Page 152 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

Bea shook her head. “He wants the house back?”

“No. The land.”

“Well, the house rather sits on the land, doesn’t it?”

“Not this part. The field behind the house.” Katerina hesitated. “Where the old house is.”

“The old house?”

“The little stone house.”

Bea frowned. “You mean the shepherd’s hut?”

Katerina’s expression changed. “It was not always a shepherd’s hut. It was the family home. Nikos was born there.”

Bea blew out a long breath. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. This goes from bad to worse.” She sat quietly for a moment, trying to rearrange everything she thought she knew. “I can see he has a grievance,” she said eventually. “I can see why it matters to him. But that doesn’t excuse wandering around here at night and frightening the life out of me.”

“I don’t think he meant to frighten you, Bea. He is not a bad man.”

“Well, what exactly does he want from me? All I know is that he’s filed some kind of land dispute and everything has to go through lawyers. Why didn’t he simply come and speak to me?”

Katerina shrugged. “As I told you, he is not good with people. And he sees you as a foreigner.”

Bea gave a small sigh. “Well, that’s fair—I am one. But I never wanted to be one of those dreadful expats who turns up somewhere and acts as though nobody lived there before them…” She let the words trail off. “And you truly don’t think he’s dangerous?”

“I know he isn’t.”

Bea studied her for a moment, then nodded. “All right. Then I suppose the next thing is to talk to my lawyer tomorrow and see where we go from here. Do you think Nikos would agree to meet me? With the lawyers there, I mean.”

“I think he would.”

“Would you ask him?”

Katerina nodded. “I will.”

“I’d like to hear it from him. Whatever it is he thinks happened, whatever he wants. I don’t want to keep arguing with a man I’ve never actually spoken to.”

Katerina’s shoulders relaxed a little. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

Bea was too, but there was no point in saying so. “Well, I know now. And I very much appreciate you coming over last night when I called. You didn’t have to.”

Katerina got to her feet. “I was glad to. You were frightened. You did not need to spend the night here alone.” She checked her watch. “But now I must go, if you feel safe.”

Bea nodded slowly. “After what you’ve told me, yes. I do feel safe.”

She did. But safe was one thing. Feeling secure in her own home was something else entirely.

She spent the rest of the morning pottering in the garden, though she couldn’t seem to settle to anything for long. Every now and then she straightened and looked out toward the shepherd’s hut. She felt a little guilty even calling it that now. Nikos—the man from last night, who was also undoubtedly the same man she’d seen standing in the lane—had been born there. It had been his family home.

She shook her head. What a mess. She could see it from his point of view, she really could. She’d always been able to do that—to see another person’s point of view even when she didn’t agree with it. She liked to think of it as a strength, although Simon had always called it a weakness. She had quite enough to think about without dwelling on Simon. Blane, however, was a different matter. Her mind kept returning to him and how wonderful he’d been last night. She hadn’t had time to process it all yet, but even the memory of his voice sent a little shiver down her spine. And the fact that he’d called at all… She’d only meant to put him off with her text. She hadn’t wanted to worry him, but he’d known anyway. She smiled. All because she hadn’t called him darling in her text. He really was a wonderful man.

Although she did feel a little guilty about worrying him. He’d gone straight into what she privately thought of as his super-security mode and made absolutely sure she knew what to do. She’d called him back once Katerina arrived and the police had come and gone, but the connection hadn’t been very good, so she’d only kept him a few minutes.

She wanted to tell him what Katerina had explained about Nikos. Surely that would reassure him. But he’d said that he’d be in touch today, and it was still early morning in Montana.

She turned her attention back to the washing. She hadn’t managed to get all the cushion covers dry yesterday, so the ones for the bench upstairs were still out on the line. A short laugh escaped her when she spotted Pericles in the field.

“Oh no, you don’t.”