Wife For A Night

by Devine, Angela

  'Truly?' asked Kate suspiciously.

  'Truly,' agreed Philip.

  'All right, but don't try anything on,' she warned. 'You'd better take your jacket off.'

  Philip sat on the bench with his elbows in the picnic table.

  'Now close your eyes,' she instructed.

  'Close my... ? Well, you're the boss.'

  'It's all part of the treatment,' Kate assured him. 'Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Now what can you hear?'

  'Nothing.'

  'Listen harder,' she instructed.

  Philip was silent for a moment. Kate stood in front of him and watched until he relaxed, but an alert expression slowly replaced the tension in his face.

  'Wind in the trees,' he murmured. 'Birdsong, a goat's bell in the distance.'

  'Good,' she said in a satisfied voice, moving round behind him. 'What can you smell?'

  Resting her forearms on his shoulders, she leant forwards so that her weight gently eased his shoulders down, breaking the tension in them.

  'Mmm. Pine needles,' he said. 'Some kind of aromatic vegetation. Hot, dry earth.'

  With relaxed open hands Kate stroked firmly up Philip's back on either side of his spine. When she reached the shoulders she pulled them down gently, then stroked outwards, curving her hands round the tops of his arms and gliding lightly down the sides. She repeated this several times, then kneaded his shoulders thoroughly and applied pressure with her thumbs on either side of his spine. Only when she heard him sigh and felt his muscles relax under her fingers did she turn her attention to his neck. Supporting his forehead with one hand, she massaged the back of his neck slowly with the other. Then she used the flat of her hands to make circular pressures all over his hair, followed by a brisk scalp rub with her fingertips. Lastly, with open hands she did a fast, springy hacking movement across the shoulders and finished up by stroking his neck and back as if she were smoothing a cat's fur.

  'There. How does that feel?' she asked.

  He opened his eyes and looked around him.

  'Incredible,' he admitted. 'I can't believe how it makes me feel. I started to notice all sorts of things that I wasn't aware of before. Like the roughness of the table under my elbows, the sound of a bee buzzing in the bushes. Things I was screening out because I was too busy thinking about work. You're amazing, Katarina, you really are.'

  Kate shrugged self-consciously.

  'Well, to finish it off you really ought to look around you and see what you notice now that your eyes are open again,' she suggested.

  With a thoughtful expression Philip looked around him.

  'Blue sky,' he said. 'Olive groves in the distance. Lots of shrubs. Holly oaks, see, with their little acorns on them? Pink oleanders that have almost finished flowering. And arbutus bushes. We used to eat the berries off those when I was a child in Ayios Dimitrios. They're a bit like strawberries, but with a rougher texture. Here, try one.'

  He reached out and plucked one of the rough orange- coloured fruits from a bush and slipped it between Kate's parted lips. She swallowed and felt the sweet, knobbly berry slip down her throat. But Philip was already crouched at the base of the arbutus bushes, peering at something on the ground.

  'Look, crocuses,' he exclaimed. 'Yellow crocuses, and I didn't even notice them.'

  He rose to his feet and took a step closer to Kate. His brown fingers smoothed back her auburn curls. For an instant he stood there, looking at her with an intent, urgent gaze as if he was taking in every detail of her small, straight nose, her smooth creamy skin, her troubled green eyes.

  'You make me feel as if I'd been born blind,' he said softly.

  Then he kissed her with an intensity that made her pulses leap and her whole body ache to be united with his. It took a powerful effort of will to clench her fists and thrust him away.

  'Don't, Philip!' she cried. 'I don't want to be one of your harem.'

  'One of my what?' demanded Philip with an incredulous expression.

  'Your harem...the women you just use and abandon.'

  The tension was back in Philip's face.

  'Who told you this?' he demanded.

  Kate was frightened by the anger that blazed suddenly in his liquid dark eyes.

  'What does it matter?' she asked defensively.

  'Who told you?' he insisted, clutching her arm.

  'S-Stavros.'

  Philip swore violently in Greek. Kate did not recognise the word, but there was no mistaking the intonation.

  'When did Stavros have the chance to have such a conversation with you?'

  he demanded.

