by Anne Mather
‘Don’t you mind?’ she asked, in surprise.
Joanne smiled. ‘Of course not. Besides, housework alone is simply not enough for a woman.’
‘But surely there will be children,’ Marisa persisted.
‘Not immediately, and not as many as you might imagine,’ remarked Joanne wryly. ‘British families tend to be small.’
Marisa shook her head. ‘I would not like that,’ she asserted firmly. ‘I want to always be there to care for Constantine to administer to his needs, to prepare his food and mend his clothes. And I want lots of babies. Constantine says only children are lonely, as I am.’
Unwarrantably, an image of Dimitri came to Joanne’s mind. No doubt these were his sentiments as well, although as he seemed unwilling to contemplate marriage he might never experience his ideal.
‘Tell me,’ said Joanne suddenly, ‘why were you an only child? I mean - I understand our father wanted children ...’
Marisa sighed, nodding. ‘Yes, he did. But my mother was very ill when I was born and she was warned never to have another child.’
‘I see.’ Joanne bent her head. ‘It must have been very hard for her - for them both - to accept.’
Marisa shrugged. ‘In the circumstances, perhaps it was as well,’ she remarked sagely. She frowned. ‘When my father first became ill it was not thought to be so serious, you know, and he kept on working, but after a time his health deteriorated so rapidly that he could not go on. We used to live in Athens. It was beautiful there. And there was so much life!’ There was a wistful ring to her voice and Joanne sympathized with her. After all, the delights of Dionysius were such that they required someone with whom to share them. A lonely childlike Marisa must have found it doubly isolated. Maybe her own life in England had not been colourful, but at least she had had plenty of opportunities for meeting people.
On Tuesday evening Dimitri came to the villa to see her father, but as he did not arrive until after dinner when Matthieu was already in his room, Joanne did not see him. He remained with Matthieu the whole time he was there and left without ceremony. Joanne told herself she was glad he had done that, and yet there was a sickly ache in her stomach which was somehow involved with the realization that she would be leaving on Saturday morning and would probably never see any of them again. Her father seemed to deliberately avoid any mention of her coming departure and instead maintained a calm and cheerful disposition which in some way hurt Joanne. She had thought he would face her departure with much difficulty, but it seemed she was mistaken.
On Wednesday morning Matt surprised them all by appearing for breakfast. His wheelchair swished into position, expertly guided by Lukas, and Matt faced his family with smiling complacence.
Andrea was the only one to look doubtful at this unexpected departure from routine, but Matt silenced her with a frown. ‘I could not stay in my room this morning,’ he averred. ‘It is such a wonderful day! Tell me, has the steamer from Piraeus arrived yet?’
Andrea lifted her shoulders. ‘No doubt it has,’ she agreed resignedly, ‘but as none of us are gifted with second sight we cannot be certain. No doubt you will find out in due course.’
Matt’s face was animated, and Joanne wondered what it was about the arrival of the steamer that caused him such pleasure. He gave her a sudden, heart-warming smile, and she felt a lump come into her throat. He was so charming, so gentle, so everything she had ever wanted a father to be, and in three days she would be leaving him - for ever.
In an effort to put these disquieting thoughts out of her mind, she said: ‘What shall we do today, Marisa? Or is Constantine coming over?’ Constantine had not been such a frequent visitor since his brother’s arrival, but Marisa didn’t seem to object to this. Possibly she thought that Dimitri’s visits were so infrequent and of such short duration that she could afford to allow Constantine to spend his time with him.
Now Marisa looked slightly disconcerted, glancing first at Matthieu and then at Andrea as though for guidance. Joanne frowned. What was going on? Obviously something was. Had they planned some sort of farewell party for her or a barbecue on the beach, perhaps?
Andrea tapped a lacquered nail against her saucer. ‘More coffee, Joanne,’ she suggested brightly, but Joanne refused, feeling a little put out. Did they have to be so obvious about it? Did they think she wanted to leave?
