"I don't know." She twisted her fingers in her lap. The car cruised to a halt outside her old home.
"Will you sell this house? Emily is wondering."
Kate crushed a tiny spurt of anger. Was he impatient to tie up all the loose ends involving her? Want her out of his life so he could write finish with the whole unsavoury episode?
"Don't push me, Alex. I'll decide when I'm ready. I won't put Emily out on the street," she said, adding with gentle sarcasm, "Thank you for the ride home but don't bother coming in. I'm a big girl now."
She opened the car door and stepped from the car, ignoring his tightening lips and thunderous scowl.
Their gazes clashed and her heart leaped as she saw the anger glittering in his grey eyes.
He was not used to being dismissed.
Wry humour surfaced.
In a world where everyone pandered to Alex's wealth and influence, she remained immune. Without looking back, Kate let herself into the house, shutting the door with a decided bang that brought Emily from the kitchen. "You're back."
Emily's relief left Kate feeling guilty. "I never meant to worry you. Alex brought me."
"You're not angry?"
"No," Kate admitted, surprised by the truth. She unwound the black chiffon scarf. "I can't like Alex, but at times only he understands. Is that stupid?"
"No. A child bonds the most unlikely people together with an unbreakable tie." Emily's eyes dimmed with sadness.
Instinctively, she knew Emily wasn't referring to her and Alex.
The older woman's relationship with Alex's father piqued Kate's curiosity. As Emily went back to the kitchen, she followed, running the black chiffon through her fingers as she watched the older woman set out afternoon tea, before sitting opposite her.
"How did it go?"
"Ghastly." Kate picked up her coffee and sipped at it, desperate for the stimulus.
"It is isn't it?" Emily's grimace was rueful. "It's even more horrifying when you have no legitimate reason to be there. Mistresses have no right to grieve."
The two women, separated by a generation but each bonded by an inescapable tie to men filled with the fierce pride and arrogance of an ancient race, looked at each other with wry understanding.
"Tell me about Alex's father." Kate leaned across the width of the pine table, gripping Emily's hand in silent empathy.
"Dimitri Korda emigrated from Greece after the war. He thrived in Australia. He was strong, in build and in character, and dark, like all his sons with a fierce family honour." Emily toyed with the handle of her coffee mug as she looked backward to something only she could see. "I was eighteen when I met him. His wife, the very beautiful Helen died when young Marcos was born. Dimitri took her death hard."
"How did you meet?"
"At an amusement park." Emily looked up, her eyes twinkling. "His nursemaid took the boys to the park and lost Alex. I found him. He was all of six. Dimitri was summoned. He sacked the nanny on the spot and asked me out to dinner to repay my kindness in looking after a frightened little boy."
Her voice faded away and she stared into the muddy depths of her coffee. She looked at Kate, her expression sad.
"Dimitri swept me off my feet. He was already making a name and fortune for himself and I was absolutely smitten until—"
"Until?" Kate prompted gently when Emily fell silent. "He took me to his home to get to know his boys."
Emily's mouth tightened as she looked at Kate. "A fierce old Greek witch frightened me away. She showed me photos of Helen, a golden haired beauty. Alex has his mother's beautiful eyes."
"Poor you." Kate gripped Emily's restless hand. Memories of the old Greek witch on Maude Island surfaced, the same woman? Would she ever know?
Emily grimaced and then went on evenly, "How could I compete. I asked Dimitri about Helen and with one look I knew that while he may need me and have my body, I would never have his love. That was buried with Helen."
"What did you do?"
"I refused to marry him." Emily took several gulps of coffee. "He was every inch the affronted Greek male. I refused to accept him on those terms, I loved him too much."
Silence settled. Kate was saddened by Emily's story.
"Luke?" There was no doubt he was Dimitri Korda's son. His likeness to Alex was too pronounced.
"He asked me to marry him when I was pregnant with Luke." Emily sighed softly. "I was too proud to accept. And Dimitri was too proud to ask again, when I refused him a second time. He provided me with a house, paid me a generous wage to care for Luke, and set up a small trust fund to pay for his education. He wanted Luke but I refused to part with him. Mind you, if he hadn't had Alex and Marcos he would have taken Luke, without a backward glance."
A cold shiver worked its way down Kate's spine. "You didn't see him again?"
"Oh I saw him." Emily's lips twisted bitterly. "I was his pillow friend until someone else filled the spot."
"So how did Luke know Dimitri was his father?"
Emily clenched her hand. "By the time Luke was in his teens, Dimitri was a wealthy, powerful man. He had a reputation for being ruthless. I was frightened for Luke, although we lived a long way from the heart of the Korda empire."
Kate frowned over her words.
