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permitted to make use of it.’
    She glared at him. ‘And just who would stop me?’
    ‘I would,’ he said. ‘And so would the people in the village. You see, thespinis , they also wish you to stay. To repay in some small measure the heavy debt your Michalis has incurred among them.’ He paused. ‘How much do you love him?’
    She was tempted to reply, ‘When he involves me in situations like this—not at all,’ but she knew instinctively this wasn’t a moment for flippancy.
    And how could she describe to this intimidating stranger the kind of exasperated fondness that she normally experienced for Mike? How could she explain that her main reason for seeking him out was to put her mother’s mind at rest? She could only be thankful that her mother was hundreds of miles away, and would never know that Mike seemed to be in real trouble at last.
    She said with a calmness she didn’t feel. ‘Enough.’
    His eyebrows rose. ‘So lukewarm? And yet you came all this way just to be with him.’
    ‘I came all this way to have a holiday. Visiting Mike was intended to be a fringe benefit—a minor one,’ she said, adding, ‘Not that it’s any damned business of yours.’
    He looked grimly at her. ‘It is my business, thespinis , at this moment to discover the depth of your feeling for this man, and his for you.’
    Gemma gasped. ‘We’re brother and sister for God’s sake. How do you expect us to feel about each other?’ she demanded indignantly.
    His dark brows snapped together thunderously. ‘What is this story?’ he asked contemptuously. ‘His name is Leslie, and yours is Barton.’
    Gemma sighed. ‘He’s my half-brother. My mother was married before, but her first husband was killed in an accident at work.’ It killed her to have to explain a syllable to this swine, but she would recount her entire family history if it would only get her out of here. ‘A year or so later, she met my father and married him, but Mike kept his own father’s surname. Now, do you see and now will you let me go?’
    He said silkily, ‘After what you have just told me, thespinis? It makes my reasons for keeping you here doubly potent, believe me.’
    She felt incredibly weary suddenly. She said, ‘I might, kyrie , if I knew what those reasons were. As it is, I’m tired and fed up with the whole affair. I don’t know what Mike’s supposed to have done, but whatever it is, I’m not responsible for it.’
    ‘I will tell you what he has done,’ he said gently. ‘He has seduced a girl from this village, abused the trust that was placed in him, and the hospitality he was shown.’
    Gemma’s lips parted in disbelief. She said angrily, ‘There isn’t a word of truth in it. Mike wouldn’t do such a thing. He’s not that sort of person.’
    ‘He is not completely a man—is that what you’re saying?’
    ‘No,’ she denied furiously. ‘But he’s no womaniser and never has been. He has a girl in England, but it isn’t a serious relationship. I—I’m sure they don’t sleep together,’ she added, annoyed at having to discuss such a subject with a stranger.
    ‘Then he should have treated Maria with equal honour.’ His voice was chilling. ‘Your defence of your brother is natural, thespinis , but it does not impress me. Maria is to have his child.’
    Gemma heard him with dismay. In the books she’d been reading before she came away, she’d learned that on many of the islands the old ways still prevailed, and that a woman’s honour was sacrosanct, especially before she was married. She could imagine the kind of slur illegitimacy would confer in this kind of tightly knit community.
    She bit her lip. ‘Has she said so—accused him?’
    ‘Not at first,’ he said grimly. ‘But ultimately she confessed everything. How they had met in Chania when she was there working in her uncle’s hotel, how she suggested he should use the villa as a base for his work, and brought him here. No one thought wrong of it. The villa