Wish You Were Here (23 page)

Milo had a vague idea where he was going. Lander had given him directions but he only half-recognised the road out of Kintos. It was a part of the island he didn’t get to very often but he slowed down as they reached the top of a hill, descending slowly until they came to a high wall.

Milo turned into a driveway and gazed at the sight that greeted them. There was a one-storey white house that was typical of the island but it wasn’t that which made Milo’s mouth drop open but the large swimming pool to the left-hand side. There was no water in the pool but it was full all the same – with the broken bodies of hundreds of statues. There were legs, heads, arms and torsos all over the place. It was a startling sight – as if they were victims of some great war.

Milo parked the car and Alice was out before he’d even switched the engine off. He joined her by the side of the body-filled pool.

‘Do you think she’s in there?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Milo said. ‘She could be, I suppose.’ His eyes scanned the stone stumps. He recognised a couple of Poseidons with broken tridents but he couldn’t see his Aphrodite anywhere. ‘Maybe she’s in a workshop somewhere,’ he said, trying to keep Alice’s hopes up.

They left the pool of broken bodies and walked round the back of the house where a large barn-like structure stood. There was the sound of some vicious machinery whirring and Milo held Alice back before she could run headlong into the dark interior. He didn’t want her broken body being chucked into the swimming pool.

‘Hello?’ Milo called in both English and Greek, taking slow steps into the barn. Alice followed him and they saw a man standing at one of the machines, head down in concentration. They waited a moment, not wanting to startle him. A minute later, he lifted his head up, saw them both standing there and stopped the machine. Silence descended.

The dark-haired man lifted his goggles from his face and stared at the intruders. Milo stepped forward, his hand extended in greeting and the man wiped his own dusty one on the front of his trousers and shook, saying something in Greek.

Milo made a bit of polite conversation, telling him about the Villa Argenti, and the man nodded.

‘I believe you were going to try and fix the statue of Aphrodite,’ he said, continuing the conversation in Greek. ‘She’s a particular favourite of the tourists.’

The man shook his head solemnly. ‘She was irreparable. You must have known that.’

Milo nodded. In his heart, he’d known but he hadn’t wanted to admit as much to Alice.

‘What’s he saying?’ Alice asked.

Milo turned round to face her. ‘I’m afraid she couldn’t be fixed,’ he said.

‘So that’s it?’ Alice said, her voice rising hysterically.

‘It looks like it,’ Milo said.

‘But the statue still exists, doesn’t it? Even if it is in pieces? I need to see it. Tell him that I need to see it, Milo.’

‘He didn’t keep it,’ Milo told her.

‘What?’

‘It’s gone,’ Milo said.

The dark-haired man was still babbling on.

‘Hang on a minute,’ Milo said, listening to him. ‘He’s saying that, apparently, it’s a very special statue. The sculptor is well-known here and he says he got in touch with him.’

‘And?’ The conversation was going far too slowly for Alice’s liking.

‘The sculptor wanted it back.’

‘It’s with the sculptor?’ Alice asked.

‘Yes.’

‘And where is he?’

Milo sighed. ‘I’m afraid we can’t get in touch with him.’

‘What? Why not?’

‘He’s Yanni Karalis. He’s a recluse and he hates people.’

‘But this man got in touch with him.’

‘That’s different. This man had something that Mr Karalis wanted. He obviously made an exception so he could get this statue back.’

‘But we’ve
got
to see him. Where does he live? Is that the problem? Is he miles away?’

‘Oh, no – he’s right here on Kethos.’

‘Then I don’t see what the problem is.’ Alice turned and marched out of the barn, her strides long and purposeful as if she was not going to stop walking until she’d found the statue. Milo thanked the man and followed her.

‘Alice,’ he said, ‘I think we’re going to have to admit defeat here.’

Alice had reached the car and opened the door, sinking heavily into the seat, her face even paler now. ‘I can’t give up,’ she said, looking directly ahead through the windscreen rather than at Milo.

‘But this sculptor is famous for not seeing visitors. We’ve bought statues from him in the past and – believe me – we’ve spent a lot of money. They’re the best statues in the world. But he doesn’t have anything to do with anyone.’

