“The thing is, my little harlot (This he called me when no one was around. I thought it might be a term of endearment. It felt like it might be, but I was never quite sure. I let him have his pet names, regardless.), I attract as much attention as you do, and you are trying to keep a low profile. I’m afraid we have a hard time convincing people we are married. One can’t imagine you truly being with the likes of me.”
I attempted to disagree. “Pennock, I wouldn’t say….”
“No, we must be wise about this, and pay to mind that Penna is listening. And worse, we are not left with much time to make a change. Someone in the city is inquiring about you and I’m afraid you have a certain notoriety, don’t you, Lady of Darkness?”
“What do you mean, ‘someone is asking questions?’”
“I don’t know what I mean. Someone quite carefully, is asking about you. It makes me want to hide you downstairs for safety, but there would be no joy there. And besides, The Square can be watched quite easily and...Well, there are ones below who are curious about you as well. We wouldn’t want to feed their curiosity.”
“Someone is asking after me?”
“So it seems. You’ve been here six weeks. Their search will eventually bring them here. It makes sense. So, you want to run and hide, and I want to help you run and hide though I tell you it is a battle inside whether leaving here at all is any kind of wisdom. Yet I feels it is best if you are not here when they do show up. They are looking for you. We are watching for them. I believe that word of these inquiries travels slower than the ones asking about you. Perhaps you should go on holiday, but leave soon… today…now, without a visit back to your room and tell no one you are leaving or where you are going or when you will be back.”
“That will be easy.” I said. “I have no idea about any of that.”
“It’s not my money, my little harlot, but I wouldn’t take it all with me. Keep more of it here than you take.”
I smiled fondly. “Aw, Pennock, you want me to come back.”
“No. I want your money. My other half, she will miss you. I will count your money.”
“Well, feel free to add more to it if you are driven too, but don’t spend it while I’m gone.”
“Who’s to know?”
“I will, and I will tell Penna and you will know no peace.”
“Alas, you are right. I will have to work on that one but for now, I have made a list of places you might visit but you can go where you like. It might be better if you did. I certainly don’t want to know about it. Now, listen. When the square had walls and doors and such, the house across from the front steps used to be part of this too. There is a tunnel that stretches from here to there and there to here. Lucido discovered it really. Probably was a hideaway of a sort. There hasn’t been just peaceful times here in this city. Now, I wish you was alone, without Mia because she’s a noisemaker. But, I can get you going. You’ll take this lamp and this bag with a good lot of money, and walk to tunnel to yon house where you come out from under the stairs.
“I am so tired of running and leaving all I have, behind.” I complained.
“You’re taking all you have with you.” Pennock consoled. “What’s left behind is just history. Now come, let me make all the noise and keep your lamp low until you get into the tunnel. Be gone for at least a month. Avoid being noticed if you can. Hide behind your hood or a veil. A good look at you would be remembered.”
I scooped up Mia and we went down those horrible stairs. A few steps forward from the bottom step led to what appeared to be a shelf. When Pennock turned a hidden latch, the shelf began to swing away from the wall. He pushed us through with a hand on my back, and I heard the latch lock behind me. Holding my lamp higher, uncovered any longer by my hand, I moved forward hoping I would not run into a devil in the dark. Mostly, the hall was clear of boxes and dark shapes. There were four doors two on each side which were a bit frightening to pass by. I wasn’t expecting them and I suppose that was enough to unravel me a little. But they were dark shadows and I knew not what lay beyond them. I looked over my shoulder often after passing each one by. Mia helped put me at ease. For whatever reason, she was in good spirits and her chirping in the dark passages was a bit of sunshine.
When we arrived at a stairs that brought us into a house by the back door, we went out and then up the street. I did not look back to see The Square, but gazed full ahead, not giving into the temptation. I wouldn’t have seen anything anyway. My eyes were full of tears.
32
Women wearing veils were a common encounter in Athens. The city’s location and size attracted a melting pot population. I used that to my benefit when I could, sometime hiding behind a veil and sometimes wearing a hooded cloak. Both served to hide my face and blend me with the populace. My first move was to put some distance between ourselves and The Square. I took us back toward the water which was not only toward the very shores Getagin had brought us from but also toward a busier congregation of people and buildings. It was here I hoped to disappear among the crowded streets. Mia, treated this as another outing and innocently would ask if she could play on various things or with various people. I couldn’t let her. I wasn’t panicking, but dallying even a little, was to be standing still when I felt the need to be far away from a place I knew my pursuers would arrive. I remembered being chased through dark streets with Mia not too long ago but this was different. Then I was running from shadows in the night, now it was during a sunlit day, and though I stumbled less than I had that night where I couldn’t easily see, I now could see, all too well. Every face, every person walking toward us or coming out of an alleyway put me on guard and looking over my shoulder. I thought I might go mad, but I didn’t.
