Summer in Greece

by Patricia Wilson

  ‘He sold his fishing boat to come here and see me for a few hours, Father. His ticket to go back to Greece is for the morning ferry. I’m sure he will never return, so I would like to spend a little time with him. I know that’s inappropriate, but still . . . who will know? Oh, Father!’ And suddenly it was all too much. My tears broke free and raced down my cheeks. Adam stopped suckling and stared at me.

  Father turned back to look out of the window.

  ‘Oh, Father. I feel so ashamed. I’ve been nothing but trouble, haven’t I? I’m so sorry. I try to do the right thing, but everything seems to go wrong. And now . . . and now I will have to bear the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life.’

  ‘Do you love him?’ I nodded. ‘Where does this leave your husband?’

  ‘Johnathan is a good man, really, and he does love me. He will provide a fine life for us, and Father, he deserves better than me. I will thank you to forget all this as soon as you can. Johnathan need never know. It would only hurt him.’

  ‘I see. Gertie, as your father, I must advise you. Lies are never a good foundation on which to base a marriage. You must live with them for the rest of your life. However, I understand your reasoning.’ He turned away from the window. ‘I have to take the Ford into town for a service, so I’ll stay at the club after surgery and return home around noon tomorrow. Will you be all right?’

  I stroked the downy hair on Adam’s head. ‘Yes, Father. Thank you.’

  ‘Then I’ll see you tomorrow, when I hope we can put all this behind us and forget it ever happened.’

  *

  Once my father had left, I called Manno in. He sat on the sofa and rocked Adam to sleep.

  ‘He is magnificent, and so strong, like Hercules. Did you see how hard he gripped my finger? I feel so proud now, I don’t want to be parted from him, Gertie. I should stay.’

  ‘Don’t frighten me, Manno. I’ve told you what will happen if my husband finds out the truth. Do you want me to hang?’ I clutched my throat. The idea terrified me. ‘Your son will grow up knowing his father caused his mother’s death. He’d never forgive you.’

  Manno’s eyes widened. ‘Forgive me, agapi mou, I didn’t think of these things.’

  ‘You are a good man, Manno, and I love you, but we have to think of what’s best for our son. One day, I swear on my life, he will come to Syros.’ I went to my mother’s writing bureau and removed a small ivory box. ‘Just to prove I am telling you the truth, look, here is the money I have already saved up towards my trip to Greece.’ I hesitated, I had worked so hard for this, but then I thrust it towards him. ‘As a demonstration of my love for you, I want you to take this money and buy your father’s boat back.’

  He reached out, I thought for the box, but instead he took my hand. ‘You are still wearing my ring. The silver dolphin. That is enough proof for me, agapi mou. The boat is no problem, I sold it to the mayor of Kea. I’ll win it back in a game of tavli. Also, the mayor has to get the mail from Syros, so he will lend me my own boat to get it. You see, is not so bad.’ He looked tenderly into my eyes. ‘Where is your bed?’

  ‘No, Manno, I’m a married woman now. It wouldn’t be right.’ His face fell. ‘Manno, you took my virginity, and I have given you a strong, handsome son, is that not enough?’

  He sat in silence for a while. ‘I have decided, I will wait until this war is over, then I will ask you to leave the Englishman and join me on my beautiful Greek island. While I wait, I’ll build you the most wonderful house of stone that looks out over the sea. I’ll plant olive trees, so we are rich with oil, and grapes to make the sweetest wine. There will be many almond trees, for their beautiful blossom in the spring, and walnut trees for fine nuts in the autumn. We will have beehives, full of golden thyme honey, and because you are English, we’ll have roses . . . the biggest red roses.’

  This was too much for me. I didn’t want him to leave.

  He lifted my chin. ‘Why you cry, Gertie? I love you. One day we’ll be together, agapi mou.’

  ‘Oh, Manno, I wish with all my heart.’

  We talked through the night, only stopping while I fed Adam. Manno watched, his face alight with awe. My heart was breaking as dawn approached. I knew I would never leave Johnathan. I had put his life in danger, made him lose his leg. I could not break his heart too. Manno’s plan was all a dream, a fairy tale, doomed from the start.

