Free A Song Amongst the Orange Trees (The Greek Village Collection Book 13) by Sara Alexi

two or three days. Meanwhile, stay low, as your disappearance is really causing a stir. It is a stroke of genius.' He sounds very pleased with himself.
    'It wasn't genius, Andreas. It was laryngitis,' Sakis reminds him.
    'Yes, well you are better now, right? So all good. Stay low. If you are not at the hotel, where can I reach you?'
    'If there is money in my bank, I will go and buy a mobile. Did you find my old one?'
    'What, in all that chaos of parties in Kharkiv? Text me when you have one. Then we can be in touch. Bye.'
    Sakis replaces the phone on the shelf of the kiosk in the village square and pays the lady who sits inside, surrounded by a plethora of everyday items that must be in constant demand. Cigarettes push for space next to batteries and boxes of paracetomol and bags of balloons hanging from a plastic strip. As she reaches for his coins, her sleeve knocks over a tray of insect repellent sprays, and these in turn send a pile of papers scattering to the floor around her feet.
    'My accounts,' she says, giggling in a girlish way that is in contrast with her perfectly set hair and the crow’s feet around her eyes. 'I hate them.' And as if to reinforce this statement, she makes no effort to pick up the fallen documents. Instead, she offers Sakis a wrapped sweet from a bowl on the counter, smiles warmly, and wishes him a good day.
    Somewhere in the hills, the sound of goat bells echoes and another recollection overtakes him. He was alone, sent out by Yiayia to buy matches, the box tightly gripped in his hand. The square was filling with sheep and goats as they were herded home, the biggest goats taller than him. They had seemed too big. Their underbellies hung with droppings and mud, the hooves clicking on the road, the animals' beards making them somehow human. He had been scared. Their slit eyes upon him, some of them so tall they looked down at him as they came. They trotted with speed; he was afraid. He had muffled his scream. Then arms were around him. He was lifted off his feet and then he was inside the kiosk. It smelt of perfume and hairspray and he was offered a sweet in a wrapper.
    Sakis turns to look at the kiosk lady again. Surely it could not be the same person? Has she sat here all these years, doing the same job, meeting the same people? She smiles and waves again.
    She had given him such comfort back then. Told him that she was afraid and how kind it was of him to stay with her until the animals had gone. He had left the kiosk walking tall. A man who had protected someone.

Renovating the Cottage.
     
    With some money in the bank and the promise of more on the way, Sakis and Jules decide to start work immediately on the cottage. With all the shutters open, the sun streams into the cottage, highlighting charm—and age. At the very least, everywhere needs a coat of paint but if they are seriously going to spend any time here, it needs more.
    It is not a hard decision to go in to Saros to look at plans for kitchens. The kitchen salesman’s brother is an architect, so they drift from one establishment to another to enquire about an extension. Jules has ideas of how the cooking area will work best and they both agree with the architect that a utility room for a washing machine should also be added.
    The creativity of what they are doing is fun but Sakis feels out of his depth and consequently very reliant on Jules. When he finally got his own flat in Athens, it was fully finished. Before that, in his struggle to make enough for his own place, he always lived in other peoples’ houses as a lodger, a sofa surfer. Nowhere was ever permanent. It was always a struggle.
    Playing sweaty smoke-filled nightclubs—and often conned out of his earnings—but with each club a little better than the last until after ten hard years, Andreas spotted him. Even Andreas was amazed that it did not happen earlier, as his talent was always recognisable.
    Well, it was recognised: the nightclub owners saw it, the wheelers and