‘But we’ve got to try.’ She turned to face him. ‘
Please
, Milo.’

He looked pensive for a moment. ‘Well, I don’t suppose it’ll do much harm to visit him,’ he told her, ‘but don’t get your hopes up’.

They drove for about twenty minutes before the road started to narrow and climb steeply. They’d turned away from the coast and noticed how quiet it was. They hadn’t passed another vehicle for miles. This was a part of Kethos that the tourists rarely saw. It was bare and barren but there was a strange beauty to it. It was a place where myths seemed to hang in the air and the scent of wild flowers was everywhere.

Milo glanced at Alice to see what she made of it but she still had that strange, wild look on her face which told him that a beautiful landscape was probably the last thing on her mind at the moment.

The road curled round to the right and Milo dropped down a gear and started looking out for a likely house. It was the perfect setting for a recluse. No wonder the tourists never made it to this part of the island, because the locals didn’t either, he couldn’t help thinking. How much of his island he had yet to explore. Just when he thought he knew it, a beautiful surprise awaited him round an unexplored corner.

It was after they’d passed a small herd of goats grazing at the side of the road that they saw the place. Milo pulled over and they got out of the car.

‘Well, this looks like it,’ Milo said, peering in through an oppressively massive pair of iron gates which were double padlocked.

From out of nowhere an enormous dog came bounding across the bare earth, teeth bared as it barked furiously.

Alice screamed and Milo sprang back.

‘Right,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we’re going to get in that way.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Hello?’ he cried in through the gate, setting off the dog again. He noticed there was no bell and no intercom but, if somebody was home, surely they would have heard the dog. He thought about sounding his horn but it probably wouldn’t be heard over the barking.

He stood back to look at the property. An enormous wall ran around the perimeter. It all looked foreboding as well as impenetrable and he shrugged his shoulders. ‘I think we’re going to have to come back tomorrow,’ he said.

‘Oh, Milo – no!’

‘There’s nothing we can do if there’s nobody around.’ He watched Alice’s response and couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. She looked thoroughly dejected with her slender shoulders slumped and her head hung in sorrow.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he said.

‘You didn’t even try,’ she said as they headed back to the car.

‘What do you mean? I drove out all this way with you and nearly got attacked by that wolf.’

‘I don’t mean today.’

Milo frowned. So, they were no longer talking about today, were they? The conversation had shifted when he wasn’t looking. He sighed. Why were women so complicated?

‘I mean, you never tried to see me before I left Kethos. You never tried to explain.’

Milo scratched his chin. ‘But I
did
try to see you. I came to the villa as soon as I could but you’d gone.’

‘I had to go home,’ she said, glaring at him as if he was an idiot. ‘I came to see you at the Villa Argenti but your colleague told me you couldn’t work that day and there was no way of contacting you. I didn’t know what to do.’

‘I’m so sorry, Alice. Something came up and I couldn’t reach you.’

She looked at him and he felt as if he were being punished with the fierceness of her stare.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘I just thought you might have something to say to me.’

He wasn’t sure what she meant and so he wasn’t sure what to say to her. He held her gaze, wondering if she was going to say anything else but she remained silent, the coolness of her eyes seeming to say so much but in a language which he didn’t understand.

‘Look,’ he said at last, glancing at his watch, ‘the last ferry leaves for the mainland in an hour and we’d have to break our necks to get there in time. Stay with me.’

‘What?’

‘I have plenty of room and you’d be very welcome and we can get up early and make a good start by coming back here and trying to find the statue.’

Her blue eyes seemed to double in size and her mouth had opened in a perfect little circle. ‘But—’

‘But what?’ he asked, his head cocked to one side.

‘What are you talking about, Milo? I can’t stay at yours.’

‘Why not?’ he asked, looking puzzled.

‘Because – because you have a family!’

He looked startled for a moment. ‘How did you know about that?’

‘Oh, Milo!’ Her hands flew up in the air in exasperation. ‘I saw them! You have a wife – a
family!
’

‘Wife? Hang on a minute! What do you mean,
wife?
’

‘Please don’t lie to me any more. I came to your house.’

