For once Beth found she was willing to back down.
“Alright. If I believe you and I mean if . . . what’s the arrangement?”
“Beth there is no arrangement. You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill. We’re here to finish building the villa and start landscaping the gardens. Any assistance you can give me would be a bonus. Otherwise, if you can’t or won’t help I’ll have to manage on my own. I’m not forcing you to stay here against your will.”
Jason reached for his mobile which he kept with him at all times. It was attached to his belt like a lethal weapon.
Assistance was only a phone call away in the shape of Mrs Jarvis, his secretary.
Beth was in no doubt Mrs Jarvis could organise someone for Jason at a moment’s notice, and she could hear from his voice he meant every word he was saying. He was stubborn and headstrong and so obstinate and inflexible, that he would do just that; he would call London and get someone to replace her and that someone would be here on the next plane.
“I’ll unpack your things,” was all she was willing to say to him and reluctantly she went back upstairs to his bedroom.
Beth didn’t want a stranger taking over her side of the development. The gardens were her design and it was for her to complete the project the way she’d imagined.
And then there was Jason to consider.
Although she’d threatened on a number of occasions to leave him, it had gotten to the stage where he’d come to rely on her totally. She’d come to know instinctively what he wanted without him having to tell her.
She couldn’t leave him.
She was his right hand and his eyes.
Without him realising just how much she did for him, Beth stepped in whenever she was needed.
No she couldn’t leave him with only a stranger to look after him.
Jason’s bedroom had a minimum amount of furniture in it. Apart from a king size bed, the only other piece of furniture was a dresser.
She unpacked and put away his clothes and laid out his toiletries on top of the dresser. When she had finished, she went to explore the rest of the house.
There was indeed an extra bedroom in the annex. It was small but the views from the windows were wonderful.
Being built on top of a cliff, the house looked out onto the green-blue of the Aegean Sea. The waters below the cliff edge spanned out towards the distant horizon and they looked cool and inviting.
Glancing about her room she saw that here too there were only basic facilities available.
A large double bed stood in the corner of the room. The crisp clean white sheets and a thick feather mattress made the bed look very comfortable and inviting.
The house had obviously been someone’s home at some point. Now it lacked the personal touches a family leaves scattered about the place.
Beth wondered who the house belonged to. Whoever they were, they were extremely lucky to have such uninterrupted views of the sea.
Realising she ought not to be lingering but getting ready to go out, she unpacked her bags, took her towelling robe from her case and went to the main part of the house to take a shower.
There were no en-suite facilities in the annex.
Once again she was upstairs in the main house and was on the point of entering the wet room when she saw Jason coming out of his bedroom.
He’d already showered and changed and was on the point of going back down stairs.
“Get a move on woman, we haven’t got all day.”
His hair was wet from the shower and it was combed back off his face.
He looked refreshingly cool, sleek and masculine.
She could smell the tang of his aftershave as she stood there frozen to the spot. She was mesmerised by the sight of him.
“Beth . . . jump to it,” he bellowed once more in her direction.
Instantly she came out of her trance and entered the wet room.
It was still steamy from his recent shower.
“I’ll see you outside on the terrace,” he called after her through the closed door.
Quickly she showered and put on her dress. It was made from a light summery fabric and had thin criss-cross shoulder straps crossing over the bareness of her back.
Beth piled her long dark hair into a chignon on top of her head, leaving the soft nap of her neck exposed.
She felt cooler.
She briefly wondered if she ought to have her hair cut.
If she was to survive in this heat, a shorter style would be better. But it was only a brief fleeting thought.
She had always worn her hair long. Even at school, when she had been teased about its redness, she had persisted and worn it loose and down to her hips.
There were only her leather sandals to slip on and her shoulder bag to collect from her room before she was ready to go in search of Jason.
She found him sat outside where he’d said he would be.
He was on a bench beneath the terraced veranda. His head was thrown back and his eyes were closed drinking in the sunshine.
When he heard the crunch of Beth’s footfall on the stony earth he turned his head in her direction.
“About time. What kept you?”
It seemed as if his mood hadn’t changed.
Slowly he got off the bench and started making his way to the back of the house with the use and guidance of his cane.
“There’s a path here somewhere,” he explained, “It leads down to a sandy bay where there ought to be a motor launch waiting to take us to the island.”
