Wish You Were Here by Victoria Connelly Read Free Book Online Page B

in such a paradise, she thought. Maybe it had been a mistake to come on holiday. Maybe she would have been better off not knowing there were such beautiful places in the world.
    Tucking in to her moussaka a few minutes later, Alice did her best to banish thoughts of the office waiting for her back in England. She wasn’t going to think about the person she was there. Here, she could be anybody she wanted to be. Nobody knew her here. Nobody would judge her or gossip about her in the staff toilets. She was just another tourist who had come to soak up a bit of sunshine and that realisation made her smile.
    Finishing her meal and glass of wine, she paid at the bar and noticed a handful of leaflets on a nearby table. There was one about the island’s museum and another about boat trips but one in particular caught her eye. It was for a villa set in acres of beautiful grounds which overlooked the sea at the south of the island.
    ‘The Villa Argenti,’ Alice whispered and the very name sounded like a promise. Its towers and turrets were mesmerising and its great Venetian-style windows seemed to hold secrets behind them, and the gardens rolled gently across the landscape before ending in cliffs which plummeted dramatically down to the sea.
    She made up her mind then and there that she would visit it. Maybe it would even tempt Stella to leave the comfort of their villa. Yes, it would be the first of many wonderful adventures they would have together on the island. They’d laugh, relax and become closer than they’d ever been before, Alice thought, as she walked along the steep road that led out of the town and back to their villa. Stella couldn’t fail to be charmed by such a place as the Villa Argenti, could she?
    ‘I’m back!’ Alice called as she closed the front door behind her. ‘Stella?’
    ‘I’m through here,’ Stella said, her voice coming from the living room.
    Alice found her sprawled out on one of the enormous cream sofas, the empty wrapper of a cereal bar on the table before her. She sat down next to her sister, half-expecting her to ask her where she’d been but she didn’t.
    Undeterred, Alice took the leaflet for the Villa Argenti out of her handbag and handed it to Stella.
    ‘What’s this?’ Stella asked.
    ‘Somewhere I think we should visit.’
    ‘What – some boring old house?’
    ‘It isn’t a house – it’s a
villa
.’
    ‘But we’re in a villa already.’
    ‘Not like this one – just look at it!’ Alice said, her voice high with excitement. ‘Anyway, the villa isn’t actually open to the public but the gardens look so beautiful, don’t you think?’
    ‘It looks like somewhere they’d drag you on a school trip!’ Stella said, handing the leaflet back to Alice.
    Alice bit her tongue and returned the leaflet to her bag. There wasn’t going to be any laughter on this trip, and they weren’t going to become closer than ever either, were they?
    ‘Hey!’ Stella suddenly said, leaning forward on the sofa and staring at Alice. ‘What are you doing wearing my necklace?’

Chapter 7
    By the time Milo had tidied around the garden and put all the tools safely away, the sun was setting fast, leaving great violet streaks across the sky and turning the sea indigo. It was a time of day that he loved, especially in the spring when the air was balmy and one could get away with a short-sleeved shirt.
    Leaving the Villa Argenti on his moped, he took a winding mountain road which first descended towards the sea and then climbed steeply. From the top, you could see across the water to a neighbouring island. Milo had been there a couple of times. It was about ten times the size of Kethos and had been heaving with tourists. It made his own dear island seem deserted. Certainly, there wasn’t the notorious rush hour that some places were famous for; Milo practically had the roads to himself when he left work although the occasional stray goat would often force him to slow down and swerve. He’d