Dear Stranger

by Anne Hampson

  ‘Yes, Colin, he has.’

  A puzzled moment of silence and then,

  ‘What’s the problem, Shara? It all appears very straightforward to me.’

  She looked at him as he held open the gate for her to pass through in front of him.

  ‘Carl,’ she said as the latch of the gate clicked into place again, ‘is engaged to someone else.’

  Swiftly Colin turned.

  ‘Engaged? To a Cypriot girl?’

  ‘Yes, to a Cypriot girl. I don’t know whether you are aware of it or not, but here, as in Greece, the engagement is in effect the marriage. There’s a church service conducted by the priest; the couple exchange rings which later become their respective wedding rings. The engagement is never broken.’ They paused outside the gate, Colin’s brow creased in a frown.

  ‘I don’t think I understand,’ he said. ‘If Carl’s already engaged then how came he to fall in love with you?’ Faintly she smiled, without humour.

  ‘It’s happened before, Colin.’

  ‘Undoubtedly. What I should have said was: if he were already engaged then how came he to mention the fact that he loved you?’

  ‘He’d been fighting his love,’ she murmured reminiscently. ‘His behaviour had puzzled me for a while and then one day he seemed to make up his mind about some problem. I now know that he had decided that the only honourable thing to do was to tell Annoula that he couldn’t now marry her. You see,’ added Shara hastily as the frown on Colin’s brow deepened, ‘it wasn’t a love match. Annoula is alone in the world except for her young son. Carl was in a similar position. They decided to marry only for the sake of the two children - and I expect Carl had in mind that the marriage would also mean security for Annoula.’

  ‘Did Carl tell Annoula that he couldn’t marry her?’ She did not reply at once, her thoughts having reverted to that day when, on the point of kissing her, Carl had drawn back, his manner one of self-disgust at what he had been about to do. For one unguarded moment he seemed to have forgotten his engagement, then immediately on remembering it he had been aghast at what would have proved to be his own perfidy in kissing another girl. This, and yet it was not a love match; in fact, it was merely a business contract. Here was proof and more that Carl was a man of complete honour and integrity.

  ‘He went to Nicosia especially to tell her— He does have his main offices there,’ she went on to explain, ‘but he doesn't spend much time there. He can do most of his work at home or by telephone. And as he goes around from one plantation to another periodically he has enough to do without spending time in the office, which is run efficiently, anyway, by his manager.’ She had digressed and Colin brought her back by saying,

  ‘He went to Nicosia to see this Annoula?’

  That’s right. But she reacted differently from what he had expected—’

  ‘He blandly expected her to give him up - so that he could marry another woman?’

  ‘It wasn't quite like that,’ she returned, her colour rising slightly. ‘Apparently Annoula had been the one to say that, should either of them happen to fall in love before the marriage, then the other would agree to break the engagement. Well, as Carl hadn’t the least desire to argue about that he naturally agreed. But for himself he never believed he could possibly fall in love, for the very simple reason that he never bothered with women at all. At first — when he knew he loved me, that was — he was most reluctant to approach Annoula, and that was why he tried to fight his love. However, in the end it was stronger than he and, as I’ve said, he resolved to end his engagement. Annoula cried and told him she wanted to marry him—’ Shara spread her hands despairingly. ‘In honour bound he was forced to accede to her wishes.’

  ‘So he must marry this girl whom he doesn’t love?’

  ‘I expect he’ll marry her, yes.’

  ‘And you... and Carl ...’

  They were walking very slowly down the lane towards the square. On both sides of them the lemon trees flourished, the orchards stretching away, up the hillside and, to the left, down it towards the narrow coastal plain and practically on to the shore itself. Bright cubic houses along the lane basked in the drowsy heat of an Eastern noon, their gardens luminous with mimosa and oleanders, with the flaring hibiscus and the more delicate floral bracts of the bougainvilleas. These latter trailed the ochre-coloured walls or climbed the supports of the balconies. Here and there against a sky of pure celestial blue a palm tree swayed as a gentle zephyr blew in from the sea far down below.

  ‘You’re wondering if — if we shall have an affair?’

