Kiss the Moonlight

by Barbara Cartland

  She dressed herself and because she knew Orion liked her without a bonnet she decided to carry hers as she had done the day before.

  Then she packed her nightgown and all the small things she had brought with her in her Greek bag, stuffing her shawl on the top of them.

  She glanced round the room to see that she had forgotten nothing, then for the first time glanced up apprehensively at the trap-door in the ceiling.

  It was open and she could see the sky coming through it.

  It was a large aperture and now she saw as she had not noticed before that in one corner of the room there was a ladder which was obviously used in the great heat of the summer by those who wished to sleep on the roof as many Greeks did.

  She felt herself shiver as she thought of Kazandis letting himself down into her room.

  They had been lucky that he had not forced the issue once he knew where she had gone and sought her across the landing.

  She could not have borne, she thought, to watch a fight between Orion and that great hulking Bandit with his huge body and evil eyes.

  Of one thing she was quite certain, that he would not have fought fairly and he would undoubtedly have been prepared to fire his pistol and murder Orion if it suited him.

  Because the mere thought of what might have happened made her shiver and because above all things she wanted to be with Orion again Athena ran down the stairs.

  He was sitting at the table in the kitchen and Madame Argeros was cooking at the stove.

  "Good-morning," Madame said as Athena appeared. "Because you are here Orion has asked for an English breakfast and the eggs are ready."

  "I am hungry enough to eat a dozen," Orion smiled.

  He had risen as he spoke and pulled out a chair so that Athena could sit next to him.

  "There's not a dozen," Madame replied, "so you'll have to make do with bacon from the pig we killed only a few weeks ago—and very good it has proved."

  "Even Kazandis admitted you had the best food in the whole region," Orion said.

  "Kazandis ! Don't speak of the man," Madame said bitterly. "He has taken all our money. I warned Dimitrios only yesterday that we had too much in the house, but what man ever listens until It's too late?"

  "I am so sorry for you, Madame," Athena said. "You must tell me what I owe you for staying here last night."

  "You owe me nothing," Madame said almost sharply. "You are a friend of Orion's, and that is enough. We are not so poverty-stricken—Kazandis or not—that we have to take from our friends."

  "But... I cannot let you ..." Athena began only to feel Orion's hand on her arm.

  She looked at him in perplexity; but he shook his head and she understood that she must accept Madame's gesture of generosity and not argue about it.

  "It is kind of you," Athena said, "and thank you very much."

  But she felt as if she must do something for them and so she said:

  "As it is going to be very hot today I shall not need my shawl and I wonder if I might leave it for Nonika as she was kind enough to give up her room, and I am sure she will find it useful."

  She drew the shawl as she spoke from her bag and remembered that it had in fact been an expensive purchase and had come from Bond Street

  .

  Madame's face softened.

  "That would be very kind," she said. "Nonika is collecting things for her trousseau, but for all Greek girls, as things are expensive, it takes a long time and the shawl will therefore be most acceptable."

  "Then I am very glad for her to have it," Athena said.

  She glanced at Orion as she spoke, hoping that he approved, and knew by his smile and the expression in his eyes that he did.

  She felt a warm feeling within her because he was pleased with her, but when she looked at him he looked away and she knew that their parting was near and he was as conscious of it as she was.

  Their eggs and bacon were set down in front of them. There was hot coffee, crisp bread and honey which Orion explained came from the bees around Delphi.

  "Perhaps they are specially sanctified," he said, "for I always think that the honey here is the most delicious in Greece, although quite a number of my countrymen will tell me I am mistaken."

  "Does honey differ in flavour from province to province? "Athena asked.

  "Yes, it does," Madame exclaimed before he could speak, "and perhaps the honey from Mount Olympus is the best of all."

  "I still continue to disagree with you, Madame," Orion said helping himself to another spoonful.

  "You are prejudiced!" Madame Argeros laughed, "but as long as you go on thinking that we have the best, I for one am satisfied."

  "Could you ever question it?" he asked.

  They finished their breakfast and now Dimitrios Argeros appeared in the doorway to say that their horses were waiting outside. Athena rose to her feet.

  "You are not going in the .same direction as I am?" she asked. He shook his head.

  "No. I am riding over the mountains," he replied, "but I have already spoken to Spiros which, by the way, is the name of the man who brought you here, and he will take very good care of you—as you must take care of yourself."

  He spoke the last words in English in a low voice, and Athena looked up at him and for a moment they were both very still. He walked towards the door.

  Athena thanked Madame Argeros for her kindness, then followed him.

  Outside their two horses were waiting and she saw that Orion's was very different from the animal that had brought her up from Itea.

  His was a black stallion, extremely high-spirited, and the man who was holding it was having some difficulty in keeping it under control.

  It was plunging and bucking and it seemed doubtful that his hold on the bridle would be effective.

  "Better not waste much time in mounting that animal," Dimitrios Argeros said. "I hear it nearly kicked a stable down during the night."

  "He needs exercise and it is his way of telling me that I have stayed here too long."

