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Iht his arms around her—arms that held her, drew her towards hi her like a child

His voice was no longer shocked, but concerned—co He spoke to her in Greek, soft and mellifluous, and she couldn’t understand a word, nor hear it properly either, through the ainst it, her shoulders convulsing with her tears, her body shaking

How long she wept, she didn’t know, but she felt the tears easing fro her And still he talked to her, softly and gently, his hand s her close and closer still against him as her body cea

sed its shaking, started to slacken in his arms

Exhaustion washed over her, thickening the air, her breath Her tear-filled eyes were stinging, her eyelids drooping Her eyes were heavy, so very heavyher breathing was slowing, easing

And then sleep—sweet, sweet sleep—folded over her

Xandros stood by the sea’s edge, where the hts on the wo in his bed—and not just any woman, not just one of his amours

My wife My bride My virgin bride

He felt his breath catch, felt the contours of his life changing, reshaping theely wonderful

Footsteps crunching on the pebbled beach behind him made him turn His face lit with a warm smile

‘Kalimera,’ he said softly

But his neife—his bride—did not return his smile Instead she paused in her hesitant approach towards him He went to her, took her hands in his She had put on a pair of turquoise shorts, a pink tee Her hair was loose, she wore not a scrap of make-up—and she looked the most beautiful he had ever seen her

He felt so turn over inside him

But her expression was troubled