The Holiday (15 page)

But he still felt like the same old loser he had always been.

Theo had said his goodbyes and was now climbing the steep path up to Villa Anna, but even when he had put a sizeable distance between him and the jetty, he could still make out Dolly-Babe’s jarring voice. She was talking about him as though he couldn’t hear or, more probably, as though he was an imbecile who couldn’t understand her.

‘You’d think he’d make more of an effort, wouldn’t you?’ she was saying. ‘He’s a bit too casual for my liking. If I was employing him I’d expect him to wear trousers for work, not shorts. And, if you’ll take a tip from me, it doesn’t do to be too familiar with the hired help. The next thing you’ll know, he’ll be taking you for a ride. I suppose he will pass on my message to Mr St James. You never can be sure with his type. Charming, but totally unreliable.’

Theo laughed to himself and was still smiling when he came upon Mark lazing comfortably in a chair beside the pool. His eyes were closed and he looked unusually relaxed and at ease, stripped off to the waist and with his arms raised behind his head. Theo could see the line of the scar that remained from the wound Mark had received on the night he had saved a relative stranger’s life. It had laid down the foundations of their friendship and bonded it for ever. They were told by the medical staff at the hospital that they were probably both lucky to be alive. Theo’s skull had been fractured, his nose broken and Mark had very nearly had his spleen ruptured. It was while they were lying in adjacent beds the following morning that Theo had thanked Mark for coming to his aid. Through his bruised, swollen lips he had said, ‘It is not everyone who would have been brave enough to do what you did. I am very grateful.’

‘I didn’t feel as if I had any choice,’ had been the terse response.

‘You could have pretended not to hear and walked away.’

‘I’m not that kind of guy. My only regret is that it wasn’t a more worthwhile life I’d saved. What the hell were you doing out so late anyway? Some sensible woman denied you access to her bed, did she?’

‘I had been to a party.’

‘And hadn’t got lucky? Hah! Serves you right.’

The exchange was brought to an end with the arrival of Theo’s parents. Sweeping into the ward, and seeing the state of him, his mother had burst into a paroxysm of tears. ‘It looks worse than it really is,’ he said, in an attempt to placate her, his voice raised above her noisy sobbing. Everyone in the ward was watching them, their curiosity aroused by the uninhibited cacophony of a language they couldn’t understand. In an effort to calm the situation, Theo indicated Mark and told his parents that if it hadn’t been for him he wouldn’t be there. ‘You must thank him,’ he said. ‘He was very brave.’ Sadly, his words only fuelled his mother’s hysteria, but his father glanced across to the other bed and took in the dyed hair. He went over and introduced himself, holding out a cautious hand and regarding the young man, who made such a curious contrast to his son. ‘I am very pleased to meet you. You were injured also in the attack?’

‘One of them had a knife. It was my own fault, I should have moved quicker.’

Theo’s father looked shocked. ‘We owe you so much. If there is ever anything we can do to help you, you must allow us to do so. Have you and Theo been friends for long?’

Theo had heard the trace of politely disguised disbelief in his father’s voice — surely his son didn’t mix with this type of person?

‘No,’ had been Mark’s blunt reply. ‘I just happened to be passing.’

If he had expected his remark to end the conversation, it didn’t. Instantly his status in Theo’s parents’ eyes went up: he, a passing stranger, had saved the life of their only son.

‘And your parents, are they here too?’

The same blunt reply. ‘No.’

Taking a moment off from her weeping, Theo’s mother said, ‘But they are coming later to see you?’

‘They don’t know anything about this. And they don’t need to know. I’ll be out of here at the first opportunity.’

‘But what will you do?’ Theo had asked. ‘Who will take care of you?’

Mark gave him a withering stare as if to say, ‘You might be a soft mummy’s boy, but some of us can cope on our own. I’ll manage, just as I always have.’