  At five o’clock, as dawn broke, I started to wrap Adam in a blanket with the intention of placing him in the perambulator.

  ‘Wait!’ Manno said, picking him up tenderly. He held him in front of his face and spoke seriously to our beautiful baby. ‘My son, you must grow big and strong, and take care of your mother. You must do this for me, because I love her with all my heart. Your name is Adam, but I give you your Greek name. You, my son, are Hephaestus, blacksmith, god of fire and strength, because you were born from the fiery passion between your mother and me, your father, inside a house of stone, on the island of Syros. I don’t know when I will see you again, but you will always be in my heart, and I will think about you every day, until I die. On this, I swear.’ He gently kissed Adam’s cheeks, his forehead, and his mouth, then lay him on the settle and kissed the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. When he stood, and passed our baby back to me, his eyes were full of tears.

  ‘I will walk to the gate with you, Manno.’ I could hardly say the words for the pain in my throat. Would I ever see him again? ‘Kiss me one last time.’ My heart was breaking. All the love I had for him seemed to fill me in that moment. Oh, how I wanted to go back to Greece with him. We broke apart, and I tried to stifle my sobs as we stepped outside.

  Sensing my distress, Manno said, ‘Just promise me you’ll wait until the end of the war, agapi mou. Give me a chance to prove I can give you and our son a better life.’

  Unable to speak, I nodded. We were just under the big oak tree when a van came speeding down Lighthouse Lane.

  Neither of us heard the collision, and I’m sure the driver was unaware of it, but there on the verge, as still as death, was one of my father’s pigeons. I recognised it immediately. Icarus, a blaze of pure white feathers. I put the brake on the pram as Manno stooped to pick up the bird.

  ‘It is a sign,’ he said. ‘Such a beautiful bird. It is like an angel sent by the gods. Look, it comes back to life in my hands!’ The bird fluttered.

  ‘It has a broken wing, Manno. Best to put it out of its misery. I don’t want to see it suffer.’

  ‘No, agapi mou, I told you, it is a sign, don’t you see? There is so much I want to say, but the passion gets in the way and I can’t find the right words in English. I will fix his wing and send him back to you with a letter. Katarina will help me with the English. Do you have a box?’

  Aware of time ticking by, I hurried to the pigeon loft and brought Manno a pigeon backpack – a bamboo cage with two leather straps to hold it onto the shoulders of a soldier.

  ‘Take care of my son, Gertie!’ he cried, marching towards Dover port just as a huge orange sun met the horizon, silhouetting him as he turned with a final wave.

  I waved back, hoping he could not see the tears racing down my face, or feel the pain of my broken heart. And for all I know, I could not see the tears on his face, or feel his broken heart either. I wanted to think that it was over now, but I knew the love between us was eternal.

  *

  I never heard from Manno again, but my love for him has never died. Even to this day, I think about him often. My storm-tossed soul still clings to the wreckage of life.

  Let me give you this advice. If you find love, darling Shelly, grab hold of it. True love is the only thing you should never let go, regardless of the difficulties, it is a rare and precious thing.

  Corporal Perkins loved me, of that I am sure, and I believe Adam and I brought him a great deal of happiness. However, it’s a sad fact that he didn’t survive the war. Although he was a non-combatant, he was often in the war zone. His end came when
a jeep in his convoy broke down. He left his vehicle to take a look, and stepped on a land mine. He gave a message to another soldier, for me.

  Dearest Gertie and Adam, I love you both with all my heart. Don’t be too sad, you have made me happy beyond measure. I won’t be coming home, darling nurse of mine. I leave you with the task of finding a good father for my boy. Someone who knows about discipline, and love, and the importance of affection and loyalty, Gertie. In the short time we have had together, I am grateful for all the joy you have given me. You know I’ve loved you from that first moment I saw you, on the Britannic. I want you to know that I’m not in any pain, but I will not make it back, my darling. I’ll see you in heaven, beautiful Gertie. Hold my son tightly, for me. Kiss his sweet face, and talk of me when you take him to your breast.

  All my eternal love,

  Your devoted Corporal.