Just as she was about to excuse herself from the table they all heard the sound of a vehicle drawing up outside. It sounded like the Land Rover and Joanne looked up expectantly, expecting to see Constantine entering the room. But the footsteps that sounded across the hall were heavier than those of only one man, and she looked round curiously, wondering who he had brought with him. Then her face paled slightly under the golden tan that was rapidly deepening. It was Dimitri Kastro, not his brother, who entered the room. But he was not alone. A young man was with him. A young man who looked strangely out of place in a dark suit in such brilliant surroundings.
‘Jimmy!’ Joanne could scarcely believe her eyes. ‘Jimmy - what are you doing here?’
Jimmy Lorrimer halted in the doorway, looking across at the group round the table rather nervously. ‘He - hello, Joanne!’ he said jerkily. ‘How - how are you?’
Joanne got disbelievingly to her feet, her eyes going to Dimitri as though seeking some sort of reassurance that this was only an hallucination. Dimitri’s eyes were guarded and cold, and she looked at her father instead. ‘Please—’ she began. ‘What’s going on?’
Matthieu chuckled delightedly. ‘Really surprised you, didn’t I, Joanne? You didn’t think I had it in me, did you? Getting in touch with your fiancé and bringing him out here instead of you having to go back!’
‘What?’ Joanne was confused and bewildered.
Matthieu propelled his chair away from the breakfast table. ‘Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Your fiancé has come out for a holiday, too. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.’
Joanne’s mind went blank. She turned to Jimmy. ‘But - but your father - the business ...’ she faltered.
Jimmy grinned. ‘All taken care of, like your job was. Mum and Dad are delighted. You know they didn’t approve of you coming out here alone.’ He looked challengingly at Dimitri as he said this, but Dimitri merely turned away and stared bleakly out across the patio to the azure blue of the sea beyond.
Joanne cast a bewildered glance in his direction. How much had he known of this, and how much was he involved in the instigation of it? She didn’t know, but certainly it explained a few things so far as Marisa was concerned. This was why she had suddenly become so friendly. As Joanne was soon to have a man of her own to watch over her Marisa could afford to be generous about it.
Joanne felt frustrated. Why, oh, why had they interfered, any of them? She didn’t want Jimmy out here! She wanted to go home, back to England and the things she knew, the places she was familiar with, where life was simply lived and not fought over. She heaved a tremulous sigh. But Jimmy was delighted, her father was delighted, even Andrea and Marisa were delighted, and somehow she had to convince them that she was delighted, too. Only Dimitri seemed unmoved by it all. He stood there, with his back to them, tall and dark and enigmatic.
They were all waiting for some sort of enthusiastic reaction from Joanne, so she did the only thing possible in the circumstances. She went eagerly across to her fiancé, and kissed him warmly on the lips.
CHAPTER NINE
The sun was climbing into its zenith, and Joanne sat up and slid her arms into the sleeves of the striped towelling beach coat which was lying beside her on the sand. Marisa had lent her the coat and she had used it a lot since Jimmy arrived. She wrapped her arms round her drawn-up knees and glanced at her fiancé stretched out on a towel beside her. His eyes were closed behind dark glasses and his skin, which had been insipidly pale when he came to Dionysius, was now gradually tanning. He did not tan easily and had suffered agonies of sunburn until Andrea had given him some cream which when spread liberally g
ave him the protection he needed. But apart from that he was loving every minute of it and seemed to have settled down well with the other members of the family. Her father, exercising his not inconsiderable charm, had soon put the younger man at his ease, and as they both played chess they had a mutual interest which Matt had exploited cheerfully in the long evenings. Andrea treated him as she treated Constantine, with lazy good-humour, and she was easy-going enough for Jimmy to respond to her attitude. Marisa, too, found her half-sister’s boy-friend extremely likeable, and as Jimmy knew quite a lot more about skin-diving than Joanne did they got along famously.
Only Joanne felt detached from the family circle, which was quite ridiculous really, she told herself, when the whole reason for Jimmy being here was to please her.
