Anne Mather - Innocent Obsession

‘You do not mind—spending these weeks in Greece?’ he asked, with narrow-eyed interrogation, and Sylvie shook her head.

‘No. No, I don’t mind,’ she conceded. ‘At least—well,’ she qualified her statement, ‘it was the only thing I could do.’

‘You are not like Margot, I think,’ he opined dryly. ‘At eighteen, I could not imagine her giving up her time to look after her small nephew.’

‘Oh—–’ Sylvie managed a half smile of deprecation, ‘I’m not so noble. Who wouldn’t enjoy spending a few weeks in this climate!’ She made a gesture of dismissal. ‘Actually, I’m the lazy one of the family. Ask Mummy or—or Margot, they would tell you. I like lazing around—sunbathing, swimming, reading …’

‘You are still at school, yes?’ he suggested, and now her curiously tawny eyes flashed in annoyance.

‘I’m still at school, no !’ she retorted, unconsciously mocking his cultivated English. ‘I left school—some weeks ago. I’m going to university in October.’

Andreas’s lean mouth twisted. ‘My apologies, thespinis ,’ he offered mockingly. ‘It was not my intention to insult you. Forgive me.’

Sylvie sighed. ‘You didn’t insult me. It’s just—well, I’m not a child, you know.’

Andreas inclined his head and how he did begin to move towards the door. ‘We must be leaving,’ he remarked, flicking back his cuff to consult the plain gold watch on his wrist. ‘We have a call to make on our way to my father’s house, and I do not wish to be late.’

Sylvie felt suitably chastened, although whether that was his intention, she had no way of knowing. With a feeling of irritation out of all proportion to the incident, she followed him across the room, then halted uncertainly when she remembered her suitcases.

‘I—oughtn’t we to take my luggage?’ she suggested, colouring anew when he turned to give her a preoccupied look. ‘I mean—I won’t be coming back here, will I?’ She hesitated. ‘Or will I?’

‘It is already arranged that you will stay here tonight,’ Andreas remarked, with faintly brusque resolution. ‘My sister Marina will return with us this evening, and she also will sleep at the apartment, so long as you are here.’

‘So long as I am here?’ Sylvie echoed, as she preceded him into the corridor outside, and Andreas closed the door behind them with definite precision.

‘It may take several days to reorganise my brother’s plans,’ Andreas told her, as the lift doors slid smoothly open. ‘Surely the prospect of staying in Athens for two or three days more does not distress you?’

‘N-o.’ But Sylvie was slightly disturbed by the prospect, and by the knowledge that she would be seeing a lot more of Andreas Petronides.

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