'Was it long ago she died?'
'Oh, she is not dead, or if she is now, we shall never know. She left here, twenty years ago, with the Ottoman governor of the island, who had seduced her. If she still lives, it must be in a harem somewhere…'
'She ran away with a Turk?' Marianne gasped with amazement. 'Was she mad? Your master seems such a good man, so gentle… and he must have been quite handsome at that time…'
Athanasius made a little movement of his shoulders which precisely expressed his opinion of the logic of the female mind, and confined himself to a vaguely apologetic statement which excused nothing:
'Mad, no. She was only a pretty, feather-headed woman for whom life here was not very amusing.'
'I daresay she must have found it infinitely more amusing in a harem,' Marianne said with sarcasm.
'Bah! The Turks are not such fools. There are plenty of women who were made for that kind of life. And there are others who cannot bear to be put on a pedestal. It makes them lonely and afraid. Our countess belonged to both kinds at once. She adored luxury and idleness and sweetmeats, and thought her husband a poor kind of man because he loved her too much. It was after she left that something went wrong with him. He's never accepted the fact that she's gone away, and he has gone on living with the memory of her as if nothing had happened. And what with wanting so much to see her, I think in the end he really came to it, and now he's reached a kind of happiness that's greater, maybe, than he would have had if she'd stayed with him, because the years have not changed the thing he loves… But I'm boring you. Your highness must wish to retire.'
'You aren't boring me, and I'm not tired. Only a little upset. Tell me, where is Theodoras? I haven't seen him.'
'At my house. Since he can't tear himself away from the harbour, I thought best to send him there. My mother will look after him. But if you require his services…'
'No, thank you,' Marianne said, smiling. 'I think I can manage without the services of Theodoros. Let us go up, if you please.'
The first thing she noticed on entering her bedchamber was a small tray placed near her bed, on which was bread and cheese and fruit.
'I thought,' said Athanasius, 'that madame might not have much appetite for dinner, but that perhaps a little something during the night…?'
This time Marianne went straight up to him and, taking his plump hand in both of hers, shook it warmly.
'Athanasius,' she said, 'if you weren't about the only thing your master has left to him, I'd ask you to come with me. A man-servant like you is a gift from heaven!'
'I love my master, that is all… I am sure your highness has the capacity to arouse a devotion as great, or greater than mine. May I wish your highness a good night – and no regrets.'
The night might well have proved every bit as good as the worthy man had hoped, if only it had been allowed to run its proper course. But Marianne was still in her first sleep when she was shaken vigorously awake by a rough hand on her shoulder.
'Hurry! Get up!' said Theodoros' hurried voice. 'The ship is here!'
Marianne peered through half-open eyes at the big man's face, tense in the wavering light of a candle.
'What?' she asked, sleepily.
'You must get up, I tell you. The ship is here and waiting! Get up!'
By way of extra encouragement to her to hurry out of bed, he laid hold of the covers and flung them back, discovering what had evidently been the last thing he had thought of in his haste: a female form clad only in a tumbled mass of dark hair and touched to warm gold by the candlelight. He stood literally rooted to the spot while Marianne, wide awake now, flung herself on the sheet with a howl of rage.
'How dare you! Are you mad?'
He stirred with difficulty and passed a shaking hand over his bearded chin, but his eyes still stared at the place in the now empty bed where the girl's body had lain an instant before.
'I'm sorry…' he managed to say at last. 'I did not know – I didn't think—'
'I'm not interested in what you thought. I gather you have come in search of me? Well, what is all this about? Are we leaving now?'
'Yes – at once. The ship is waiting. Athanasius came to tell me.'
'This is ridiculous! It's the middle of the night! What time is it?'
'Midnight, I think – a little after.'