  "It has been our gain," Dimitrios Argeros said with surprising eloquence for him. "Come again soon, Orion. You are always welcome—you know that."

  "Thank you," Orion replied.

  Then as he held out his hand his horse gave another terrific plunge and nearly swept the man holding the bridle off his feet.

  "You had best go," Athena said hastily. "There is no hurry for me."

  "Perhaps you are right."

  He looked at her for a moment, but did not attempt to take her hand. Then as if he had no words in which to express himself he moved away and with surprising ease swung himself into the saddle of the plunging and bucking stallion.

  Almost immediately it seemed the animal knew that his master had taken control, and although he fidgeted he no longer proved to be so obstreperous.

  Then, as if he was as eager as the horse he was riding to be gone, Orion turned and started to descend the steep road towards the village.

  Athena felt as if she could not bear to watch him go and went towards her own horse.

  A line written by Lord Byron was ringing in her ears.

  "Gone shimmering through the dream of things that were."

  "How can I bear it, how can I live without him?" she asked despairingly.

  Spiros was geeting her delightedly.

  "Good-morning, l.ady—very nice day for ride to Itea."

  She forced a smile to her lips.

  "I have not yet said goodbye to Nonika," she said to Dimitrios Argeros.

  "I'll call her," he said and he turned and went into the Taverna.

  As he went Athena heard a footstep behind her.

  She turned thinking that Nonika must have approached from another direction, but coming round the side of the Taverna through some bushes where he must have been hiding was Kazandis!

  For a moment she could not credit that it was really the Bandit and that he was actually walking towards her.

  She felt her heart give a terrified jerk within her
breast.

  Without speaking, without saying anything, he came nearer still and before she had time to move away or obey her impulse to run he picked her up in his arms and flung her over his shoulder.

  The shock of the impact on the hardness of his body took her breath away. Then as she heard Spiros shout she managed to scream.

  She screamed and screamed again and it was to Orion she called, her screams gradually giving way to his name which seemed stifled and ineffectual as she lay head downwards over Kazandis's shoulder.

  He turned back through the bushes the way he had come, and moving at what seemed to Athena to be a tremendous speed, he started to climb the mountain behind the Taverna.

  She tried to strike at him with her arms, but hanging down his back she was quite ineffectual and he held her tightly below the knees so that it was very difficult to struggle in any way at all.

  He was climbing, climbing, and she tried to see if anyone was following them. But it was impossible for her to raise her head with the blood flowing into it.

  Stones fell, dislodged by his feet, bouncing and rumbling their way down the steep mountainside, and as he zig-zagged she knew that he was keeping to the goat-paths and also that he knew the way without faltering.

  By now she was breathless and unable to scream any more or to cry out for Orion. She could only fear that in fact he had gone too far and not heard Spiros call or her own screams.

  If he had not heard she wondered if Spiros would ride after him and tell him what had occurred.

  There was so much discomfort in hanging head downwards over Kazandis's back with the fur of his sheepskin coat tickling her face and smelling most unpleasant, that it was difficult to think clearly.

  As they went higher there seemed to be a strange and uncanny silence around them. Athena wished to struggle again but she was too afraid.

  She could see even with limited vision that the mountainside was very steep. There were patches of moss and occasionally twisting tree-trunks and small trees, (heir green leaves a strange contrast to the bare rocks.

  She was well aware that where they were going was almost as steep and perilous as the Shining Cliffs, and should she fall she would roll down the mountainside in a manner which if it did not kill her would certainly bruise and maim her whole body.

  "What can I do ... what can I do?" Athena thought frantically.

  She knew that she was in Kazandis's power and supposed it would be impossible now for Orion to save her.

  She thought that she must die before he touched her and wondered if it would be possible for her to shoot herself with his pistol or stab herself with his knife.

  What was happening was so terrifying that her brain seemed to be paralysed by the horror of it.

  The position in which he carried her made her feel almost apoplectic, and yet she knew that her only salvation lay in Orion.

  She felt her whole being calling to him as she had managed to cry out at first, if only briefly.

  Surely he would understand ? Perhaps he would get a gun from somewhere in the village. Perhaps he would bring soldiers to her assistance.

  But then she knew that even if he did so it would be too late.

  What Kazandis intended to do to her would be done long before the Military could climb the cliff or Orion come to her assistance.

  "I must... die. God ... help me. I have to ... die!"

  She felt that the God to whom she had prayed in the quietness and security of England was very far away, and she thought that now only Apollo or perhaps Hermes, the god of Travellers, could help her.

  Higher and higher Kazandis climbed and now the stones beneath each foot-fall had become a kind of shower, and yet still he twisted and turned, obviously sure of his way between the craggy rocks.

  Vaguely Athena realised that he was moving all the time to the left but there was a whole range of the Parnassus mountains to choose from and it was impossible to speculate which way he was likely to go or where he was taking her.

  Now it seemed to her that she had sudden glimpses of what seemed to be a sheer precipice beneath them, and because beside the horror of what was happening, it was terrifying to think of rolling down it, she shut her eyes.

