Apollo's Daughter

by Rebecca Stratton

Nikolas seemed to be choosing his words carefully, as well he might, Bethany thought, for her own reaction was one of stunned surprise. Never in all the years she had been close to him and loved him more than she ever had her own father had Pavlos ever mentioned another family. But it was not so much their existence that stunned her but the fact that Papa had managed to keep it so secret. It gave her the curious sensation of having been deceived.

  For the moment she was on the edge of events, and

  thankfully took time to gather her wits. The situation was between Takis and Heracles Meandis, and even Nikolas it seemed, waited for his reaction with bated breath. Remembering how in times of crisis and doubt they had always turned to Aunt Alexia, Bethany looked for the same reaction from Takis now.

  Instead, he twisted his head round and looked up at Nikolas and it was impossible to tell whether the bright gleaming look in his eyes was excitement or a threat of tears. 1 have a brother?' he asked, and Nikolas nodded, his long fingers tensed and curved like daws into the thin boyish shoulders.

  *You understand that your papa was married before, many years ago, and had a family.' Nikolas spoke quietly and persuasively, and his tight hold on the boy was reassuring rather than forceful. *You'll like having grown-up brothers, eh, Takis?'

  Nikolas was anxious. Bethany recognised it and it startled her even while she coped with the fact that, in law at least, this man who looked so much like Papa was her brother too. She could recognise too, that Takis was quite ready to accept the sudden change in status, for he was already nodding and starting to smile.

  *I think I like it,' he decided. *I like having a brother, it's something I always wanted!' He turned and beamed his pleasure at Bethany, assuming her to be as happy about it as he was himself, and seeing only the immediate satisfaction of having got the brother he had always wanted. *We have a brother, Beth, and we didn't know!'

  She nodded and smiled, firmly suppressing the feeling that already there was more distance between them than there ever had been before. Nikolas let Takis go and called her forward so that she stood in front of him. 'Bethany is Pavlos's adopted daughter,' he said, and once more Heracles Meandis's dark eyes beamed their appreciation.

  'Bethany.' The hands he placed on her shoulders were wide and capable, sculptor's hands like Papa's,

  and his smile was as warm as he drew her into his embrace and kissed her cheeks. ^Welcome, sister,' he said, and looked down at her, smiling widely. ^Welcome, and be happy!' He studied her for a moment longer, then shook his head slowly. If you look like your mother, little one, then my father was a very fortunate man.'

  She felt choked by emotion, knowing that for some reason she had yet to learn, this man had not seen his father for at least as long as her own knowledge of him. It was hard to understand why Papa, whom she had thought she knew so well, had lived apart from his own child when he had loved children so much.

  Stepping back, she was brought up short by Nikolas standing behind her, and the firm, lean touch of him was incredibly reassuring she found, even though he did not put his hands on her, as she wished he would. His firm strong fingers on her arms would have been comforting in that moment.

  'You find it a little—-overwhelming?' Heracles suggested, then laughed and shook his head. *I too,' he admitted. *And it must be quite a shock to suddenly discover that you have three brothers instead of only one.'

  * Three?'

  She looked at him, only vaguely recalling that Nikolas had mentioned brothers, in the plural, only a few moments ago. 'There were two of us from the first marriage,' Heracles explained. *My brother Aristides lives in New York.'

  *In America?' Takis pounced on the information excitedly; and Heracles glanced briefly at Nikolas, as if seeking his approval before he said anything else.

  Tor five years now,' he told Takis. *I have some photographs for you to see, if you would like that.'

  'Oh yes, I would, please!'

  He replied without hesitation, and followed Heracles and his two little sons across the room without a backward glance to include her in the invitation, so that once again Bethany felt forced outside the familiar.

  sharing closeness they had shared. Takis had taken to his new relations like a duck to water, and it was good that he had, but it left Bethany with a strange sense of loss that she could not altogether subdue.

  Seeing her family settled, Sophie Meandis murmured something about making coffee, and when she started for the kitchen Alexia automatically got up and followed her. When Bethany would have done the same, however, Nikolas stopped her; a long forefinger on her arm catching her attention, then pointing to the open window.

