Man Without Honour

by Anne Hampson

She awoke to the sun slanting through the space in the drapes where they had not quite met. She rose on one elbow, looking at Leon's dark head on the pillow as memory flooded in.

  He had been gentle after all, and as sleep claimed him, he had whispered, so softly that she felt it must not have been intended for her ears at all, 'Good night, dear, and sleep well.'

  She had lain awake thinking about it, and into her mind had repeatedly come his assertion that she did not know everything. Why should that particular memory intrude? And why should it seem in some way allied to those whispered words, spoken almost tenderly?

  There seemed to be no feasible explanation and, at last, she had dismissed the matter from her mind and fallen into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

  Leon stirred beside her and turned; she saw his eyes harden, and a sudden dejection spread over her.

  'What time is it?' he asked abruptly, and when she told him, he slid from the bed, grabbing the dressing-gown from the chair where he had put it last night. She watched him slip it on and tie the cord, and then without so much as another word or even a backward glance, he strode towards the door and passed through it into his room.

  She got up immediately, bathed and dressed and met Leon again in the breakfast-room. He looked immaculate as usual, and devastatingly handsome.

  'Good morning,' she said, and meant it to sound sarcastic.

  He looked hard at her and she sensed an impotent anger which at first she could not understand. 'Good morning,' he responded, and held out her chair for her. She took possession of it and watched him sit down opposite her. They always breakfasted alone; Mrs. Coletis and Marina usually had theirs either in Marina's sitting-room or her mother's. 'I hope you slept well.' Leon's eyes registered sardonic amusement meant to make her blush, but she lifted her chin instead.

  'Very well, thank you.' She reached over to take a piece of toast.

  Leon said tersely, 'I take it that you fully understand that this affair with Jake is finished?'

  'I've already told you it is.'

  'And I said I don't believe you,' he said, and rebellion was instantly born within her. She'd let him believe what he liked!

  Her eyes glinted as temper flared. She forgot the tender resolution she had made, the half-promise given to her mother-in-law. Leon was trying her patience, and she retaliated instinctively. 'I believe I told you that my life is my own.'

  'Not while you are my wife.' Although his voice was quiet enough, a wrathful flood of crimson stained his cheeks and his nostrils thinned unpleasantly. How pagan he looked! How domineering and superior! Could she expect to win a battle with such a man? Nevertheless, she had to try, for it was not in her nature to be subjugated, treated as if she were one of his Greek countrywomen, used to submitting to the masculine dominance which prevailed in their country.

  'You married me under false pretences and, therefore, I do not consider myself obligated in any way to obey your wishes, much less your orders,' she added with a flash of defiance which instantly brought more angry blood to his face.

  He looked directly at her across the table, his eyes lynx-like beneath those straight black brows. 'In Greece the husband is the master, and you are in Greece, married to a Greek. I shall not allow you to continue to defy me.' Still quiet the voice, but determined and expressive.

  Kathryn, unable to find an immediate retort, helped herself to fruit from the bowl of mangoes and bananas. But her hand trembled and her heart was sad, so sad that tears came unbidden to her eyes. She blinked rapidly to prevent them from falling onto her cheeks, for surely that would give away her secret—that this rift was far more painful to her than to him. But perhaps he knew it already, she mused after a time. He knew she had once been in love with him, and although she felt she had convinced him that she no longer had any feelings for him, he was so astute that her responses of last night might have told him far more than she would have wished. A deeper sadness filled her heart as the memory of that came back to her with profound emotion and intensity. So loving they had been with each other…

  'Just what made you enter into an affair with this man?' Leon broke the silence, and she glanced up from cutting herself a piece of mango.

  'Does it matter?' she returned in a tone more flat than she would have wished.

  'Be careful,' warned her husband dangerously. 'You've seen something of my temper, but not the worst of it.'

  She coloured and averted her face, angry and humiliated at this reminder of his mastery over her. 'You can't domineer over me,' she said quietly. 'I'm my own mistress, no matter what you say to the contrary. You are the one to blame in all this, but your attitude can hardly be described as one of guilt. You're far too arrogant and—'

  'Shall we keep to the point,' he cut in impatiently. 'This affair—it has ended, understand?'

