Meridio's Daughter Part 6

"Besides," Meridio added, "you won't be having any more trouble from those hoodlums from Athens."

"Did the astynomia arrest them then?" Casey asked, wondering why they hadn't told her that the police apprehended them.

"Yes," Andreas Meridio said without hesitation. "They were young men looking to cause trouble. They probably worked in Lesvos, on the farms. Probably thought they had a score to settle."

During this whole time, Tessa refused to raise her head to look at Casey. Tessa was a proficient liar, but she had the oddest feeling that Casey would know if she weren't telling the truth.

"You mean they worked on the olive farms? What kind of grudge could they have against us, Pappa?" Casey asked.

"Anything, maybe they thought they weren't getting paid enough or that they didn't get enough holidays...Who knows,"

Meridio said.

0.

*"Would they really be angry enough to kill us?"

"They didn't mean to hurt us," Tessa entered the conversation.

"They only intended to scare, but they were rotten shots," she said with a wry grin.

"Pappa, come into town with me?" Casey asked hopefully.

"Another time. I have paperwork and phone calls to attend to.

Tessa will go with you. She'll be happy to. Won't you, Tessa?"

Meridio asked, rhetorically, of course.

"Absolutely," Tessa said promptly, realizing she was not being asked but told. "Where did you have in mind?" Tessa saw her plans for an afternoon's sailing flying away before her eyes.

"I told Olympia I'd go with her to the laiki agora."

Tessa had her fork midway between her plate and her mouth and stopped. "Shopping?" Tessa heard the words street market, and was aghast.

"Better than that . Shopping for food. Olympia says the best fish don't arrive till after lunch," Casey teased.

Tessa's face held an expression of complete resignation but not one fragment of delight. Andreas Meridio laughed at the grimace on her face. He rose from his chair, kissed Casey, and slapped Tessa on the shoulder.

"Well, you ladies enjoy yourselves." He laughed and left the patio before Tessa could figure a way out of the fate she'd been set up for.

Chapter 5.

Tessa recommended that Meridio's daughter be seen around town, but the street market wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

Tessa followed dutifully behind Casey and Olympia, pausing and trying not to look too bored as they stopped at each of the vendor's booths. She pushed aside daydreams of being on her catamaran on such a beautiful day and scanned the area, watching without appearing too obvious.

Casey threw cautious glances back at Tessa as she walked along with Olympia. Tessa looked bored stiff, but she did make an effort and grinned at Casey when Casey turned and smiled back at her. Soon, Casey gave packages to Tessa. Although Tessa accepted them gratefully at first, she thought she looked more like a pack mule, and this might not be the best thing for her reputation.

Motioning to a boy sitting on the curb, Tessa bent down and spoke to him rapidly in Greek, pulling a few bank notes from her billfold. When she pressed the bills into the boy's hands, he nodded enthusiastically and took the packages.

Casey looked down at the boy at her side and smiled, noticing he was carrying the sacks of fruits and vegetables that had been in Tessa's possession a few moments earlier. Glancing behind her, she watched as a smug smile graced Tessa's features. Casey laughed aloud.

"Did the Kare hire you to carry those?" Casey asked the boy.

He nodded and smiled broadly. "She told me to follow the *beautiful woman with the golden hair, but I already know you, Ms. Meridio."

"Oh, is that so? What's your name?"

"Demitri."

"Well, Demitri, do you like baklavas?"

The boy nodded again, and Casey helped him juggle his burden to accept the pastry that Casey purchased.

"Olympia," Casey said in a lower tone of voice. "Why does Tessa look as if she's being tortured? Does she hate shopping that much?"

Olympia chuckled at Casey's a.s.sessment of Tessa a few paces behind them.

"On a day like this, she would be out on her sailboat. I think we put an unexpected crimp in her plans."

Casey stopped moving, once again surprised at how little she knew about Tessa. Looking back at Tessa, Casey's smile became radiant.

"You have a boat?"

Tessa saw the sunlight mirrored in Casey's smile, and she returned the look. She could tell that the radiance in Casey's features was from excitement.

"You sail?" Tessa seemed surprised at the revelation.

"I'm not exactly seasoned, but I had a Hobie Cat when I was a teenager. I make a great pa.s.senger, though. I know how to stay out of the way." Casey blushed, and she wasn't sure why.

"You should have told me. On a day like this, the Aegean would be beautiful," Tessa said, and Casey saw the blue color of Tessa's eyes deepen.

"You know, we could still..." Casey looked expectantly at Olympia, putting on the sincere face that for nearly twenty-five years Olympia had a difficult time saying no to.

Olympia looked from Casey to Tessa and felt that she was looking at two teenage girls. The expression of hope on their faces caused her to laugh quietly.

"I can see that you're both infected with the fever now and you'd be no good to me anyway. I think we should continue our shopping tomorrow," Olympia said.

*"Yes!" Casey smacked her hands together, and Tessa again followed behind the two women, except that she had a definite spring to her step.

Mkonos harbor was one of the busiest tourist spots on the island, and the taxi boats that carried pa.s.sengers to the island of Delos left from its docks. Walking down the far dock where the larger boats and yachts were moored, Tessa and Casey drew stares from the locals, as well as the tourists. Men and women alike stole glances at the two women dressed in tank tops and shorts.

Tessa stopped in front of the harbormaster's office and spoke with the men inside for a few moments. After returning to where Casey stood waiting, Tessa showed Casey to the slip her boat was moored in.

"Wow, this is really something," Casey said in awe.

Tessa tried not to smile, but the Apogevma Nostimo was her one source of pleasure, and she swelled with pride at Casey's words. A G-Force salon cabin cruiser, it was the largest catamaran in the harbor and cost its owner over two hundred thousand American dollars. It was nearly forty feet long, and Casey looked at Tessa in wonder.

