Smokescreen Marriage

by Sara Craven

  Victorine transferred her glare to him. ‘I am saying it did not happen,’ she returned shrilly.

  ‘It was the day Mick came back from New York,’ Kate continued. An immense calm seemed to have settled on her. ‘I was supposed to go to Ithaca, and Mick’s father had gone fishing with a friend. But my trip was cancelled, and when I rang home, Yannis told me that Mick was here. So, I came rushing back to the beach house to see him. Only, I found you as well.’ For the first time there was a break in her voice.

  ‘A terrible betrayal.’ Ari’s tone was meditative. ‘We have both been deceived, Katharina.’ He paused. ‘Is this why you went back to England so suddenly, pedhi mou?’

  ‘Yes.’ Kate bit her lip.

  ‘Without speaking of what you had seen—or demanding an explanation from my son?’

  ‘I couldn’t say anything. It was too painful. And there was no reason for anyone else to be hurt,’ she added with difficulty. ‘Besides, the evidence was there. I know what I saw.’

  ‘So, you decided to spare my feelings at the expense of your own.’ Ari nodded thoughtfully. ‘That was kind, my child, but unnecessary. I have long known the truth.’

  He looked at Mick. ‘What happened that afternoon, my son?’

  ‘I wish I knew.’ Mick shrugged. ‘I returned from New York earlier than planned, but when I arrived Yannis told me Kate had gone out for the day.

  He frowned. ‘I went down to the house to change. The jet lag had hit me hard, so I tried taking a shower. In the end, I decided to have a brief nap. I remember nothing more.’

  He looked at Kate. ‘Except that at some point you touched me, and said my name. I suppose you were trying to wake me. And I said “I love you.”’

  Kate’s eyes widened, and her hand went to her throat.

  ‘But when I eventually awoke,’ he went on almost conversationally. ‘It was to find you had left me—with a note simply stating our marriage was over.’

  His mouth twisted. ‘I assumed that you were still angry about my refusal to take you to New York—and that other disagreement we’d had.

  ‘But I couldn’t believe you’d gone without giving me a chance to put things right between us, and so I got angry too.

  ‘But, of course, I didn’t realise you’d discovered my flagrant infidelity,’ he added reflectively. ‘Little wonder that you did not wish to remain with me.’

  ‘Ari,’ Victorine spoke desperately. ‘Don’t listen to them. This is all nonsense. You heard—their marriage is in deep trouble, and because of that they are trying to destroy our relationship too.’

  ‘What I see,’ Ari said, ‘Is that something happened that afternoon that was sufficient to put Katharina to flight. To make her wish to end her marriage to my son. And that is serious.

  ‘Or perhaps not,’ he added meditatively. ‘Maybe it was intended as a joke—only it misfired a little.’ He looked at Victorine. ‘Is that how it was, kougla mou?’

  His voice was gentle, but there was a note in it that sent a shiver down Kate’s spine.

  There was a long taut silence, then Victorine said sullenly, ‘A joke, yes. But she was too stupid to realise she was being teased,’ she added with a venomous look at Kate.

  ‘I see.’ Ari nodded. ‘But why did you not explain this good joke as soon as you saw that it had gone wrong? That it had caused real hurt? Because you must have realised this very quickly.’

  There was another silence, then Victorine shrugged defensively. ‘They were—neither of them here. Michalis was working, and the girl was in London.’

  ‘The girl?’ Mick’s voice bit. ‘You will speak of my wife with respect.’

  ‘What is there to respect?’ Victorine spat back at him, her face twisted, ugly with dislike. ‘She has nothing—is nothing—that pale-faced English bitch. What has she to offer any man? And you—you could have had me.’

  There was another telling silence, then Mick said gently, ‘There was never any question of marriage between us, Victorine, and I made that clear to you from the first. If you believed that might change, I am sorry.’