  'You mean, I shan't see Jake again?'

  'What else?' His face was dark, his manner withdrawn. 'You're not obtuse; you understand what I'm saying.'

  'I can leave you,' she challenged. 'And if you try me too far, I shall.'

  'Again, I don't believe you.'

  'Oh, and why?' She looked at him interestedly, the knife idle in her hands.

  'Because you're far too comfortable here, that is one reason. Reason two is that whatever is lacking in our marriage certainly has nothing to do with the physical side. I give you what you need—'

  'Shut up!' she flared. 'Let's leave that side out of it!' She was hot and embarrassed and her appetite was gone. She put down the knife and threw her napkin on the table. 'I refuse to carry on this kind of a conversation!' She made to rise, but her husband was there; an arrogant, masterful pressure on her shoulder compelled her to remain where she was. 'Let me go!' she cried, but the pressure increased, painfully so.

  'Get your breakfast,' he ordered harshly. 'I assure you that if you don't obey me, I shall force it down your throat.'

  She stared and gasped, beginning to shake her head, but one upward glance confirmed the seriousness of his threat, and she picked up her napkin again and spread it across her knees. Leon released her and went back to his chair.

  No more was said about Jake—in fact, neither spoke at all, not even when, the meal finished, they left the room, Leon by the door and Kathryn by the French window leading to the patio.

  Later the same day Christos came for a brief visit. After seeing Marina, who was reading on the verandah of her room, he sought out Kathryn, and as soon as she saw his expression, she guessed that something of importance was going to be said to her.

  'I really came especially to talk to you,' he said without preamble when he caught up to her. She was wandering along a shady garden path at the end of which was an ornamental pool where brightly coloured fish swam and where a rocky cascade sparkled in the sun as its crystal-clear waters tumbled in wild abandon into the pool. On the edge of the pool were many different greens and other, brighter colours, for flowers grew in abundance, and the whole area around the pool was a veritable fairyland of colour and perfume, of light and shade and music, and, most of all, tranquillity.

  'You did?' Kathryn feigned surprise as she added, looking up into his handsome English features, 'I'm honoured, Christos. Is there something important you have to say to me?'

  'It's questions, mostly.'

  'Yes?' She sauntered on, and he slowed his steps to match hers.

  'There's a seat along there…' He pointed, and she nodded her head. 'Will you sit with me for a while?'

  'Of course. That was where I was going, in fact.'

  They reached the bench, a little rustic seat for two beneath the shade of a jacaranda tree with a flaring hibiscus hedge around three sides of it. It faced the pool, with the waterfall to the right. A couple of gaily plumaged ducks were gliding over the water where, at the far end, it was smooth and gleaming and bordered with aquatic plants.

  'You've noticed that Marina is getting worse?' His voice had changed dramatically; it was now broken and low, and in addition Kathryn could have sworn that the
re were tears in his eyes. A man crying. Oh, but that was something that caught at her heartstrings! Nothing so sad as to see a man cry.

  'We all have,' she answered gently, and although she would have liked to utter words of comfort, they just would not come.

  'Kathryn, until this new disaster, when she collapsed after leaving the wheelchair, I felt, like Leon, that Marina's illness was something she had brought on herself, that it was a psychological phenomenon.'

  'But you had nothing to support that idea,' she just had to say.

  'Did Leon have anything to support his idea?'

  He did, thought Kathryn; he knew of the curse, knew just how strongly it had affected his sister.

  'I don't know just what you are getting at,' she said guardedly.

  'I felt that Marina's illness was some kind of malady brought on by a mental defect—'

  'Mental defect?' swiftly and protestingly. 'Marina's mind is perfectly normal, Christos.'

  'What is normal? By what do we measure normality? Are you normal? Do you do everything rationally, logically?'

  Kathryn frowned. She was acutely aware of her attitude towards Leon that morning at breakfast when, although she had definitely given Jake up, she had then gone out of her way to convince her husband that she had no intention of giving him up.