He was still standing in the same place, speaking like a man in a dream. From her refuge behind the bedcurtains, Marianne watched him uneasily. He seemed to have forgotten his haste. Almost he seemed to have forgotten why he had come there, but there was a softness about that ferocious countenance which Marianne had never seen there before. Theodoros was in the process of succumbing to a kind of witchcraft that must be dispelled at once.
Without quitting her refuge, she reached out towards a small brass bell that Athanasius had left with her in case she should need anything in the night, but she was still reluctant to wake the echoes of the sleeping house.
'Go back to bed,' she advised. 'It is an excellent thing that the boat has come, but we can hardly leave like this, without telling anyone.'
Before the Greek could answer, even supposing that he was going to, Athanasius crept softly round the half-open door. He took in the scene before him at a glance. It was certainly an unusual one: the Princess huddled behind the bed curtains with only her head and her bare shoulders showing, and Theodoros staring at the bed as though about to fall into it.
'Well?' Athanasius said in a reproachful whisper. 'What are you doing? Time is short.'
'Then it's true what this man says?' Marianne asked, not moving. 'We are leaving now?'
'Yes, madame, and you must do so quickly if you would avoid serious trouble. The risk we run here, with the Turks, is nothing compared to it. The master of the polacca sent from Hydra has heard that three vessels belonging to the Kouloughis brothers, renegade pirates, are on a course for Naxos. If they sight the island before you have left it there is a good chance that you will never reach Constantinople but end up in Tunis, where the Kouloughis' sell their slaves.'
'Sla—! I'm coming! Only get Theodoros out of here so that I can get dressed. He seems to have been turned into a pillar of salt!'
There were some words capable of making Marianne rise above herself, and slavery was one of them. When Athanasius had dragged Theodoros bodily out of the room, she dressed herself hurriedly and joined the others on the dark landing outside the bedroom. By the time she appeared, carrying the candle, Theodoros seemed to have recovered his wits. He threw her a smouldering glance, suggesting that it would be a good while before he forgave her for being the cause of his moment of weakness, or what he regarded as such.
Athanasius, however, smiled encouragingly and took her hand to help her down the stairs.
'I don't like leaving like this,' Marianne objected. 'So furtively, like a thief! What will the Count say?'
The little servant's eyes met hers above the candle flame.
'Why, nothing. What can he say, other than "very good" or "an excellent notion", when I tell him your highness has gone to explore the island in the company of the Countess Fiorenza? It is as simple as that.'
Guided by Athanasius, who seemed to have cat's eyes, Marianne and Theodoros made their way down through the maze of narrow streets leading to the harbour. When they reached the waterfront, they went on, making for the side nearest the isle with the ruins of the little temple.
A big three-master with a tapering prow, like a swordfish, was at anchor off the spit of land. Her impressive rigging was an odd mixture of fore and aft and lateen sails. No light was showing on board and she looked like a ghost-ship floating on the calm waters of the harbour.
'The longboat is waiting just here, close by, in front of the chapel of the Knights of Rhodes,' whispered Athanasius.
The nearer they got to the vessel, the sulkier Theodoros seemed to become.
'That's not Miaulis's ship, or Tombazis',' he growled. 'It's not even a true polacca. Whose is this vessel?'
/> 'It belongs to Tsamados,' Athanasius said, a trifle irritably. 'It is, in fact, a polacca-xebec, his latest prize and very fast, it seems. What difference does it make to you? It's the ship Hydra has sent. Of course, if you don't want to go aboard—'
The giant's big paw came down soothingly on the little steward's shoulder.
'You are right, friend, and I apologize. I'm more nervous than I've ever been.' He showed his teeth. That's what it is to travel with a woman.'
The ship's longboat was waiting by a short flight of stone steps. Two dark figures loomed up from it: the figures of the two seamen sent to ferry the passengers aboard.
In spite of herself, Marianne could not help tightening her grip on Athanasius' hand. She felt suddenly that all was not well, although she could not have said why. Perhaps it was the dark night and the unknown vessel but she felt that in saying good-bye to her guide she would be leaving her last remaining friend and plunging into a strange and menacing new world. The thought chilled her.
