Free The English Lesson (The Greek Village Collection Book 11) by Sara Alexi

but then, why would the cat go there? He avoids Apostolis and anything that smells of him as if he is a disease.
    The sound of Apostolis winding the clocks continues. Once on the ground floor, she pulls at her big bag, which causes the shoulder strap of her handbag to slip down her arm. Letting go of the suitcase, she saves her handbag from spilling onto the floor and Yianni comes to the rescue. He lifts her suitcase as if it is full of feathers, waits for her to exit, and slams the door closed behind him.
    'Oh, Apostolis is coming,' she calls back to Yianni, but the door is already shut. No matter; the latch is easy to lift from the inside. Besides, it will stop the cat slipping in when they are not looking. Toula struggles a bit to get into the taxi. Her best skirt seems to have shrunk by hanging in the wardrobe all these years. Yianni puts her bag in the boot and looks at his watch.
    'Do you want me to go and call him?' he asks.
    'No, it will only annoy him.' Toula tries to wait patiently.
    Yianni climbs in, tunes in the radio.
    It makes her feel so tense, this last minute dashing.  Apostolis never considers the people around him. Yianni might have another fare he must go and collect, the train might be early, something might impede their journey. Why does he not come?
    Slipping and struggling off the backseat, she waddles back down the lane. She fiddles with her keys, picking out the right one.

Juliet
     
    Juliet has come into Saros early just to take her own shoes to the cobblers.
    Moving from the poolside to her bed in the small hours of the morning, having put the sun umbrella up over the still-sleeping Michelle when the warm rain started to fall, chased away all chances of sleep. She spent some time tossing and turning and replaying the events of the day before over and over in her mind until eventually she accepted that sleep was unlikely and she got up. Coffee brought no clarity and her fuzzy head refused to do any work, so a trip into Saros now the rain had stopped seemed like the most productive option.
    After leaving her shoes, it is still early and she desperately wants to shake off her fuddled thinking, so partly for this reason and partly out of what has now become habit, she stops at the little café for another coffee. The waiter, all smiles but casual, brings her drink out without her having to make an order.
    As he sets the cup and saucer down with a kalimera , Juliet replies automatically but she is watching a car pull up at the end of the lane and, even from this distance, she recognises Yianni the taxi driver as he climbs out. Toula must have called him. The villagers like to give work to one another, even if the villagers no longer live in the village.
    Yianni, standing by the driver’s side leans through the window and beeps his horn three times. It is a while before the dark red door opens. Yianni, ever vigilant, strides across to help the old woman with her bags, guiding her to the back seat of the car.
    The taxi does not set off at once. The cat, which seems to live permanently on one of the air conditioning units attached to a taverna, is there again. Perhaps it is warm there by night and cool by day. Maybe the waiter or the cook feeds the cat. One floor up on the opposite side of the lane, a woman comes out onto her balcony, jug in hand, to water her plants, the orange jug in sharp contrast to the green leaves. After the woman returns inside, water begins to drip from the bottoms of the pots and down onto the lane.
    Juliet must have missed Toula getting out of the taxi again, as she is by her front door now, hand raised ready to put a key in the lock. But then she freezes, her chin angles up, poised like a bird listening.
    Transfixed, Juliet cannot take her eyes away. There is no reason for her intense interest; the scene is mundane. Toula remains motionless for a good minute, then pockets her keys and turns around and shuffles back to the waiting taxi. Juliet shivers, as she has twice before