* * *
Even with the sun having set, it was still hot outside, the breeze created in the buggy welcome as his driver zipped them to the harbour where a tender was waiting to sail them to Leander and Kate’s yacht. Sephone had limited spots for large vessels and with Thanasis determined to leave as much of the island and its coastline untouched as he could, his refusal to dredge and create more space meant most sea-faring guests would be anchoring at sea.
He’d let go of Lucie’s hand. To keep holding it was to torture himself.
From the way Lucie had pressed herself away from him, it was a suffering she shared. The airy way she was asking her questions—they were playing yet another round of Getting to Know You—betrayed it too. Her voice was too airy, like she was trying too hard to be carefree.
‘Which of your family is the most likely to accept me?’ she asked for her third question, the first two of which had been light and innocuous, and his heart sank to guess this was the question she had most wanted to ask and to know it must be playing on her mind. Worrying her.
‘My sister.’
‘How come?’
‘My mother’s loyalty is with my father. She will follow his lead. He’s a good man—a great man—but he can be stubborn. Lydia is more open-minded, and, like a certain someone else I know, does not like being told how or what to think.’ He thought of how subdued Lydia had been when the negative press had imploded their lives. He’d thought the news of the wedding and its real potential to save them all would bring some of her spark back but she’d only become more withdrawn, and he kicked himself for not having checked in on her since Lucie’s accident. The truth was, his mind and his time had been entirely focused on Lucie.
Theos, give him the strength to make it through to the wedding.
‘They will all accept you,’ he vowed. ‘Once they get to know you, they will learn to love you.’ He would make damn sure of it.
They’d arrived at the harbour.
* * *
To Lucie’s relief, Leander and Kate were two of the nicest and most welcoming people in the world. Unlike most of the uber-rich, they didn’t start off their acquaintance by insisting on a tour of their yacht, something Lucie had found incredibly irksome as an adolescent whenever she’d joined the rest of the Tsaliki clan on one of Georgios’s friends’ vessels. Those tours were always, always designed to impress on guests just how much money and fabulous taste the host had. It would’ve been quicker for them to hand over their bank account statements and a listing of all expenses.
Mercifully, there was none of that with their hosts that evening. They greeted them with smiles and kisses and a bottle of champagne, and took them straight up to the sundeck without finding the need to wax lyrical about either the exact number of crystals in the chandeliers or the thread count of the thick carpet in the saloon.
The table had been set with high-class dining perfection but there was none of the formality Lucie had expected, the staff unobtrusive and polite without being fawning, Leander taking it on himself to be in charge of the drinks—Lucie quickly discovered he made a mean cocktail—and Kate, who was nearly as short as Lucie, taking it on herself to be chief taster of them.
With a variety of meze dishes to feast on and loud music playing and the stars above them twinkling, Lucie found herself relaxing in a way she hadn’t expected, relaxing and laughing and generally having an excellent time.
‘I hear you’re an interior designer,’ Kate said to Lucie after Leander had presented them each with a fresh cocktail.
Slightly embarrassed at what must seem a frivolous occupation considering Kate was a vet who’d studied for years to pursue her passion of working with orphaned orangutangs, she nodded and took a sip of her Espresso Martini.
But she really had loved her job. Loved how each job was different but how the end result always gave the same sense of satisfaction, whether it was a subtle room design or the full-blown transformation of an entire house or apartment. Loved feeling she was contributing to Kelly Holden Design steadily taking more and more lucrative business from the bigger boys.
‘Which university did you study it at?’
‘I didn’t.’
To her surprise, Kate grinned. ‘Good for you. I swear I nearly gave myself an ulcer from the stress I put myself under at university. How did you manage to get your foot in the door?’
‘I took a punt… Have you heard of Kelly Holden?’
Kate shook her head. ‘Should I have?’
Lucie laughed. ‘Of course not. She’s a goddess to me though. I always knew I wanted to do something creative, but it wasn’t until I read an interview with her after her firm won this really prestigious industry award no one thought she had a chance of winning as her firm was so small and new, that I thought, yep, I want to do that and I want to work for her.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Just like that.’
‘That’s amazing—it’s really similar to why I decided I had to work with orangutangs, except mine was a TV documentary. So what came next—how did you get her to take you on? Was there a lot of competition for the job?’
‘I collected my final exam results from school and went straight to her offices and parked myself in the reception room for three hours until she appeared, and then I ambushed her. God knows how I did it but I managed to convince her that what she really wanted to do was take on a green eighteen-year-old with zero experience and one A level in art as her apprentice.’
Leander lifted his glass. ‘To always following your dreams.’ His gaze darted to his wife, one of many secret, unspoken messages Lucie had noticed pass between them.
