by Anne Hampson
'Perhaps you won't have to wait long for Marina to get better.' Kathryn's glance strayed to the girl who was in the wheelchair, talking to her brother and appearing to be in very earnest conversation. How lovely she was, with her gleaming black hair and those beautiful big eyes, expressive eyes, widely spaced and framed by the longest lashes Kathryn had ever seen. She was animated, more alive than Kathryn had ever seen her before, and Kathryn had no regrets at having parted with the ring.
It was a week later that Marina said she wanted to get out of the chair and walk. Kathryn was with her, walking beside the chair, but at the girl's request she stopped dead and stared down at her in disbelief.
'You… you… believe you c-can walk… on your own?'
'I want to try. You are with me, dear Kathryn, and will see that I don't fall.'
But Kathryn shook her head emphatically. 'I'll go and fetch Leon,' she promised, and before the girl could protest, she sped away, her heart beating overrate at the idea of the girl asking to walk after only a week! It was frightening— Her thoughts were cut off as, before she had even reached the patio—from where she would have entered the house—Leon appeared, staring past her. As she turned, she saw Marina standby the chair, holding the handles tightly for support.
Leon ran towards her, with Kathryn following at a slower pace. 'Marina!' His voice echoed over the garden, stern and imperious. 'What are you doing?'
'I am all right, Leon. I felt stronger yesterday and the day before, so I decided that today, if I felt stronger still, I'd try to walk a little. Will you please hold on to me? I asked Kathryn, but she looked so frightened and ran away to get you.'
He turned, and his eyes met those of his wife. There was a tense, electric atmosphere around them, as if each were asking the other if they really believed in this miracle. Leon was the one to break the silence, but he spoke to his sister as, moving close, he extended his hand. The next moment they were walking slowly across the grass, with Kathryn staring after them and mentally rejecting what was so visible before her eyes. She recalled vividly the professor's attitude towards the curse; he had an open mind, he said, refusing to pass it off as nonsense.
'Kathryn, I can walk.' Then there was a cry of pain, and if Leon had not caught Marina in his arms, she would have collapsed. Kathryn ran to her, horror in her eyes. Marina was in pain, and she was sobbing piteously. Leon's face was grey and grim.
'I ought not to have allowed it,' he rasped, striding away across the lawn with his sister in his arms. The doctor was sent for and shook his head as he came away.
'As I told you before, Leon, your sister…' His voice trailed off and he stopped speaking. Puzzled, Kathryn looked at her husband… and knew that with a glance he had prevented the doctor's revealing something, something Leon had obviously not wanted her to hear.
'Marina's been feeling so much better lately,' remarked Leon. 'I always believed her illness was psychological and that one day she would throw off this mysterious illness.'
'And you thought the time had come now?'
'Yes, I did.' Yet as Kathryn looked at him, she felt sure he had no belief in the adverse effects of the curse. He believed that Marina had been improving only because, having obtained possession of the ring, she believed it was the panacea for her illness.
'But I did insist that there was some disease of the bones.'
'Yes, Phidas,' impatiently and with a growing frown. 'But neither you nor any of the other specialists could give any sort of a satisfactory diagnosis.'
The doctor merely gave that expressive shrug and left a few minutes later. Leon and Kathryn exchanged glances. It had all been for nothing, they were telling one another. There was no curse on the jewellery. Marina's illness was not psychological, but was purely medical, but obviously of a kind which, as yet, was practically unknown.
'I'll go and sit with her,' decided Kathryn in a flat, lifeless tone. 'I don't suppose I can make her cheer up, but at least I can offer comfort.'
Leon's face was grim in the shafting sunlight spraying the room; Kathryn saw his mouth move convulsively before he said, in a voice hoarse with sadness and emotion, 'Thank you, Kathryn.'
She hesitated, wanting desperately to comfort him as well, to go to him and put her arms about him, to kiss away the grim sadness of his mouth. All she did was to walk slowly to the door and say over her shoulder, 'I'll stay for about an hour, and then I think you should come, Leon. Marina loves you very much, and she'll expect you. And I suppose, meanwhile, that you will tell your mother what has happened?'