  'Come with me into the garden for a few moments, please,' he said, and she noticed that he kept his voice fairly low, as if he did not want to distract the small group gathered in one corner of the room, p>oring over a pile of photographs. He must have noticed Alexia's brief glance over her shoulder as she left the room, and his last words seemed to be addressed to her as much as to Bethany. *It won't take a moment, but I'd like a few words.'

  *Of warning?' Bethany betrayed her uncertainty by the sharpness of her question, and Nikolas eyed her steadily.

  'As a matter of fact, yes,' he told her quietly. *I wish to avoid difficult questions of—time, before it's too late. Please come with me, Bethany, and try not to look as if you think I'm about to assault you. You'll give Heracles quite the wrong impression.'

  Bethany walked swiftly across the room with her back straight and unconsciously stiff, and although Heracles glanced up briefly as she went out through the open window and on to the terrace, she noticed that Takis did not even look up. Nikolas followed, seemingly casual, with both hands thrust into his pockets and his dark head tipped slightly upward towards the sun, his eyes half closed.

  In such a small garden, it was difficult to find somewhere really private to talk, but the bulk of a flourishing bay tree offered the most likely venue, and the moment they were out of sight of the house, Nikolas came

  to a halt. Automatically Bethany turned to face him, though she kept her eyes downcast while he studied her for a moment in silence. When he eventually did speak, it seemed to Bethany that his voice suggested impatience.

  'Takis is delighted to discover he has two brothers, as well as nephews,* he said, *but I gather you're not so pleased, am I right?'

  It was a direct challenge and one she was not prepared for, but nevertheless she managed to give him a brief upward glance and shake her head in denial. *I like Heracles and Sophie, and the two little boys are adorable, but it was rather a—a shock, Nikolas.'

  'A shock?' One dark brow condemned her opinion as over-dramatic.

  *A surprise, then,' she amended, and showed a hint of impatience herself. Tou must realise that.' Turning her back on him, she walked a few steps until she caught sight of the scene in the living-room when she emerged from the cover of the bay tree. 'If you'd said something about it earlier, even on the way here; you could have, and I'd have been prepared.'

  *I intended telling both you and Takis before you met Heracles,' Nikolas told her, 'but when he rang and begged me to bring Takis to meet him this morning, I couldn't very well put him off. He's a good man and a very tolerant one, and he's very genuinely anxious to get to know his young brother. Takis has accepted it very well, so why can't you? I don't begin to understand you, Bethany.'

  'You never did, nor ever will!' Bethany declared with a trace of bitterness. Keeping her back to him, she tried in her own way to put her feelings into words, partly because she wanted him to understand, no matter how often she decried the possibility. 'I was so close to Papa for all those years, and he talked to me so often about when he was a boy in Rodos. and what this island was like, compared with Apolidus. I—I would have sworn that he opened his heart to me, more especially when I got older, after my mother left.

  and yet ' Her voice conveyed exactly her feelings

  of disillusion, and she turned back to him, but did not yet meet his eyes. *I
realise now that he said very little about his family, but I thought '

  'Did it ever occur to you that he might have a very good reason for not mentioning his family?' Nikolas asked, and she glanced up quickly, sensing something behind the question that made her uneasy.

  She had a desperate need to be close to someone, but Nikolas did not reach out and touch her. Physical contact was rare between them, and she had wondered about it at times, for the Greeks were normally such a 'touching' people. Instead he was gazing down at her with a dark, ambiguous look in his eyes.

  'Heracles hasn't seen his father since he was thirteen years old, Bethany. It's been that long since Pavlos— made his choice.'

  Bethany stared at him, unwilling to believe what he was trying to tell her. Her tongue passed swiftly across her lips and she shook her head in instant denial. *I don't believe it—not Papa!'

  Quietly, Nikolas insisted, 'It's true nevertheless. I'm sorry, Bethany,' he added quickly when he saw the look in her eyes, 'but you're old enough to know the truth, and you're not a stranger to the situation. Your own parents '

  'That's different! Not Papal'

  He let out his breath in a long deep sigh and shook his head. 'You've hidden away on your island too long,' he said quietly. 'You have to get people and situations into the proper perspective or you'll never grow up.'