“Ah . . . so that’s where you’re taking me.”
She now realised why he was in a hurry.
He wanted to get onto the building site and see what progress the builders had made to the villa during his absence.
Jason hadn’t been to Greece since the plane crash and things on site had more or less come to a halt.
No one had been here to make the ultimate decisions. But now Beth and Jason were here and they were about to see just what had been accomplished and what still needed to be done.
Together they followed the narrow footpath along the cliff face. With slow gradual steps she steered Jason carefully along the path.
She was there to ensure he didn’t veer to near the edge of the cliff.
Below was a small sandy beach and she could hear the lapping of the waves as they hit the shore.
A short distance out to sea was an island nestled in the blue waters.
It was like a brilliant white diamond surrounded by a sea of blue sparkling sapphires.
Beth gave a gasp of pure awe.
“What do you see Beth?” he asked curiously. He had heard her sharp intake of breath and he wondered what she was actually looking at.
She was lost for words.
Nothing she could say would portray the blinding beauty of picture before her.
“Your villa . . . it’s a white island . . . and the sea’s so blue.”
Jason came to a stop beside her.
He was thinking what an apt name she had chosen for his home.
“White Island Villa. I like the sound of that,” he said.
Beth felt the tension in him and she saw him straining to see into the distance through eyes that were sightless.
“Describe what you see. Describe the villa to me.” he demanded.
He was obviously anxious.
“I don’t understand,” she said, “You know what your villa looks like.”
“Yes, but it’s been months since I was here. I want to know what they’ve done. Have they started work on the gardens or are they still on the build? Can you see if the pool’s been built? Tell me what you see.”
At that moment Jason was the architect. The builder. And he was eager to know what another person thought of his creation.
“Technically I’m not qualified to offer an opinion,” she told him.
She was hedging. She was reluctant to pass judgement on the style of the place in case she said the wrong thing to him.
She didn’t want to offer an opinion in case it hurt his feelings, or even worse wound his pride.
Then slowly she looked about her and gradually she started taking in and soaking in the atmosphere of the place.
She could see he was on tender hooks and she could see he was waiting for her verdict.
“Umm,” she started speaking and she sounded nervous, “Well you know the house where we’re staying is behind us. It’s out of sight. Hidden behind the crest of the hill. There’s nothing in sight except your island. From here I can see onto a small white sandy beach below us. If we walk on a bit further there’s a boats landing stage on the beach. Someone’s waiting there with a motor launch.”
“That will one of my foreman’s men. Stephan said he would send someone to meet us. I phoned earlier to say we were coming.”
“I’m not sure how to describe what I’m seeing. The island’s not too far out to sea; but it’s far enough so that you wouldn’t want to swim to it.”
She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the bright shining sun.
“On the island you can see that the building is obviously near completion, but there’s still a bit of work to be done.”
She was silent for a while. She was letting Jason see what she had described to him.
The thing that was spoiling the moment for her was Jason not seeing with his own eyes.
“Yes . . . But what does my White Island Villa look like?”
She didn’t answer at once.
“Well?” he asked again still waiting for an answer.
She felt tears beginning to well in her throat at the pure perfection of what she was seeing. No words could describe the view before her or the emotions his White Island Villa was making her feel.
Jason was longing to see what she could see with his unseeing eyes, and she was feeling his pain at not being able to.
“It’s beautiful . . . ,” she said softly and simply as she wiped away a falling tear from her eyes.
* * * * *
Beth and Jason climbed into the waiting motor boat and were taken a short ride over to the island.
He’d bought the island a few years ago and it was situated about a mile off shore.
Until recently he’d made no plans to live there.
For generations his family had always lived on one of the many Greek islands that were dotted about the Aegean Sea, and although he and his sister now lived in England, Jason had always considered his home base to be Greece.
His businesses in London and Europe were doing well and although he still had to remain in contact with work and be on hand for emergencies; recently he’d decided it was time to have a place of his own. Somewhere he could get away from it all. And his island was the ideal place.
On the far side of the island he was in the process of building an airstrip where a small plane could land.
It would save the longs sea journeys on the ferryboat and would cut any travelling time in half.
When Beth and Jason reached the islands shore and the motor boat had been securely tied to the jetty, she helped him gain his balance and sense of direction before setting off to climb the steep steps that had been carved into the cliff face.