'I don't look forward to doing so, but, yes, it will have to be done.'
Kathryn went out and closed the door softly behind her. Mrs. Coletis was at the hairdresser's; she little knew what was awaiting her when she returned in half an hour or so.
'So you are not going out to town?' Leon asked the question a few days later when, on passing the open door of the dining-room, he turned back, having seen Kathryn arranging flowers for the table.
'No, not today.' Her voice was coolly impersonal and she turned away after the one brief meeting of her eyes with his.
She sensed his rising anger, but his voice retained a quality of calm as he said, 'So you'll be having lunch with your family?'
'My family?'
'Whatever you like to think to the contrary, you are married to me and, therefore, you have a family.'
'I have never said I'm not married to you.' . 'You know what I mean!' Rasping the voice now, as his anger seeped through the veneer he had endeavoured to place over it. 'You're my wife—in every sense!'
'It's a sham. From your point of view it was a marriage of convenience, and until that disastrous occurrence of a few days ago, it was likely to have had its bright side. Your sister would have recovered and been married to a man she loves—and who loves her!' She laughed without humour and turned to him. 'I would then have seen something for the wreckage of my life, wouldn't I? I'd have seen your sister happily married!'
'Stop being bitter. I've already said, you don't know everything.'
'Now's your chance to tell me, then.' She took a rose in her fingers and caressed the velvet petals almost tenderly.
Leon watched her broodingly for a while before saying unexpectedly, 'Will you ever forgive me, Kathryn?'
'Forgive?' She had never expected him to ask a thing like that. His pride—what had happened to it? 'No,' she stated emphatically at last, 'I shall never forgive you—never as long as I live!'
He seemed to turn grey about the mouth, and there was certainly no mistaking the brooding dejection in his eyes. He seemed to be hurt, yet how could he be, seeing that he did not love her? Perhaps it was a pose, an act designed to soften her so that she would forgive him and then he could use her again, this time in another way… as a convenience. He would come to her and make love to her. It would save him having a pillow-friend, for she guessed he would not be able to continue the saintly life much longer. Well, let him have his pillow-friend. He could have a dozen, for all she cared!
'You won't forgive me, and yet you love me?' Leon sighed and shook his head, and again Kathryn was struck by this lowering of his pride. 'It's a very strange attitude to take—'
'Strange?' she flashed. 'It's the only attitude to take. And as for my loving you…' She stopped to let her eyes rove over him in contempt. 'I did once, but not now! Do you suppose I could love a man who treated me as you have done?'
'You don't love me?' His voice was as sceptical as his glance. 'I can understand your pride, Kathryn—'
'Pride doesn't come into it. I do not love you, get that!' She prayed that she was convincing in the lie which had come to her unbidden. She had stated so strongly that pride did not come into it, but it must surely have been pride that forced her to say she no longer loved him. With a heavy heart she watched his expression and knew without any doubt at all that he believed her, believed she had lost the love she had had for him in the beginning.
'In that case,' he said slowly and resignedly, 't
hat's all there is to it.'
'I hope you consider it was all worthwhile—but of course you do. Marina will get better and, after all, Marina's welfare is well worth the wreckage you've made of my life, isn't it?'
Anger had brought bright colour to her cheeks, but inside… Why did she want to hurt him?—if the word 'hurt' could apply. She was hurting herself more, bringing a pain to her heart that was almost physical.
'I feel this bitterness will pass one day,' her husband commented in quiet, almost gentle accents. 'You're not the kind of girl to harbour it forever.' And with that he swung around on his heels and left her, the rose in her hand, its delicate perfume in her nostrils. She put it in the vase, unable to see what she was doing because the tears had filled her eyes, blinding them.
She left the dining room and went to her bedroom, then into the bathroom, where she ran warm water into the hand basin and dabbed her eyes, then dried them on the towel. Her mind was confused, because all she could think about was her husband's assertion that she did not know everything—and it was the second time he'd said it. She had invited him to explain, but he had ignored her and changed the subject. What was there for her to know? Perhaps he was merely saying that, trying to make excuses for his conduct; but there were no excuses.