  'If you mean I'll never get hard and cynical like you, I hope I never do!'

  On the defensive, she resorted to personal abuse, and the deep gleam in his eyes hardened to determination. 'There is nothing hard and cynical about growing up and facing facts,' he told her. 'And if you're going to understand Takis's situation, you have to know the facts; you have to realise how generous Heracles is be-

  ing. And he is being so, ironically enough, because he is very like Pavlos, his father.'

  'I don't know what you mean.'

  *I mean,' Nikolas stressed firmly, 'that Heracles sees the rights as well as the wrongs of the situation, and acts accordingly. You see the world and the people around you through rose-coloured spectacles. Except possibly in my own case,' he added with a touch of sardonic humour. *It's time you came down to earth, Bethany.'

  'There's nothing wrong with the way I live.' Her voice quivered uncertainly, and she wished there was somewhere she could turn to get away from him. *I know you don't agree with the way Papa brought me up, but he was kind and understanding, and I loved him.'

  *Of course you did,' Nikolas agreed, 'and he was all you say he was. But he wasn't the saint you insist on making him out to be, Bethany, and he would have been the last person to want such a reputation. Pavlos was a lusty, vital man who lived life as he wanted to, regardless of convention or family, or anything else.*

  'No!' She yelled her defiance at him because she could not face what he was trying to make her see, and he took both her hands in his when she clasped them together, drawing her towards him.

  'Bethany!' He resisted her struggles, his strong fingers gripping her hard, and when she looked up she saw the firm set of his mouth, but shook her head in disbelief over the unexpected pity she saw mingled with determination in his eyes. She refused to accept anything that undermined her blind adoration of her stepfather, but Nikolas was all too convincing. 'Listen to me!' He held her tightly, fighting to hold her attention. 'Pavlos loved you, he had a great capacity for love and you were a child in need of loving. He was a kindly, gentle man, but he was a man, Bethany, not a god! Don't you understand that? He was everything you thought him, except perfect—no man is that!

  That's why he didn't mention his first family to you, because you adored him and he was afraid you'd think less of him if you knew.'

  There was a dark, wary look in her eyes that mistrusted him still, even while her common sense recognised that what he said was true. She looked up at him and shook her head. 'You're so—so implacable,' she whispered accusingly. Tou scarcely knew Papa.'

  'But I knew him, Bethany, that's my whole point.'

  She was shaking her head slowly, her hands still imprisoned by his strong fingers, and strangely enough there was a kind of comfort m the contact. 'You didn't approve of the way he brought us up,' she said in a light, almost childlike voice, 'but you can't know how perfect it was there with just the four of us. With Papa gone, Aunt Alex and I could have cared for Takis until he becomes a man. We could have gone on as we were, we don't need you!'

  *You could have gone on hiding from the rest of the world,' Nikolas told her, tight-lipped, 'but what of Takis? Doesn't he deserve more?'

  'He was happy!' She was fighting a losing battle and she knew it, but she had to go on.

  'You were happy in your way,' Nikolas corrected her relentlessly. *I doubt if you even stopped to think whether Takis was. I hadn't realised until now, just how fearful you are of the outside world or of any kind of change. I'm not belittling Pavlos or your precious little island, Bethany, I'm simply trying to make you see beyond your very limited horizon; to try and bring you into the same world the rest of us live in.'

  Her hands were still held firmly clasped between his, as if he feared she might try to escape if he let her go, and she looked up at him with shimmering grey eyes. 'Is that why you brought me out here?' she whispered. 'To—bring me down to earth? Oh, you're cruel, Nikolas! You're even more cruel than I realised!'

  He apparently ignored the charge of cruelty, although his mouth tightened a little more, and fixed her with a steady, implacable gaze. 'I wanted you to

  be fully informed before I make my plans known to Takis/ he told her. *You're older and, I'd hoped, just as intelligent. I hope he won't try to work things out for himself yet, and I didn't want you to mention things like Pavlos being married three times, or when and where. I know women have a mania for details like that.'

