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Chapters (66)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART ONE
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. CHAPTER EIGHT
  14. CHAPTER NINE
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. PART TWO
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. PART THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  63. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  64. EPILOGUE
  65. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  66. 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.