  ‘Sorry.’ She threw back her head and laughed harshly, the creamy skin tinged with an unhealthy flush. ‘Yes, you have been sorry, Kyrios Theodakis, as you deserve. Because no man ever finishes with me. I am the one who leaves—always. Always—do you hear me?’

  ‘Is that what this was all about?’ Mick closed his eyes for a second. ‘Dear God, it is unbelievable.’

  ‘And then your wife left you,’ Victorine went on gloatingly. ‘So you found out what it was like. Oh, that made me happy.’ And she laughed again.

  ‘Please.’ Kate’s voice was barely audible. ‘I don’t think I can bear any more of this.’

  ‘You do not have to, pedhi mou. None of us do.’ There was a cold harshness in Ari’s voice. He looked at Mick, ‘Go with your wife, my son. Make things right between you.’

  He paused. ‘But first be good enough to ask Iorgos Vasso to come here. There are arrangements to be made. And send Androula also,’ he added. ‘Victorine will need help with her packing.’

  ‘You are telling me to go?’ Victorine’s voice cracked.

  ‘Ne,’ he said. ‘As I should have done long ago.’ He gave a bitter sigh. ‘I was wrong to bring you here, and I knew it. It was an act of stupidity and vindictiveness by a man who had quarrelled with his son.’ He looked at Mick. ‘You made me feel old, Michalis, and I did not wish that. I wanted my youth back again—my strength. But I have learned my lesson.’

  ‘You can send me away—after all we have been to each other?’ Victorine’s tone was pleading.

  ‘You are a beautiful woman, Victorine. And I am a rich fool. It is not a very admirable combination. But, let us not waste time in recrimination,’ he added more briskly. ‘Iorgos will arrange to have you flown anywhere you wish to go.’

  She stumbled to her feet. ‘Yes,’ she said thickly. ‘You are a fool—to think that I could ever want you. It was Michalis—always. Can’t you see that? I thought if I came here, I could make him want me again.’

  ‘Yes,’ Ari said quietly. ‘He saw that, but I would not, and we quarrelled again. But now it is all over. And you, kougla mou, will have to find another rich fool.’

  ‘But then he brought her,’ Victorine went on as if he had not spoken. ‘And I saw the way he looked at her, and spoke. I knew that he loved her, and I wished to destroy that. I was there when Yannis took her call, so I went down to the beach house and found Michalis asleep.’ She gave a throaty giggle. ‘It was perfect. All I had to do was undress also—and wait.’

  Kate pressed her knuckles against her mouth. ‘Oh, God.’

  Mick’s arm was round her, holding her as she swayed. ‘Come, agapi mou. You don’t need to hear any more. Let us go back to the house.’

  ‘Look after her,’ Ari called after them. ‘But do not forget that we have guests. I need Katharina to preside at the breakfast table.’

  ‘Then you will be disappointed, Papa,’ Michael tossed back at him. ‘Do not expect either of us until dinner.’

  In the hallway, he said, ‘I must find Iorgos, and Androula. Will you wait for me?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’ll wait.’

  He framed her face with his hands, looking into her eyes. ‘And you won’t run away from me again?’

  Her lips trembled into a smile. ‘Not this time. I’ll be on the terrace.’

  Outside, the wind was fresh and clean. Kate leaned on the balustrade, looking down at the foam-capped waves through the trees.

  He came to stand beside her. ‘What are you thinking?’

  She said, with a shiver, ‘That was—horrible.’

  ‘Perhaps.’ He shrugged. ‘But also effective.’

  ‘I almost feel sorry for her.’

  ‘Save your compassion, my Kate. She showed no pity for you.’

  Kate hesitated. ‘Whatever she’s done, she is very beautiful. Were you ever in love with her?’

  ‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘I found her am
using at first, but I soon realised that her loveliness was only skin deep. I ended the relationship without regret.’

  ‘How on earth did your father get involved with her?’

