“How is my mother, Jake?” Pallas asked, leaning
forward.
The driver turned his head to smile reassuringly at her.
“Oh, she’s okay! Just dandy, Miss Pallas—you know she
always gets better in the spring!”
Pallas looked relieved and sat back with a sigh. The car
glided along the beach, on a winding road, and mounted
beneath dark cypress trees. Below them the airfield
spread out like a green handkerchief beside the beach, and
the air was filled with a fresh, salty tang.
“Is it far to your home?” Sam asked. He was rather
pale. Kate suspected that the flight had left him feeling a
little sick, but he had not mentioned it.
“A ten-minute drive,” Pallas told him. “Our house is at
the top of a cove, but we have to go up before we can reach
it, as the cliffs cut it off from the airfield. My brother
intended to build a large hotel near the airfield, but he
hasn’t got round to it yet. We don’t really want strangers
on Kianthos at all.” She was looking rather strained
herself, today, and Kate guessed that she was nervous
about the family reaction when she got home.
“Will it be just your mother and your brother who are
at home?” she asked her.
Pallas shrugged. “Perhaps, but then Helene might be
there—she often comes for Easter, with some friends. Or
Marc may have business friends of his at the villa. He
uses it often, you see, to put them into a good mood before
concluding a deal.”
“Nice work if you can get it,” Sam said, a little gruffly.
Pallas flushed and looked hurt, but Kate could see that