When a nurse joined them and insisted that her patients needed to rest, Theo motioned to his father to come back to his side. He spoke in Greek so that Mark wouldn’t understand what he was saying and, hoping that Mark wouldn’t be too furious with him, he asked his father to see if he could get in touch with Mark’s parents.

Later that evening, Mr and Mrs St James arrived, white with worry. But it soon became clear that their concern for their son was as great as his disregard for them. Growing up in a culture that valued families, especially mothers who were loved and revered, Theo was horrified to see how rude and cruel Mark was to his.

‘Come to see if I’ve died yet?’ he said, as they stood looking down at him. ‘Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I’m going to be around for a while yet.’

Theo could see from their faces that they were not unused to such brutal comments. He wondered what had gone on in their family to make Mark vent such hatred towards them.

‘You’re looking very serious,’ Mark said, lowering his arms and squinting into the sun as he looked up at Theo. ‘Though from what I saw of you in the boat, it looked as if your charm was having no great effect. Perhaps that’s why you look so miserable.’

Theo spotted the binoculars beneath Mark’s seat, and smiled. ‘As you well know, what you see on the surface is not always the true picture.’

‘Oh, come off it, Theo, you’re losing it. And, besides, she’s way too young for you. There’s nothing dignified about an ageing pram-chaser.’

Theo raised an eyebrow. ‘And, there speaks the man with a string of successful relationships behind him.’

‘Yeah, well, relationships aren’t my thing. But at least I gave marriage a go, as brief as it was, which is more than can be said of you. Do you want a drink? I was just going in for one.’ Up on his feet, he added, ‘Oh, and by the way, somebody phoned while you were out. I left his message on your desk in your study. He said you were to ring him soon as you could.’

Minutes later, when they had poured themselves a drink and Theo had dealt with the phone call, they went back outside into the sunshine by the pool. Theo said, ‘She is not so very young, you know.’

‘Who?’

‘The girl in the boat.’

‘And does this girl in the boat, who is
not so very young,
have a name?’

‘Izzy. Izzy Jordan. She is staying with my neighbours, the Sinclairs.’

‘And?’

Theo leaned back in his chair. ‘I cannot put my finger on it, but there is something about her that is quite appealing.’

With a wry laugh, Mark said, ‘You mean she’s a woman?’

‘There is that.’

‘And with a click of your fingers you assume you can have her, don’t you? God, you make me sick. You don’t change, do you?’

‘Aha, the green-eyed monster makes his appearance once more.’

‘Oh, shut up! Of course I’m not jealous. Just deeply cynical.’

‘You never have been able to stomach my success with — ’

‘Please, Theo, not that old number. If I wanted to spend all my time chasing a cracking pair of legs, then I would do exactly that. What’s more, I’d make a better job of it than you!’

Theo grinned. ‘So you noticed her legs, did you?’

‘I was speaking generally,’ snapped Mark.

‘Well, my old friend,’ he taunted, ‘all I will say is that if she is too young for me, she is too young for you also.’

‘Look, I told you, I wasn’t talking specifically. It was a stupid chauvinistic turn of phrase. And, anyway, didn’t you just say she was older than she looks?’

Theo conceded the point to Mark, sipped his drink and listened to the waves crashing on the rocks below. It always amused him when they argued like this. It was a familiar routine they went through, an enjoyable game they had played since they were students: Mark, full of cynical, vitriolic disapproval, and he full of his own self-importance, as they battled it out each trying to prove the other wrong. In the old days there had been no surer way to fire Mark up. ‘Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you,’ he said brightly, ‘I have good news, and I have bad. Which do you want first?’

‘Go on, then, give me the bad. You know how I like to punish myself.’

‘Your ladyfriend, Dolly-Babe, she is determined to meet you again. She is talking of inviting you to have a cosy drink with her and Silent Bob. She wants Max and Laura and Izzy to go as well, and is planning to call round and make her invitation in person.’