She looked away from him now, allowing her gaze to drift idly across the finely-sanded shore to the horizon beyond. It was another marvellous day with scarcely a ripple of cloud in the sky. She should have been feeling absolutely content, surrounded as she was by the people she loved best. But instead, she felt moody and restless and on edge, and at times had the greatest difficulty in maintaining a cheerful disposition when all she wanted to do was go off on her own somewhere and just put everything out of her mind. Her father had been so sure his actions on her behalf would give her pleasure that she could not share her doubts with him, and there was no one else. Besides, she inwardly derided her own stupidity when all she seemed capable of doing was railing against a future which she had chosen for herself.
She looked back at Jimmy half-impatiently. Since his arrival on the island a week ago he had spoken very little about his own feelings regarding her father and she knew he expected her to return to England with him in ten days when the steamer called again. When she was feeling particularly depressed she thought with some resentment that he had been eager enough to accept her father’s invitation when it was offered to him in spite of his so-called principles, but then she felt ashamed of criticizing him so.
Of Dimitri she had seen nothing since the day Jimmy arrived and that, if she was honest with herself, was the crux of the matter. It didn’t seem to matter how many times she told herself that he was a beast and had no respect for her, his image still stayed in her thoughts to torture and torment her. Perhaps, if Jimmy had not been there, she would have seen him again and come to terms with herself, but as it was his presence on the island, so near and yet so far, was a constant distraction to her peace of mind. Of course, Constantine seemed to take a particular delight in regaling his brother’s doings in Joanne’s hearing, and she realized this was his way of getting his own back on her for her treatment of him. Perhaps if Dimitri had left the island and returned to his work in Athens she would have felt better, but obviously he was in no hurry to get back.
As though aware of her scrutiny, Jimmy suddenly opened his eyes and grinned at her. ‘Is it late?’ he asked lazily.
Joanne looked away, shrugging. ‘Almost noon. Shall we swim?’
Jimmy sighed and stretched and then sat up. ‘Do you want to?’ he queried, putting a casual arm across her shoulders.
Joanne lifted her shoulders indifferently, then scrambled to her feet, leaving him sitting looking up at her with a puzzled expression on his handsome face.
‘Now what’s wrong, Jo?’ he asked curiously, and she realized with a feeling of contrition that she had not wanted him to touch her. With a particularly coaxing smile she begged his forgiveness, and said:
‘Nothing’s wrong, love! I just felt I’d sat still long enough. Come on! Let’s have a last swim before lunch.’
Jimmy studied her for a moment, then he too scrambled to his feet. ‘Okay,’ he agreed good-naturedly. ‘I guess I tend to forget you’ve got a lot on your mind.’
‘What?’ Joanne stared at him sharply.
Jimmy frowned. ‘Why - your father, of course,’ he exclaimed, and she coloured brilliantly.
‘Oh, yes, of course,’ she said, shedding the beach coat hastily, a feeling of self-loathing sweeping over her. ‘Come on! I’ll race you into the water!’
They played like children for over half an hour and then Jimmy lifted her bodily into his arms and carried her out on to the sand. Setting her on her feet, he said: ‘You know I love you, don’t you, Joanne?’ in a husky voice.
Joanne could not turn away as she wanted to do. Instead, she allowed him to kiss her with increasing ardour before drawing back and saying in a light tone: ‘Come on, now, Jimmy. Anybody can see us from the house.’
Jimmy kicked at the sand with his bare toes. ‘Who cares?’ he exclaimed, but he bent and gathered up the towels before joining her to walk up to the villa.
In her room, Joanna stripped off her bathing suit and took a shower before dressing in navy cotton pants and a navy knitted cotton shirt. She rubbed her hair almost dry and secured it with an elastic band before applying some eyeshadow to her lids. Then, satisfied that she required no further cosmetics, she left her room and walked along to the lounge.
It appeared to be deserted and she walked across to the drinks cabinet and extracted a tin of iced lager from its refrigerated cabinet before she realized a man was sitting in one of the deep armchairs, the sun’s shadow successfully providing him with anonymity. At first, before her eyes accustomed themselves to the gloom, she thought it was Constantine, but as he rose to his feet she realized it was not Constantine at all, but Dimitri.
