He saw his mother’s c****d eyebrow at the mention of his sister. ‘Really?’ She paused, deep in thought. ‘So, what will happen with Sappho’s?’
Nikolas took a breath. ‘I have offered to look after it, for three weeks.’
Evangelina waited.
‘Delfi will remain here to help you.’
Nikolas could not miss the small ripple of irritation on his mother’s face. She turned her back to him and placed a small salt cellar on the tray. From this perspective, he studied her hair; so rarely had he seen it loose from the knot she normally wore. Though it was streaked with grey, it was still thick and fell in soft curls below her shoulders. He thought then of his father waiting in the bedroom for his breakfast and cursed himself again, and his sister, for this interruption.
She turned back to him, and her v