  Kazandis must have been carrying her for nearly half an hour, and Athena with the blood in her head found it impossible to think any longer, but only to feel choked and dizzy.

  Suddenly he took a step upwards, bent his head then set her down roughly on the ground.

  For a moment everything seemed to go black and she thought that she was dying.

  Then as Athena opened her eyes she realised she was in a cave.

  It was not a large cave and the roof under which she was lying only just enabled Kazandis to stand upright.

  He was looking down at her and, dazed and bewildered though she was, the look in his eyes instinctively made her try to shrink away from him while her hands went to her breasts.

  "Kazandis does not give up easily," he said in the boastful tones he had used in the Taverna the night before. "I want you and now you're mine!"

  Athena could not speak, she could only stare up at him in terror. "Yes, mine!" he repeated with satisfaction. "Get your breath. No-one will find you here."

  It was not so much a question of her getting her breath, but of him getting his.

  Perhaps because he had been in prison for so long, the burden of carrying her up the mountain had taken its toll even on such a strong man.

  There were beads of sweat running down his forehead and over his cheeks.

  He pulled off his sheepskin coat and flung it down on the ground and she saw that his shirt was stained and his hairy arms were wet.

  He walked further into the cave and as her eyes followed him apprehensively she saw that the cave opened out and was far larger than it had first appeared from where she was lying.

  From the darkness of the shadows Kazandis produced a bottle and pulling out the cork he lifted it to his lips and drank noisily.

  "Have some?"

  He held the bottle out to her and when she shook her head he said:

  "Please yourself! There's plenty if you change your mind."

  Now taking a dirty rag from his pocket, which he doubtless thought of as a handkerchief, he wiped his forehead and his cheeks and rubbed his hands on it before he flung it to the floor of the cave.

  "You're a pretty piece," he said, "although you've not much to say for yourself."

  "Let ... me ... go," Athena managed to articulate. "If you ... want money ... I can ... give it to you ... I am ... rich."

  "Rich—when you are staying in a Taverna?" he laughed.

  "It may seem ... strange," Athena answered, "but I am in fact ... very rich ... if you will let me ... go to ... safety ... I will pay you ... well."

  "And how shall I collect it?" Kazandis asked jeeringly, "or will the Military hand it to me?"

  "I will see you have it... and that no-one will... molest you," Athena said earnestly. "That I... promise."

  He laughed and the noise of it seemed to echo and re-echo round the cave.

  "I've got all the money 1 want for the moment," he said, "and when I want more—I shall take it! But now I want you!"

  He wiped his lips as he spoke with the back of his hand, and Athena thinking it was preliminary to kissing her gave a little cry of terror.

  The mere fact that she was frightened seemed to please Kazandis and he smiled.

  Then as he stepped towards her and she thought despairingly she must somehow try to snatch his knife and kill herself, he glanced towards the opening of the cave.

  As if a thought had suddenly struck him, he went to it and looked out.

  As Athena watched him it seemed to her that something seemed to hold his attention and he did not move but remained looking down below them.

  A faint hope stirred within her and, moving for the first time since he had thrust her down onto the sandy floor, she got to her knees and edged forward so that she too could look out through th
e opening.

  She saw what had attracted Kazandis's attention.

  They were high up over what appeared to be almost an impassable precipice of steep rock.

  Far beneath, almost directly below them, a man was climbing, not zigzagging as they had done, but climbing upwards.

  With an indescribable feeling of relief and gratitude Athena knew it was Orion.

  Chapter Five

  Kazandis stood staring down for some moments, then gave a grunt like an animal.

  "You had better let me go," Athena said. "If people are coming to rescue me, you will not get the money I have offered you."

  She thought for a moment that the Bandit was considering what she said. Then he laughed the same loud, jeering laugh which once again echoed round the cave.

  "You think they'll find me?" he asked. "They'll never find me here, and I've caves, many caves which only the wolves know."

  He came back into the cave and because she felt giddy looking down from such a great height, Athena also moved backwards.

  He looked at her and his eyes narrowed unpleasantly and he moved as if he would touch her.

  She gave a scream and before he could stop her she moved back again to the entrance of the cave and leaned out of it shouting:

  "Orion! Orion! I am here! Save me!"

  Her voice seemed to be swept away from her by the height and she felt it was shrill and ineffective; but it obviously disturbed Kazandis, for he seized her roughly and pulling her back into the cave threw her down on the floor.

  "You be quiet!" he commanded.

  There was something ferocious in the way he spoke, and although Athena tried to be brave she winced away from him in a manner which told him all too clearly how fearful she was.

  "If you betray me you suffer for it!"

  He raised his arm menacingly and for a second she thought he was going to strike her. Then as if another idea came to him he grunted again and moved further into the cave, disappearing into the shadows.

  She wondered where he had gone.

  Then because she could not believe that he was speaking the truth when he said it would be impossible for Orion to find her, she went once again to the opening and looked down.

  For a moment she could not see him and she felt an icy hand clutching at her heart in case he had fallen or given up the climb as impossible.