So he was only thirty-one; he seemed older somehow. And then her attention was taken by Jill who touched her arm, her voice awe-struck as she said, ‘Look, Sophy, banana trees.’
They were travelling very slowly down a long winding gravel drive, the tyres scrunching on the tiny pebbles, and either side of the car was a cascade of vibrant colour. Masses of exotic, brilliantly coloured flowers and small shrubs were set strategically among silver spindrift olive trees, and the feathered leaves of jacarandas and the broad polished leaves of banana trees were also etched against the blue sky. The effect was riveting.
And then the car turned a corner and a long and very beautiful house was in front of them, its white walls and deep red roof perfectly complemented by the riot of colour at its many balconies, the same lacy ironwork reflected in the veranda which ran the full length of the house and which again had bougainvillaea, anemones, lobelia and a host of other trailing flowers winding over it.
‘Oh, wow!’ Michael, with the innocent ingenuousness of a child, verbalised what both women were thinking as he turned to his uncle, his brown eyes wide, and said, ‘Are my grandparents very rich, Uncle Andreas?’
‘Michael!’ Jill turned as red as the scarlet roof. ‘You mustn’t ask things like that, darling,’ she said reprovingly.
‘Why?’ Michael stared at his mother in surprise.
‘Because it isn’t polite.’
Polite or not, it was a pretty valid point, Sophy thought bemusedly. She could see tennis courts to the left of the house and Andreas had already mentioned the swimming pool; these people were loaded. She had always thought Theodore was nicely set up—what with his restaurant business and the lovely house he and Jill had lived in—but this, this was something else. Why hadn’t Theodore ever said he came from such a wealthy family?
Jill must have had the same thought because her voice was small when she turned to Andreas and said, ‘Theodore never talked about his family, Andreas, as I suppose you’ve guessed. You’ll have to excuse our surprise.’
There was a moment’s hesitation on Andreas’s part, and then he surprised both women as he leant forward slightly, saying quickly under his breath, ‘I understand this, Jill, but I would implore you not to reveal it to my mother. My father and I would expect nothing else, but she…she is desolate and it would serve no useful purpose to know he has not mentioned her to his wife and child. You understand?’ he added urgently.
‘Yes, yes of course.’ Jill stared at Andreas as he settled back into his seat and then glanced once at Sophy.
Understand? She didn’t understand anything about this family, Sophy thought militantly, but she was so glad she had come here with Jill. If the parents were anything like their offspring, they might soon be on the next plane home rather than enjoying a couple of weeks in the sun! Overwhelming wasn’t the word for it.
However, she had no time to reflect further as the car had drawn to a halt at the bottom of the wide, semi-circular stone steps leading up to the house, and Andreas had already exited, turning to extend his hand as he helped both women out on to the immaculate drive.
The heat struck again with renewed vigour after the cool air-conditioning inside the limousine, but it wasn’t that which caused the colour to flare in Sophy’s cheeks. For a brief moment as she had slid out of the car and risen to stand beside her sister, she had been just a little too close to Andreas. Close enough to sense the muscled power in the big frame next to her and smell the faint, intoxicatingly delicious scent of his aftershave, and she couldn’t believe how her body had reacted.
Fortunately the front door to the house was already opening and all attention was diverted to the couple standing framed in the aperture. ‘There are your grandparents, Michael,’ Andreas said very softly as he touched his small nephew on the shoulder. ‘Would you like to take your mother and say hello?’
‘Sophy?’ Jill had turned to her, her hand reaching out, and Sophy said quickly, ‘Take Michael and introduce him, Jill. I’m right here, don’t worry.’ She smiled encouragingly, her eyes warm, and after a split-second of hesitation Jill turned and did as Sophy had suggested leaving Sophy and Andreas standing together at the bottom of the steps.
That the women’s swift exchange had not gone unnoticed by Andreas became clear in the next moment when, Jill and Michael now out of earshot, he said softly out of the corner of his mouth and without glancing down at her, ‘So, it is true what I have read. I have always wondered if the text books are right.’
‘I’m sorry?’ Her voice was as quiet as his and Sophy didn’t take her eyes off her sister and nephew either. Immediately Jill and Michael had reached the couple standing at the door to the house they had been enfolded in Theodore’s parents’s arms; Michael’s grandfather lifting him up and hugging him to his chest, and Jill’s mother-in-law embracing the younger woman with an embrace which looked to be welcoming. Sophy relaxed slightly.
‘Dominant twin and submissive twin?’ Andreas drawled coolly.
It was less an observation and more an implied criticism, and directed specifically at her. Sophy recognised it at once and, true to her nature, rose instantly to the challenge. ‘It is both dangerous and naive to believe everything you read, Mr Karydis,’ she said icily, her eyes leaving the party framed in the doorway and sweeping with cold dislike over the dark profile next to her. ‘I would have thought you knew that?’
‘So it is not true, then?’ he returned evenly, the phantom of a smile playing round the hard mouth suggesting he found her attitude amusing rather than anything else.
She opened her mouth to fire back another put-down but Jill was already turning back down the steps, calling her name as she urged her sister to come and meet Theodore’s parents. All Sophy could do was to stitch a bright smile on her face and keep it there during all the enthusing of how very alike they were, and how amazing it must be to have a mirror image, and so on and so on. But there was no edge to Theodore’s parents’s greeting—unlike their younger son’s—and Sophy found herself relaxing still more. After a little while the five adults and Michael entered the huge, marble-floored hall behind them which was vast by any standards.
Evangelos, Theodore’s father, was an older version of Andreas, but try as she might Sophy could see nothing of Jill’s husband in the tall, handsome man in front of her. And Dimitra, Theodore’s mother, was not at all what she had expected. The doe-eyed and still quite exquisitely beautiful woman was clearly overjoyed to see her grandson and daughter-in-law and couldn’t take her eyes off Michael. ‘He is so like my Theodore at that age,’ she said brokenly more than once, clutching hold of her husband’s arm as though for support. ‘You remember, Evangelos? You remember his curls and what a pretty child he was?’
Sophy saw Andreas and his father exchange a glance over the top of Dimitra’s light-brown hair which was liberally streaked with strands of silver, and it was Andreas who gently walked his mother through to the beautiful drawing room off the hall, the others following with Evangelos.
‘I am sorry.’ Dimitra’s glance included Sophy as well as Jill once they were all seated and she had composed herself. ‘I just wasn’t expecting Michael to be so like his father. It…it is wonderful, of course, but…’
As the older woman’s voice trailed away and an awkward silence ensued, Sophy said quietly, ‘Just at the moment a mixed blessing? But that will pass and it’s perfectly understandable in the circumstances. Jill was only saying on the plane coming over that, having had Michael, she could understand a little of what you must be feeling.’
Jill flashed her sister a grateful glance and too
k her cue, moving off the sofa on which she and Sophy and Michael were seated and kneeling down in front of Dimitra before taking her mother-in-law’s hands and saying softly, ‘I would like us to be friends and for you all to get to know Michael, Dimitra. I know it won’t take away the pain of your loss, but perhaps in time you could feel a little part of Theodore is still with you in the form of your grandson?’
‘Oh, my dear…’ Now the tears were pouring down Dimitra’s face as she held out her arms to Jill and Jill, still kneeling, hugged her mother-in-law.
Andreas cleared his throat before saying to a now silent and subdued Michael, ‘How about if I show you the pool? You would like this? And also your grandfather has something in the garages that might take your fancy. Have you ever sat in a Lamborghini, Michael?’