  She spoke with difficulty, answering his question with one of her own. He said, deep emotion affecting his tone, ‘I can’t imagine your consenting to that, my dear.’

  Tears pricked the backs of Shara’s eyes.

  ‘I couldn’t myself, at one time, but now...’

  ‘Is it so very bad, then?’

  She looked sideways at him, looked into blue eyes that now were shadowed, because of her.

  ‘I can’t live without him, Colin,’ she quivered at last in husky tones. ‘I might resist for a while, but I know for sure that I can’t hold out indefinitely.’

  They walked a short distance in silence and then Colin said that as long as she had confided so much to him she would not be offended if he asked her a very intimate question. She shook her head and then Colin asked if Carl himself had suggested they have an affair.

  ‘No ... but the marriage is to be entirely one of convenience. Rian needs a mother and Annoula’s son a father. Added to that the children will have each other -neither will any longer be an only child. The marriage - at the time it was planned - was to be most beneficial for all concerned, but, as I’ve said, it was to be a purely business arrangement.’

  ‘Carl has told you all this?’

  ‘Very recently, yes. You see, he was still hoping to come to an agreement with Annoula about the breaking of the engagement, and therefore he hadn’t told me very much at all. However, a man called Linos, who had asked me to marry him and been refused, told me of the engagement between Annoula and Carl. Linos obviously acted out of spite; he must have been jealous when he saw Carl - kissing me and - and holding me. This he did, at a party he was giving,’ Shara added as her companion raised an interrogating eyebrow.

  ‘Did Carl say definitely that there was to be no sex in this marriage?’

  ‘ Not quite so bluntly as that. Although Annoula was willing to marry without love - most people do here, because marriages are arranged for the couple - she was not willing to have a normal marriage as, she told Carl, there was no love between them. She’s rather different from the normal run of Cypriot girls. Her first marriage was a love match and she believes it’s immoral for people not in love to - well, to make love.’

  ‘I see. She sounds a most unreasonable type to me. Does she really expect Carl to live a celibate existence for the rest of his days?’

  ‘I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded had he and I not met

  each other again, under these very different conditions.

  There’s been nothing to cause friction, you see, no

  parents to breed dissension between us. Our affection for each other grew instantly, and very soon Carl began to give me hope that, like me, he would fall in love.’

  A long silence ensued before Colin spoke, asking if Shara had ever met this Annoula.

  ‘What’s she like?’ he added when Shara nodded her head. ‘How old is she?’

  ‘Twenty-four or five, I should think. Carl never mentioned her age. She’s very beautiful, and very sweet.’ ‘She’s very sweet?’ Colin looked amazed. ‘I’ve been imagining her as the bitchy type — possessive and all

  that.’

  ‘She isn’t in the least bitchy. That’s what makes it all so much more complicated. If Carl and I did have an affair I could never assuage my guilt by telling myself

  that she deserved it.’

  ‘So you won’t have an affair?’ She was silent and he ad
ded, ‘Do you think Carl would consent to that sort of hole-and-corner kind of love affair?’

  She shook her head, but after a little hesitation she pointed out to Colin that the temptation might prove too

  strong for them.

  ‘From what you’ve told me of Carl, I’m pretty sure there’ll be no affair between you and him.’

  Shara’s thoughts with a backward switch brought vividly to her the scene when, terribly hurt and choking back the tears, she had told Carl that she knew of his engagement to Annoula. After the apologies and explanations Carl had taken her unresistingly in his arms. He and she were

  alone in his lovely saloon overlooking the mountains and the bright green lemon groves, and the intimacy affected them both with such force that for one brief interlude it would seem that they would be powerless to resist the intense attraction each had for the other. No pretence about that as they eventually drew apart. Each knew just how close the other had been to that borderline across which would have been complete and fatal surrender -fatal simply because there could be no turning back, no regaining the foothold they had lost.

  There had been other occasions too, occasions of sweet embrace and kiss, of tender words spoken and glances which left neither in doubt of the love that was theirs. And yet never again had their tender demonstrations been allowed to drift anywhere near that point of no return and, dwelling on this, Shara with all honesty owned to herself that it had been Carl’s strength alone which had kept them safe. Colin was speaking, his words cutting into her thoughts and bringing her back to the present.

