The older man attempted to stand as they approached.
Evangelina waved him down. ‘Sit…sit,’ she said, and Nikolas heard the softness of it in her voice and was surprised. When he looked at his mother, there was a glimmer of something in her eyes that suggested that she and Manoli had a shared history that was more than having had inhabited the same village, as well as their familial associations.
Manoli’s daughter had stood to assist her father and Nikolas noted that, despite her solid build, which was typical of many of the woman of the island, she was tall, almost as tall as he was.
‘Nikolas, this is Delfinia,’ his mother began. The girl’s eyes had been averted to the floor, but as the introductions were made, she looked at him squarely.
Her eyes are huge, he thought, but the dark bro
