Never to Surrender by Mary-Anne O'Connor

Author:Mary-Anne O'Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQ Fiction
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty

‘He’s here,’ Ariadne whispered and Athena nearly dropped the tray of orange juice she was lifting off the bench. Dear God, please don’t let me look like a clumsy idiot in front of him again, she prayed. Athena turned, carrying the glasses carefully and trying to ignore the rapid pounding of her heart and the twisting excitement in her stomach.

It only took a second to locate him, standing between the two large potted geraniums at the taverna entrance next to the tall soldier she’d seen him with that first night. Carl seemed to be looking for her too and her heart almost seemed to stop altogether when their eyes locked. Dear Lord but he was handsome. Then he grinned at her and that word seemed simply too inadequate to describe such a man.

‘Kalimera!’ Spiros called, coming up behind them and clapping Carl on the back.

‘What’s Spiros doing with him?’ Athena whispered.

‘I don’t know,’ Ariadne whispered back.

They watched as Spiros cheerfully greeted people while leading the two men in. Then he sat them at a table, laughing and talking to them in a mixture of broken English and Greek.

‘You wait. I give Ariadne the tilapia, yes?’ Athena heard him say.

He approached the kitchen, handing over the basket of fish to Ariadne. ‘We have some special guests,’ he said to them both in Greek. ‘I’ve promised them your finest tilapia, Ariadne. Perhaps you can be their waitress, eh, Athena?’

‘What an excellent idea,’ Ariadne said, smiling at Athena who dared another glance at Carl. He grinned at her again and she returned it shyly but then her mother was suddenly blocking her view.

‘Why should Athena be their waitress? What’s going on?’ Maria said. ‘Is that the man who wanted to take you out?’

‘New friends,’ Spiros soothed. ‘They helped me with my catch this morning and I’ve promised them a delicious breakfast in return.’

Athena looked nervously at her mother who appeared unimpressed as she looked over at Carl. ‘We are busy …’

‘They are brave men, the last off the mainland, and friends now,’ Spiros said. ‘Georgios would want them to have the very best if he were here.’

‘I wish he were here,’ Maria sighed, looking over worriedly as more soldiers arrived. ‘Half the wedding guests will be upon us in another hour or so.’

‘What if I go fetch him for you?’ Spiros offered. Georgios was playing board games at the kafeneio and would be enjoying having so many male relatives in town, but Maria was right. He was needed here, although it would be far more challenging for Athena to try to talk to Carl when her father arrived.

‘Spiros!’ Nikos exclaimed, coming over with a jug of orange juice, but he lost his balance in his haste and spilt it all over the floor. That was the final straw for his mother.

‘Take Nikos with you,’ Maria told Spiros with a sigh as Athena reassured a contrite Nikos and helped him clean up the mess. ‘Just keep serving, Athena, those men too,’ she added, but she sounded reluctant.

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