  ‘I can’t understand why you haven’t heard of this engagement before. From your letters I’ve gathered that in these villages everyone knows everyone else’s business.’

  ‘They do, normally. But Annoula comes from a remote village in the Paphos district and it was there that the engagement service took place, Annoula at that time having an aged mother who has since died. It was Annoula who wanted the secrecy. From what I can gather she’s a most shy, retiring girl - typically Cypriot in that particular way.’

  ‘I see. Linos, though - he knew of the engagement.’ ‘That surprised Carl. He said that had he had the least inkling of this he would never have left me alone with Linos because Carl had already gathered that Linos was

  beginning to suspect there was some deeper affection between Carl and me, and Carl knew he would be jealous. Linos’s pride would have been hurt, too, with my having turned him down. Carl intended telling me himself, but not until he’d made one more attempt to bring Annoula round to accepting the situation and acting sensibly about it.’ She paused, memory giving back Carl’s words that at the time had seemed so very strange, ‘Everything will be all right; I’m quite sure of that.’

  ‘Does Carl know how Linos discovered that he was engaged to this Annoula?’

  ‘Not definitely. Carl puzzled over the matter for a long while afterwards, and the only feasible conclusion -though one which Carl was loath to accept — was that Linos had read a letter, or part of a letter, from Annoula to Carl. It was lying on the couch one evening when Linos called at Carl’s home. Carl naturally went off to get him a drink and he thinks that Linos picked up the letter in his absence. Annoula had signed herself “Your

  sincere fiancee”. ’

  They walked on for another few yards and, after stopping to have a few words with the Muktar, who was sitting in his garden having his lunch, they turned back and retraced their steps, arriving at the villa just fifteen minutes after having left it.

  ‘Does my uncle know about this?’ Colin put the question as they crossed the garden, making for the patio where Gilbert was still sitting. Rian was with him - and doing all the talking.

  ‘I haven’t said a word to him, Colin. His work would be affected, for you know how he worries about me.’ ‘More than he’s ever worried about me,’ returned Colin,

  but of course it was said in the nicest way.

  ‘Also, Gilbert said that, if Carl didn’t reciprocate he Gilbert, I mean - would be sorry he ever decided to come to Cyprus to write a book.’

  ‘So Uncle Gilbert does know of your feelings for Carl?’

  ‘Yes; I did get down to confiding that much.’

  ‘Isn’t he curious to know how things are progressing?’

  ‘He’s so absorbed in his work at the present time that he thinks of nothing else. I expect he concludes I would speak if there was anything important to say. Gilbert worries about me, as I’ve said, but he would never put questions of a private nature unless I myself provided the opening.’

  ‘He is eventually going to wonder how it’s going, though.’

  ‘And whether Carl is in fact reciprocating?’ Shara nodded. ‘I’m hoping to delay for a while, until the book’s really under way. I shall then tell Gilbert the truth. I shall have to,’ she added with a catch in her voice. ‘And yet I hate to think how hurt he will be.’ ‘There’s no questioning that,’ agreed Colin, lowering his tone as they drew closer to the patio. ‘As you say, he’s going to regret having brought you to Cyprus.’

  Carl arrived at tea time, having been delayed by several phone calls and, therefore, taking longer with his work than expected. His eyes smiled at Shara, holding hers for a long and tender moment before transferring their gaze to Gilbert who, rising, was preparing to introduce him to his nephew.

  ‘How do you do?’ The two men shook hands, sizing one another up. Colin’s fairness contrasted startlingly with

  Carl’s dark skin and hair, but both men were inordinately attractive in their own particular way. And they appeared at once to take a liking to one another, a circumstance which made Shara feel a little happier than she had been prior to Colin’s visit. Somehow, she feared that Carl would be jealous of Colin, who, he knew, had been Shara’s friend for over five years.

  ‘Five years,’ Carl had repeated when Shara told him about Colin, and that he was coming to the villa for a holiday. ‘And,’ added Carl bitterly, ‘he’s free.’