Eventually we neared the coastline, and streets ran parallel to the shore like ripples in the sand. Each road was a little closer to the water. At one point there were girls, three of them, walking up ahead of us and this interested Mia very much. On a whim, when they turned down a street, we followed and for a fair distance. The buildings became more sparse and the road narrower and increasingly bumpy. After a while it became pretty obvious that we were following them. They were family, likely sisters with strong family resemblance. The oldest appeared near twelve years old, I guessed. They had noticed us and had been whispering to each other, somewhat nervous regarding the way we were sticking near them.
“Do we know you?” The oldest one asked. The other two turned their heads from their older sister to us.
“In truth, you do not.” I replied. “We are mother and daughter, in awe of this beautiful city but are hopelessly lost within it. We wish to stay for a week or maybe a bit more but do not know where a child might play in safety or mother might provide a bed for her child without battling rats or picking off the spiders. We followed you because you looked happy and were laughing. We so wish to be happy and laugh. If we have annoyed you or frightened you, we can walk back the way that we have come. That was not our desire.”
“What is your little girl’s name?” The oldest one said, with the others’ faces showing they held the same interest.
Mia blushed and was embarrassed. She hugged my leg and buried her face there. If there had been only one new face, perhaps her response would have been to answer that question by herself, but I buried my hand in her hair and furnished the information. Carefully, at first, they crossed to us and the children began to become friends. We were near a less used road, which is where the three girls had been heading when they stopped, which is good because we would not have followed them any further on their journey. I wondered briefly if that was why they had stopped. The narrower road had the look and feel of something less public. I stood for a while watching them, and then found a soft place to sit in the grass. I hadn’t been there for more than a few minutes before I saw a man coming up from the road the girls had been about to turn down. This path stayed in the daylight for about twenty strides before it sloped, becoming tree covered and lost in the shadows. The man’s appea
rance was sudden because of this. When the girls saw him, they happily ran to him, leaving Mia to watch.
“Papa! Papa!” They shouted, and then flung their arms around him. Then the lowered voices started, led by him and he positioned himself so that he could see us by looking past his girls. When they spoke to him, it was words we didn’t hear because they were facing away. I could guess some of the conversation between them, being about Mia and me. Just hours after fleeing The Square, we were already people of interest. Still, we did not move along. I wanted a chance to reassure this man, if he needed more reassurance that his daughters’ encounter with us was by chance with no intent to frighten or threaten. After words between them, long enough to let an awkwardness grow, as we just stood there unannounced, he stood tall and fatherly among them and bade them to remain where they were. He stepped through his girls and approached slowly, but on firm strides, taking a look around, for my husband I think, before addressing me. When he finally did, he squinted his eyes in order to better penetrate the shadow cast by the hood I wore over my head.
“Thank you for seeing my girls safely to our road. I can see you are foreign to this area. You are a stranger to us and my girls should not have spoken with you. But I am now guilty of the same thing as I should be addressing your man.” His manner was both rebuking and forgiving.
“We are sorry.” I replied. “No insult or temptation to stray your children from their teachings was meant. You are right. We are new to the city and your ways. To follow your children was a thoughtless act. They were happy and laughing and, as we were exploring the area, their cheerfulness was a joy to follow. Again I apologize for any concerns they or you might have. It is a frightening thing to be a stranger in a strange land, especially perhaps, being a woman and a mother. Your girls were trying to help us find safe shelter. Asking children about safe places in town and safe lodgings seems…well, safe.” I laughed at my word choices but shortly felt like a giggling fool as he did not return the mirth but kept his serious face.
“Have you a suggestion where a young mother and child might stay for a short time…where they could play and laugh and enjoy the shore…the sea?” I bravely asked into the hard stare of the girls’ father.
He turned his head from us to his young group and back to us. “Remain here. I will ask around about what you need…what you are looking for. I will be back or I will send someone. It will not be right away but someone will come.”
He took hold of the hands of his girls and walked down the lane into the woods. I was both curious and frightened. I wondered what he meant about asking around. There were certain feelings that came along with this brief encounter with the girls and their father, that acknowledged the strangeness of it and urged caution, if not to leave the area immediately. I confess, I spent a bit of time weighing my courses as Mia twirled, skipped and jumped in between long sighs and longing looks in the direction the girls had gone. Eventually, Mia complained of being hungry…and tired…and bored. I knew then that we were reaching the point where patience was at a breaking point. I coaxed a few more minutes of waiting from her, but it was time to go. If there was to be someone coming back this way from the narrow road into the woods, they would find footprints where we had waited, and trampled grass but those would be the only traces left. We gathered our things, slight though they were, and began with a few footsteps, to retrace our journey deep into Athens when Mia, who had been wishfully casting looks back over her shoulder, let out an excited cry, which caused me to turn around as well.
