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‘A strip on either side. You have more than you need for such a small hotel and it’s all sea frontage with good sand. It would be easy to extend the breakwater to make a longer harbour for more boats, and I already have the lease of Candy’s Place.’
    Anna gasped. ‘You mean—you’ve bought it?’
    ‘I’m hoping to. It’s entirely wasted as it is. Candy hasn’t done a thing to it in twenty years. He’s a beachcomber and always will be. He’ll move off elsewhere—farther along the coast, I expect—and start again selling pop and sandwiches when he isn’t fishing. He feels that the large hotels are encroaching on his privacy now and he doesn’t like it.’
    ‘And what do you intend to build on Candy’s land?’ Anna asked coldly. ‘Another big hotel?’
    ‘Not at the moment.’
    ‘And you would like some of our land to enlarge it when you do decide to build,’ she suggested.
    ‘More or less. I’m prepared to offer you a very good price for it and I think you would be foolish not to agree. All that scrub area at the side could be landscaped to your own advantage as well as mine.’
    ‘And we would be nicely sandwiched between two high-rise hotels with very little land to call our own.’ Anna rose to her feet. ‘No, thank you, Andreas. We don’t need to sell our land, and if we did ’
    ‘It wouldn’t be to me?’ His dark eyebrows shot up. ‘Maybe I deserved that, but I really do mean what I say. In any case, the money for your land would not be mine. It would come from the syndicate who already own the Crescent Beach and I can guarantee that all they want to do is to enlarge their small harbour area and build terrace gardens down to the sea.’
    Dorothy said, ‘It wouldn’t be like building on to the Crescent Beach,’ as if she was pleading his cause.
    ‘That could be the next step,’ Anna pointed out. ‘Mama! we don’t need the money, whatever argument Andreas has to put forward.’
    ‘It would pay for your swimming-pool and keep us out of debt to the bank,’ her mother suggested.
    ‘We have already arranged all that.’ Anna’s cheeks were flushed, her eyes defiant. ‘It’s all we want for the present and the bank overdraft won’t be a problem. I’ve thought it all out very carefully, Mama, and we don’t need further advice.’
    ‘Oh, dear!’ Dorothy looked distressed. ‘I wish we didn’t have so many problems, especially when I am such a burden to you, not pulling my weight.’
    ‘When you become a burden I’ll let you know,’ Anna said, deliberately avoiding Andreas' eyes. ‘In the meantime we’re managing nicely without any outside help and that’s the way I like it.’ She moved towards the door. ‘Nikos will be here early, I expect.’
    Andreas followed her into the hall. ‘Nikos Masistas,’ he remembered. ‘Is he still as persistent as ever?’
    ‘He’s still the same person I’ve always known,’ Anna said. ‘He hasn’t changed at all. He did his obligatory service in the army and then came back to work for his father.’
    ‘A well-planned future, I must admit. I met a cousin of his on Samnos, but that was a long time ago. He hasn’t married?’
    ‘No.’
    Andreas smiled. ‘That surprises me. He has nothing to wait for.’
    “Except the right girl to marry!’
    He turned back towards the sitting-room. ‘I think he always knew who that was,’ he said. ‘Why haven’t you married him, Anna? It can’t be because he hasn’t asked you.’
    The distressing colour of confusion rose in her cheeks again. ‘I’m not ready to marry anyone,’ she said sharply. ‘Not yet.’
    ‘The day will come,’ he predicted maddeningly. ‘Dare I say that I hope I’ll be here to see it?’
    ‘You can say anything you like,’ she answered, ‘but just don’t go back in there and upset my mother. She won’t sell anything to you against my better judgment, Andreas. You can take my word for that.’
    ‘I wouldn’t dream of distressing her,’ he said more