Claiming My Bride of Convenience

‘So we need more sp

inners and weavers?’ I mused.

Amanos Textiles now employed thirty women to spin the turquoise-coloured cloth particular to the island, thanks to a dye made from local berries, but clearly we needed more.

The idea had come to me after being on Amanos for a few weeks. I was feeling bored with my sudden and unexpected freedom. I’d worked my whole life—cleaning houses with my grandmother from the time I was eight, and then working after-school jobs through my teens and a stint at a local college in Kentucky. I was so used to hard work I realised I didn’t know how else to be, and idleness started to feel like anathema.

Besides, after exploring Amanos I’d realised that employment was low and that the blue cloth I saw the women wearing was gorgeous. I didn’t know much about fashion or style, but I’d always known about fabric. My grandmother had taught me to both quilt and sew, and I’d made my own clothes since I was twelve.

I’d started small, putting some of the money Matteo had deposited into my account into starting up a local business employing women who spun and wove cloth to sell in towns and cities around Greece. I’d invested the rest, as I’d told him, and lived off the interest.

Maria, who had made my acquaintance early on, when I’d got lost on my way to the island’s only village, had been invaluable, and within a year we had several buyers in Athens who were interested in sustaining a local economy and using the blue cloth for their fashions.

It had felt good to use some of the money from Matteo for such a purpose, and Maria had handled the buying side of it—which had been mostly done online anyway. In three years I’d never had to leave the island...until I’d gone in search of Matteo.

Matteo.

His name sent a ripple of...something...through me. I was afraid it might be longing. For the last week I’d been going over his offer of a real marriage and half wondering why I’d turned it down. Did I really think Mr Right was going to amble along one day? And what about when our marriage was annulled? My life was on Amanos now, wrapped up in this business. I hated the idea of starting over somewhere new, where once again I’d be anonymous and alone.

I was hardly going to find a husband on Amanos, though, and in any case I was already married.

‘Daisy?’ Maria prompted again. ‘Your head is in the sky!’

‘You mean the clouds.’ I smiled and sighed. ‘Sorry...just thinking.’

‘You have been “just thinking” since you returned from Athens,’ Maria returned shrewdly.

I hadn’t told her I’d gone looking for Matteo, but I suspected she’d guessed. She knew about the nature of my marriage and had always been pragmatic about it.

‘Yes...’ I let out a breath. ‘Yes, I have.’

‘And what have you been thinking about? Kyrie Dias?’

‘How did you know?’

She shrugged. ‘Who else could it be?’

No one—because I didn’t know anyone anywhere, and certainly not in Athens. Still, I made a half-hearted attempt to direct her attention elsewhere.

‘I could have been meeting our buyers.’

‘Then you would have told me.’

‘True.’ I drummed my fingers on the table. ‘All right—how about this. We need more spinners and weavers, so what if we start a school for young women? To teach them?’

Part of the problem on Amanos was that the old ways were dying out, and young people were moving to the cities for work. It was the same story back in Kentucky; hardly anyone knew how to quilt any more. In some ways life on Amanos was a lot like it had been back in Briar Valley, just the language was different.

‘Yes, that could be a good idea—and also perhaps expanding to the neighbouring islands? Kallia is not so far away.’

‘No, that’s true. That’s a good idea.’

‘And now you will tell me about Kyrie Dias?’

Maria’s eyes glinted, but I shook my head.

‘There’s nothing to tell.’

Even if I was starting to regret my impulsive rejection of Matteo’s suggestion. Even if I was doubting that anything better would ever come along.