Mark’s face darkened. ‘Well, she can forget it. I shan’t be going. I trust you did the decent thing and made a suitable excuse for me.’

Theo shifted in his seat.

‘Theo? You did, didn’t you?’

‘I could not easily turn down an invitation on your behalf. You have to remember, she still thinks I am no more than the hired help for the wealthy visitors to the island.’ He explained how he had pretended to be employed by Max and Laura for the day, and also how Dolly-Babe must have decided at the last minute that he was trustworthy enough to pass on a message. ‘She thinks this is your villa and that I am your live-in chauffeur.’

‘You idiot. What are you going to do when she finds out the truth?’

He shrugged. ‘What do I care what she says or thinks any more than she cares for what I think or do?’

‘So if that was the bad news, cheer me up with the good.’

‘Ah, the good news is that you will see less of me than you thought. That phone call was a summons for me to return to Athens the day after tomorrow. Yes, I thought that would cheer you. You will have the place to yourself. It will be a pleasant and peaceful holiday for you.’

‘You’re forgetting, I’m not here on holiday, I’m here to work.’

‘Well, what have you got to say for yourself?’

Max had taken himself off for a late-afternoon siesta, leaving Laura and Izzy alone on the veranda, which meant that Laura was now giving Izzy a thorough grilling on the events of the day. ‘I saw him kiss you,’ she said, ‘so don’t try and make out that nothing happened.’

‘It wasn’t much of a kiss, it was only — ’

‘Not much of a kiss! This is Theo we’re discussing. How many times in your life have you been kissed by a man as heart-stoppingly gorgeous as him?’

Izzy blushed. ‘I was going to say it was so quick that it was over before I had a chance to think about it.’

Laura gave her a cunning smile. ‘But you’ve had plenty of time since. Time in the boat as well when he had his arm around you.’

‘Sorry to disappoint you, but I felt too sick in the boat to think of anything other than getting my feet back on
terra firma.
Is it always as bad as that? Because if so, count me out on any other expeditions that involve water.’

‘It was particularly rough this afternoon. We’re probably in for a run of similar days. But back to you and Theo.’

‘Oh, Laura, don’t be absurd. I’m sure he did it out of force of habit. Or, more likely, he did it to see how I would react.’

‘From where I was sitting, I thought you were very cool about it.’

‘What did you expect me to do? Slap his face? It was only a kiss.’ As nonchalant as she forced herself to sound, Izzy knew that was the last thing she felt when she thought of Theo. She had known him no longer than a blink of an eye, but it was long enough to know that he made her feel nervous.

It was nervousness born of the fear that he might be capable of making her do something she would regret.

Early the next morning, without disturbing Max and Laura, Izzy crept out of the villa and went for a walk along the beach. The air was fresh and clean, and the sea sparkled as though someone had been up all night polishing it. There was nobody else about as the bleached white stones crunched noisily beneath her feet and she felt guilty to be disturbing the serenity of the day.
There you go again, Isobel Jordan, ruining it for everyone else! Can’t you ever be quiet?

She paused to admire the stunning view where, across the soft blue of the water, a layer of mist entwined itself around the Albanian hills. Slipping her bag of sketching things off her shoulder, she sat down, rummaged for her pencil and paper, and cast her eyes for something to sketch. She settled on the half-way point in the bay, to her right, focusing on one particular spot, where a small formation of circular rocks jutted out like chunky discs from a toy construction kit.

Minutes later, and unhappy with her drawing, she put it aside and lay back on the stones, which were already warm from the sun. She closed her eyes and thought how lucky she was to be here. It was so kind of Max and Laura to invite her to spend the summer with them. But, then, that was Max and Laura all over, generous and big-hearted, eager for those around them to enjoy life as much as they did. She had been touched by this spirit of generosity right from the outset of getting to know them. ‘It was lucky I was parked in your way,’ Max had joked. ‘You’ve got to be very careful who you tangle bumpers with these days. There are some strange people about.’