the hell have you done to my grandmother?” he asked in a low growl.
CHAPTER NINE
SARA watched him approach. She could almost feel the waves of suspicion pouring off him.
She rose and faced him. “I was asked to deliver a letter and I did.”
“Eleani, what is it?” Nikos asked, sitting beside the woman and drawing her into his arms. He rubbed her back, glaring at Sara.
“What was in the letter?”
“I don’t know. It was sealed.”
“Who is it from?”
“My mother.”
Nikos frowned, saying soothing words to Eleani.
“I’m Sara Andropolous, Eleani’s grandchild.”
The statement stopped Nikos cold. He stared for a long moment. Giving way to anger, he bit out an epithet. His gentle hands soothed his grandmother.
“I didn’t know she had a child, much less a grandchild,” he said a minute later.
“My mother ran off to get married when she was eighteen. Her parents cut her off because she chose to find her own husband. I find the entire situation sordid and inexcusable.”
He swung back at that. “You find it inexcusable. What about lying and cheating to gain access to my grandparents’ home? Wreaking who knows what havoc? I find that inexcusable!”
“I never lied to you nor cheated. I was hired to work in the kitchen at the resort. I used my skill and experience, which would be hard to cheat with. You’re the one who allowed me to work on the Cassandra. You’re the one who insisted I stay on board when you came to your family’s island. You are the one who introduced me to them the other day.”
“Stop it, both of you. I can hear your voices from the house.” Spiros rounded the corner and took in the scene. “Eleani, my love, what is wrong?” He immediately went to his wife. In the confusion of Eleani telling her side and Nikos telling what he knew, Sara spun around to leave.
Guessing her intent, Nikos moved swiftly to her side.
“You can’t waltz in here and cause this uproar and think you get to leave without further explanation.”
“What further explanation do you need? I gave her the letter. There’s nothing more,” Sara said, starting to feel again. She wanted to weep, knowing she’d damaged whatever had been building between Nikos and herself. Still, honor had demanded she carry out her mother’s last wish. Which she had—at a personal loss. Now she just wanted to leave. She felt nothing but resignation and regret.
Spiros sat beside his wife. Eleani had stopped crying and leaned against him tiredly. His face was set in anger. His eyes flashed when he looked at Sara. Saying nothing, he reached for a handkerchief to dry Eleani’s eyes.
“I would like an explanation, young lady,” he said sternly.
At that, Eleani looked up and saw Sara and Nikos.
Sara felt a spurt of anger. “Didn’t your wife tell you she had a daughter in England? She was my mother. Before she died Mum asked me to deliver a letter to her mother. I’ve done just that.”
“I know about Damaris,” Spiros said slowly. “It saddens me to learn she is dead. We had hoped at some time she’d return to Greece to see Eleani.”
Sara frowned. This didn’t make sense.
“She couldn’t come home. Her parents had told her if she left she would not be welcome to return,” she said. “How could you? She was a teenager, sheltered and protected. Her one fling ended disastrously, but did her parents come to her aid? Did they forgive a youthful indiscretion and take her back home to help? No! Her father said he would disown her. How true that was.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Eleani said sadly. She struggled to sit up.
“Now you wait until your mother is dead and come to disturb my wife?” Spiros asked.
“My mother asked only that I deliver a letter she wrote to her mother. I never knew the details of the letter. I do know she refused to return home until she was too sick to make the trip. As soon as I can get off this island, I plan to get as far away from here as I can. I’m sorry to have been the cause of such upset.”
Eleani began crying again. “Don’t go,” she said forlornly.
“Where would you go?” Spiros asked.
“London, where I belong. Away from people like all of you.”
Nikos made a sound of surprise. “People like us?”
“Uncaring, unfeeling, sanctimonious rich people who only want things to go their own way and never mind family members who don’t fit in with the path you decide they should take. Like my mother. Like you yourself, Nikos.”
Spiros turned in surprised to look at his grandson. “What has Nikos to do with this?”
“You and his father pressured him to join the family shipping firm. Pressured him for marriage with a ‘suitable’ woman—translated to mean ‘equally wealthy’. What about what he wants?”
Nikos shrugged when his grandfather looked at him.
Sara wasn’t finished. “Instead of following your dictates he made his own way. Do you ever really see what he’s done? Ever give him praise for fighting against the current and still coming out with something marvelous?” she continued, impassioned.
Spiros looked back and forth between Sara and Nikos. “It is true I wished for Nikos to join our shipping firm. But I see now it would have been a mistake. It was hard enough to let go the reins when Andrus took over. Two strong personalities are more than the company can bear. Nikos added to the mixture would have been a mistake. He was wise to go into a field he chose.”
“And to have done so well,” she added.
Spiros’s features softened a fraction. “So you stand up for Nikos?”
“I’m not standing up for anyone but me. I’m stating facts.”
“Then listen to this fact,” Eleani said. “Damaris ran out on her wedding. We were the ones who had to tell Alexis she wasn’t coming. We had to face our friends, business acquaintances, family and say our daughter had shamed us in front of everyone. She ignored all we had done for her and ran off with an irresponsible man who wanted access to our money. Your grandfather was heartsick. It pained him greatly, and he refused to have any more to do with her while she was with your father. But had she left him, we would have welcomed her home—despite the shame she brought to our family. Even now, when I see Alexis, I am embarrassed. He is such a nice young man. She would have done so well to marry him. He says he has no hard feelings, but she had to have hurt his pride if nothing else. He loved her, you know.”
Sara stared first at Eleani then at Spiros. She was taken aback by the revelation. Had her mother lied all these years? Or merely glossed over the details of the truth? Either way, she had painted an entirely different picture in Sara’s mind.
“Come, sit down and tell us about Eleani’s only child,” Spiros said gently.
Sara was very aware that Nikos was standing at her side. She went to a chair and sat gingerly on the edge. He moved to stand farther away, gazing out to the sea.
“You need to stop crying now, Eleani. Listen to what Sara tells us,” he said gently.
Eleani nodded, blotted her eyes again and leaned against Spiros as if for strength.
Sara didn’t know where to begin. She ached for the difficulty of her mother’s life. And from Eleani’s reaction, she had believed her daughter had led an entirely different life.
“I only know the past from what I was told. My mother had hardly