  'You have a point,' she conceded, but went on to say again that Marina was what would generally be termed normal.

  'You gave her a ring.' Brief and emphasised the statement, which was followed by the even more brief, 'Why?'

  'Why?' Kathryn played for time without knowing what she wanted time for anyway.

  'Yes, why? It's a very valuable ring.'

  'I don't think I understand.'

  'Oh, yes you do, Kathryn. That ring matched some other jewellery which Marina has.'

  'Have you seen this other jewellery?' she inquired with interest, and he nodded his head saying yes, he had seen it, a long time ago, when Marina was well and happy.

  'Marina said a strange thing on her birthday. She said she would soon be better, and like a flash she was showing me the ring. "This will make me well, Christos, just you see." She seemed very young, Kathryn, in that particular moment, like a child—a trusting child, yes, trusting and innocent. I loved her dearly before, but at that moment she was like an angel, so innocent, so trusting.'

  'Trusting—you have used the word several times—'

  'She trusted the ring.' The cool grey eyes were narrowed and searching. 'You know something. You must, or you'd not have given it to her.

  Kathryn paused, debating whether to tell him everything—yes, she realised, it would have to be everything or nothing at all, since to tell him part would assuredly whet his appetite for more.

  'Did Marina draw your attention to the fact that the ring matched the other jewellery she had?' inquired Kathryn at length, bypassing his query for the time being..

  Christos shook his head. 'I rather think she'd forgotten I'd ever seen the other jewellery.'

  'She must have known you'd be puzzled by her stating that the ring would make her well?'

  'She seemed in a dream—sort of,' explained Christos with a reflective frown. 'Excited and… optimistic. Kathryn,' he said urgently, 'I must know what this is all about!'

  Kathryn still hesitated, for while she was deeply sympathetic towards Christos, she was at the same time reluctant to explain everything to him, since this must include the circumstances of her marriage, and its failure. But even as she was trying to decide, Christos was speaking again, saying he wanted the mystery explained.

  'Mystery?'

  'Mystery!' he echoed affirmatively. 'Please don't keep me on tenterhooks, Kathryn,' he begged. 'It's something bordering on the unnatural, isn't it?'

  Kathryn was swift to deny this. 'Rather is it psychological,' she went on, having decided to tell him the whole. 'Do you believe in curses?'

  'Curses?' He frowned. 'No, certainly not!'

  'Nor did I at one time, nor am I sure I do now. But some strange things have happened to people owning that jewellery.' She went on to relate everything since the moment she had dug up the ring in her garden in England. Christos was fascinated, speechlessly so, and could only stare, wide-eyed, until she had finished.

  'I can't believe in a curse,' he said slowly after a long and frowning silence. 'It isn't possible that this fellow could put a curse on the jewellery. And if he could,' added Christos inconsistently, 'the curse wouldn't last this long, or affect any family other than the St. Cleres.'

  'That's exactly how I saw it,' agreed Kathryn. 'And so I wore the ring, and enjoyed wearing it. But… but after what happened about my marriage…' She trailed off, half-regretting this particular confidence, yet at the same time telling herself again that it would be impossible to leave part of the story out.

  'You must feel devastated. It was wrong of Leon to marry you for that reason, and yet…'He broke off and looked apologetically at her. 'From my own, selfish viewpoint, Kathryn, if it had worked I'd only have been able to be glad… Oh, but no, I ought not to have been glad!' Distress looked out from his eyes, and Kathryn automatically placed a soothing hand on his arm.

  'Don't worry about it, Christos,' she advised in gentle tones. 'It's done anyway, so nothing can undo it. Regrets are futile after something has already come to pass.' Her smile was jaded as she looked at him. 'I only wish there had been some profit in it for someone.' Sadly, she shook her head. 'What is going to happen to Marina now…?' Again she stopped, this time to look at him with deep compassion in her lovely eyes. 'And you, Christos? What will you do with your life?'