  ‘I love you, Carl,’ she had responded simply, ‘and there will never be anyone else in my life.’

  Carl had answered, his green eyes dark with a brooding expression,

  ‘You’ve loved me all that time - since you were no more than a schoolgirl. . . .’ It was a statement, for Shara had told him this, in one of their intimate moments of confidence when each had told the other some small secret about their past lives. ‘Darling Shara,’ he cried in anguish equal to her own, ‘what are we to do!’

  ‘Annoula might change her mind,’ Shara had said, cradling his head in her arms. ‘She might, Carl,’ she had repeated frantically, for it almost seemed that Carl was hurt to the point of tears. But it was a great sigh that she felt against her heart, not a sob, although it was indeed a physical thing.

  ‘Annoula will not change her mind,’ Carl had said in hopeless accents that tore her to shreds. ‘She’s lonely, you see, and she dreads the future. It is understandable in a way that she is afraid of being alone. She has not the confidence which you have, Shara, nor the ability to battle through life without the support of a man. It is fear, not possessiveness, that makes her unwilling to

  break our engagement.’

  Carl had gone on to say that Annoula was a shy little Cypriot girl, but that Shara would be bound to like her when she met her. And because Shara herself wished it, Carl took her the next evening to visit his fiancee at her home in Nicosia. And as Carl had prophesied, Shara could not help liking the Cypriot girl whose dark eyes were a trifle scared and whose small mouth trembled as her fiance introduced her to the girl he loved. It had been a strange situation, naturally, but one in which not one atom of animosity had existed. If Shara found it impossible to dislike Annoula, then the same applied with the Cypriot girl.

  At the end of the visit Shara was more than a little optimistic, but it soon transpired that Annoula would not change her mind. The date of the wedding had not yet been fixed, but Shara now had a shrewd suspicion that Annoula would want it to
be quite soon. Whether Carl would agree to this remained to be seen, but of one thing Shara was absolutely sure: Carl would never let his fiancee down. When his decision was made it was with the sure conviction that what he intended doing was best for the children, each of whom was being deprived of a parent. Carl was also convinced, at that time, that complications could never crop up by his falling in love with someone else, and when he agreed to Annoula’s condition that the engagement be broken should either of them become romantically involved with someone else it was in effect her of whom he was thinking. Had she fallen in love then he would willingly have released her. Otherwise the marriage would take place. He had given his word and his word was his bond. Here in Cyprus, according to custom the

  engagement was so binding that in certain villages the couple immediately lived together in the house of the girl’s parents, and quite often she was expecting her first child when the actual marriage ceremony took place. No one ever heard of a broken engagement unless it was by mutual consent. If an engaged man should try to shed his obligation he was immediately told by both priest and magistrate to return to his fiancee, which he did, really having no option, for no other parents would allow their daughter to become engaged to him.

  Shara’s musings came to an abrupt end as Rian, finding herself neglected as the three men conversed and Shara was so silent and engrossed, asked Shara if she would play a game of hide and seek with her after tea.

  ‘Don’t you ever get tired of running about?’ Shara thought of the way the child was so short a time ago - so stiff and prim, so unwilling to soil her dress or have her hair disarranged. Now, she was often like a young tomboy and instead of Carl being cross with her as Shara would in the beginning have expected, he seemed only to derive amusement from the sudden change in his child. Shara had talked to him once about Rian, on an occasion when the time seemed to be just right, and she had discovered that both her own deductions and those of Gilbert were correct. Carl had been terribly afraid that, should Rian be allowed to run a little wild, to be allowed to remain in soiled clothes or to have her hair all awry, she would feel neglected - unwanted. Shara had convinced Carl that this was not so, and as she herself gave much attention to the child, playing with her and swimming with her at every single opportunity, and whether her father could accompany them or not, it was quite impossible for Rian to feel neglected. The child had blossomed most attractively, warmth and feeling - so long suppressed - having found an outlet in the child’s growing love for her aunt, and in an increase in her love for her father who, since the coming of her aunt, had seemed so much softer and so less unapproachable than ever before.