Paul was drinking his coffee. She glanced at him. 'I'm sorry I embarrassed you,' she said tightly. 'Obviously I was too drunk to know what I was doing.'
'You didn't embarrass me,' he said lightly.
'Good of you to say so ,' she retorted.
'You were rather sleepy, very friendly and entirely delightful,' he said easily. 'If you want the absolute truth, I would have stayed and made love to you all night if you hadn't fallen asleep about five minutes after I started kissing you.'
'Oh.' Her fingers trembled. 'I fell asleep?'
'Out like a light.' He gave her an amused smile. 'I may say it nearly drove me mad. There you were in my arms, as soft as a kitten, and all I could do was tiptoe away.'
She pushed her coffee cup away with an abrupt motion. 'Paul, this can't go on. It was a mistake to come up here. We're too isolated. We should have gone to Paris, after all.'
'Too late now,' he said lightly.
'We could say we'd changed our minds, take the next plane to Paris.'
'No,' he said, shaking his head. 'It would cause too much comment if we suddenly came back from here. We have to stay for the full week.'
'I can't!' She almost wailed.
'Just stay off the retsina,' he advised gravely.
Leonie gave an outraged gasp and stood up. 'You ... you ... God grant me patience with you!'
'Amen,' he said softly.
She fled from the room in total disarray, and Paul leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud.
CHAPTER FIVE
LEONIE walked slowly through the olive grove, watching the leaves turn restlessly on their branches in a light breeze. The goats were bleating angrily, and she wondered if they needed milking. Yesterday Paul had milked them before waking her, and she had been surprised and impressed by the fact that he knew how to cope with them.
Paul called her from the door of the house, and she went reluctantly back towards him.
'Come and help me with the goats,' he said casually.
'What?' She was aghast.
'They must be frantic,' he explained. 'We can do it twice as fast together.'
'I've never milked a goat in my life!' she protested.
'Time you learnt, then.'
'I don't think I could!' she protested.
'It's easy,' he shrugged. 'I'll teach you.'
It was by no means easy, but after a few false starts she found herself picking up the knack, although the goats were restless and irritable confronted with her novice hands.
'Like most females they recognise a master,' Paul said teasingly.
'They recognise experienced handling, you mean,' she said disgustedly.
He grinned. 'You've a very sharp tongue, Leonie.'
They took the milk into the cold larder at the back of the house. It was built there to be out of the sun, Paul explained. The cold temperature of the night was retained for a long time. The floor of the little room was lower than that of the house, sunk deep into the ground, and the milk was kept down there in the coldest part of the room.