She asks about Eliza and I inform her Phoebe will be visiting her later.
‘I have no doubt she will be inundated with moussaka from the neighbours when she returns.’ She grins. ‘Although I get the impression Phoebe will be happy to look after her.’
‘It’s funny how things have worked out between them, isn’t it?’ I say, having heard the story of their estrangement from Phoebe.
‘It really is,’ agrees Lena. ‘I think they have both been very lonely. Phoebe is a stubborn woman, although don’t get me wrong, I can see why. It just seems so sad, that with both of their husbands gone they could have been company for each other.’
‘Well, maybe this last chapter in their lives will bring them both some happiness,’ I suggest.
‘I hope so,’ Lena agrees with a smile.
The beach is quite crowded today, so Lena has Prudence on a lead, especially as there are a lot of children playing with a ball.
‘She will go crazy after that ball,’ Lena says as Prudence strains at the lead. ‘I am just heading to a quiet stretch of beach, if you care to join me,’ she offers.
‘I would love to. I have been at my laptop all day and I need a good walk.’
Presently, we arrive at an almost deserted stretch of beach, and Prudence races off as soon as she is released from the lead.
‘You know, I really admire you,’ Lena tells me as we walk. ‘Buying a house that needed some work doing. It must have taken some courage.’
‘A little, but it was easy for me to choose Roda. I spent a lot of my childhood holidays here, in the hotel near the sea.’
‘Yes, Dimitri told me about that.’
We stop at the water’s edge, and she tosses a pebble into the water. Prudence races after it, before abandoning the search and racing back on the sand, shaking herself.
‘He likes you, you know.’ She casts me a glance, to see my reaction.
‘I like him too. He’s a lovely guy.’
‘Well, I would obviously agree with that.’ She smiles. ‘But what do you really feel about him?’
I can’t think of how to reply for a moment and she apologises.
‘Forgive me. I have no right to ask you, it’s just that I know he has grown very fond of you.’
At the end of the beach is a tiny café, and Lena offers to buy me a coffee, so we take a seat at an outdoor table beneath a parasol and continue our conversation.
‘It’s so difficult. I think I have feelings for him too,’ I admit. ‘I have grown to know him quite well doing the refurbishment, and there is no denying I find him attractive.’
‘But?’ She stirs her cappuccino.
‘I can’t see a future,’ I tell her honestly. ‘I have no plans to emigrate, which since Brexit I would need to do, and I can’t see Dimitri in the North of England.’
‘I can understand that. But you never know what could happen if you open yourself up to the possibility, surely?’
‘Maybe you are right. But then, there is the small problem of his ex being back in the village.’
‘Do not worry about her,’ she says, with a dismissive wave of the hand. ‘She is back to see her dying grandmother.’
‘Yes, he told me that.’
‘My nephew has a soft heart, he can never say no to helping anyone. But he has no interest in her. She, stupid girl, lost her driving licence because she was caught drink driving,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘They were never a good match. She is immature, whereas Dimitri has always had an older head.’
I take in Lena’s words as I sip my delicious frappé. She thinks her nephew has an older head, so maybe the five-year difference between us might not be so significant. For the umpteenth time, I wish I hadn’t allowed myself to develop feelings for him; everything would be so much simpler then, but I guess nothing in life ever is.
I walk back with Lena, who tells me it is time for her to get back to work also. She is a sewing machinist and has a room in the rear of her house where she makes children’s clothes, supplying them to markets and a clothes shop in Corfu Town that she visits once a week.
