by Anne Hampson
She went out to the garden, where she had always found peace walking among the flowers, delighting in the plumage of the birds, marvelling at their song. If she did decide to leave, these walks would be remembered always… 'memories gathered by me, for me,' she whispered against the lump in her throat. It was not to be as it was with Randy and Jan… 'memories gathered by us, for us.'
Kim went over to the waste ground where the paddocks were. She kept a stock of carrots and sugar lumps in a box close by, and as soon as she approached, all seven donkeys came ambling towards her, three in one paddock and four in another. After feeding them with the tidbits she decided to go down to the harbour where, at one end, the animal dispensary was being built. The main structural work was finished and now work was going on inside. The whole project had aroused a great deal of interest, and as she approached she had to smile at the men standing there, some in vraga—baggy black pantaloons—chewing on tobacco while flicking and twirling the inevitable worry beads. They stared, a wide-eyed expression coming to their faces only when Kim approached. They moved aside, first having examined her from head to toe, stripping her. She was used to it; every Greek male subjected every female to the same scrutiny, be the man old or young, married or single.
'Yassoo, Kim!' cried Bridie who came to the door just as Kim arrived.
'Yassoo!' returned Kim, noticing the amusement of the men at the girls' use of the Greek greeting. It was almost always used in the afternoon, but it did not mean good afternoon, Kim had soon learned. Its meaning was more like, 'Hail to you!'
'Hello, Kim.' Denis came to the door to stand beside Bridie. 'Come on in and see what we're doing.' He was smiling and looked happy. Kim glanced at Bridie, and as soon as she was able to snatch a moment alone with her she asked how Denis's affair with Helena was progressing.
'By leaps and bounds. In fact, I'm going to ask him outright if it's serious.'
'You are?'
'Why not? Bridie shrugged. 'If he is serious, it'll be common knowledge soon anyway. You can't keep secrets in a place like this.'
Denis was talking to one of the workmen, a joiner who was making a set of cupboards and some wall cabinets. When eventually Denis came back to them, Bridie said blandly, 'When is the engagement to be announced?'
He was startled at first, then amused. 'Bridie, you're the limit!'
'So George is always telling me. Well?'
'We're very happy together.' He seemed a trifle embarrassed as he met Kim's gaze, but he soon recovered his composure and added musingly, 'I suppose there isn't much for us to wait for, not really. Helena doesn't seem to mind being poor.'
'You have a lovely villa, Denis. Any girl would like to live there.'
'Yes, but it's only rented. Helena has a dowry house, as her brother tentatively mentioned yesterday—'
'Eager to get one of his sisters married, eh? You know why, don't you? He wants to get married himself but can't until both his sisters are off their parents' hands.'
Kim was looking puzzled, and it was Denis who explained that in the villages of Greece, and on many of the small islands, the dowry system still prevailed, and this also carried the obligation of brothers to work to help provide a dowry house for each sister. Andreas and his father had built Helena's over a period of five years, using all they earned and all their time. Cousins and other relatives had helped, and the resulting villa was very pretty, set in a lemon orchard not far from where Helena and her brother lived. Maroula, the other sister, was at present living at Bridie's home but she too must be provided with a house before she could hope to marry.
'I told him that if I married Helena I wouldn't hear of accepting a dowry,' said Denis, whereupon Bridie declared that Andreas would be delighted, because Helena's house could then go to Maroula, which meant she would soon find a husband. That would leave Andreas free to marry his Souphoula, who was already twenty-seven and had been waiting for him since she was nineteen.
'You are thinking of marrying Helena, then?' persisted Bridie, and after a slight pause Denis nodded and said yes, he was very seriously thinking of marrying Helena.
'So we're all going to be invited to the engagement ceremony?'
'I expect so.'
Kim had already learned that an engagement was solemnised by a church ceremony and was as binding as the marriage. The prospective bride and groom dressed up and so did the guests. The couple would exchange gold rings, which they would wear on their right hands until, at the actual wedding, they would be switched to the left.
'Well, let us all know.' Bridie grinned at him. 'I'll bet you never thought you'd find a wife almost as soon as you arrived here.'
'Indeed no.' Denis's expression was rueful. 'Nor did I expect to be able to build up a practise.'
Kim's eyes went to his. 'You've managed to get more clients, then?'
Denis nodded his head. 'I was approached yesterday by a hotel owner who's buying two Labradors from Rhodes. He wants me to look after them—give them a six-monthly medical and the necessary injections.'
'That's great!' from Bridie. 'And promising. People will tell one another.'