"The fiction that Luke was the son of the mythical Matthew Harder was exposed when he was twenty." Emily grimaced, gulping down the remainder of her coffee.
"He came home from University one afternoon, clutching a newspaper. Blazoned across the front were huge photos of Dimitri Korda, Marcos and Marcos's wife, Irene, who'd all been killed in a car smash."
"A car smash? But I thought—" she broke off. This was why Alex insisted on surveillance.
"It was passed off as a car smash," Emily said grimly. "But there were rumours it was payback for some underhand deal."
"Oh dear God."
"That aside, Luke slammed the paper down and fetched my photo. He placed it beside the newspaper, you've seen Luke." Emily gave a brittle laugh. "The fiction was over."
"Poor you—and poor Luke."
"I thought I'd lost Luke then," Emily admitted, her voice cracking. "He wanted the whole story, and then insisted on attending the funeral. He dragged me along, under protest mind you."
"Where he met Alex?"
"Don't remind me." Emily groaned. 'We were hustled into this stark room and given such a grilling. Who were we? What was our connection and how dare we attend his father's funeral bringing dishonour on their name?"
Kate shuddered. A confrontation under similar circumstances gave her a very good idea of what Alex had put Emily and Luke through.
"In a way it was the best thing he could have done." Emily gave a strained laugh. "Luke was outraged that Alex dared to speak to me in such terms. He stood up to him. I'll never forget them standing toe to toe, nose to nose. I was petrified."
"I can imagine." Kate's imagination needed no fuelling.
She'd faced Alex Korda's controlled anger, alone.
For the millionth time she questioned her simplistic naivety at not leaving immediately. Why hadn't she guessed Alexandros Korda wouldn't let the death of his nephew go by, unremarked and unpunished?
"Then a small boy ran into the room, crying for his daddy and mummy and Alex calmed down."
With a start Kate concentrated on Emily. "Young Marcos?"
"Yes."
Emily gathered the used dishes. Silence descended before she turned back and faced Kate, gripping the table edge.
"Don't let history repeat itself, Kate. I was a fool refusing to marry Dimitri. My pride denied my son knowing his father and his brothers. I let one jealous old woman ruin what could have been a good marriage."
"But Helen?"
"Helen was dead. She was no more of a threat than my own imagination made her. Make your peace with Alex."
Emily paced across the kitchen before coming back and sitting across from Kate, gripping her hands.
"Alex is like his father, tough, but he's proud
and very loyal. He's never known the gentleness of a woman's love. You'll have to be the one to bend." Emily saw Kate's repudiation and hurried on while she had the chance. "You have a huge advantage. Sarah is your daughter, a secret Alex has protected ruthlessly. I lost the only man I loved by allowing pride come between us. My life has been very lonely. Don't make the same mistake."
Emily's stark words stayed with Kate.
Was Alex like his father? Emily had loved Dimitri. Kate's feelings about his son were much less defined.
*****
"So you've come to see me. I wondered if you would."
Kate blinked away happy tears.
Joe Kallinikos at eighty showed nothing of his age in his upright carriage or his shrewd intelligence.
"I had to come." She ran across the room and knelt at his feet. He took her hands in his gnarled ones. The impish twinkle, undimmed in his dark eyes.
"You're still a long way from well." He stroked a gentle finger down her cheek.
"You knew?"
"My dear Catriona, I would know if you whispered in your sleep." He chuckled as she flushed. "So you're making your peace with Alexandros?"
"I hate him," she whispered harshly.
"Do you? I don't think so."
"How can you say that when he's been so cruel?" she demanded, indignant.
"Perhaps it's what you needed. Have you considered that?"
Stricken, Kate stared at him. "What makes you say that?"
"My dear child, I may be old but I'm far from dead." He studied her intently. "You made a new life by pretending that the old one never existed. To build a shell around your grief and anger, damming it all inside, was stupid and so immature. It left Korda little option but to break down the wall you'd built."
Kate buried her face in his hands, fighting tears. He stroked her down bent head. "Alexandros is also acutely aware he's playing with a child's life."
That startled her into looking up into the face feared by so many. To her, Joe Kallinikos had only shown incredible kindness.
"What do you mean?"
"Catriona, think. How many times have you told Alexandros you hate that little girl because she's also his child?"
Guilt forced her to look away, unable to meet his eyes.
"Can you fault him for wanting to know, without doubt, your true feelings about Sarah?"
Kate stared at him, transfixed. Was that why Alex had brought Sarah to her office? To discover her true emotions for Sarah, emotions shock had laid bare for him to see?
She blinked, and that suddenly a shroud was torn aside.
"It's only a pity you had to meet Korda under such circumstances. You're ideally suited."
"Pardon?"