  'He came to my villa this morning,' faltered Kate.

  'I see,' said Philip grimly. 'And told you I had a harem?'

  'He said you'd been having affairs for years, but it didn't mean anything, because everybody knew you'd marry Irene in the end and usually nobody got hurt. But he said I was different from most of your women.'

  Philip groaned.

  'Is it true, then?' demanded Kate.

  'Yes and no,' said Philip through gritted teeth. 'For heaven's sake, Katarina, try and understand! This match with Irene was arranged fourteen years ago.

  Was I supposed to live like a monk all that time?'

  Kate swallowed hard, trying to fight back the sense of desolation that overwhelmed her.

  'So Stavros was right?' she asked huskily. 'You were just going to use me and then abandon me?'

  'No!' cried Philip. 'Look, Katarina, Stavros is a master of lies and distortions. And he's even better when it comes to twisting the truth to serve his own ends. He's just trying to poison your mind against me.'

  'How do I know that you're not just trying to poison my mind against him?'

  retaliated Kate. 'You admit that everything he's said is true, so why shouldn't I believe him?'

  'Because he's no good!' shouted Philip. 'He trades on that clean-cut, handsome, smiling image, but underneath you can't trust him. I don't want you to have any more to do with him, Katarina. Is that clear?'

  Kate choked with disbelief and indignation.'No, it isn't!"' she fumed. 'Since when do you have the right to pick and choose who I can associate with?

  And what's Stavros done that's so terrible anyway?'

  'I'm not prepared to reveal that,' said Philip bleakly. 'There are things I know about him that even his mother doesn't know, and heaven forbid that she ever should. In some ways I feel responsible. I persuaded her to send him to the States for his education, but he got in with a very wild crowd there. Kids with far too much money and not enough guidance. You will just have to believe me when I say that you must not have anything to do with him.'

  Kate was shaken, but she tried not to show it. After all, Philip had offered her no proof that what he said was true. She thought again of Stavros's hesitant, boyish smile and shook her head in a dazed way.

  'I can't believe what you're telling me, Philip,' she said. 'But, even if it's true, it doesn't change anything. I mean, basically Stavros is right. I'm not just a good- time girl. I hate to think of Irene crying her eyes out last night because she knew you'd been with me.'

  Philip looked incredulous.

  'Irene doing what?' he demanded.

  'Crying her eyes out,' faltered Kate. 'Well, that's what Stavros said!'

  Philip chuckled grimly.

  'If it's any consolation to you,' he said, 'I can tell you now that Irene was in the main bar of the reception centre until well after midnight last night. She seemed to be in perfectly good spirits to me, drinking Brandy Alexanders and flirting with Yves Sauvignon. If you'd just open your eyes, Katarina, you'd see quite clearly that Irene is no more in love with me than I am with her!'

  Kate shrugged wearily.

  'Maybe you're right, Philip,' she admitted. 'But you are engaged to her. And as long as that's true I don't think it's right for me to have any relationship with you except a business one. It's as simple as that.'

  'Life is never that simple!' retorted Philip savagely. 'I wi
sh it were. But, if it's complicated or not, I fell in love with you from the moment I first saw you, Katarina. And, one way or another, I intend to have you.'

  His eyes narrowed as he said this, and Kate realised that his fingers were digging into her arms. A wave of emotion washed over her so that she could scarcely breathe.

  'You're hurting me,' she whispered.

  He released her instantly.

  'I'll never do that,' he promised passionately. 'But just tell me this, Katarina: if it hadn't been for Irene would you let yourself go? Would you fall in love with me?'

  His eyes were intent and searching, demanding the truth from her. For an instant she evaded him, her heart racing. She heard the shrilling of insects, leaves rustling in the breeze, saw the crocuses like yellow stars beneath the bushes. Then his hard fingers caught her chin and turned her face up to his.

  She gazed at him earnestly.

  'You know I would, Philip,' she murmured.

  He caught her against him for a moment and she felt the smooth fabric of his linen jacket against her cheek.

  'That's all I needed to know,' he said exultantly. 'Come, Katarina. Let's go to Thessalonfki.'