The steward must have sensed her alarm because he whispered to her:
'Do not be afraid, your highness. The men of Hydra are fine, brave fellows. You will have nothing to fear with them. All that remains for me to do is to thank you for visiting us and wish you a safe journey.'
Calmed by those few words, she answered:
'Thank you, Athanasius. Thank you for everything.'
The farewells were brief. With the help of one of the seamen, Marianne slithered and groped her way down the steep steps, expecting every moment to pitch head-first into the harbour. However, she arrived safely in the dipping wooden boat and Theodoros leaped in after her. Someone fended the boat off with a gaff and then they were away, with the oars, wielded by two pairs of powerful arms, dipping soundlessly into the dark water. On the quay, Athanasius' dumpling figure dwindled, and soon even the houses had receded.
Not a word was spoken on the way out to the ship. Theodoras stood in the bows, one foot on the gunwale, clearly burning with impatience to get aboard, and almost before they touched he had swung on to the companion ladder and, swarming up it with an agility almost incredible for one of his giant size, had vanished over the side.
Marianne followed more slowly, but with sufficient ease and agility to need no help from the seamen, and, when she reached the top, strong hands took hold of her to lift her on to the deck. Only then did it suddenly occur to her that something was dreadfully wrong.
Theodoros was there, standing facing a dark, silent knot of men who seemed to her menacing because of their very silence; they reminded her too much of the shadowy figures standing on the deck of the Sea Witch, watching without a word as she was lowered into the boat in which Leighton had doomed her to die.
Theodoros was speaking in the Romaic tongue she did not understand, but there was an odd break in his voice, which was that of a man accustomed to command, suggesting that there was fear somewhere, underlying his anger. He was the only person speaking and that in itself was alarming, for not a soul answered him.
The two sailors from the longboat had climbed up after her and Marianne could feel them close behind her, so close that she could hear them breathing.
Then, without warning, someone uncovered a dark lantern and held it by a face, so that it seemed to spring out of the darkness in the shadow of the mainmast. It was that of a sallow-skinned, strong-featured man, his nose jutting arrogantly above a bristling, horizontal moustache and his eyes hard under the high, deeply-lined forehead. But what was most terrible of all was that the face was laughing, laughing still in silence but with a cruelty that made Marianne shudder.
On Theodoros the apparition of this demonic head had acted like the vision of a gorgon. He uttered one cry of sheer fury and then turned to Marianne a chalk-like countenance on which, for the first time, she could read fear.
'We are betrayed!' he said. This ship belongs to the renegade Nicolaos Kouloughis!'
He had no time to say more before the silent crew of pirates seized them and thrust them down into the bowels of the ship.
The last thing Marianne saw, before she was swallowed up by the terrifying black hatchway, was a bright star shining, high up through the ratlines. Then a sail was hoisted suddenly, blotting it out, as a hand might cover a gigantic eye to hide its tears.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Between Scylla and Charybdis
Between decks it was dark and stiflingly hot, with a stench of filth and rancid oil.
From the bottom of the ladder, Marianne had been flung into a corner, without ceremony, while Theodoros was dragged away somewhere else. She had fallen on to something rough that might have been an old sack and had huddled there, not daring to move, half deafened by the row that was going on all round her.
The oppressive silence that had reigned earlier was shattered and, to judge by the din the pirates were making now, the amount of shouting and excited chatter drowning the furious bellowing of their prisoner, it seemed likely that the silence which had struck them on the deck was due in a large measure to sheer astonishment. It was rather as though they had not expected such a prize.
Certainly there was no mistaking one thing: for these men, Theodoros was what mattered and Marianne herself was of very minor interest. She had known as much from the casual way she had been thrown down, like a rather troublesome parcel, but one that might be worth picking up again later, to sell to the highest bidder in the market at Tunis, as Athanasius had warned her.
