Chapters (66)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUE
- PART ONE
- CHAPTER ONE
- CHAPTER TWO
- CHAPTER THREE
- CHAPTER FOUR
- CHAPTER FIVE
- CHAPTER SIX
- CHAPTER SEVEN
- CHAPTER EIGHT
- CHAPTER NINE
- CHAPTER TEN
- CHAPTER ELEVEN
- CHAPTER TWELVE
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN
- CHAPTER FIFTEEN
- CHAPTER SIXTEEN
- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
- CHAPTER NINETEEN
- CHAPTER TWENTY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
- CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
- CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
- CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
- CHAPTER THIRTY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
- PART THREE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
- CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
- CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
- CHAPTER FORTY
- CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
- CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
- CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
- CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
- CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
- CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
- CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
- CHAPTER FIFTY
- CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
- CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
- CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
- CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- About the Author
‘You have plenty of time to make a decision,’ soothed Brigid, noting her niece’s crestfallen expression. Keelin saw the glare her mother flashed her sister and decided to say no more about becoming a nun. It would only lead to rows.
‘We need to get going, Imelda. Thanks so much for a lovely spread and a very enjoyable afternoon.’ Brigid rose to her feet and helped her father out of the armchair. Granddad Dunne was very stiff after a bout of lumbago, and Keelin, who knew she was his favourite, picked up his walking stick which had fallen down beside his chair. ‘Here, Granddad, I’ll cycle over and see you tomorrow,’ she promised, giving him a kiss.
‘You’re a little treasure,’ her grandfather smiled, hugging her.
Brigid turned to Imelda, ‘I’m going to the Four Winds soon; why don’t you bring the children down and stay over, if it’s not too busy?’
‘We’ll see,’ Imelda said noncommittally. ‘I have to bring Larry’s mother to a hospital appointment. Dad has one next week, and the shop’s busy, what with the tourist season and everything.’
‘Well, the offer is there,’ Brigid said lightly, and Keelin knew somehow or another that she would get to see that house on top of the cliff before the summer was out, and that she and her Auntie Brigid were going to be the best of friends.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Summer 1975
‘I agápi mou thélo,’ the young Greek soldier whispered in her ear, his finger tracing a light caress across her bare shoulder and down her arm.
Keelin knew, from a love song that everyone on the Island of Rhodes was singing, that agápi mou meant my love. She wasn’t sure what the other words meant but she could guess, by the ardent desire that she could feel, as Christos Kostopoulos turned her head to look at him before he kissed her passionately, that he wanted more than kissing.
So did she. It was her first foreign holiday. She’d met Christos at a night club in the new town, down near Mandraki Harbour, a week previously, and he had taken her to see the Valley of the Butterflies on the back of his scooter and now they were strolling along a moonlit beach, the warm Aegean Sea lapping over their toes. The sound of bouzoukis drifted on the breeze from the beachside restaurant where they’d drunk retsina and eaten olives and kleftiko, a lamb dish that melted in the mouth, and baklava, the heavenly filo pastry, chopped nuts and honey dessert that Keelin and her two housemates had fallen in love with.