YANNIS (Cretan Saga Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

not know. Would he find the work too difficult and be laughed at, called the village dunce and mocked until his life was a misery?
    ‘Come on,’ said Annita. She saw no point in looking at the closed door. ‘We have four classes,’ she informed him and added with pride, ‘I’m in the top class because I’m clever.’
    Yannis did not comment and Annita led him to the centre of the town, waiting impatiently as Yannis looked into every shop. Never had he seen such an array of goods.
    ‘Who buys all these things?’ he asked.
    ‘We’re beginning to have tourists here in the summer. They buy things to take home. Mamma does embroidery for that shop.’
    ‘My Mamma does embroidery also, but I don’t know which shop it goes to.’
    ‘They’re all much the same.’ Annita dismissed the subject and waved frantically to a girl standing in a shop doorway. ‘Come and meet my friend Thalia.’
    Yannis was duly introduced to the girl and spent a self-conscious ten minutes whilst Thalia was told his history, which obviously did not impress her. Leaving Thalia with a promise to see her the following day, Annita led Yannis round the corner to the lake. They scrambled up a steep hill until the panorama of Aghios Nikolaos was spread before them.
    ‘It’s a wonderful view. I didn’t realise there were two harbours.’
    ‘That one is where the ferries dock, the ones that bring the tourists,’ explained Annita.
    Yannis looked at the ships. ‘I shall go on those when I’m older,’ he said, confidently.
    ‘Where to?’
    Yannis shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Athens, maybe.’
    ‘I’d like to go to Athens. Maybe we could go together. Come on, race you.’
    Annita took to her heels and went flying down the hill, Yannis following more carefully. He did not want to fall and ruin his new trousers. By the time they returned to the cottage Yiorgo had left to make ready for the night’s fishing. A salad, bread and brawn were sitting in the kitchen and Annita helped herself and Yannis, leaving plenty for Andreas who returned home just as they were finishing their meal.
    Whilst Elena chatted to Yannis, Annita spent the evening sitting in a corner, her head bent over her embroidery. Surreptitiously she studied her cousin. He was not as good looking as Dimitrakis, and he did not spend his time making silly jokes like Nicolas who made her laugh, but she liked him, she decided. She hoped he would not be a dunce at school. He was, after all, her cousin and if he were stupid people might thinks she was stupid also. She sighed heavily.
    ‘Time for bed all of you. You must be tired, Yannis, you’ve had a long day.’ Elena was fussing over him, as she never did her own children.
    Obediently Annita folded her embroidery and led the way up the stairs. The room she shared with her brother had been partitioned by a flimsy piece of wood a few years earlier to give her a certain amount of privacy now she was older. Yannis fell asleep immediately, but Annita lay awake, listening to the regular breathing of her cousin and brother. She wanted Yannis to like her, but she also wanted to impress him and have him admire and respect her. When she woke the sun was up and she could hear her mother in the kitchen. The boys were probably already up she realised and dragged on her clothes hurriedly. As she entered the kitchen Yannis stood up and offered her his chair. She looked at him, nodded and sat down without a word.
    ‘Your father is going to take me out fishing today. Are you coming?’
    Annita hesitated, she was a good sailor and she doubted if the same was true of her cousin. ‘May I go, Mamma?’
    ‘I didn’t think you were very fond of the sea.’
    Annita wrinkled her nose. ‘I like the sea, it’s just the smell of fish.’
    Elena wagged a finger at her daughter. ‘You should be used to it by now.’
    Yiorgo was already on his boat and he held out his hand to help them jump aboard. Yannis carried out Yiorgo’s instructions with the ropes to