"You take this out alone?"

"It's not as big of a bear as you'd think. It handles like silk across your skin." Tessa held out a hand to help Casey aboard.

"The Apogevma Nostimo?" Casey smiled at the boat's name, Afternoon Delight.

"As much as I would like the other reputation, the reason for the name is that I only get out on her in the afternoons, after work, or during my lunch," Tessa explained sheepishly.

It was rather nice, Tessa thought, having someone else with her. Casey was eager to learn, and once Tessa laid the boat out to her, a lot of things came back to Casey. Tessa leaned way over to toss out the aft line, and when she turned back to the boat, she saw Casey quickly lower her gaze, Casey's face a lovely shade of pink that had little to do with the sun. Tessa turned her back on the woman as a huge grin crossed her face. She caught Casey staring at her legs, and Tessa rather liked that feeling.

*Tessa was right, the double hulls cut through the blue-green water like a warm knife through b.u.t.ter. Casey had never been on a catamaran so large before, especially one with such a large cabin.

They sailed up toward Tinos Island first, then turned and headed back, pa.s.sing their starting point at Mkonos harbor and sailing south around to Paradise Cove.

Tessa seemed at ease on the water, and Casey hadn't seen the woman's true beauty until then. With her ebony hair whipping wildly behind her and a relaxed grip on the steering wheel, Tessa seemed enthralled with the speed the most.

"It's like flying!" she said in Casey's ear at one point. "Would you like to float and watch the sunset?" she asked. Receiving an enthusiastic nod, she stilled the engines and pulled the main sail aside, letting them drift off the coast of Paradise.

"Hey, how about breaking out those mezes Olympia gave us?" Casey suggested.

"Don't tell me you're hungry already," Tessa exclaimed.

"Lunch was hours ago, and I'm starving."

"You're always starving." Tessa chuckled. She jumped to her feet and held out a hand. "Want a tour?"

Casey let Tessa help her rise and show her through the cabin below.

"We never had this on my Hobie Cat back home." Casey laughed.

Tessa chose a bottle of white wine from Limnos and scooped up the sack of appetizers while Casey gathered some napkins and a couple of winegla.s.ses. They lounged informally on the bow, sipping wine and munching on the snacks Olympia had provided.

Olympia allowed for the sweet tooth she knew both women were slaves to and packed sweet bread, morello cherries, orange slices soaked in honey water, and candied pistachio nuts.

They polished off more than half the bottle of wine, and Tessa leaned back with her eyes at half-mast, enjoying the feel of the slowly sinking sun and the woman at her side. She enjoyed Casey's company for many reasons, but most of all, she delighted in the moments of silence where neither of them felt they had to fill up the quiet with mindless chatter. True, Tessa was an *unusually subdued woman, keeping her own company for the most part, but she enjoyed this woman by her, taking pleasure at having someone to share a sunset with.

They lay back against the boat, feeling the roll of the water beneath them.

"Tessa?"

"Hmm?" the alto voice hummed back.

"Were those men shooting at me or you?"

Tessa opened her eyes and stared into the blue sky. "Frankly, I think either one of us would have been a feather in their cap."

"That doesn't really answer my question."

Tessa turned her face toward Casey without moving her body.

"It was you."

Casey closed her eyes and seemed to think about this for a few seconds before the next inevitable question came.

"Why would men I don't even know, who my father doesn't even know...Why would they want to hurt me?"

Tessa rolled over and held her head in her palm, watching the pained expression on Casey's face.

"Your father has wealth and influence, more than you realize, all over Greece, not just here on Mkonos. Everyone knows that if you want to hurt someone, you hurt what he values most."

Casey rolled until her position mirrored Tessa's. "Would it bother you if I had been shot?" Casey asked softly.

"Sto dheahvalo! " Tessa cursed, sitting up. "Of course it would bother me. What kind of question is that?"

Tessa stopped, suddenly understanding what Casey was asking. Would Tessa simply feel the impact of the loss because she was supposed to be protecting Casey, because she was her father's Kare, or would it be on a more personal level? Tessa wasn't sure how to answer without getting herself in deep. Of course, when Tessa looked down into the green gaze that looked back at her so trustingly, she knew she could answer with nothing but the truth.

"Yes, it would bother me a great deal."

"Good." Casey suddenly brightened. "Because it would bother me a little, too."

*Tessa shook her head and laughed at Casey. "Theh Mou! You are incorrigible."

"Yeah, but it keeps you on your toes, eh?"

"That it does." Tessa couldn't resist smiling back.

"Seriously, why did you call the boys who shot at us from the car malakas?" Casey asked.

The Greek term was never one Casey felt comfortable using.

The closest English translation was masturbator, a stupid lazy person who sat around and played with himself. Growing up, Casey heard boys tease one another by calling each other malakas, but it would be cause for physical violence if it ever came from a foreigner's lips.

Tessa didn't know how to explain. How could she tell Casey how she felt about those men without revealing too much of herself? Would Casey still worry what Tessa thought about her if she knew what the other side of Tessa's life was like?

"Because I thought them the most despicable cowards for shooting at a woman in the first place."

Casey caught the singular use of the word and realized Tessa didn't lump herself into the helpless woman category.

"Mostly," Tessa continued, "it was the way they did it, driving along and shooting from their car. A real mangas doesn't shoot you while he is all snuggled and protected in his auto. It's like the American gangs, what you call drive-by shootings in your Los Angeles. Such cowardly b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," Tessa hissed. "They shoot you and don't want to show their face, so they hide in their cars like old women."

Tessa suddenly remembered who she was talking to and lessened up on the anger in her voice.