During the afternoon, Jake telephoned. Kathryn had told him what time to do so—a time when she knew Leon always went for a walk—and as she heard his voice, her heart immediately became light. Fate had sent her this young man, she mused, and at this moment she could easily have left the villa and gone to him.
But the feeling soon passed, and she heard herself say, in answer to his invitation to have lunch with him the following day, 'That'll be nice, Jake. Shall I meet you in the usual place—in Constitution Square?'
'I shall be there!'
'You sound exceedingly happy.'
'I've just taken an exam and know I've passed.'
'Congratulations. It must be a wonderful feeling to come from the examination room and know you've done a good job.'
'It is a wonderful feeling. I'm on air! And so tomorrow, dear, we shall have a bottle of champagne to celebrate.'
'At lunchtime? Champagne's for dinner.'
'But you and I can't have dinner together.'
'No—'
'Or can we?' His tone was persuasive… and the suggestion was tempting!
Yet she hesitated, for it would be going rather too far to be away from home at dinnertime. 'I'll think about it,' she promised. 'Meanwhile, I'll meet you tomorrow at noon.'
'I'll be there. Good-bye, Kathryn.'
'Good-bye, Jake.'
She replaced the receiver slowly and thoughtfully. This could not continue indefinitely, and yet she would have a bleak prospect in front of her if she gave Jake up. Nothing to look forward to. She felt she would be forced to leave, to return to her own country and try to pick up the threads again. But her lovely flat was gone and she would never ever get one quite like it again. Her job, too, had been rather special; she could never hope to find another quite as pleasantly interesting and with the kind of boss who never complained or asked too much of his employees.
So much lost, and what for? It served her right for rushing into marriage with a man she scarcely knew. Why, she felt she knew Jake almost as well as she had known Leon when she married him!
Jake… She had to keep in mind that he was becoming far too fond of her, that with only the slightest encouragement he would suggest they have an affair. But she knew that it would not in his case be for any other reason than that he cared…
She wandered out into the garden and was soon joined by her mother-in-law. One glance at the older woman's pale, anxious face brought forth the question, 'Is something wrong, Mrs. Coletis?'
'I was just picking up my telephone when your friend rang.'
It was Kathryn's turn to lose colour. 'You… heard?'
'Everything.' The older woman, immaculate as always, with not a hair out of place, looked at her with neither censure nor contempt, but with pain in her eyes, deep pain and sadness. 'You're obviously having an affair—'
'It depends what you mean by having an affair!' Kathryn broke in swiftly. 'I have done nothing to be ashamed of, Mrs. Coletis.'
'You're seeing this young man—this Jake—when you go out. I suspected something, because it wasn't natural for you to be wandering about the streets of Athens alone so much. But I tried to shake off my suspicions.' She looked directly at Kathryn. 'I hope you know the risk you take. My son has a side to his nature that even I would not wish to see too often.'
'He's seeing Eugenia.'
'What makes you say that?'
'Christos saw them together, remember?'
'It's a great pity you overheard Marina and me speaking that day.'
'It was as well for me, Mrs. Coletis,' returned Kathryn coldly. 'I was living in a fool's paradise, whereas now I have come down to earth and my feet are firmly on the ground. You say that Leon has this other side to his nature, but that does not trouble me.
He dare not touch me, for if he did, then I would leave him.'
The older woman winced. 'You've told him this?'
'He knows just how I feel, and that I stay here only to suit myself. If ever he does anything to hurt or even annoy me, then it will no longer suit me to stay, and I shall go.'
'My dear Kathryn…' Mrs. Coletis came close and touched her arm. 'You've been dreadfully hurt, but Leon did treat you kindly, and I am sure that if you had not so unfortunately overheard what you did, you'd never have known that Leon did not love you.' The voice was quiet and gentle and somehow pleading, as well.
