in one of the chairs. ‘Are you comfortable?’ he asked as he straightened.
‘Yes—thank you,’ she said through clenched teeth, irritated to find that, while her brain repudiated physical intimacy with Luke as total disaster, the fleeting physical contact with him had sent her hormones running riot, damn them.
‘What is wrong, Isobel?’ he asked, taking the chair beside her.
‘Nothing. How could anything be wrong?’ she said, getting a grip. ‘It’s so beautiful here.’
‘True—’ He groaned as his phone rang. ‘Forgive me for a moment?’ he asked, identifying the caller. ‘I must answer this.’
‘Of course.’ Isobel watched him stride into the house, talking to his caller in tones which made it obvious, even though she couldn’t understand a word of it, that the news he was being given was bad. She sat back in her chair, giving her hormones a stringent lecture as she watched the play of lights on the pool.
Luke looked grim when he rejoined her. ‘I must leave for Athens at daybreak.’
‘Trouble?’
‘Of a kind, yes. During the airline takeover there was one solitary dissenter when the board voted for my acquisition.’
‘And he’s making difficulties for you?’
‘She,’ he corrected, with a harsh note in his voice that won him a sharp look. ‘The woman previously in charge of the airline. When she found there was no way to stop the merger going through, the lady was so enraged she eventually suffered a stroke. I have just been informed that she died of it today.’
‘Do you feel you’re to blame?’ asked Isobel soberly.
Luke looked at her in surprise. ‘No. If the gods struck her down it was her fate.’
‘That’s very—Greek of you.’
He shrugged. ‘Even if I am to blame for her stroke and her death, I am merely the instrument fate chose for this.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You obviously didn’t like her much.’
‘Like her?’ Luke gave a mirthless bark of laughter. ‘It may shock you to hear this, but I hated her so much I rejoice in her death.’
His brutal honesty sent shivers down Isobel’s spine. ‘Will you go to her funeral?’
‘Of course. It will be expected. Funerals take place here as soon as possible after death, so tonight there will be the Trisagion, or vigil, with prayers for the departed. I would not have attended that even if I were there, but I shall put in the necessary appearance at the church tomorrow, complete with black arm band. Unless her husband turns me away at the door,’ he added grimly.
‘But if his wife had a stroke, it’s hardly reasonable to blame you for her death!’
‘He has never been a reasonable man.’
‘You know him well?’
‘I know of him well enough!’
‘Was he involved in the takeover negotiations?’
Luke smiled coldly. ‘For some reason he chose to stay behind the scenes and let his wife Melina do the talking, which was his big mistake. If he had conducted the negotiations himself, things might not have gone so well for me. But from the day he gave her nominal control of the airline, his wife made enemies of every man on the board. The result was unanimous acceptance of my offer.’
‘Not a nice lady.’
Luke smiled grimly. ‘Not nice at all, Isobel.’
‘But her husband must be grieving for her, just the same.’
‘Possibly. But he has many business interests to console him. I doubt he will grieve for long.’
‘That’s cold! You obviously don’t like him, either.’
Luke’s teeth showed white in the semi-darkness. ‘Like is too lukewarm a word, Isobel.’
‘You know him well, then?’
‘No. If I meet him tomorrow it will be for the first time. Yet Theodore Andreadis is my grandfather.’
CHAPTER FIVE
ISOBEL’S eyes widened in astonishment. ‘Your grandfather? And you’ve never met him?’
‘He does not acknowledge the relationship.’ The words sounded like pebbles dropped in a dish. Luke shrugged. ‘Not that I wish him to, nor do I trade on the fact that I am his grandson. To me, he is just a tyrannical old man I cannot forgive for his treatment of my mother. If I tell you what he did it may help you understand.’ He turned to look at her. ‘Though normally this is not a subject I discuss.’
‘Your confidence is safe with me, I promise.’
‘I do not doubt it. So, let me explain the rift. My grandmother, the first wife of Theo Andreadis, left him for a lover when their daughter was a baby, but died soon afterwards. To avoid history repeating itself, Theo brought Olympia up very strictly, educated at home instead of sent to school, and allowed contact with only one friend