'Don't keep Mama up too late, will you, Saffron? We have guests arriving tomorrow.'
'Hmmph!' Anna's inelegant snort prevented Saffron from answering. 'It's time you got yourself a decent wife and presented me with a few grandchildren, instead of fooling around.'
'I might surprise you and do just that, Mother.' He held Saffron's gaze even as he responded to Anna. 'What do you think, Saffron? Would I make a good husband?' he asked with mocking amusement.
'I wouldn't know; I don't know you,' she said coolly and, turning her head, she caught the oddest look on Anna's face.
'Then I'll have to make sure you do,' Alex murmured, before moving to drop a brief kiss on the top of Anna's head and adding, 'You promised to behave yourself, Mama, so make sure you do.'
Saffron's puzzled glance slid between the two of them. 'What was that about?' she asked when Alex had gone. 'You always behave yourself.'
'Yes. . . well. . . you haven't seen the guests yet,' Anna replied with dry irony, and Saffron could get no more out of the woman, though she did try as she saw her safely to bed.
By seven o'clock the following evening Saffron was beginning to see what Aima had meant. The boat had docked earlier in the day at an exclusive marina on the Athenian riviera some half an hour's drive from the centre of Athens. She hadn't seen Alex since breakfast that morning, when to her astonishment, on leaving the table, he had kissed his mother as usual and then bestowed a brief kiss on her—Saffron's—softly parted lips as well, with the muttered comment, 'As set-ups go, you're the best yet.'
Blushing fiery red, Saffron had glanced at Anna to see her smiling like a Cheshire cat. 'What was that about?' she'd asked suspiciously.
'Forget it, Saffy; Alex is a law unto himself.'
Forgetting had not been so easy, but they had seen nothing more of him until a couple of hours ago, when three long black limousines had drawn up and he'd appeared with his guests.
'Give me your arm, dear, and let's get the greetings over with,' Anna had commanded as the party had trooped up the gangway.
'You don't sound very enthusiastic.' Saffron cast a worried glance at her employer as she took the older woman's arm and walked along to the foredeck and main reception area.
'I'm not,' Anna whispered in an aside before turning to the woman approaching her with a social smile. The woman was obviously Greek, and about the same age as Anna, but still very attractive.
'Katherina, how lovely to see you.' Kisses on both cheeks
were exchanged and then Anna turned to a younger woman. 'And Maria—how nice. And who is your friend—or is it your friend, Alex?' She eyed her son, who brought up the rear of the group with another, older man.
'Allow me to introduce Sylvia, who for the past three years has been the very efficient director of our health and leisure chain.'
Saffron's head jerked round in surprise. So Alex owned a string of health clubs. Now why should that bother her? But it did. There was something niggling at the back of her mind, and if she could just remember. . . But she did not have the chance as she was swept into a flurry of introductions.
Sylvia, the only English member of the party, was about thirty and stunningly attractive, with black hair, dark eyes, a perfect figure and face, and a smile that would have floored Casanova himself. She dismissed Saffron with a contemptuous glance once she realised she was only a companion. As did Katherina and her daughter Maria. The older man, Spiros, was apparently Katherina's husband.
Saffron shot a worried glance at Anna, who seemed to have gone very quiet among this crowd of confident relatives, and, edging her way to her side, she asked, 'Are you all right?'
Alex caught her whispered question and responded for his mother. 'Of course she is; she is with her family.' But Saffron wasn't so sure. And now, Saffron having just finished massaging Anna with a reviving mixture of aromatherapy oils, the pair of them were relaxing for a few minutes over a very English pot of tea, delivered by the steward a few minutes earlier.
'So what do you think of the family?' Anna asked with a cynicism that Saffron had never seen in the other woman before. 'You can be honest; I won't mind.'
'Well, I. . .I don't really know them; I mean, first impressions can be. . .' She was digging herself into a pit, but she was no good at lying. "They're very Greek..
Thankfully Anna's light laugh stopped her babbling. 'Exactly. Do you know, dear, sometimes I even forget my son is half English? He has such a Greek outlook on family. He insists every year that the relatives holiday together, and he has no idea of the agony it is for me.'
'What's the matter? Don't you get on with them?' Perhaps it was because she was English, but Saffron dismissed that notion immediately. The Greeks were very friendly on the whole, and had a particular liking for the English. No, something else was bothering Anna.
The older lady replaced her teacup on the small table, and dramatically let her head drop back against the soft cushions of the sofa. Then she looked at Saffron, her blue eyes serious.
'You remember on Rhodes when I showed you the café and I said I would tell you my life story one day? Today is the time, I think.'
'You don't need to.' Saffron was worried by the strange quality in Anna's voice. But, as if she had never heard her, Anna continued.
'I must; like all Greek tragedies it needs telling. My husband was an honourable man and he married me because I was pregnant. I loved him, and was happy. His elder brother was married to Katherina and lived in New York. My son was twelve years old when they first came back to stay with us. I saw my husband look at Katherina and I knew they were more than friends. At a party held in their honour she told me quite openly that my husband had always loved her, that she married his older brother because he was wealthier at the time, but she could get my husband at the snap of her fingers.'
'My God! That's awful.'