Daughter of the Winds Read Online Free
Author: Jo Bunt
realistic now. Perhaps Eddie was right after all. Not that she would tell him that, of course.
Layers of voices were asking each other , “Are you okay? Is anyone hurt?” Pru could hear them but didn’t feel like answering. Every concerned step in her direction was met with a frosty glare. She didn’t see why this should make them all friends when moments earlier they had been murmuring about the size of her bag. Nothing had changed, Pru reassured herself. Everything was still the same as before. Pru sat up straight, consciously lengthening her neck and pushing out her rounded breasts. A jumped up little boy playing ‘soldiers’ would not intimidate her. She pulled her long blonde hair over her shoulders and, knowing that she looked good, clasped her trembling hands in her lap and waited for the evacuation bus to appear.
Chapter three
Without even seeing the room, I knew that this was going to be the perfect base for me. The Pleiades was a low, uneven white block of a building. It was all on ground level but it spread out generously, oozing across the mountainside. The window boxes at the bright blue shuttered windows were exploding with fierce colour. They were brimming with geraniums of every shade of red, orange and pink bowing down before the white-washed walls, their heads heavy with masses of fiery blooms.
The late afternoon was still glowing with buttery sunlight and the warmth in the air was soft and comforting, even in the shade that was growing in front of the house. Sounds of people talking good-naturedly, dogs barking and the hum of a distant car reminded me that I wasn’t alone in Paradise. Insects made their presence known by flitting in front of my face as I batted them aside.
The main road, if you could call it that, ran close to the front of the house. On what should have been the pavement sat an old lady, dressed head-to-toe in black, on a starkly plain wooden chair. I hadn’t noticed her motionless form when I first stepped out of the taxi. She leant forward, stooping over her gnarled wooden walking stick. Her hands were a mass of liver spots and protruding knuckles.
“ Kalispera . My name is Leni. George gave me this address. I am looking for Antheia. Are you Antheia?”
The wizened woman looked up at me and narrowed her hooded eyes. They were encircled with a milky white ring that confirmed her advancing years. Her hirsute top lip curled to reveal a gap where her front teeth should be. She muttered something unintelligible, but unmistakeably harsh, and spat on the pale dirt at her feet. With no more explanation she turned her skeletal face back to the empty road.
I stepped backwards, startled. After my initial shock, I fought back a laugh. After all, I wanted a more genuine ‘Greek’ experience away from the tourists and it appeared that I was getting exactly what I asked for. I made my way to the blue front door bumping my bag across the ground behind me. I could hear voices, both adult and child, from within. A roughly hewn wooden plaque announcing The Pleiades informed me that I was in the correct place but there was no doorbell or knocker. I tapped on the middle of the door, painfully aware as I did so that it wasn’t nearly loud enough.
The voices continued inside the house but there was no sound of movement towards the door. I counted to ten and then tried again, louder this time. I didn’t want to give up, and certainly didn’t want to go back to the spitting woman at the side of the road, so I grabbed my courage with one hand and the door handle with the other.
“ Kalispera ?” I called shakily into the cool dark room beyond the door and my voice echoed back at me from the terracotta-tiled floors.
“ Ahhhhhhh! Leni!” shouted a female voice, assaulting my ears with its force. “Come. Come.”
A large doughy woman appeared in the arch towards the rear of the house and beckoned me. She disappeared back into the other room talking to someone in Greek.
Layers of voices were asking each other , “Are you okay? Is anyone hurt?” Pru could hear them but didn’t feel like answering. Every concerned step in her direction was met with a frosty glare. She didn’t see why this should make them all friends when moments earlier they had been murmuring about the size of her bag. Nothing had changed, Pru reassured herself. Everything was still the same as before. Pru sat up straight, consciously lengthening her neck and pushing out her rounded breasts. A jumped up little boy playing ‘soldiers’ would not intimidate her. She pulled her long blonde hair over her shoulders and, knowing that she looked good, clasped her trembling hands in her lap and waited for the evacuation bus to appear.
Chapter three
Without even seeing the room, I knew that this was going to be the perfect base for me. The Pleiades was a low, uneven white block of a building. It was all on ground level but it spread out generously, oozing across the mountainside. The window boxes at the bright blue shuttered windows were exploding with fierce colour. They were brimming with geraniums of every shade of red, orange and pink bowing down before the white-washed walls, their heads heavy with masses of fiery blooms.
The late afternoon was still glowing with buttery sunlight and the warmth in the air was soft and comforting, even in the shade that was growing in front of the house. Sounds of people talking good-naturedly, dogs barking and the hum of a distant car reminded me that I wasn’t alone in Paradise. Insects made their presence known by flitting in front of my face as I batted them aside.
The main road, if you could call it that, ran close to the front of the house. On what should have been the pavement sat an old lady, dressed head-to-toe in black, on a starkly plain wooden chair. I hadn’t noticed her motionless form when I first stepped out of the taxi. She leant forward, stooping over her gnarled wooden walking stick. Her hands were a mass of liver spots and protruding knuckles.
“ Kalispera . My name is Leni. George gave me this address. I am looking for Antheia. Are you Antheia?”
The wizened woman looked up at me and narrowed her hooded eyes. They were encircled with a milky white ring that confirmed her advancing years. Her hirsute top lip curled to reveal a gap where her front teeth should be. She muttered something unintelligible, but unmistakeably harsh, and spat on the pale dirt at her feet. With no more explanation she turned her skeletal face back to the empty road.
I stepped backwards, startled. After my initial shock, I fought back a laugh. After all, I wanted a more genuine ‘Greek’ experience away from the tourists and it appeared that I was getting exactly what I asked for. I made my way to the blue front door bumping my bag across the ground behind me. I could hear voices, both adult and child, from within. A roughly hewn wooden plaque announcing The Pleiades informed me that I was in the correct place but there was no doorbell or knocker. I tapped on the middle of the door, painfully aware as I did so that it wasn’t nearly loud enough.
The voices continued inside the house but there was no sound of movement towards the door. I counted to ten and then tried again, louder this time. I didn’t want to give up, and certainly didn’t want to go back to the spitting woman at the side of the road, so I grabbed my courage with one hand and the door handle with the other.
“ Kalispera ?” I called shakily into the cool dark room beyond the door and my voice echoed back at me from the terracotta-tiled floors.
“ Ahhhhhhh! Leni!” shouted a female voice, assaulting my ears with its force. “Come. Come.”
A large doughy woman appeared in the arch towards the rear of the house and beckoned me. She disappeared back into the other room talking to someone in Greek.