'I know all this.' Kathryn shook her head in a negative gesture. 'I'd have discovered it one day simply because a woman has this natural intuition; she senses things, and I know without any doubt at all that I would have sensed, eventually, that Leon did not love me.'
The older woman's glance was strange as she said, 'Were I you, with your looks and charm, I'd accept this situation as a challenge.'
'What do you mean?'
It was a few seconds before her mother-in-law spoke, for her attention had been arrested by two dainty little geckos who were chasing one another across the fine low-cut grass of the lawn. When presently she did speak, it was to say, 'I'd set about making my husband fall in love with me.'
Kathryn's chin lifted. 'Run after him? Flirt with him? Is that what you mean?'
'Sort of.' There was a faint smile of amusement on her lips as she added, 'After all, you of the West have this thing called women's liberation, which, I gather, gives you the right to be on equal terms with men. Therefore you are quite within your rights to pursue a man and to go on pursuing until he's caught.'
Somehow, that was so amusing, coming from a woman like Mrs. Coletis, who was always so correct and proper, that Kathryn actually found herself laughing. But she soon became serious again as she said that although she believed in women's lib and equality, she certainly did not intend 'chasing' her husband in order to make him fall in love with her. It had been done before, was Mrs. Coletis' swift reminder, but Kathryn merely shook her head in dismissal of the idea.
'In any case, Leon would hate that,' she ended thoughtfully.
'He wouldn't know, not if you are clever.'
Again Kathryn shook her head, but now she was actually musing on the older woman's suggestion. And it came as something of a shock to realise that she was actually considering it—not dismissing it, throwing it out, but accepting it as a possibility.
After all, Leon was attracted to her in one way… Could she create an interest that was spiritual, as well? Suddenly the idea became exciting, a challenge, as Mrs. Coletis had said it would be if she were in Kathryn's place.
'You… you really believe I could make Leon fall in love with me?' she asked unsteadily. And then she added with a frown, 'What about this Eugenia? I heard Marina say he was in love with her.'
A wise little smile came to Mrs. Coletis' lips and hovered there while she lo
oked at her daughter-in-law, taking in the silken mass of honey-brown hair, the big eyes beneath delicate brows, the small well-shaped nose and the wide generous mouth. 'My dear,' she murmured at length, 'if my son had been in love with Eugenia—really in love—do you suppose he could have hurt her by marrying another woman, no matter how pressing the reason?'
'He loves his sister,' was the evasive reply, and now there was a hint of censure on Mrs. Coletis' face.
'I asked you a question, dear, and you evaded an answer. Can it be that you are reluctant to give even an inch?'
Kathryn averted her head, profoundly aware of the fact that her mother-in-law had hit the nail on the head. She, Kathryn, was being antagonistic to a degree that could lead to her own destruction, for there was nothing to prevent Leon, should he come to the end of his patience, from demanding a divorce—which he could get on the grounds that she was not being a proper wife to him—after which he could marry Eugenia if he so wished. Or perhaps another woman… The thought of Leon being married to anyone else was so unbearable that Kathryn thrust the picture out, refusing to allow it to remain in her mental vision a moment longer.
She heard her mother-in-law give a little cough, and this brought her back to the question which had been asked. Kathryn looked at her and said curiously, 'Are you saying that Leon was not really in love with Eugenia?'
Mrs. Coletis paused a moment, as if she were considering an answer. 'I'll not deny that he liked her a lot at one time,' she was honest enough to say. 'However, I feel that he could never have been deeply in love or he'd never have sacrificed her happiness, and his own at the same time.'
'Is she beautiful?' An irrelevant question, and one that brought another smile to her mother-in-law's lips.
'Very, my dear, but in a dramatically different way from you.'
A moment's hesitation, and then, shyly, 'Do you think… think that Leon would ever fall in love with me… if… I tried… as you suggest?'
'I believe you have a rather more than ordinary chance of success.'
'I wouldn't know how to begin—'
'Nonsense, Kathryn,' admonished her mother-in-law. 'From the time of Eden, woman has managed to ensnare her man—'