YANNIS (Cretan Saga Book 1) (94 page)

‘I have. I want my own home again.’ He lowered his eyes. ‘I’m going to ask Dora to share it with me.’

Spiro gasped. ‘You sly old dog!’

‘I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while, but I had nothing to offer her. A few inches in my room to call her own, but now she can have an apartment.’

‘And you can have a housekeeper!’

‘That’s not why I’m asking her. I want a companion.’

Spiro nodded. ‘You never did enjoy your own company for too long at a time.’

‘Do you think she’ll have me?’

Spiro shrugged. ‘How do I know? I’d say she’d be a fool to refuse you. She’ll never get a better offer.’

‘I’ll ask her to visit the apartment with me tomorrow and see what her reaction is then.’

‘And if she says no?’

‘I’ll still take it. I need more space. Room to breathe and expand.’

Spiro nodded understandingly. ‘I hope Dora feels the same way.’

‘The solicitors have agreed to everyone having a share of the money. I think they thought it the easiest way out, rather than trying to trace any relatives. What will you do with yours?’

‘You’ll probably laugh at me, but I’m going to buy a car.’

‘What ever for?’

‘You may not have noticed, but I’m beginning to have a bit of trouble getting around these days. I think a little car to go wherever I wanted would be a good idea.’

‘Where do you want to go?’

‘Almost anywhere would do, just to have a look. If I liked where I ended up I could always stay a day or two at a taverna.’

Yannis smiled. ‘We’re not doing so badly considering that a few years ago we were outcasts.’ His face clouded over. ‘We’re the lucky ones.’

‘That’s true, very true.’

Both men stood enshrouded in their own poignant memories.

The apartment enthralled Dora. She reminded Yannis of Phaedra as she had run from one room to the other in their tiny house and complimented Yannis on his cleverness in rebuilding.

‘You can make it beautiful,’ exclaimed Dora. ‘You can put up shelves for your books and you could have a proper desk. Which room will you use as the living room?’

‘I thought this one.’

Dora nodded. ‘It’s a little larger and the windows look out over the garden. You’ll be able to make it look very pretty, Yannis. Are you going to leave the walls white or paint them a colour?’

‘I thought I’d leave the choice to you.’

‘To me? But I don’t know what else you’re planning to have in the room or what colour the curtains and rugs will be.’

‘Maybe you could come with me to choose them?’ Yannis slipped his arm around her waist. ‘I thought you might like to share it with me, as my wife.’

A deep red rose from Dora’s neck, filling her cheeks. ‘Do you mean that, Yannis?’

He nodded. ‘I’ve thought about it for a long time, but I didn’t see how it would be possible whilst I lived at the hospital.’

‘I have nothing, Yannis. You know that.’

‘I’m not asking you for anything.’

Dora pursed her lips. ‘I’m not a young woman to marry again.’

‘I know that too. You told me, you’re forty-three next birthday, but age has nothing to do with it. Could you put up with having me around all the time, being bad-tempered and impatient when things don’t go the way I want?’

‘I’ve been able to put up with you whilst you lived at the hospital.’

‘You could always get away from me there, or shut your door in my face. It won’t be so easy here.’

‘I can always visit my friends at the hospital if I find you difficult.’ Dora smiled at him. ‘Of course I’ll marry you, Yannis. Did you think I’d say no?’ She held her face up towards Yannis who frowned at her.

‘I can be very difficult to live with. I’m terribly untidy. I like well cooked meals, clean clothes every day and coffee whenever I fancy.’

‘And what will you be doing whilst I’m coping with all this washing and cooking you want done? Sitting and watching me?’ asked Dora.

‘I think I’ll find enough to occupy my time. The publisher has accepted those little anecdotes and wants more.’

‘Oh, Yannis, that’s wonderful. You’ll be famous.’

‘I doubt that, but it should bring us in a little money to live on. Now, have you decide what colour you want the walls?’

Anna stepped from the aeroplane onto the hot tarmac. Her legs felt weak as she followed the other passengers to the passport control building. Yannis had promised he would be there and she hoped desperately that she would recognise him. The official gave her picture a quick glance and stamped the papers, slapping them onto the desk and holding out his hand for the next in line. Unsure what to do Anna stood there.