‘What? When?’

‘When you weren’t at the villa, I asked a few people where you lived. I wanted to see you again before I left but, when I got to your house, I saw—’ she stopped.

‘What?’ he said, anxiety filling him with fear. ‘What exactly did you see?’

‘I saw you pegging out washing in the garden. Children’s clothes.’

‘Oh, God!’ Milo said, shaking his head. ‘Do you know who those clothes belong to, Alice? They belong to my sister!’

‘Your sister?’

‘My little sister – Tiana. I wanted to tell you about her and I was going to. I tried on the morning you were leaving but it was too late and we couldn’t make it to the boat in time. Tiana was unwell. That’s why I couldn’t get in to work. There’s a lady who takes care of her after school but she was ill too so I had to stay at home.’

‘You have a little sister?’

He nodded. ‘Our parents died. I’m the one who looks after her.’

Alice looked dumbstruck. ‘Why didn’t you tell me all this?’

‘I was going to only I didn’t get the chance and there was no point mentioning her when we first met,’ he said. ‘I mean, would you really want to see somebody who has a little sister to take care of?’

‘You should have let me be the judge of that,’ she told him.

‘I know,’ he said. ‘But I thought we were just going to be a holiday romance. When I first met you, I didn’t know how you felt about me and I always thought you’d forget about me and this place as soon as you left. I didn’t feel you needed to know everything about my life here.’ He looked at her and her face softened a little. ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t get the chance to explain things,’ he said. ‘I really care about you and I felt so bad letting you go like that without explaining. I don’t know what you must have thought.’

‘You
really
don’t want to know,’ Alice said.

‘I’m sure I don’t,’ he said, giving her a tiny smile. They left the forbidding gate and the barking dog and drove back through the wild island landscape.

Milo kept giving Alice little glances. Her shoulders had lost some of the tension that had been held in them for the whole of that day but she still looked sad – as if something was missing from her existence. ‘Are you okay?’ he said at last.

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

‘You must be hungry,’ he said. ‘I know I am. We haven’t eaten for hours.’

She nodded again. ‘I guess I lost track of time.’

‘It seems to me that you’ve been thinking about nothing but this statue,’ he told her. ‘Am I right?’

She looked at him as he slowed to take a corner. ‘It’s been an odd time,’ she said and then, suddenly, her eyes filled with tears.

‘Alice!’ he cried, pulling over to the side of the road. ‘What’s the matter?’ For a few moments, she didn’t say a word but just sat there, tears streaming down her face, her little nose rapidly turning red.

He took his seatbelt off and inched closer to her, resting a hand on her shoulder. He couldn’t bear to see her like this and he couldn’t help but feel partly responsible. ‘It’s my stupid behaviour, isn’t it?’ He groaned. ‘I should have told you. I
knew
I should have.’

She shook her head. ‘It’s not you,’ she said in a tiny voice.

‘What is it, then?’

She turned to look at him and her eyes were rimmed with red. ‘My father,’ she said. ‘My father died.’

‘Oh, Alice! I’m so sorry.’ Without thinking, he took her hands in his and squeezed them whilst fresh tears fell as she told him what had happened.

‘God,’ he said when she finished. ‘You’ve had a really bad time.’

‘I guess I’ve been holding on and holding on – just trying to get on with things and sort everything out.’

‘When what you really needed to do was to sit down and have a good cry,’ he said. ‘Look, let’s get you back to my place. You can take a shower, have a rest, do anything you like and I’ll cook us dinner. We’ve got a spare bedroom with clean sheets and you’re welcome to stay as long as you need. How does that sound?’

‘But I don’t have any clothes or my toothbrush or—’

‘I’ll lend you some clothes,’ he said, ‘and there’s a brand new toothbrush in the bathroom cabinet. Come on. Let me take you to my home.’

Alice’s mind was reeling from what Milo had told her. For all those weeks, she’d thought of him as nothing more than a no-good cheating husband when he had, in fact, been a single man struggling to take care of his little sister whilst holding down a job.