  She wasn't thinking as clearly as usual, and Bethany frowned at him in confusion. *I don't understand.'

  Nikolas glanced, almost involuntarily, she suspected, at the group in the living-room, still absorbed with looking at photographs. *You can see how much Takis likes company,' he said, *just as Pavlos did, and he needs more than Apolidus can offer in the way of education. I intend to send him to school here and, it is to be hoped, on to university.*

  'You're going to send him away?'

  *Do you imagine he's going to weep like a woman about it?' Nikolas demanded, harshly impatient. He must have noticed the look in her eyes then, for he reached out suddenly and stroked his long fingers down her soft cheek. 'He'll enjoy it, Bethany, and you know it, don't you?'

  There was no way she could deny it, for Takis had enjoyed the occasions when neighbours or friends from the artists' colony called to see them and the talking and drinking went on far into the night. He was, as Nikolas said, like Papa in that respect, but it seemed everything was being turned upside down suddenly, and she found it hard to cope with the changes.

  *If you say so,' she shrugged obligingly, then remembered something he had said when they first came out there. *I suppose the—delicate matter you wanted to talk about was that Papa left home?' she said, and Nikolas nodded, just for the moment avoiding her eyes.

  *Not only that,' he said. *It's what I meant about not talking about weddings and dates. Neither Sophie nor Aunt Alexia will, they know better, but you might inadvertently make things awkward by being curious.

  Pavlos was a widower when he married your mother, you knew that?'

  She nodded. 'Takis's mother had died when he was born; she'd been dead about a year when Papa remarried.'

  The hands holding hers squeezed more tightly for a moment. Tavlos had been widowed only about three months when he married your mother, Bethany. That was when his wife, Heracles' mother, died.'

  It took a second or two for it to dawn on her, but when it did Bethany's eyes darted quickly to where Takis sat, lovingly surrounded by his new family. *Oh no!' she whispered.

  *He mustn't know, Bethany, not yet.' Nikolas's quiet voice broke in to her stunned mind. 'But he can't remain hidden away on Apo
lidus for the rest of his life, he's entitled to the same advantages his brothers had. Heracles is anxious to take him into his home while he's over here at school, and I think—I know he'll be happy. It's what Pavlos really wanted for him.'

  She nodded, too overcome for words suddenly, for everything seemed to be disintegrating around her since Papa's death, and she longed to flee back home before every shred of her familiar world disappeared. She felt as she had so often done as a very small child, that there was no real place for her, no familiar place or faces that made her feel secure. The tip of her tongue flicked anxiously across her lips again, and she looked up at Nikolas with eyes that had a curiously lost look.

  'And me?' she ventured in a barely audible whisper. 'What about me, Nikolas?'

  For a moment it seemed, he wavered, although it was unlike him to do anything so negative, then he looked steadily into her eyes. 'What do you want to do?' he asked, and the question seemed so much like a lifeline that she answered it unhesitatingly.

  'I'd like to go home,' she said.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Bethany did her best not to let anyone else but Nikolas see how much she was affected by the rapidly changing circumstances since her stepfather's death, and she convinced herself that she succeeded. Her rather plaintive request to be allowed to go home to ApK)lidus had been neither refused out of hand nor yet complied with. But common sense suggested that whatever Niko-las's final decision concerning her future, they must go back to the island, at least for a while until everything was settled, and she pinned all her hopes on that.

  Takis was wildly excited about the whole prospect. His horizon had suddenly broadened beyond his wildest dreams, and he could hardly be blamed for making the most of it. He seemed not to notice that Bethany was less responsive than usual to his enthusiasm, probably because they were now much less dependent upon one another for company, and less close.

  With Takis involved in his own plans, Theo sought to monopolise Bethany, and it was he who suggested that they go for a drive somewhere, a few mornings later. He looked frankly taken aback, however, when she took his question of where they should go seriously, and named Kamiros; evidently he had expected to have the choice left to him.,