“I’m sorry, Keely. I’m getting carried away again, aren’t I?”

When he gave her his undivided attention, it took her breath away. “You could say that.” She turned the handle so quickly the bottle thumped through the roller.

“I’ll keep going with that if you want to take a break, and Maggie’s a good stick. She’d do some for us.”

A good stick, thought Keely. Was that how he saw her as well?

* * *

Euan inspected the vines closest to the River Dynasty boundary.

“They all look fine to me,” Hugh said. “No sign of mildew or wilt.”

“We’ll have to watch them carefully.” Euan straightened up and looked at the trees marking the fence line between his vineyard and Theo’s. He walked along a little way until there was a gap to look through, then stopped and let out a slow whistle. Before him stretched rows of yellowing vines. “Bloody hell.”

“Not a pretty sight, is it?”

“Are you sure it’s not mildew?”

“They went from green to yellow overnight.”

Euan turned his back on the dying vines and surveyed his own beautiful green canopy. If anything happened to them…he couldn’t bear to think about it. He and Lucy had planted these vines thirty years ago.

Something in the grass at his feet caught his eye. He poked at the blue object with his toe. It was a small notebook. He bent down, picked it up and opened the front cover.

“Bloody hell,” he said again and strode towards his vines, inspecting them more closely.

“What’s the matter?”

“Theo’s been on my land.” Euan waved the little book at Hugh. “This is his diary. He must have climbed through the fence here and dropped it. What would he have been up to?”

“Maybe he was just checking to see if we had been poisoned as well.”

“He could have seen that from the fence, and why would he care about my vines anyway?” Euan tapped the diary on his palm and cast another wary eye over his vines. “We’d better keep a close eye on things. Theo’s up to something and it had better not be harming my vines.”

Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

“I’ve made my decision.” Kat felt relaxed under Yia-yia’s comforting gaze. They were enjoying some peace and quiet after the uproar of Pappou’s accusations earlier in the morning. “Pappou will just have to live with it.”

“He will come round. He’s got a lot on his mind at the moment.” Yia-yia took her hands and gave them a squeeze. “But what about your parents, Katerina? They are the ones who will be upset.”