corner of the reception area and walked in without knocking.
‘Savvas, I have to talk to you.’
Savvas was surprised to see his wife. She looked unusually flushed, untidy almost, but she was smiling. He got up from his desk and asked Costas Frangos to come back in an hour.
Even before they were alone, Aphroditi began to tell him what had happened.
‘We won’t need this fabric any more!’ she announced triumphantly, pulling a sample from her bag. ‘We’re not going to refurbish. We’re going to rebuild!’
‘What do you mean?’ Savvas asked.
Soon Aphroditi had explained.
‘So our dream is going to come true!’ he exclaimed.
Savvas had kept the plans for his next project locked in the bottom drawer of his desk, and now rolled the blueprint out on to his desk. For the first time in ages, he smiled at his wife.
‘There’s nothing stopping us now,’ said Aphroditi.
‘Let’s call the lawyer again. We need to free up that money as soon as we can. I can get a loan to cover us until then.’
‘My father would be happy with that, I think,’ responded Aphroditi.
The temperature between them had warmed a little for the first time since the death of Trifonas Markides.
Within three months, Aphroditi had sold her father’s businesses and the finances were in place to demolish The Paradise Beach and begin the rebuild.
The new hotel would have twenty-five floors and six hundred bedrooms but it would be built to a lower specification and aimed at a less affluent market than The Sunrise. Its scale meant that profits would be fast and guaranteed. If they threw every cent they owned behind it, and worked to an accelerated schedule, paying out a premium for overtime, they could open in less than eighteen months. They made the decision together. The more they invested, the faster would be their return.
‘It might be a little while before you have any new jewellery …’ Savvas murmured in mock apology.
‘I think I have more than enough,’ said Aphroditi. ‘There aren’t enough days in the month as it is.’
This was true. During the first year of The Sunrise, when profit had flowed in almost faster than he could count it, Savvas had regularly commissioned new pieces for his wife. He bought gold by the ounce and sets of stones from different merchants so that he could calculate the initial value of the investment. A jeweller, usually Giannis Papadopoulos, who was the best in the city, was then paid a fee for design and creation, processes in which Aphroditi was closely involved. She favoured the very simple and modern but liked to add details inspired by the jewellery found in the tombs at Salamis. This added value, but the intrinsic value of the raw materials was what mattered to Savvas Papacosta.
Nowadays, Savvas had no time for anyone but the merchants who sold him concrete and glass, and he was already calculating his return in the same way as he had done with his wife’s jewels.
Irini Georgiou hardly saw her elder son these days. He was now spending from nine in the morning until four the following day at The Sunrise. He was the best front man a hotel could wish for, charming his way out of any problem or scene created by a guest, whether it was over some glitch with plumbing or an inadvertent error in a bill. Each one of them left completely satisfied and many were even under the impression that Markos was the owner.
Irini hardly saw Christos either. He was evasive or absent and she could not bear to learn the reason. Fortunately, she had something to distract her. Maria had just produced their first grandchild and Irini spent much of the day in her apartment, singing lullabies to little Vasilakis. It was a peaceful antithesis to the violence that was being perpetrated close by. Every time her husband returned from the
kafenion
with news of another EOKA B bomb attack against a police station or a politician, she held the baby closer.
Chapter Nine
H IGH SEASON CAME and business boomed at The
‘Savvas, I have to talk to you.’
Savvas was surprised to see his wife. She looked unusually flushed, untidy almost, but she was smiling. He got up from his desk and asked Costas Frangos to come back in an hour.
Even before they were alone, Aphroditi began to tell him what had happened.
‘We won’t need this fabric any more!’ she announced triumphantly, pulling a sample from her bag. ‘We’re not going to refurbish. We’re going to rebuild!’
‘What do you mean?’ Savvas asked.
Soon Aphroditi had explained.
‘So our dream is going to come true!’ he exclaimed.
Savvas had kept the plans for his next project locked in the bottom drawer of his desk, and now rolled the blueprint out on to his desk. For the first time in ages, he smiled at his wife.
‘There’s nothing stopping us now,’ said Aphroditi.
‘Let’s call the lawyer again. We need to free up that money as soon as we can. I can get a loan to cover us until then.’
‘My father would be happy with that, I think,’ responded Aphroditi.
The temperature between them had warmed a little for the first time since the death of Trifonas Markides.
Within three months, Aphroditi had sold her father’s businesses and the finances were in place to demolish The Paradise Beach and begin the rebuild.
The new hotel would have twenty-five floors and six hundred bedrooms but it would be built to a lower specification and aimed at a less affluent market than The Sunrise. Its scale meant that profits would be fast and guaranteed. If they threw every cent they owned behind it, and worked to an accelerated schedule, paying out a premium for overtime, they could open in less than eighteen months. They made the decision together. The more they invested, the faster would be their return.
‘It might be a little while before you have any new jewellery …’ Savvas murmured in mock apology.
‘I think I have more than enough,’ said Aphroditi. ‘There aren’t enough days in the month as it is.’
This was true. During the first year of The Sunrise, when profit had flowed in almost faster than he could count it, Savvas had regularly commissioned new pieces for his wife. He bought gold by the ounce and sets of stones from different merchants so that he could calculate the initial value of the investment. A jeweller, usually Giannis Papadopoulos, who was the best in the city, was then paid a fee for design and creation, processes in which Aphroditi was closely involved. She favoured the very simple and modern but liked to add details inspired by the jewellery found in the tombs at Salamis. This added value, but the intrinsic value of the raw materials was what mattered to Savvas Papacosta.
Nowadays, Savvas had no time for anyone but the merchants who sold him concrete and glass, and he was already calculating his return in the same way as he had done with his wife’s jewels.
Irini Georgiou hardly saw her elder son these days. He was now spending from nine in the morning until four the following day at The Sunrise. He was the best front man a hotel could wish for, charming his way out of any problem or scene created by a guest, whether it was over some glitch with plumbing or an inadvertent error in a bill. Each one of them left completely satisfied and many were even under the impression that Markos was the owner.
Irini hardly saw Christos either. He was evasive or absent and she could not bear to learn the reason. Fortunately, she had something to distract her. Maria had just produced their first grandchild and Irini spent much of the day in her apartment, singing lullabies to little Vasilakis. It was a peaceful antithesis to the violence that was being perpetrated close by. Every time her husband returned from the
kafenion
with news of another EOKA B bomb attack against a police station or a politician, she held the baby closer.
Chapter Nine
H IGH SEASON CAME and business boomed at The
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