"You're a strong woman, Catriona, and if you were my daughter and I was arranging your marriage, Alexandros Korda would top the list." He chuckled, the earthy sound made his black eyes sparkle.
"Thank God my mother was only your friend."
"Oh give over, would you be happy with a weak-kneed society playboy you could twist around your finger."
"I would hate it. But that doesn't mean I'd put up with a dictatorial tyrant."
As she spoke Kate shivered. Was this old man right?
Joe shook his head, amused. "At the moment you're dealing with a backlog of grief and anger, but it won't always be so. You need a man you can look in the eye, strong enough not to be intimidated by your strength and courage."
"Have I any courage left?" she mused sadly, shaking her head.
At times she didn't have the courage to face getting out of bed in the morning, let alone cope with someone like Alex.
"Of course you have," Joe said, testily. "Look at the new life you've made for yourself, with no help from anyone. You've bought a house and have sizable investment portfolios. You didn't get those without grit and determination."
Kate stared at him. This man never failed to amaze her. How did he amass so much knowledge about other people?
"Why have you been so kind to me?" She asked the question that had puzzled her for years.
Joe's older son had taken her in charge at the Brisbane railway station after she'd fled from Alex. He'd escorted her here, and Joe Kallinikos had sheltered her and nursed her back to health.
"Your mother lost her life saving my Jimmy. I've always looked out for you and your brother." His old shrewd eyes noted her surprise. "You didn't know it was my boy?"
"No. I only knew she died saving a child who fell in front of an oncoming train," Kate said quietly. "That was your child?"
"That was my Jimmy," he said gripping her hands tightly. "Only he didn't fall."
Kate looked at him, digesting this. "He was pushed?"
The old man nodded. "Unfortunately I never knew who was behind the attack." He shrugged and spread his gnarled hands. "Still that's old history. As for your mother, how does a man repay a debt of that magnitude?"
"So it was turn about?"
"As you say, turn about." He gave her another searching look. "I can never be overtly associated with Korda. He'd be ruined."
"I wouldn't want that," Kate said soberly. She had her own quarrel with Alex but she would never ask this man to intervene on her behalf.
"And you claim to hate him?" Joe Kallinikos let rip with a belly laugh. "I'll bet you gave him hell."
Another shroud ripped aside.
Long forgotten scenes from Maude Island emerged in a kaleidoscopic montage. As she remembered, hysterical laughter bubbled up, overflowing in wicked delight. Kate laughed until the tears poured down her cheeks as she remembered their fights and Alex's sullen bewilderment.
From this perspective she could see the humour.
"Poor Alex," she stuttered. "He kidnapped a cowardly hit and run driver and discovered he'd captured a Cullum."
Joe Kallinikos joined in her infectious laughter.
"He certainly didn't have everything his own way." Kate wiped tears from her cheek. The laughter, the memories lifted a heavy weight from her spirit.
"Just be careful, child. It's too easy to discard something rare and precious in anger," Joe warned, suddenly very serious.
Kate looked up, meeting his dark, unfathomable eyes.
She shivered, gripped by an eerie premonition. The last time she's experienced such a sensation was immediately before she'd visited Alexandros Korda's house in Narrabeen.
The old man jostled her hands pulling her from that spooky place. "Let's enjoy afternoon tea and a comfortable chat."
This was something else she'd forgotten, afternoon tea with Joe.
Afternoon tea, served on delicate china, wafer thin sandwiches, the small sweet sugar biscuits, it was a ritual akin to taking a step back in time.
Kate settled to enjoy the rest of her visit.
Joe's keen wit and rapier sharp intelligence was a delight. He entertained her with wicked insights into prominent people's private lives. For the first time in years she felt alive and fully recharged. As he bid her farewell his old eyes were misty.
"You'll always be in my thoughts, Catriona." He gripped her hands tightly. "The debt I owe your mother is cancelled and I can die content. We won't meet again, my dear. Be happy."
Chapter Seven
On a cool winter's day, Kate stepped off the Qantas flight from Brisbane and shivered in the chill Auckland air. Walking from the terminal to the long stay car park, Kate knew she'd come home. Driving through the rain washed streets, the verdant greenery as she headed onto the southern motorway, heightened the sensation.
The first time she fled to New Zealand, it had been a hiding place.
Now after an absence of almost a year, it was dear and familiar, peopled with friends and more than that, welcoming.
Imperceptibly, but inevitably it had become her home place.
And every mile brought her closer.
She hummed under her breath. Paula had been right. She'd needed to return to Narrabeen. She'd mourned her family. And now, buzzing with anticipation, she looked forward t
o picking up the threads of her life.
She'd emerged from the shadows to walk the sunlight.
With acceptance had come healing.
There had only been one jarring moment.
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