Free Beware of the Beast by Anne Mather Page B

ample curves were concealed beneath a long black dress which reached almost to her ankles. It was a curious thing to Charlotte that many Greek women seemed to favour such dark colours in a climate where lighter shades would have deflected the heat. Dark-skinned, like her grandson, Eleni had the distinction of almost white hair, which contrasted sharply with her colouring . Despite the fact that Charlotte estimated her age to somewhere between seventy and eighty, she was not stooped, and there was no trace of weakness in that straight, uncompromising back. Coming into the room out of the brightness outside, Charlotte was put at an im mediate disadvantage in that the older woman had plenty of time to appraise her before her eyes adjusted themselves to the light.
    "Ah, so you are Charlotte." Eleni Faulkner spoke first, her voice strong and firm. "Why has my grandson not brought you to meet me?"
    Charlotte's lips parted. " Er — won't you sit down, Kyria
Faulkner?" she invited awkwardly. "I - er - Alex isn't here at the moment."          _
    Eleni regarded her suspiciously for a few moments and then with an indifferent tilt of her head allowed herself to be seated on one of the straight-backed armchairs. "Well?" she said, when she was seated. "You haven't answered my question." • Charlotte glanced round and saw with relief that Maria had come to hover near the doorway. Turning back to her visitor, she said: "Can I offer you some coffee?"
    Eleni made an impatient sound with her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "I don't drink coffee," she replied. "Chocolate, yes."
    Charlotte shrugged and looked at Maria. "Can we offer Kyria Faulkner chocolate?" she inquired, and at Maria's nod: "For - two, please."
    Maria gave her a slightly sympathetic smile and went away, and Charlotte subsided into the chair opposite her visitor. "I don't know where Alex is," she said conversationally, almost as though he had just disappeared within the last few minutes. "I'm sorry he's not here to see you. I'm sure he'll be sorry if he misses you. Perhaps you could come to lunch one day. Or dinner — "
    "Do stop blabbering, girl." Clearly, Eleni was not above using her age as an excuse for rudeness. "I didn't ask where my grandson was. Knowing him, he's probably messing about
in a boat somewhere. I asked why he had not brought you to see me ."            f
    Charlotte made a helpless gesture. "I — we've only been here four days. There really hasn't been time - "
    "Nonsense. Alex knows me. He knows I was expecting to ir-eet you. Akooste , after I have waited almost twenty years for him to take a wife, is it so unreasonable that I should wish to meet her?"
    "Of course not." Charlotte linked her hands between her knees. "It's just that - well, you know how it is."
    "No, I do not know how it is. That is why I am asking you."
    Eleni wasn't letting her get away with that, and reluctantly Charlotte remembered that Alex had intended to show her the island. No doubt that would have included meeting his grandmother, but she had refused to go with him.
    Realizing excuses were getting her precisely nowhere, she said: "I'm sorry. I did not imagine you would be so - interest ed in me."
    Ekni's dark eyes narrowed. "And why not? Why should I not be interested in my new granddaughter?"
    "What Charlotte means is that back in England grand parents do not perhaps take such an interest in their grand children's affairs."
    Alex's unmistakable tones had never been so welcome, and Charlotte glanced round with a deeply drawn sigh to find her husband leaning negligently against the door frame. The fact that he was dressed much as she had seen him that first morn ing - in shabby shorts, only this time with the doubtful distinction of a short-sleeved shirt hanging loosely from his shoulders - meant less than her intense relief at his appearance. Her eyes encountered his, read their unmistakable censure, and quickly looked away.
    Alex came into the room and took