‘My case?’ It was new, the first time she had ever owned a case, and it was packed with her possessions. It had been whisked away at the airport in Heraklion and she was now wondering if she would ever see it again. Feeling herself pushed from behind she repeated her question and the man she was hindering took pity on her.

‘Come with me. You collect it through here.’ He pointed through some swing doors, each time they opened a milling throng could be seen. ‘First time you’ve flown?’

Anna nodded. ‘My brother’s meeting me. I can’t see him.’

‘He’ll be waiting the other side. He’s not allowed through here. What does your case look like?’ He guided her skilfully through the people to the cases, which were going round on the conveyor belt.

‘It’s black. Maybe that one?’

Her benefactor held the label for her to read. ‘Is this it?’

Anna recognised her rather childish printing and held out her hand to take it.

‘I’ll carry it through.’

‘Thank you.’ Dutifully Anna trotted along at his side, scanning the faces of the men and women who stood behind the barrier eagerly awaiting arrivals.

‘How long is it since you last saw your brother?’

Anna thought, but gave up trying to calculate. ‘A long time.’

‘Then I suggest you sit there and wait. The crowd will thin and you’ll be able to see each other.’ He deposited her case on the ground beside her. ‘I can’t wait with you. I have an appointment. If you have any problem go to the desk over there. They’ll help you.’

Before Anna could finish stammering her thanks he had gone, swallowed up amongst the moving mass that showed no signs of dispersing. Nervously she gazed around, the loud speaker making her start as it gave out a cracked message which she could not understand.

‘Anna? It is Anna.’

She looked up to see her brother standing before her; the years had changed him very little.

‘Yannis! You did come.’

‘I said I’d meet you. You can’t go running around Athens on your own.’ He tried to pick up her case, his fingers too misshapen to slip through the handle.

‘It’s not heavy. I’ll take it.’

Yannis nodded and held the door open for her. ‘We’ll take a taxi to the apartment. It’s quite a distance from here.’

Swiftly the yellow cab found its way through the maze of one-way streets that they encountered once they left the main road from the airport. Yannis pointed out landmarks as they passed, whilst Anna gazed dumbfounded. Heraklion had been a nightmare of people and rushing traffic, but this was worse than she had imagined. She clutched alternately at Yannis and the seat in front as the driver applied his brakes at the last moment to enable them to skid around a corner. She took deep breaths as they finally came to a halt.

‘We’re here.’ Yannis waited until the driver had opened the door for him, another small thing that he was no longer able to do for himself without great difficulty. ‘Dora is looking forward to meeting you.’

He pushed open the front door and led Anna to a small door set in the wall at the foot of the stairs. She looked in surprise at the tiny box as Yannis ushered her in. He pushed a button on the wall and she gasped as the box began to move upwards. With a slight shudder the lift came to a halt and Yannis opened the door.

‘Much easier than walking up the stairs,’ he smiled as he rang the bell set in the wall. The door opened and a small, dark haired woman appeared.

‘Welcome. You must be Anna. Yannis has told me so much about you. Do come in. You must be tired after your journey.’ Anna followed her as she limped into a room that was beautiful beyond belief to Anna. The smooth, white walls, pale blue curtains and cover on the bed, a cupboard to hang her clothes and a chair to sit before a mirror to brush her hair.

‘I’ll show you the rest of the apartment later. I expect you’d like to wash and have a cup of coffee before you visit your brother. I’ll show you the bathroom.’

Anna crossed the hall and gasped. The small room held a bath that filled from taps in the wall and also a basin. The toilet was the kind you could clean by pushing a lever and the walls were made of shiny tiles.

‘It’s so beautiful!’ she exclaimed.

Dora smiled. ‘It’s very ordinary, but the tiles were replaced recently.’

Anna turned the taps over the basin on and off, marvelling as the water gushed out. She washed her hands and dried them on a soft towel before she emerged and looked timidly across the hallway. The first room was obviously her bedroom, but which was the living room?

Dora came from the end room, carrying a tray. ‘In here, Anna.’ She limped ahead of her, making Anna long to take the tray from her before the entire contents fell to the floor.

She nibbled the biscuit she had been offered and looked surreptitiously around the room. Brown velvet curtains hung to the floor, padded chairs were either side of the fireplace and in one corner stood Yannis’s desk, a light above it. ‘Is that where you sit and write?’