The pure white of the sandy beach with its intense clear blue waters, matched the traditional colours of Greece. And the crisp white and blue rendering on the villa was in an ideal setting.
It was a contemporary build and Beth could see the sharp clean lines and clear cut angles from where she was.
Bright sparkling sunlight bounced off the glass doors and windows panels. It was brilliantly dazzling to the eye.
She described what she saw until she was satisfied he had a clear picture in his mind and knew what to expect.
From her description Jason could visualize what still needed to be done and he was already mentally making notes of things to do.
As they got nearer to the house, she could make out workmen on the second floor veranda. They were busy laying tiles.
One of the men leant over the rails and shouted down to them.
“It’s about time you two got here. What’s been keeping you?”
“Stephan . . .” Jason was laughing in the direction the voice was coming from. “Why haven’t you finished this house yet? You know you’re not paid by the hour.”
The man who had called out to them climbed over the rails of the veranda and down a ladder. Walking toward them he came to a stop in front of Jason, threw out his arms giving Jason a big bear hug and then wrapped his arm around Jason’s shoulder.
“It’s good to see you Stephan,” Jason said and seemed not at all embarrassed by the manly embrace he was receiving.
“And it’s good to see you my friend. Stay still and let me see what they’ve done to you.”
Stephan daringly lifted the concealing sun glasses from Jason eyes.
“Not too bad. But that scar makes you look like a pirate.”
Jason threw back his head and laughed.
Beth instantly liked Stephan.
He was openly honest and to the point.
He was a little on the blunt side, but she didn’t mind that. In fact she quite liked it. She felt you knew where you stood with Stephan. And he must be a good friend of Jason’s, because no one would dare make that sort of remark to Jason under normal circumstances.
“I see you’ve brought Trudy with you on this trip,” Stephan was looking at Beth as he spoke. “And by the look of things Trudy will have her work cut out fending off my workmen. They’ll be knocking down your door Jason, just to get a glimpse of her.”
Beth was left speechless and she coloured bright red with embarrassed at Stephan’s unknowing remarks.
Jason only covered his eyes with his hands and gave a deep groaned of dismay.
“She would indeed,” he told Stephan, “. . . if this was Trudy!”
Jason was amused with the situation and not at all embarrassed at his friend’s error.
In fact Jason was finding Beth’s discomfort highly entertaining, which she didn’t like at all.
“Beth may I present Stephan. An idiotic blunderer and also a very good friend of mine. Stephan this is not Trudy as you so wrongly presumed . . . it’s only Beth. Beth’s designed the gardens and she’s here to finish the project.”
It’s only Beth.
Well . . . that’s put me in my place, she thought.
She looked at Stephan and she saw the penny drop.
Stephan’s now understood the situation.
“Beth! . . . Of course – of course . . . Jason told me it was Beth he bring. Now I very much remember. Beth, how I say sorry? . . . I make mistake. I am how you say? . . . I no understand . . . We do big mix-it-up . . . no?”
Stephan was in his Greek element. He had gone thoroughly over board with the Greek accent and was he was waving his arms in the air in true Latino style.
“Stephan zip it . . .” Jason said decisively and with a tone of authority in his voice.
“But . . .”
“Shut up.”
Stephan was instantly quiet.
“I don’t know which is worse;” said Jason exasperated by the situation, “You thinking I’d bring Trudy here or you trying to pretend you don’t understand English.”
Jason turned to Beth and explained.
“Stephanos . . . or known to his English mates as Stephan, was with me at Uni in England. We studied construction and engineering together. He got honours if I remember correctly and he speaks and understands English better than I do. Now quit trying to pull the wool over our eyes and show us what you’ve done whilst I’ve been away.”
Stephan looked at Beth and gave her a lop-sided apologetic grin. He shrugged his shoulders and held out his hand in a warm welcome.
“Uum . . . good to have you here . . . Beth.”
Seeing the funny side of the situation she smiled a broad white smile at him and took the hand he offered in friendship.
“Nice to meet you too .
. . Stephanos.”
“Stephan . . . You can call me Stephan.”
“Come on, we’re wasting time . . . Stephan.” Jason said with mild disdain in his voice before he moved off towards the villa.
As the three of them toured the villa, Beth hung back a little from the two friends to let them get on with the inspection.
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