As he skirted the town of Kintos and headed to a part of the island she didn’t know, she glanced at him. His face was dark with his long hours of exposure to the sun and the little cut below his forehead looked red and raw and she wanted to reach out and touch it gently with her fingertips. His dark eyes were focused on the road and his dark green shirt sleeves were rolled up to reveal his tanned forearms. Alice swallowed at the sight of them and she tried not to think about the way that they had held her as he’d made love to her.

That moment seemed such a long time ago now. She felt as if she’d been a different person then and it felt strange sitting so close to Milo now with all that had happened between them and yet they hadn’t talked about the time when the world had closed around them and nothing had been more important than the two of them.

She couldn’t help wondering if he was thinking about it too or if his mind was purely on negotiating the treacherous coast road that they were now driving along. Whatever he was thinking, he kept to himself and they drove on in silence together.

When they reached Milo’s, Alice recognized the little house and saw the washing line which had caused so much trouble between them. He parked the car and turned to look at her.

‘Well, here we are,’ he said.

Alice nodded. ‘Where’s your sister?’

‘Oh, she’s inside. There was a party after school today and a friend said she’d bring her home and sit with her until I got back.’ Sure enough, a young woman came out of the front door and waved at Milo. He got out of the car and greeted her and they chatted away for a few moments before she turned to leave.

‘She wanted to know who the pretty girl was,’ Milo said as he opened Alice’s door for her.

‘And what did you tell her?’

‘I told her absolutely nothing because it would be all over the village before we sit down to dinner.’

‘I think it probably will anyway,’ Alice said as she got out of the car.

‘You’re probably right.’

They walked towards the house together.

‘Does Tiana speak English?’ Alice asked nervously.

‘Yes. I’ve been teaching her,’ Milo said as he opened the door for her. ‘I think she speaks better English than me now!’

Alice stepped inside and was immediately greeted by a girl with huge dark eyes and long dark hair. She was standing in the doorway of the kitchen and she had a big smile on her face. ‘Hello,’ she said.

‘Hello,’ Alice said, smiling right back at her.

Milo cleared his throat and stepped forward. ‘Tiana – this is Alice,’ he said in English.

The little girl cocked her head to one side in a manner that was uncannily like her brother. ‘ALICE!’ she suddenly shouted.

Alice laughed at the explosive cry. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘You came back.’

‘I did.’

‘You came back to see Milo,’ the little girl continued.

‘Er – no,’ Milo interrupted.

‘Then why?’

‘Alice has business on the island.’

‘Business?’ Tiana said, sounding out the word as if it was something disagreeable in her mouth. ‘What business?’

‘Private business that has nothing to do with little girls,’ Milo said.

‘Oh,’ she said, obviously disappointed, and then she turned her big brown eyes on Alice as if she might want to contradict Milo and tell her why she was there.

‘I think you have homework to do,’ Milo prompted her.

‘Oh, no. Not tonight,’ she said with a light smile. ‘I can stay and talk with Alice
all
evening.’

Milo’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘But not before you’ve tidied your—’

‘My room’s tidy,’ she said.

‘And put all your books into alphabetical order.’

‘What?’ Tiana said in alarm.

‘Go on – you know I’ve told you that’s how Mama liked them.’

She stood stunned for a moment but then gave in.

‘Okay!’ she said with a sigh.

They watched as she walked as slowly as was humanly possible down the whole length of the hallway to her bedroom at the end.

‘Sorry about that,’ Milo whispered. ‘She can be a little demanding.’

‘She’s lovely,’ Alice said. ‘I wish my sister was as adorable.’

‘How is she?’ he asked, leading her through to the kitchen.

‘Oh, she’s her usual self.’

Milo nodded in understanding. ‘And how has she taken your father’s death?’

‘Not well,’ Alice said. ‘She’s been living in the family home, and she doesn’t want to leave now but it’s a condition of the will. The house is going to be sold, you see, and everything paid for and then what’s left will be split between us.’

‘That sounds fair enough,’ Milo said.

‘She doesn’t see it that way, I’m afraid.’

‘I take it she’s been living rent-free all this time?’

Alice nodded.

‘Then it all sounds more than fair to me.’ He pulled a chair out at the dinner table and Alice sat down as Milo busied himself around the kitchen preparing dinner. ‘So, what will you do with the money?’

