Once the procession had reassembled and moved on, they got back on their bicycles and rode to the vicarage. Before they parted, Anne asked Dimitri if he would be coming to the service the next day. The expression on her face was so pleading, as if she were waiting for him to absolve her and her compatriots for the collective sin of everything they were doing in Cyprus. So he agreed to go without discussion, despite the growing antipathy he felt for most of the congregation at the English church. He had yet another reason for not refusing. To convince Anne’s parents to agree to his programme of expeditions, he needed to use every method of persuasion available to him.
He needn’t have worried, because the new Mrs Dorides was pursuing the matter with her customary effectiveness. She had alre
