at his ceremonial trousers-now liberally coated in cat fur. ‘If I’m welcome?’
‘Is he welcome?’ Zoe asked Elsa.
‘If you want him to come,’ Elsa said neutrally. ‘Stefanos is your cousin.’
Zoe thought about it. He was being judged, he thought, and the sensation was weird. Judged by an eight- year-old, with Elsa on the sidelines doing her own judging.
Or…it seemed she’d already judged.
‘If you come you should bring your togs,’ Zoe said.
‘Togs?’
‘Your swimming gear-if you own any without tassels and braid,’ Elsa said, still obviously forcing herself not to glower. ‘As a farewell visit,’ she added warningly. ‘Because, if you really are Zoe’s cousin, then I accept that she should get to know you.’
‘That’s gracious of you,’ he said gravely.
‘It is,’ she said and managed a half-hearted smile.
The drive back to town started in silence. Elsa’s car was an ancient family wagon, filled in the back with-of all things-lobster pots. There was a pile of buoys and nets heaped on the front passenger seat, so he was forced to sit in the rear seat with Zoe.
She could have put the gear in the back, he thought, but she didn’t offer and he wasn’t pushing it. So she was chauffeur and he and Zoe were passengers.
‘You catch lobsters?’ he said cautiously.
‘We weigh them, sex them, tag then and let them go,’ she said briefly from the front.
‘You have a boat?’
‘The university supplies one. But I only go when Zoe can come with me.’
‘It’s really fun,’ Zoe said. ‘I like catching the little ones. You have to be really careful when you pick them up. If you grab them behind their necks they can’t reach and scratch you.’
‘We have lobsters on the Diamond Isles,’ he told her. ‘My friend Nikos is a champion fisherman.’
