Miss Prim's Greek Island Fling

As he’d guessed, Audra was enchanted. She ran a finger along a pair of bookends. ‘The workmanship is exquisite.’

Finn nodded. ‘He says that each individual piece of wood that he works with tells him what it wants to be.’

‘You’ve spoken to him?’

‘Finn!’ Angelo rushed into the garage. ‘I thought that was your car out front. Come, you and Audra must have coffee with the family. Maria has just made baklava.’

‘Angelo!’ Audra gestured around the room. ‘I didn’t know you made such beautiful things.’

Finn stared at her. ‘You know Angelo?’

‘Of course! His brother Petros is Rupert’s gardener. And Maria used to work in the bakery.’

They stayed an hour.

Next Finn took Audra to Anastasia’s studio, which sat solitary on a windswept hill. He rolled his eyes. ‘Now you’re going to tell me you know Anastasia.’

She shook her head. ‘I’ve not had that pleasure.’

Anastasia took Audra for a tour of her photography studio while Finn trailed along behind. If the expression on Audra’s face was anything to go by, Anastasia’s photographs transfixed her. They’d transfixed him too. It was all he could do to drag her back to the car when the tour was finished.

Then it was back into the village to visit Eleni’s workshop, where she demonstrated how she made not only scented soap from products sourced locally, but a range of skincare and cosmetic products as well. Audra lifted a set of soaps in a tulle drawstring bag, the satin ribbon entwined with lavender and some other herbs Finn couldn’t identify. ‘These are packaged so prettily I can’t resist.’ She bought some candles too.

They visited a further two tradespeople—a leather worker who made wallets and purses, belts and ornately worked book jackets, and a jeweller. Audra came away with gifts for her entire family.

‘Hungry?’ he asked as he started the car. He’d walked this hill over the last three days, searching for distraction, but today, for the sake of efficiency, he’d driven.

‘Starved.’

They headed back down the hill to the harbour, and ate a late lunch of marida and spanakorizo at a taverna that had become a favourite. They dined beneath a bougainvillea-covered pergola and watched as the water lapped onto the pebbled beach just a few metres away.

Audra broke the silence first. ‘Anastasia’s work should hang in galleries. It’s amazing. Her photographs reveal a Greece so different from the tourist brochures.’

‘She’s seventy. She does everything the old way. She doesn’t even have the internet.’

She nodded and sipped her wine, before setting her wine glass down with a click. ‘I’d love for Isolde, one of my friends from school—she’s an interior decorator and stager, furnishes houses and apartments so they look their absolute best for selling—to see some of Angelo’s bigger pieces. She’d go into raptures over them.’ She started to rise. ‘We need to go back and take some photos so I can send her—’

‘My loukoumades haven’t come yet.’ He waved her back to her seat. ‘There’s time. We can go back tomorrow.’ He topped up her wine. ‘What about Eleni’s pretty smelly things? They’d look great in a shop.’

Audra shook her head and then nodded, as if holding a conversation with herself. ‘I should put her in touch with Cora’s old lab partner, Elise. Remember her? She moved into the cosmetic industry. Last I heard she was making a big push for eco-friendly products. I bet she’d love Eleni’s recipes.’

She was still putting everyone else’s needs before her own. The loukoumades came and a preoccupied Audra helped him eat them. While her attention was elsewhere, he couldn’t help but feast his eyes on her. She’d put on a little weight over the last eleven days. She had colour in her cheeks and her eyes sparked with interest and vitality. An ache grew inside him until he could barely breathe.

He tried to shake it off. Under his breath he called himself every bad name he could think of. Did he really find the allure of the forbidden so hard to resist?

He clenched his jaw. He would resist. He’d cut off his right hand rather than let Rupert down. He’d cut off his entire arm rather than ever hurt Audra.

But when she came alive like this, he couldn’t look away.

She slapped her hands lightly to the table. ‘I wonder how the villagers would feel about an annual festival.’

‘What kind of festival?’

‘One that showcases the local arts and crafts scene, plus all the fresh produce available here—the cured meats, the cheeses, the olive oils and...and...’