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hurried towards the office to make sure that nothing had gone wrong in her absence.
    ‘Hullo, there!’ a familiar voice greeted her. ‘I thought you had gone to Paphos.’
    ‘We did, but we were sightseeing, and that takes time!’ She turned as a small, square figure came towards her with a tennis racquet under his arm. ‘Have you been playing all afternoon, Nikos?’ she asked. ‘You look warm.’
    ‘I’ve had time to cool off waiting for you for over an hour,’ he answered reproachfully. ‘I thought you would be back before five.’
    She glanced at her watch as he followed her across the hall.
    ‘We stayed longer than we should have done at Michael Parlou’s taverna,’ she admitted. ‘He always makes you feel so welcome.’
    ‘Why didn’t you go to the hotel?’ he queried. ‘You would have been served more quickly there.’
    ‘But not nearly so well, and I thought a bit of atmosphere wouldn’t come amiss. Guests expect that sort of thing.’
    ‘I suppose so. I heard about Helen Stylianu’s sore throat. Did you have to go?’
    ‘Of course. I couldn’t very well disappoint everybody.’
    He regarded her with a hint of impatience in his dark eyes. Nikos Masistas was a young man who had rarely been denied anything by his doting parents and Anna had always been a challenge to him. He had told her more than once that he adored her in his laughing, inconsequential way and she had never quite believed him, but she had found his attentions pleasing enough in some ways. He was a good companion, for one thing, amusing and undeniably kind, but she found it hard to take him seriously for very long.
    ‘I came to ask you to dinner,’ he said.
    ‘Like that?’ Her amused glance took in the shorts and white T-shirt he wore.
    ‘I have a suit with me in my sports bag.’
    He had taken her acceptance for granted, as he always did.
    ‘I’ve been away all day,’ she pointed out. ‘I couldn’t possibly go off again and leave everybody else to do my job.’
    ‘We needn’t go very far,’ he protested. ‘I had thought about the Crescent Beach.’
    ‘That’s next door,’ she said. ‘Even so, I’d still feel I was deserting ship. Ask me some other time, Nikos.’
    He looked disgruntled, swinging his racquet idly as he considered what he had to say.
    ‘I have some news for you,’ he told her at last. ‘Andreas Phedonos is back on the island.’
    Anna put her handbag down on the reception desk.
    ‘I know,’ she said quietly. ‘He came to call on us and I met him this morning on our way to Paphos.’
    ‘You did?’ He looked surprised. ‘Why was he going to Paphos, do you think?’
    ‘To buy a flat for himself. Evidently he wants a pied-a-terre on the island to come back to from time to time and perhaps to call home.’
    ‘Which means he isn’t going to live with you?’
    ‘No!’ Her response was sharper than she realised.
    ‘You know that he is staying next door?’
    ‘Of course!’
    ‘With an attractive lady friend.’
    Anna flushed. ‘They are friends of long standing, I believe,’ she said quickly. ‘She was with him at Kourion this morning.’
    ‘He introduced you?’
    ‘Certainly. There was no reason why he should have kept his friendship with her under wraps, as far as I can see.’
    ‘That’s true. She’s very beautiful, I believe, and older than he is, but that doesn’t seem to matter very much these days. She’s also extremely rich.’
    ‘That could be possible.’ Anna took up the afternoon mail which had arrived in her absence. ‘Have you met Andreas?’ she enquired, doing her best to remain indifferent.
    ‘Not yet, but I’m looking forward to it.’ He sounded less than enthusiastic. ‘After all, we were part of the island at one time before we grew up and decided to go our own ways.’
    ‘Yes.’
    She wanted him to go, not wishing to discuss Andreas with anyone, especially Nikos.
    ‘So, you won’t have dinner with me,’ he said. ‘Not even here?’
    ‘Here is