A sound behind them brought them swinging round in unison. Isobel’s heart sank to her shoes when she saw her mother-in-law hovering a few yards away. What did they look like? What did she see? Two people locked in a row that probably brought back a hundred memories of similar rows like this? She looked wary and anxious, her black eyes flicking from one to the other. Oh, God, please help me, Isobel groaned silently.
‘I am sorry to intrude,’ Thea said stiffly, and her gaze finally settled upon Isobel’s blushing face. ‘But I am concerned about your mama, Isobel. Theron has her dancing with her walking frame and I am afraid his enthusiasm is tiring her out.’
A single glance through the doors into the house was all that was needed to confirm that Thea’s concerns were real. The seventy-year-old Theron was indeed dancing with her mother, who was using the walking frame as a prop. The man was flirting outrageously. Silvia was laughing, enjoying herself hugely, but even from here Isobel could see the strain beginning to show on her face.
‘I’ll go and…’ She went to move, but Leandros stopped her.
‘No, let me. She will take the disappointment better if I do it,’ he insisted. At Isobel’s questioning glance, ‘Two men fighting over her?’ he explained quizzically, then dropped a kiss on her lips and strode off, pausing only long enough to drop a similar kiss on his mother’s cheek.
Suddenly Isobel found herself alone with a woman who did not like her. Awkwardness became a tangible thing that held them both silent and tense.
‘My son is very fond of your mother.’ Thea broke the silence with that quiet observation.
‘Yes.’ Isobel’s eyes warmed as she watched Leandros fall into a playful fight with Theron for Silvia’s hand. ‘My mother is fond of him, too.’
She hadn’t meant it as a strike at their cold relationship but she realised that Thea had taken it that way as she stiffened and turned to leave. ‘No, don’t go, please,’ she murmured impulsively.
Her mother-in-law paused. An ache took up residence inside Isobel’s chest. This was supposed to be a time for fresh starts and for Leandros’s sake she knew she had to try to reach out with the hand of friendship.
‘You were arguing again.’ Once again it was Thea who took up the challenge by spinning to face her with the accusation.
‘You misread what you saw,’ Isobel replied, then offered up a rueful smile. ‘We were actually making love.’ Adding a shrug to the smile, she forced herself to go on. ‘It has always been like this between us. We spark each other off. Sometimes I t
hink we could light the whole world up with the power we can generate…’ Her eyes glazed on a wistful float back to what Thea had interrupted. Then she blinked into focus. ‘Though I understand why you might not have seen it like that,’ she was willing to concede.
Her mother-in-law took a few moments to absorb all of this, then she sighed and some of the tension dropped out of her stiff shoulders. ‘I understand that you learned Greek while you were here the last time.’
‘Yes,’ Isobel confirmed.
‘I think, perhaps, that you therefore heard things said that should not have been said.’
Lowering her gaze. ‘Yes,’ she said again.
Another small silence followed. Then Thea came to stand by the balustrade. ‘My son loves you,’ she said quietly. ‘And Leandros’s happiness is all I really care about. But the fights…’ She waved a delicately structured hand in a gesture of weariness. ‘They used to tire me out.’
And me, Isobel thought, remembering back to when the sparks were not always so lovingly passionate.
‘When you left here, I was relieved to see you go. But Leandros did not feel the same. He was so miserable here that he went to Spain on a business trip and did not come back again. He missed you.’
‘I missed him too.’
‘Yes…’ Thea accepted that. ‘Leandros wants us to be friends,’ she went on. ‘I would like that too, Isobel.’
Though Thea’s tone warned that she was going to have to work at it. Isobel smiled; what else could she do? Her mother-in-law was a proud woman. She was making a climb-down here that took with it some of that pride.
Taking in a deep breath, she gave that pride back to her. ‘I was too young four years ago. I was overwhelmed by your lifestyle, and too touchy and too rebellious by far to accept advice on how best to behave or cope.’ Lifting her eyes to Leandros’s mother’s eyes, ‘This time will be different,’ she promised solemnly.
Her mother-in-law nodded and said nothing. They both knew they had reached some kind of wary compromise. As she turned to go back to the party Thea paused. ‘I am sorry about the baby,’ she said gravely. ‘It was another part of your unhappiness here, because kindness was not used to help you through the grief of your loss.’
It was so very true that there really was no ideal answer to give to that. Her mother-in-law seemed to realise it, and after another hesitation she walked back into the house.
Leandros appeared seconds later and Isobel had to wonder if he had been leaving them alone to talk. He searched her face. ‘OK?’ he asked huskily.
She nodded, then had to step up to him and, sliding her arms inside his jacket and around his back, she pressed herself against his solid strength. ‘Don’t ever let me go again,’ she told him.
‘I won’t.’ It was a promise.
They left the party soon after that, making the journey home without speaking much. The talking was left to Silvia, who chattered away about Theron and the plans he had to take her out tomorrow for the day.