  Adam had not been christened yet, and because his father had died, I insisted the boy had my family’s name. This was an unusual thing to do, but times were changing and there was so much going on with women’s rights, equality, and the vote, nobody was really surprised. Everyone knew I was a great supporter of Mrs Pankhurst, and Sissy would have approved.

  Our son, Adam, grew into a fine young man, tall and handsome. In 1938, when he reached twenty-one, I told him about his father, Manno, how he pledged his love, but never returned.

  Adam had a passion for travel. He had trained as an architect and specialised in bridge building, but he eagerly signed up with the army when they advertised for professionals, despite my objecting.

  ‘Adam, I’ve lost almost everyone I loved to the war. I’m begging you, stay away from the forces.’

  ‘Really, Mum.’ He took me into his arms. ‘Leave the drama programmes for the radio. War of the Worlds isn’t real, you know, it’s make believe, straight out of George Orwell’s own head. I’m not going to be in any danger building bridges, now am I? Anyway, I want to try and find out what happened to my father while I’m abroad.’

  ‘Honestly, you sound like my lovely brother, Arthur. He didn’t believe anything bad could happen to him. “We’ll show them!” he cried. Excited to join up and defend the Empire.’

  ‘That was the olden days, Mum,’ Adam said. ‘Everything’s different now. Nobody wants another war, do they? Stop worrying.’

  He went to Syros, on a quest to find his father. So, it came about that I learned of Manno’s death from our son. This was a dark time for me. The local people told Adam, Manno had pulled up a mine in his fishing net. The explosion killed him and his father.

  Adam was working on a Greek bridge between the mainland and the island of Evia, the second-largest island in Greece. While there, he caught the ferry to Kea to visit his father’s grave. He fell in love with a Greek girl, Anna, and in 1943 she came to England where they married. This was a time of joy.

  Anna gave birth to Margarete in 1951. Unfortunately Anna became ill and died shortly after. I brought up Margarete, as my own. Not a difficult task as I loved her intensely, and still do.

  At that same time, in 1951, Greece joined NATO and there were Greek elections. Adam went out with the army to support the new regime in what had become a very troubled country. Naturally, he went to Syros to see Anna’s family. They took Anna’s death badly. Adam was broken-hearted. He wrote to me from Greece and said he had a small job to do on Kea, then he was returning to his battalion, but I never heard from him again.

  This, I knew, was all punishment for my wrongdoing. I had sworn to atone for my sins on the day the Britannic went down. How could I have foreseen this cruel twist, my son Adam being taken from me was the worst penance, but I had to bear it. I kept my pain inside, where it belonged, and when your mother grew, and married, I prayed God had forgiven me, and nothing else would happen to those I loved. To lose Adam, with no closure, no grave to weep over, was the worst punishment of all.

  Eventually, Adam was listed as missing in action. Like any mother, this broke my heart. I refused to believe my beautiful son was dead. To tell you the truth, I still can’t believe it. I tried to find out what happened, but to no avail. I had saved a little each year, always planning to go back to Kea or Syros. In the end, I managed to get to Kea in the Sixties. Time had passed, and people’s memories are short. There were vague references to an English working on the island, but names were forgotten.

  I visited Manno’s grave, and wept the afternoon away. I had loved that man with all my heart.

  The old cottage of Yiayá was still standing, although the door was locked, and rotting along the bottom. I placed my hand on the stone near the entrance, and remembered the pretty donkey and the sweet white goat. How we had laughed. I walked along the port. The chest had long gone, so I stood there for a while, leaning against the wall and looking over to the lighthouse, which hadn’t changed a bit.

  I had refused to tell anyone where I was going because I could not stand to be interrogated about my quest. All I wanted, was to remember Manno, my one afternoon of passion, and my beautiful son, Adam.

  CHAPTER 50

  SHELLY

  Greece, present day.

  BEFORE SUNRISE THE NEXT MORNING, Shelly slipped out of bed and into a white linen bathrobe. After tiptoeing through the French windows, she sat on the balcony and stared out to sea. The lighthouse flashed reassuringly in the dawn light, and for a moment she stared at the quayside and imagined Gran Gertie, and Manno sitting on the chest. Poor Gertie, what an emotional turmoil to go through.