'I'm not expecting much, Bridie, but every little bit is going to help.' His eyes slid fleetingly to Kim. She looked away, but just before she left, she managed to get him alone for a moment.
'You'll get your salary, Denis,' she assured him. 'When Vidas knows you are engaged to Helena, then he'll forget what happened that night.'
'I don't care whether he does or not; I have some money saved, and as I've said, there's a chance of my building up a small practise. Helena and I can manage.'
Kim left shortly afterwards, with Bridie, who had her car.
'I'll drop you off,' she said, and although Kim would have preferred to walk, she accepted the lift. 'See you soon,' said Bridie, as she prepared to drive away from the castle. 'I'll give you a ring in the morning.'
Kim watched the car disappear and an added weight dragged at her spirits at the thought of losing the friend she had so recently made.
It was later in the day that Kim found her footsteps guided toward the little Byzantine church in which she had been married—the Church of San Demetrius with its honey-coloured walls, its impressive dome and red tiled roof. It stood to one side of the Halthea Valley, high above the vineyards and citrus orchards Vidas owned. The view from the rise was breathtaking, over the ochre-pink hills to one side, out to the indigo sea on another, while to the east rose the serrated mountains, pewter-dark and ominous against the brittle Grecian sky. Nestling on a plateau, the little village of Saldenos could be seen, remnant of the fine city that had been the island's centre of culture when the Venetians had been rulers of Malindos and several other islands close by. What a chequered history Greece had, Kim mused as she went into the church, stopping to admire the lovely mosaics and the simple dignity of the white marble statues. As her nostrils caught the pungent smell of incense she was poignantly reminded of her wedding day, the ceremony that had joined her to a man she had come to love, but who would never love her.
The silence within the church was absolute as she lingered there, facing the altar. How long she had been standing there before the sound reached her ears she did not know, but it was so slight that she did not even turn her head, believing it to be the mere whisper of a breeze drifting in from the warm bright hills.
'Kim…' Her name came softly and she stiffened, feeling guilty, like a child caught trespassing.
Over her shoulder she said quietly, 'What do you want, Vidas?'
'Why have you come here?' He was beside her, and as always she felt the power of him, the magnetism that had drawn her from the very first meeting between them.
'I don't quite know,' she answered. 'My footsteps just led me and I—I was here.' It was not the answer she would have given him had she stopped to think, but she just said what was in her mind, probably because it was the truth.
She heard her husband say, 'I saw you climbing the hill. You looked tired.' He sounded anxious, she
thought, and turned her head a little to examine his expression. She saw only the familiar stern features, and the wild pulsation of a nerve in his cheek.
'I'm not tired.' No, it was not tiredness that had caused her feet to drag; it was the heaviness within her. 'Why did you come?' she asked.
'To see why you were here.' He came round to face her, towering above her as always. Kim's eyes were soft and smoky as she lifted her face to meet his gaze. 'You're pale,' he observed. Kim said nothing, and in the pause that followed she had the impression that he was seeking words. They came at last. 'I have something to say to you—'
'Not here, Vidas.' Kim's voice was low but firm. 'It isn't the place.'
'Not the place.' He looked at her with a puzzled expression. 'What do you mean?'
'We were married here; it isn't the place to begin discussions about a divorce. Besides, I haven't yet made up my mind. What I mean is, I had intended to provide an easy solution to your problem; I was willing to talk to you about a separation but something's happened…' Her voice trailed off as she began to pull herself up. She had made her decision! It had come swiftly after all the painful indecision of the morning. She would not agree to a separation. She would suffer if she had to, but better that than her child deprived of the luxury of his rightful home. 'We will talk if you want, but not here.' She turned to go, her eyes staring past him to the scene framed in the church doorway— the ancient gravestones, mellowed and sadly atilt, the line of yew trees darkly oppressive, and through a gap, the sun-bright hills outlined against the sky.
'Just a minute.' Vidas barred her way. 'Where did you get all this about a divorce?'
'Floria—but you will never get me out of the castle. I'm here to stay.'
'I never intended it to be otherwise.'
'Not at first, perhaps, but Floria convinced me that you want her. Well, you can have her, Vidas, but it'll be as a mistress, not as a wife.' Anger was rising but she meant to control it—at least while she was in church. 'You knew that Floria had been talking to me that day in the garden—it was the day she came back to find her lost bracelet. You went out to speak to her and… and I thought you might have come back to me to—to explain, to say that what Floria said was all wrong. But you didn't come back and you've never mentioned it since, so it's plain that she was right, isn't it?' She looked at him, her eyes big in her face.