Alice cast her eyes up to the ceiling. ‘I guess I should put a deposit down on a house of my own. I’ve been renting for years now.’

‘So, you’re going to stay in the UK?’

She looked at him. ‘That’s where my job is.’

He nodded and Alice swallowed. She had the feeling that he wasn’t saying everything in his mind and was aware, once again, that the closeness they’d briefly shared seemed to have evaporated.

‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘we’ll have to wait and see.’

‘Have you any idea how much it will be? If you don’t mind me asking.’

‘Well, I’ve not worked it out in detail yet but there was no mortgage on the property and it should get a good price. I guess we’re looking at six figures.’

Milo looked as if he’d been slapped in the face. ‘Six figures?’

‘Very low six figures,’ Alice said.

‘Each? In pounds?’

‘Yes! Why? Does that seem a lot to you?’ Alice said in surprise.

‘You mean, it doesn’t seem a lot to
you
?’ Milo said.

‘It seems an absolute fortune to me but it won’t buy much in the UK.’

‘My God!’ Milo said. ‘You could buy a mansion with grounds for that here.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes!’ Milo said, his voice sounding hysterical. ‘Not as grand as the Villa Argenti, you understand, but a really nice house and plenty of land.’

Alice found that she was smiling in spite of herself. ‘But that’s here, and here is miles away from anywhere, in a country that gets earthquakes.’

‘Well, we might not be perfect but our skies and sea beat yours for blueness.’

Alice smiled and watched as Milo reached into a cupboard and produced two large wine glasses which he filled with a local white wine.

‘If I had six figures, I would buy the
biggest
plot of land I could afford,’ he said, passing a glass to Alice and taking a sip from his own. ‘It wouldn’t matter what the house was like as long as it had rooms and walls and things. Then I would create the most beautiful garden Kethos has ever seen. The Villa Argenti would be
nothing
in comparison!’ His dark eyes shone as he spoke. ‘I would choose all my favourite plants and put them exactly where I wanted them. There would be all the bright and brilliant Mediterranean flowers and the herbs that our island is so famous for and I would raise my own plants from seed and take cuttings – even do a bit of experimenting.’

‘But don’t you do all that already at the villa?’ Alice asked.

‘I have a certain amount of freedom with the plants, of course, but it’s Mr Carlson who has to tick everything off. The garden is his, after all.’

Alice nodded and smiled at the faraway look in Milo’s eyes. He was a dreamer, wasn’t he? She liked that about him. Why couldn’t she be more like that? She was so stuck in the here and now, worrying about practicalities like work and rent and bills. Why couldn’t she just let her mind soar like Milo and dream of a future filled with flowers?

‘Anyway,’ he said, snapping himself back into the present, ‘that’s not likely to happen and – well – I love the Villa Argenti – I really do but—’

‘You’d like to be your own boss?’

‘Exactly!’ He grinned like a young child and then turned his back to her as he prepared dinner. Alice watched him moving around the kitchen with graceful ease. He looked so at home amongst the pots and pans as if he genuinely enjoyed the whole experience of cooking rather than getting on with it simply because he had to eat.

‘Anything I can do?’ Alice asked.

‘No, no,’ he said lightly, waving a hand in the air. ‘Have yourself another wine.’ So Alice did.

She wasn’t sure whether it was the wine or the rhythm with which Milo moved around the kitchen but she soon began to feel pleasantly mellow. It was as if all the tension of the last few weeks was finally draining away from her. Maybe it was the fact that she was back on Kethos too. After all, it had been the last place where she’d felt truly relaxed.

Before she knew it, she was being presented with an array of pretty plates and bowls all filled with food.

‘It’s just a simple supper,’ Milo said, almost apologetically, as he laid everything out on the table. ‘It’s called
meze
. It’s food to pick at whilst you’re drinking ouzo but we like to eat it together for supper. Tiana likes it – I guess it’s what you might call
finger food
.’