Immediately her composure left her and she had to force herself to turn her back on him while she fumblingly removed the lid half from the can and poured the lager into a tall glass. Then, taking a sip of the liquid to give her confidence, she turned and faced him, managing what she hoped was a casual smile.
‘Well, hello,’ she said lightly. ‘Long time, no see.’
Dimitri walked lazily across to the cabinet and for a heart-stopping moment she thought he meant to touch her, but he merely reached past her for the bottle of Scotch and poured some into his empty glass, adding a couple of cubes of ice for good measure. Then he stood regarding her solemnly while he swallowed half his drink, giving her ample opportunity to observe him. Dressed today in a silk lounge suit in a rather attractive shade of bronze combined with a cream shirt patterned with dark brown, he looked elegant and sophisticated and she could hardly associate this cool detached individual with the man who had made such passionate love to her on that beach ten days ago. Yet he was the same man, and when his eyes held hers for a long moment she knew he was remembering it, too.
When he didn’t speak, she became confused and stumbled into speech herself, anything to break the tension that seemed to surround them. ‘What - what are you doing here?’ she asked. ‘Are - aren’t you returning to Athens yet?’
He finished his drink, replaced his empty glass on the cabinet and reached into his pocket for his cheroots. Then, as he placed one between his teeth and lit it with his lighter, he said:
‘I was invited to lunch by your father. As for leaving - you may be relieved to learn that I have to return to Athens tomorrow. Constantine will take me across to Acrymia in the morning and there is a plane there I can use to get back to the mainland. It’s privately owned by a friend of mine.’
Joanne was amazed at the overwhelming sense of depression she felt at his words. It was terrifying to realize how important he had become to her almost without her being fully aware of it. It was all very well wishing he would leave and give her some peace, but would there be any knowing he was in Athens, probably with some other woman? There was bound to be another woman; a man like Dimitri Kastro was too attractive to spend his leisure time alone.
‘I see,’ she said now, her voice taut with emotion, even though she was fighting for composure. ‘I suppose we’ll be gone when you come back.’
Dimitri studied her thoughtfully. ‘That’s a pretty definite statement,’ he commented wryly. ‘You leave in a little over a week, don’t you?’
‘Yes.’ Joanne put down her glass, barely touched, and turned away. ‘The - the wea
ther has been marvellous, anyway. It’s been - a - a thrilling experience in more ways than one.’
‘I suppose - your fiancé likes it here.’ Dimitri spoke casually.
‘Jimmy? Oh, yes, he adores it.’ Joanne bit her lip tightly. ‘I don’t suppose we’ll ever forget how kind everyone has been.’
‘Even me?’ he queried huskily, and she swung round to face him, her brows drawn together.
Linking her fingers together, she said: ‘I suppose I really ought to apologize, oughtn’t I? I mean - well, I did behave rather stupidly that day on the beach, didn’t I?’
Dimitri ran his hand thoughtfully down the thick growth of hair on one side of his cheekbone. ‘You don’t expect me to apologize, too, I hope!’ he remarked tauntingly, and she coloured hotly.
Holding up her head, she gave him what she hoped was a quelling stare. ‘I’ve learned not to expect anything of you!’ she replied coldly, but he merely smiled.
‘You mean - you never know what to expect,’ he corrected her mockingly. ‘However, you will soon be relieved of the necessity of acknowledging my existence at all, so that should please you!’
Joanne compressed her lips. As usual he had successfully disposed of her attempt to humiliate him. He seemed capable of destroying every defence she might erect around her uncertain emotions, reducing her to a trembling mass of nervous tensions.
As though sensing her vulnerability, he deliberately changed the subject, saying easily: ‘How is your father today? I’m afraid I have neglected him this past week.’
Joanne swallowed with difficulty, seized her glass of lager to give her something to do with her hands, and replied: ‘I think he’s quite well. I expect he will be joining us for lunch.’ She was relieved to hear that her voice sounded almost normal.