An older, white-haired man and a grey-haired woman were approaching just as we were leaving. Somehow this frightened me but for Mia’s sake, I held up and in fact approached them as they came up the road.
“I am sorry.” The old man said. “We apologize. We are careful. We want nothing to do with witches and had to make sure you weren’t one. Keeping you waiting was a test. A mother and daughter, waiting with only a hint of a chance for a place to stay, certainly isn’t something a vagrant or a thief would abide for very long.”
The woman came up close and was looking us over, being obvious about it, while the man continued his explanation. “Please, come and see our home. All but our youngest have left. So many rooms are empty. Our children are gone far away. Our home is large and quite nice, bought not from privilege but from hard work. I have a feeling you know about hard work.”
I nodded.
The man led us down the road and the woman followed behind us. Once we were walking through the trees, the journey was quite pleasant and downhill. Where we had been waiting had allowed us a fantastic view of the sea, beyond the woods. The trees continued to the edge of the sea but it was a cliff they came to, rather than a sandy shore. The drop from this bluff was the height of three grown trees standing on top of each other from deepest root to tree top, yet there was a path and stairways that combined to serpentine up or down this rock face. Even more amazing was that there were many large houses that started at the shore and were built in to the rock walls or at least to hug their form. There were terraces and roofs and decks and stairs, and where I approaching the rock wall from the sea I would see perhaps twenty homes like this loosely connected to each other. Their porches and landings extended so close to the water that kneeling on one of these lower decks, I could reach down and touch the water. I was amazed. The approach to these dwellings from the water was far easier than to scale the cliff, and certainly there were many landings designed to bring a boat to the bottom level of these structures where one could easily board or step off.
The paths we took to reach the top level of the home, as we descended upon them, were unnerving with few railings and uneven terrain. While Mia clung to me, I tightly grasped to tree branches wherever I could. When at last we were inside I was shaking from the exertion of the journey if not the distress. Though I had my guard up, it was in a way, comforting that theirs was up as well. I sensed these were good people made cautious but not so careful that they would turn away a possible rental prospect. In this regard, the place was fabulous, but I tried not to show my awe. After being shown around, the lowest level meant for occupancy, the one closest to the water, was offered and we settled on a price. There was a level underneath ours, but that was for storage, maintenance and the carrying of goods from the boats to the rest of the house. They were in the habit of renting various portions of their home but apparently this was an off season. Though we had the ability to cook our own foods, we were encouraged to have meals with them and share the bounty. Needless to say, this also cut the costs of our stay.
They were Demetrius and Cora Costas. Mia and I were welcomed into their home. Rather than a renter, we were made to feel as a visiting relative might… a favorite relative. Their son, Pavlos, and their three grand-daughters, Mika, Catrina and Sera, lived within the home, too. Everyone in the household doted on Mia. She was seldom ever alone during our stay. On the first night, after a splendid supper, Demetrius asked if I would come out onto the terrace that was directly outside our living quarters. He said they realized I must be tired from my day but they were hoping to sit out and take in the air, watching over the water, drinking some wine. “Pavlos will be joining us, also.” Demetrius said.
I must have appeared uneasy with this request because he rushed to reassure me regarding Mia being left alone in her slumber. “My words, of course, cannot hold a candle to a mother’s concerns, but I can tell you that young Mia can be heard from this particular terrace. We have had families of all ages and numbers, staying in the part of the house where you stay now. This is just outside your rooms. You should hear it if she wakes up. Anyway, we will be sitting out there with some wine when you are finished.”
Due to the excitement of the day, Mia did not fight me when it was time for her bed, and seemed to fall asleep as I was laying her down. I was actually the first one out there and sitting at a patio table as they came out. Cora led and the two men, carrying wine and glasses came out just as she was sitting down.
S
he said. “This is my favorite time; the relaxing, the day slowing down. I like to look upon the water and see the adventures within my view.”
The discussion turned gradually toward me and it reminded me of their secret observations of Mia and me earlier in the day.
“What made you think I was a witch?” I asked.
“You keep yourself covered, child…body, face, and the tale of your yesterdays. You’re so smooth with it, so good with having anything about you tell a story. That in itself, beckoned a closer look. There is no crime in this, but if we are bringing you into our home and extending a trust, what are we inviting in that we do not see? And what will follow?”
Demetrius and Pavlos took their seats, filling in the table. Neither of them appeared surprised at the conversation.
“But I am a mother, with a young girl. That really doesn’t speak of witchcraft.”
Demetrius cut in. “You think not? What a clever plan it would be to use a little girl. You keep yourself covered and are alone but for your girl. Yet, you have means to rent a floor of our home. We need to know what you are bringing with you. Are you on the run? What sort of trouble might you be bringing to our doorstep?”
The Blood In Between (The Safe Haven Trilogy Book 3) Page 18