As she thought of Count Sommaripa's steward, the notion that he might have been responsible for the betrayal Theodoros had spoken of did not so much as cross her mind. Yet he had been the first to sight the polacca, and had been in touch with her crew. Hadn't he said that she belonged to a Captain Tsamados? He, again, had been the one to rouse the fugitives and urge them to leave at once, at the risk of his master's being obliged to face some awkward questions from the odabassy. Even so, Marianne simply could not believe in such turpitude on the part of a man who, still, after twenty years, could have tears in his eyes as he watched his master conversing with a ghost.
Possibly the people of Hydra were not as trustworthy as they were thought to be – or, perhaps, after all, it was all nothing but a tragic mistake.
Seeing the great ship come in, Athanasius might quite genuinely have thought her the one they were expecting. The Count himself had told Marianne that sea-going ships rarely put in at Naxos. He could have got in touch with the pirates without having the faintest idea who they were, while they, sensing a profit to be made, would have played their parts well and taken care not to undeceive him. But that was only one possibility among the many churning in the head of their involuntary passenger, and she forced herself not to think of any of them. This was not the moment to ponder whys and wherefores. Now, faced with this new, terrible and wholly unexpected peril, Marianne made herself concentrate her whole mind on the one single idea of escape.
A ray of light fell across the deck and swung round to illuminate the foot of the ladder. The men were on their way back, having stowed their prisoner in a safe place. They were all talking at once, perhaps estimating the profit to be made from Theodoros who, Marianne was now beginning to realize, was a person of considerably more importance than she had imagined, although she did not even know his proper name.
In their midst, as the light from the lantern fell on him, she recognized their chief.
Deciding to strike the first blow, she got up and planted herself at the foot of the ladder, barring the way, and prayed inwardly that the difference of language would not prove an insurmountable obstacle.
It seemed to her that, whether or not it would do any good, this was the moment to make use of the French Emperor's name, which appeared to mean something in these barbarous latitudes. It might be only a slender chance, but it was worth trying. It was therefore in French that she addressed the renegade.
'Don't you think, monsieur, that you owe me some explanation?'
Her clear voice rang out like a cla
rion. The men fell silent at once, their eyes on the slim figure in the light-coloured dress who stood facing them with a pride that could not fail to strike them, even if they did not understand the meaning of what she said. As for Nicolaos Kouloughis himself, his eyes narrowed and he emitted a low whistle that might have been as much admiration as malevolence.
Then, to Marianne's surprise, he answered her, with a villainous accent, it was true, but nevertheless in the language of Voltaire.
'Ha! The French lady? I didn't believe it was true.'
'What was not true?'
'This business of a French lady. When we took the carrier pigeon, I thought it was a cover for something else, more interesting. Otherwise why go to so much trouble for a thing as trifling as a woman, even a French one? And we were right because we've caught the biggest rebel of them all, the one they never catch, the one the Grand Signior would give his treasure for – Theodoras Lagos himself! It's the best prize of my life. A king's ransom on his head!'
'I may be only a woman,' retorted Marianne, to whom the name meant nothing at all, 'but my head is not altogether worthless. I am the Princess Sant'Anna, a personal friend of the Emperor Napoleon, and his ambassadress to my cousin Nakshidil, Sultan Haseki of the Ottoman Empire.'
This broadside of impressive titles seemed to make some effect on the pirate, but only for a moment. Just as Marianne was beginning to think that her gamble had paid, he uttered a strident shout of laughter, which was instantly echoed in a sycophantic way by the men around him. The only result of this was to get them sent back to their work with a few sharp commands. When they were gone, Kouloughis laughed again.
'I was not aware that I had said anything funny,' Marianne said frostily. 'I do not imagine that the Emperor, my master, would appreciate your sense of humour. Nor am I accustomed to be laughed at.'
[Marianne 4] - Marianne and the Rebels Page 33