  ‘To spite me,’ he said wryly. ‘You heard what he said, matia mou. They met at a party, not by chance, I am sure, and somehow she convinced him that she had ditched me, not the other way around, and that she found younger men boring.’

  He grimaced. ‘At the time, it was what he wanted to hear. He was very lonely when my mother died, and Linda had become, perhaps, too much part of the household. A companion for Ismene rather than himself.’

  He sighed. ‘I knew what she was, and tried to warn him. But that was a disaster. He said that I was jealous because she’d found him the better man. I could have dealt with that, but then Victorine started to make him jealous by coming on to me.’ He shook his head. ‘It was a nightmare.’

  She said neutrally, ‘So—you needed a wife. An answer to your problem.’

  ‘If you remember,’ he said softly. ‘I said you would create more problems than you would solve. And how right I was.’ He tutted reprovingly. ‘Fighting with me. Refusing to be demure and obedient like a good Greek wife.’

  ‘Is that what you wanted?’

  ‘I wanted you, agapi mou.’ He put his arm round her, as they walked down the steps to the track. ‘From that first moment. Did you think it was a coincidence I turned up in London?’ He shook his head. ‘It was not. I came to find you.’

  He gave her a swift, sidelong glance. ‘If I am honest, I am not sure I intended marriage, not at first. But long before we made love, I knew that I could not live without you.’

  ‘And yet you went to New York on your own.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘And missed you like hell at every moment. Is that what you wanted to hear? That’s why I came back early—to tell you that I was all kinds of a fool, and ask you to forgive me. And promise that I would never go anywhere without you again.’

  He was silent for a moment. ‘I also knew that I had to tell you why I’d been reluctant for us to have a baby. That it wasn’t fair to hide my fears from you. Only, I wasn’t used to having to explain myself—or to being married.’

  ‘You will have to make allowances for me, agapi mou,’ he added ruefully.

  ‘When I awoke and found you gone, I felt as if someone had ripped out my heart. I wanted to come after you right away, but I told myself I should give you a chance to cool down—to miss me a little.’

  ‘And instead, I asked for a divorce.’

  ‘That,’ he said quietly, ‘was the worst day of my life. I kept asking myself how this could have happened? How I could have lost you. And began to come up with answers I did not want.’

  ‘What sort of answers?’

  He sighed. ‘A friend of mine on Corfu met a girl on holiday,’ he said reluctantly. ‘The marriage lasted a year, then she went back to England, and took their child. She told him she had never loved him, and never wished to live in Greece. It was only his money she wanted. The divorce settlement.’

  Kate gasped. ‘And you thought that I—I was the same?’ She tried to pull away from him. ‘Oh, how could you?’

  But he held her firmly. ‘When you are hurt and angry, anything seems possible,’ he told her levelly. ‘And after all, my Kate, you had never once told me you loved me.’

  She said breathlessly, ‘But you knew how I felt. You must have done.’

  ‘I knew you liked being in bed with me.’ His tone was wry. ‘But I needed more. I wanted you to speak the words.’

  ‘Well, you didn’t say them either,’ Kate pointed out. ‘Or not until that dreadful afternoon—and even then I thought you’d mistaken me for Victorine.’

  ‘However deeply asleep I was, I would always hear your voice, agapi mou. Know your touch, and no other. Every soul in this world could see that I was crazy for you—even Victorine,’ he added soberly.

  She shivered. ‘And she nearly destroyed us. Oh, Mick, happiness is such a fragile thing.’

  ‘Together, we will make it strong.’ He lifted her up into his arms and carried her over the threshold of the beach house.

  ‘Our marriage begins again here,’ he told her softly. ‘I love you so much, my Kate.’

  ‘Yes.’ She smiled up at him, her eyes luminous. ‘And I love you, Michalis mou. Now and for ever.’

  ‘For ever,’ he whispered. And kissed her.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-8317-0

  SMOKESCREEN MARRIAGE

  First North American Publication 2002.

  Copyright © 2001 by Sara Craven.

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