Alice nodded in approval as she recognised pitta bread, houmous, haloumi, calamari and scampi. ‘It all looks amazing,’ she said, and she couldn’t help comparing the exotic spread before her to her own dreary suppers at home of tinned soup and toast or some breadcrumbed concoction from out of the depths of the freezer.

‘Dinner!’ Milo called and Tiana came racing through to join them. ‘Have you cleaned your hands?’

She nodded. ‘Yes!’

‘And sorted all your books?’

‘
Yes!
’

‘Okay,’ he said with a smile as his little sister sat herself at the table.

The food was simple and delicious – just what Alice had needed and, for a while, they all ate in silence, happily picking and munching away together like a little family. But Alice couldn’t help feeling a pair of eyes upon her the whole time she was eating and finally glanced up to meet them. Tiana grinned at her.

‘You’re pretty,’ she said.

Alice choked on a mouthful of pitta bread. ‘No, I’m not,’ she said. ‘
You’re
pretty.’

‘Thank you,’ Tiana said.

Milo laughed. ‘You see! You should learn how to accept a compliment, Alice – like Tiana.’

‘But she
is
pretty,’ Alice said.

‘And so are you, isn’t she, Tiana?’ Milo said.

‘I just said so,’ Tiana said, looking confused.

Milo laughed. ‘You did and she is and that’s the end of it.’

Alice shook her head and continued eating – this time, with two pairs of eyes fixed upon her. When she looked up again, she caught Milo’s eye and he grinned at her. She gave him a warning look and he cleared his throat.

‘Get on with your dinner, Tiana,’ he said, ‘you’re putting Alice off.’

They ate the rest of their meal with furtive glances and funny little giggles doing the rounds of the table. Finally, the food was finished and Milo told Tiana to return to her room.

‘Can’t I stay and talk to Alice?’ she asked, her eyes big and soulful.

Milo shook his head. ‘She’s had a long day,’ he told her. ‘You can chat to her in the morning. Go to your room. I’ll come and tuck you in later.’

With a resigned look on her face, she left the room.

‘Night, Tiana,’ Alice called after her. ‘She’s wonderful,’ she told Milo.

‘Yes, some of the time,’ he said with a little smile.

‘You must adore her.’

He nodded. ‘I can’t imagine life without her.’

‘It must be hard, though, raising her on your own.’

‘It’s no more than I can handle,’ he told her and a serious look crossed his face.

‘What is it?’ Alice asked, feeling that she had touched a nerve.

He shrugged. ‘We’ve had a bit of a rough time recently. Family stuff. You don’t want to hear about it.’

‘Yes, I do,’ she said. ‘I’ve told you all about my family. I’d like to know more about yours.’

Milo sat down at the table again and poured some more wine for them both and then he told her about Georgio and Sonya and what had happened over the last few days.

‘They just took her?’ Alice said in shock.

‘It had been building up for some time,’ Milo told her. ‘But I hadn’t realised just how desperate they were to have her.’

‘Will they try it again?’

‘I don’t think so. I think they got a bit of a shock at how unhappy Tiana was about it all, but what did they expect? All she’s known is this island. You can’t just drag a child away from her home and expect her to be happy about it.’

‘You must have been so worried.’

‘Well, I crashed my bike trying to get to her.’

‘Ah,’ Alice said. ‘I didn’t think you’d been tearing round the roads just for the sake of it.’ She looked at the cut on his head. ‘Is that going to scar?’

His fingers brushed it. ‘I don’t know. Perhaps it should as a reminder of what’s important.’

Alice nodded and then stood up and began clearing the table.

‘You don’t need to do that,’ Milo said.

‘But I’d like to. You’ve gone to all this trouble—’

‘It’s no trouble,’ he told her. ‘Please, go and sit down.’ He motioned to the sitting room next door and Alice relented, leaving the kitchen and sinking down onto a sofa.

It felt funny to be in somebody’s house not doing anything. She didn’t even have a book to read. She looked around the room for a moment. There was a row of novels on a little shelf near the television but they were all in Greek. Anyway, she didn’t really feel like reading. She was too tired to concentrate. In fact, her eyelids were feeling very heavy. She’d just close them for a bit.

‘Alice?’ a little voice came from a long way away. ‘Alice?’