Page 83 of Hot Greek Summer

Winnie half ran, half power-walked back to the villa with Jesse a few steps behind, her wooden heels banging loudly enough on the path to startle the swallows resting in the olive trees.

‘Wait up,’ he said, catching hold of her hand just before they reached the villa.

Winnie shook him off, still stung by his remark back at his house.

‘Jesse,’ Gav called out from the garden and raised his hand in greeting when he spotted them out in the lane.

‘I didn’t mean to upset you,’ he murmured, shooting a wave back in Gav’s direction.

‘You didn’t,’ she said shortly. ‘Let’s go in.’

If anything, there were more people in the garden than when she’d left, and alarmingly there were still others straggling across the beach.

‘Jesse.’ Frankie rushed at them with a look of desperation in her eyes. ‘Help!’

He clicked into his role of helpful neighbour, shooting Frankie a reassuring smile and squeezing her shoulder.

‘How long have they all been here?’ he asked, scanning the crowd.

Since not long after you stole away just before dawn, probably,Winnie thought, but swallowed her words and let Frankie do the talking.

‘Since first light. I was doing yoga on the beach like normal and people started to drift across the sand in small groups. I didn’t realise at first that they were actually coming to the villa, I assumed they’d head on past and up the lane.’

‘Let me go and see what I can find out,’ he said, skimming a glance at Winnie before he melted away.

‘Everything all right between you two?’ Frankie watched his back as he picked his way towards the group huddled around the remains of the arbutus bush.

‘Flippin’ marvellous,’ Winnie mumbled.

Even in the midst of the chaos, Frankie picked up Winnie’s mood. ‘I’m not sure if you’re sad or mad, but either way I’m guessing it’s his fault.’

‘I’ll tell you later,’ Winnie sighed. ‘Let’s just try to get to the bottom of this for now.’

Gav walked past them with a jug of iced water to refill people’s glasses.

‘Thanks for helping,’ Winnie said. ‘We can do without anyone else passing out.’

Gav nodded. ‘Shall I bring you both a glass?’ he said, noticing their empty hands. ‘Or maybe you should stand in the shade?’

‘We’re fine, honestly,’ Frankie said as he moved away. Heroically she didn’t add that they’d been living on the island for a while now and had worked out how to live with the weather.

‘Frank, Winnie.’

Stella called them from the kitchen doorway, giving them a subtle nod to come inside. Checking that Jesse wasn’t already heading back with information, they headed indoors.

‘Corinna!’ Winnie caught sight of their latest visitor and greeted her warmly, then belatedly registered that like most of the rest of the islanders, Corinna was dressed in black and had a sombre look around her dark eyes.

‘What is it?’ she asked, stepping back to arm’s length.

‘Ladies, I came as soon as I heard,’ Corinna said, her throaty voice adding gravitas to her words.

Frankie frowned. ‘Heard what?’

Stella sighed, clearly already abreast with the news.

‘It’s our mayor,’ Corinna said, bowing her head. ‘Mayor Manolis. He passed away unexpectedly late last night.’

‘Oh,’ Winnie said, flummoxed by the unexpectedness of the statement. She’d heard his name mentioned a few times in passing but wasn’t really aware of his significance to the islanders.

---