Free Dark inheritance by Roberta Leigh

it.
    Half-way through he looked up and caught her glance. "What's the joke?"
    She grinned. "You're ploughing your way through that so doggedly that I can't believe you're enjoying it"
    "Try some yourself and you'll see how good it is."
    "It looks too sweet for me, thanks. I'm surprised you like it. I should have thought savouries would have been more in your line."
    For the second time since she had known him he threw back his head and laughed. "What a girl you arc for consistency! You obviously find me a bad-tempered old bear and think my tastes should be the same. But you seem to have forgotten that bears like honey, and I'm no exception! Now what about some coffee—you can manage that, can't you?" He beckoned to the smiling, fat proprietor and in rapid Greek ordered what he wanted.
    The easy atmosphere between them had returned and they light-heartedly set off to explore the rest of Athens. The shabby paper kiosks, the kerb-side vendors, the steaming peanut-stalls—all gave a special atmosphere to a city that might otherwise have been the capital of almost any other Mediterranean country, although they had only to lift their eyes to the breath taking beauty of the Acropolis to know that no other place in the world could rival Athens' inheritance.
    The sky was fading from bright blue to purple and grey before they boarded the boat again, and Rock wood insisted on her going to the bar with him for an aperitif before they changed for dinner.
    "We may as well round the day oft in style." He spoke so laconically that Barbara wondered why he always had to spoil any gesture he made by caustically explaining it away.
    It was not until she sank into the scarlet leather easy-chair in the brilliantly decorated bar that she realized how tired she was. "Oh, my feet!" She wriggled one slim ankle. "We must have walked miles."
    "Probably, Be thankful you didn't wear high heels —those are ideal shoes for sight-seeing." He glanced down at her feet. "Sensible, capable ones."
    Barbara caught the flicker of a smile as it passed across his face and thought that he would really be quite handsome if only he would let himself go a little more and sacrifice some of his dignity. Even so, one could very easily grow to like him and it would be even easier if he were less touchy and bitter.
    "If you'd care to come down from the Heights of Olympus for a moment, perhaps you'd be able to tell me what to order for you."
    She blinked and smiled. "A nice sweet sherry please."
    "Sweet? So you're not afraid of being thought a Philistine?"
    She shook her head. "I was when I was about nineteen. I remember I was offered a Tio Pepe as though it were liquid gold and I was far too polite to say I didn't like it."
    "Rather like tasting the juice of bitter almonds when one has expected nectar, eh? That's usually how it strikes a young palate."
    They smiled at each other with a sudden sense of intimacy and Barbara felt a first stirring of liking for him. a liking that deepened to affection and a desire to understand him as the evening progressed.
    The boat stayed at Piraeus overnight and weighed anchor at noon next day. In spite of a change in the weather Barbara took Aunt Ellie up on deck after lunch and they settled themselves comfortably in canvas chairs, for she wanted the old lady to be in a good position to watch their passage through the Corinth Canal.
    Although Miss Bcrrcsford said she had missed Barbara's companionship the previous day she seemed delighted with her new-found friends and regaled her with a rambling account of all that Mrs. Holiby-Carter had said and done. "It was so enjoyable," she prattled; "we practically had the boat to ourselves and the waiters were as attentive as if we had been at the Ritz."
    "You can't complain about the service at any time," Barbara said in amusement.
    "You say that because you've never been on a really big boat, Barbara. But I remember before the war when I went to America with my sister. It was the year after