  He shook his head; she saw his lip quiver, and her heart caught. 'I suppose the situation's no different than it was before she became so excited, so sure she would be well after she owned the ring.' He paused a moment, then changed the subject. 'You're a rather wonderful person, Kathryn. I think Leon must be crazy not to have fallen in love with you before now.'

  'He has someone else. You know that.'

  'Eugenia?'

  'You saw him with her in Glifadha, remember? I've just told you I overheard the conversation between Marina and her mother.'

  'It was regrettable that you did!' came the expressive comment.

  'But best that I know where I stand. It's not my wish to live in a fool's paradise.'

  'Where ignorance is bliss…' he quoted, but she shook her head.

  'The truth would have come out sometime.'

  'I don't believe there's anything between Leon and Eugenia now,' he said in an effort to raise her spirits.

  'Then why was he with her?'

  'It could have been an accidental meeting. It does happen, you know.'

  'But when you told Marina you'd seen them together, you must have wondered why they were with one another, for otherwise you'd not have mentioned it at all.'

  'I suppose I was curious, at the time,' he admitted reflectively. 'Still, I'd not condemn him out of hand, Kathryn. So much heartache can occur through misjudging people.'

  Kathryn brooded on this, recalling vividly her husband's conviction that she had been having an affair with Jake, and his refusal to believe her when she told him it was ended now. That had caused heartache… and she was now causing herself heartache by believing the worst of her husband.

  'He did say it was all over between him and Eugenia,' she murmured thoughtfully.

  'Then it probably is, because Leon wouldn't lie.'

  'Perhaps you're right. If it is true that there's no longer anything between them, then there could be a chance for our marriage.'

  It was Christos' turn to do the comforting; he touched her hand and then covered it with his palm.

  'You're so lovely that he'll not be able to help himself. He'll fall head over heels in love with you!' He paused and smiled at her blushes. 'Are you quite sure he hasn't fallen in love with you already?'

  'Quite sure,' she answered, thinking of his brutal treatment of her after he had seen her with Jake. He had refused to listen w
hen she tried to convince him that it was all ended, and she strongly suspected, too, that he did not believe it had all been platonic anyway.

  'Why are you so sure, Kathryn?' asked Christos gently.

  She smiled faintly and shook her head. 'I cannot tell you how I know, but I do know, Christos.'

  He left soon afterwards, and that evening Leon informed her that he would be away for a couple of days. 'I'm going to Rhodes,' he ended tersely. They were in the salon alone, waiting to be joined by Mrs. Coletis and Marina. But Marina had been crying on and off all afternoon, and Kathryn had an idea that the girl would not be joining them at all.

  'Rhodes,' she repeated, wishing with all her heart she could say, 'I am coming with you, darling,' but instead she looked at him with an expressionless gaze and said that one day she would like to see the lovely island.

  To that he made no comment, nor did he come to her that night. She was lonely and depressed. She had asked Christos what was going to happen to his life, but now she wondered what was going to happen to hers. She and Leon could not go on for the rest of their lives like this… and yet, could she bear to say a final good-bye to him? She closed her eyes tightly, but the tears oozed through her lashes. She buried her face in her pillow and wept unrestrainedly into it.

  A few days later she was wandering through the narrow streets of the Plaka when she saw Jake coming towards her and she stopped, her eyes darting about to seek for a place where she could hide until he had passed. But he had seen her and his smile came, a weak attempt, it was true, but it seemed to lighten Kathryn's spirits and she went forward eagerly to meet him.

  'Oh, but it's great to see you!' he exclaimed, taking her hand in his. 'What are you doing—just strolling?'

  'That's right.'

  'It shouldn't be like this.' He sighed as he spoke. 'You, a new bride, walking about aimlessly instead of enjoying these most precious days and months.'

  'I don't want to talk about it…' Her voice broke, and to her consternation, she started to cry.

  'Let's get away from here!' He was still holding her hand as he guided her towards a narrow alleyway which took them out of the main bustle of the area. 'I know of a tiny cafeneion which is frequented only by a few of the locals. It's very quiet at this time of day.'