  She smiled to herself and glanced back into the room, at the man sleeping in her bed; the man she had spoken to almost every day for months. Not only did Shelly know she had fallen in love, but she knew she had fallen for Harry’s emotional warmth, the way he cared for her, and for the way he needed to be with her, be it for a week, or a lifetime.

  Before Harry, she’d only had David. Oh, yes, there had been a casual affair or two, but she could not even remember their names, and as far as love was concerned, she had been too young to appreciate what she had with David, when they both lived for the moment. Now, on Kea, Shelly sensed this was a period for embracing the rest of her life. To put all her faith and trust in one man was a brave commitment, because she knew she could not stand to be hurt by Harry. All her emotions, especially love, friendship, and trust were invested in him.

  The Greek light gathered, the town waking. The bakery drew its loyal customers with delicious aromas of fresh bread wafting on cool air.

  Some Greek islands had sold their soul to the tourist’s bankcard; prosperous islands where the locals were thespians, blatantly welcoming. ‘Hello! So lovely to see you again, how long are you here for?’

  Not Kea. On this island, the locals observed their foreign visitors with a slight air of curiosity. ‘Why have you come here when you could go to Santorini or Mykonos?’ Also, Kea didn’t suffer fools lightly. This was not an island of nightclubs, expensive cocktails, or sunbeds. There was no Demos pelican with clipped wings, strutting the beach looking for tourists to be photographed with.

  Kea was an island where you felt you belonged, or you left.

  *

  ‘Come on, no time for daydreaming!’ Harry called. ‘Shower, get dressed, then we’re off. We’ll have breakfast in a cove, halfway.’

  In the dawn light, she saw their vessel was the beautiful white ridged inflatable boat they’d used before. The furiously fast and sexily sleek RIB was shaped like an arrowhead and powered by a throbbing black monster of a motor at the rear.

  Harry’s pride in the vessel was as wide as his grin. She climbed in and sat next to him in the cockpit. He told her to buckle up her life jacket and hang on.

  A woman came over from a quayside taverna with a cardboard tray and a bag of pastries. ‘Enjoy!’ she called with a knowing wink. Harry pulled off slowly.

  ‘Pull the fenders in, will you?’ he called.

  A little thing, yet it made her feel part of the team. As they crept out of the harbour, she pulled in the white bul
let-shaped fenders that protected the sides of the vessel from its quayside neighbours. Once she had returned to her seat, they had reached the open sea and Harry pulled the throttle hard back. The prow lifted and they planed over the crests of waves, out of the Kea Channel. She looked over to the calm sea on her left and imagined the Britannic beneath four hundred feet of warm, crystal-clear water. One day, she would dive that great ship. The mid-summer dive came back to her, and she realised she had not seen Elias yet.

  Before long, the barren island of Yaros came into view. A coastline of tall cliffs with pleats and tucks seeming even more dramatic because of the early morning light. She remembered Gertie and the dolphins, Eleonora’s falcon, and Manno and his teasing. The sky turned from grey-blue to peach, then Harry indicated the horizon to their right, just as the sun peeped over the line, rising like a great crimson fireball flinging a path of red light across the undulating sea, towards them.

  She caught Harry’s eye, and in a glance told him the sunrise never ceased to amaze her. He nodded, smiling, and she knew he felt the same. It was this similarity of spirit – the understanding they shared – that mattered to her as much as the spark between them, and their amazing compatibility in bed.

  Harry lowered their speed, and they cruised into a shallow bay where he instructed her to drop anchor when the boat stopped. ‘It’s only chest deep here,’ he said. She could see the bottom very clearly.

  ‘Time for breakfast,’ he said, his eyes lustrous with want. ‘Let’s eat on that rock.’

  ‘Oh dear, I didn’t bring my swimwear.’

  He was grinning like a schoolboy. ‘Then it seems we’ll have to go naked.’

  ‘But what if somebody comes?’

  ‘Then they’ll be the lucky ones.’

  They pulled their clothes off and leapt into the water. Harry, with the food tray above his head, waded to the flat rock. Shelly swam, and once on the rock, saw herself as the little mermaid. He came to her side, and they fed each other flaky croissant, and drank lukewarm coffee, until they wanted each other so badly they slipped into the water and made love.