‘Usually. I do very little now, apart from writing letters.’

She sipped her coffee. ‘Your apartment is very grand.’

‘You’re in Athens, now, Anna. This is a poor place compared with many you could go to. We’re comfortable, but it’s not luxurious.’

‘It is to me. I’m used to the farm at home.’

‘Why didn’t Yiorgo come with you, Anna?’

Anna lowered her eyes. ‘He had to look after the farm.’

‘Yannis is there. Surely he could have left it for a few days?’

‘He didn’t like to. He felt it was too much for Yannis.’

‘He’s a grown man, not a child!’ Yannis snorted in disgust.

‘Does it matter very much? You said yourself that when you went Stelios was unconscious and they wouldn’t let you see him. It could be a wasted journey for Yiorgo.’ Dora tried to smooth the matter over.

‘Wasted journey or not he should have come,’ grumbled Yannis.

Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat. ‘Do you know how he is today?’

‘I telephoned this morning. They said he’d rallied. We’ll take a taxi over when we’ve had lunch.’

Anna nodded. Her brother seemed very much in charge, both of her and his wife. Dora smiled. ‘Take no notice of him. He doesn’t like hospitals and sick people.’

‘But you spent all those years with them!’

Dora wagged her finger. ‘They weren’t sick, were they, Yannis? You know, the first time he said that to me I laughed until I cried. I think that was what first drew us together.’

Yannis smiled at her. ‘She made me laugh for the first time in years,’ he explained. ‘I decided there and then that I should see more of her.’

Anna studied her sister-in-law, taking in the dark, bird-like eyes and the ready smile. She obviously adored her husband and knew how to keep him happy.

It was with trepidation that Anna followed her brother along the corridor of the hospital. He had checked at the desk downstairs and had been directed to the fourth floor, now he scanned the numbers on the doors, before stopping at number seventeen. He laid a hand on Anna’s arm. ‘Ready?’

Anna nodded. She was completely over-awed by this large, white building. Her head was in a whirl with the new experiences she had crammed into the last twenty-four hours. First travelling to Heraklion and staying the night with Andreas, when she had never been further than Aghios Nikolaos or slept in a bed other than her own, then the airport and the flight in the early morning, and now this city which seemed so full of marvels that she did not know which way to look first.

As they entered three heads turned and looked at them with curiosity. The woman recovered herself first. ‘You must be his relatives from Crete.’

Yannis nodded and watched Anna walk to the bed and take her brother’s hand.

‘It was good of you to come at such short notice. Maybe we could return to the apartment afterwards and get to know each other? Believe me, this situation is as difficult for me as it must be for you.’

Yannis stood motionless, looking at the shrunken form on the bed, remembering how Stelios had wanted to search for pottery with him; how he had brought his own little finds to him for approval, and then over the years all contact had been lost.

Anna returned to where her brother stood. ‘He’s conscious. Do you want to speak to him?’

Yannis stepped forward. ‘Can you hear me, Stelios?’ Stelios’s lips parted and closed, no sound issuing from them. ‘Thank you for making Mamma and Pappa proud of you when I failed.’

Stelios’s eyes opened and he looked with shocked recognition at his brother. ‘Yannis!’ His lips framed the word. He struggled to move himself in the bed and his eyes closed again.

‘We’ve probably tired him. The doctor said only a few minutes. Maybe we should go now.’ Daphne bent and kissed her husband. ‘We’ll come again tomorrow,’ she promised.

They tiptoed from the room and Daphne walked beside Anna along the corridor.

‘You will come back to the apartment, won’t you? I don’t even know your names. Maybe we could get to know each other over a glass of wine?’

Anna nodded dumbly. In her confused brain she decided this must be Stelios’s wife and the younger man and woman his children. ‘I’m Anna, and this is my brother, Yannis.’

Daphne smiled and held out her hand. ‘Daphne,’ she said, ‘And these are our children, Elena and Nicolas.’

Anna shook hands with them, a fixed smile on her face. They turned to Yannis and Nicolas held out his hand. ‘I’m pleased to meet you.’

Yannis looked at the hand before him. Very slowly and deliberately he took his own from his pocket, giving Nicolas plenty of time to see the clawed fingers and shrunken thumb.