  After the sunlit silences of the Halkidiki peninsula, the roar of Thessalom'ki was almost deafening. Kate was conscious only of a concrete jungle of apartment buildings, bristling television aerials, blaring horns and petrol fumes, but somehow in Philip's company all this uproar and overcrowding seemed invigorating and full of vitality. At the hospital they were turned away and asked to come back later to see Nikos, so they spent time shopping and strolling. Philip took her to see the Arch of Galerius, which was so blackened by petrol fumes that many of the carvings were scarcely visible. Then he left her in the Ethnological and Popular Art Museum for an hour while he saw his lawyer on business. After that they ate a light snack in the OTE tower, which was a soaring futuristic building with a panoramic view over the city. When their feet were thoroughly rested they plunged back into the bustle of the city.

  'Well,' said Philip, 'what would you like to do now?'

  'I'd better buy some film,' replied Kate. 'Can you find me a cheap photographic supply store?'

  'I think so,' said Philip. 'On one condition.'

  'What's that?' she asked curiously.

  'That you also let me buy you some new clothes.'

  'Oh, Philip, I couldn't,' objected Kate. 'It wouldn't seem right.'

  'Why not?' demanded Philip. 'After all, you ruined your clothes yesterday helping Nikos, and I feel responsible for that. Besides, you'll need an evening dress for the opening of the hotel in a couple of weeks' time. I can't have my official photographer turning up in jeans and a T-shirt amid all the beautiful people, can I?'

  Kate looked at him suspiciously.

  'I think I'm being conned,' she said.

  'Go on. Give in and enjoy it!' urged Philip. 'I'd love to buy some really elegant clothes for you.'

  'Well, only if you take it out of my salary,' she conceded at last.

  Two hours and many parcels later they sat down at a street-side table in Platia Aristotelous on the waterfront for a late lunch. The air was mild and humid, and the sea glowed bronze and pink and lavender under a pastel sky.

  'Well, did you enjoy yourself?' asked Philip.

  Kate groaned.

  'It was wonderful,' she admitted. 'And I'm so thrilled with that gold dress, but I'll have to work for the next hundred years to pay you back.'

  Philip's eyes kindled as they rested on her eager face.

  'I rather like the idea of having you around for the next hundred years,' he said. 'Especially if you have to do my bidding every minute of the time. Now just let me take a quick look at the financial papers and then we'll order some lunch.'

  Kate was sipping a gin and tonic and watching the passers-by when she heard his sudden intake of breath a moment later.

  'What is it?' she asked.

  Philip was frowning down at one of the folded newspapers, but he looked up as she spoke.

  'Hmm? Oh, sorry. Just a paragraph in here about a business associate of mine, Hristos Hionides. He's the major backer of the Hotel Ariadne.

  Apparently he's suffered a heart attack.'

  'Oh, I'm sorry,' said Kate, seeing Philip's preoccupied frown. 'You seem very shocked. Was he a close friend of yours?'

  'No,' replied Philip slowly. 'But it does give me a bit of a jolt. Hristos isn't very old, only forty-five or so, and he seemed perfectly healthy last time I saw him. And of course this sort of thing won't do his business much good.

  It always makes investors panic and share prices go down when somebody important gets sick.'

  'Will it affect your business?' asked Kate. 'I mean the hotel loan or anything like that?'

  'Good heavens, no,' said Philip. 'At least, not unless Hristos dies and his executors foreclose on the mortgage. But that's not terribly likely. No, it's just another reminder of my own mortality, I suppose. Never mind. What would you like for lunch?'

  They ate charcoal-grilled octopus on a bed of lettuce with quarters of tangy lemon and an assortment of salads and dips, followed by coffee and chocolate halva. As Kate bit into a cube of the gritty, sweet sesame paste, a smile softened the corners of her mouth. It's all so complicated, she thought ruefully. Philip is going to manyIrene, I'm not really sure that he loves me, and yet somehow I feel happier than I've ever felt in my life before. She looked up and caught his gaze on hers, tender, amused, encouraging. He reached for his glass and his hand touched hers briefly, as if he had read her mind.

  'Don't worry, we'll work it out somehow,' he said softly. 'Now, if you've finished, we'll go and see Nikos. And after that I'll pay a quick visit to my lawyer and then we'll go home.'

  At the hospital they found Nikos drowsy but comfortable with one arm swathed in bandages, and Anna sitting in a chair next to his bed, gyrating in time to a Walkman attached to her head. When she caught sight of Philip and Kate she paid them the supreme compliment of pulling off the transistor radio and coming to greet them. Her face lit up and she flung her arms around Kate.

  'Efharisto, efharisto!' she said fervently. 'Nikos tell me what you do, miss.

  You save his life. We all thank you very, very much. My mother, my father, me. You come visit us at Ayios Dimitrios; we cook you meal, yes?'

  'Thank you, Anna,' said Kate, smiling. 'I'd be honoured.'

  Nikos too had to haul himself up on to his pillows and offer his thanks in a slurred voice, but, seeing how the effort exhausted him, Kate soon caught Philip's eyes and made an excuse to leave.

  It was late afternoon when they finally reached home. On the way Philip suggested a visit to the Petralona Caves aftd they spent a fascinating hour wandering through the echoing caverns, where prehistoric men had sheltered during a vanished Ice Age. Afterwards, when they emerged on the terrace outside, Philip laid one hand casually on Kate's shoulder.

  'Well, did you enjoy that?' he asked.

  'Oh, yes!' agreed Kate enthusiastically. 'I'd love to come back some time and take photos of it. It's an intriguing place, isn't it? The floodlighting was wonderful. It made the stalactites look so mysterious and strange. And I loved the exhibits too—the bone tools and the woolly rhinoceros remains and those pathetic little replicas of the cavemen curled up in a corner, trying to shelter their children. I suppose you've seen it lots of times, but it was really something special for me.'

  'Actually I've never been there in my life before,' confessed Philip.

  'Really?' exclaimed Kate. 'Why ever not?'

  He ruffled her hair pensively and smiled.

  'I suppose I was always too busy working,' he said half to himself. 'And there was nobody that I wanted to do things with before. Nobody special.'

  Kate gave him a small, troubled smile. His words touched her to the quick, but she was too level-headed to forget the existence of Irene. The outlook from the terrace in front of the caves was breathtaking—a luminous panorama of dark hills, slender cypresses and the distan
t sea. Philip's hand still rested casually on her shoulder, and she longed to move into the warmth of his embrace and stand beside him enjoying the view, but, with an effort of will, she broke free.

  'We'd better go home,' she said in a stifled voice. 'It'll be dark soon.'

  He gave her an odd look, but followed her down the path to the car without making any reply. Yet he was clearly in no hurry to get home, for when they reached the last bend in the road above Ayios Dimitrios just before sunset he pulled the car on to the grassy verge and climbed out.

  'There's something I want to show you,' he said gruffly. 'Will you come and look?'

  Warily Kate climbed out of the car and joined him on the hillside. The air was fragrant with the scent of wild marjoram, and the scene stretched out below them was amazingly beautiful, with the white buildings of the hotel gleaming against the dark blue backdrop of the sea. Philip stood for a long time, drinking in the view, and she saw the furrows in his brow slowly relax as he took in his breath and let it out in a long sigh. At last, without turning his head, he reached out one strong brown hand and groped for her fingers.

  He held her hand in a grip so tight that it was almost painful and, sensing the tension in him, Kate instinctively moved closer and laid her cheek on his arm.

  'What is it?' she murmured.

  'Oh, Katarina, Katarina,' he said hoarsely, 'how can I tell you what I'm feeling? When I was a poor boy, herding goats with no shoes and not enough to eat, I used to climb up to this spot and look down on the village, and I used to make myself a promise. I used to close my eyes and wish as

  hard as if I were fighting for my life that my dreams would come true. And this was my wish and the promise that I made myself: that one day I would pull Ayios Dimitrios out of its poverty with my bare hands; I would build a fine hotel down there, right where you see it now, and nobody from my village would ever go hungry again; they would all have jobs and shoes and proper houses, and a doctor when they were sick and a school for the children. That was my dream.'