'You didn't tell me what she said to you.' Vidas's voice was taut; Kim had the impression that he too was battling with his temper.
'She said you regretted not marrying her last year when—when you were lovers. She convinced me you wanted a divorce.'
'She told you we were lovers?' He gritted his teeth, ignoring the rest.
'She said it was fashionable in Greece.' Kim pulled herself up and, frowning, tried again to leave the church. 'I'm not talking about such things here,' she almost snapped. 'Please let me pass.'
'Not until I have had my say.' He put out his hands to rest them on her shoulders, felt her quiver beneath his touch, and for a second he closed his eyes, as if pained by something he now bitterly regretted. 'I've been a fool, Kim, in trying to fight something that had me beaten weeks ago.' Before she had time to marshall her thoughts and find something to say, his mouth closed on hers, and for a long time he held her to his heart.
Was it true? she asked herself. Had the miracle she had once prayed for really happened?
'Oh, Vidas, is it true?' Kim gasped out the question when at last he released her. 'You—you love me?'
'Forever,' was his fervent reply and he bent to kiss her again before continuing to explain. 'As you know, dearest, I was determined never to become emotionally involved with a woman. From what I had seen, it was always obvious to me that love does not last, and so I never intended to weaken—' He broke off there and gave a tender, rueful laugh, looking deeply into her eyes and shaking his head. 'I hadn't a chance, though, not once I'd learned that you'd never been Dendras's pillow-friend. But still I fought on, like a fool, making us both unhappy. Yes, darling,' he said in answer to her glance of surprise, 'I knew you loved me. When I was away in Athens I missed you so much that I had to admit I loved you, but my pride had been injured by the easy way you managed to deceive me right at the start, and every time I wanted to be tender with you, my thoughts would invariably stray to that and the result was an immediate return of my animosity. And in my stubborn foolishness I swore I'd never forgive you.'
'I suspected you were fighting your love for me, Vidas, and so I tried to—to entice you.' The bald admission earned her a little shake as punishment, but the next moment Vidas was kissing her tenderly, his warm hands gentle as they held her close. 'I then had the idea of making you jealous,' continued Kim, when he drew his lips from hers. 'So I suggested—'
'Inviting Denis over for dinner,' he finished for her. 'It was because I suspected you of that sort of wile that I retaliated by inviting Floria. It was only meant as a joke, but when I came outside with her and found you in Denis's arms—'
'But if you knew I loved you, then you also knew there was nothing between Denis and me, so I don't understand your anger.'
'No? With Floria looking on and the sure conviction that she'd spread it all over the island?'
'I don't think she did talk, Vidas.'
'We shall never know, nor do I care, not now.'
'Did she find her bracelet—?' Kim broke off, aware that the question was unimportant.
'She never lost one.'
Kim was not too surprised by this piece of information. 'What happened when you went out to her?' she asked curiously, after a pause.
'She admitted she'd come back specifically to find out whether or not there was a rift between you and me as a result of what I saw out there in the garden. I said no and sent her packing.'
'Sent her packing?' repeated Kim.
'Told her to clear off. I was married and so our affair was ended.'
'It wasn't fair to invite her to dinner,' chided Kim. 'It gave her ideas.' Although Vidas nodded in rapid agreement, he made no comment. It was plain that he had no wish to waste time talking about his old flame. 'Why didn't you come back to me and explain?'
'Because I was still mad at seeing my wife in another man's arms. You didn't appear to be putting up much of a fight, either!'
'I can explain,' offered Kim hurriedly, and she did, ending up by telling Vidas about the upcoming engagement between Denis and Helena and asking that Denis be reinstated in his job.
'Yes, he can have his job back,' said Vidas. And he added ruefully, 'I daresay I shall be parting with a great deal more money for expenses incurred in this lunatic project of yours. Oh, and I've just remembered! What the devil do you mean by telling people it is I who am collecting donkeys?'
'I only told Elias,' laughed Kim. 'I thought he'd probably let me have it cheaper.'
'And did he?'
'I don't know.' Kim nestled in his arms and lifted her face. 'Vidas,' she said huskily, 'I love you.'
'My darling, I adore you!' Masterfully, he caught her to him, covering her eager lips with his, and within seconds she was being carried on the tide of his ardour until, needing breath himself, he slackened his hold.
Kim, still clinging to him, said provocatively, 'You haven't asked my why I changed my mind about giving you your freedom.'
'I'd never have taken my freedom, so it isn't important.' His warm hands were roving, caressing her lovely curves.
'It is important,' she insisted. 'You see, darling, something happened that made me think again—'
'Dearest Kim, I have said it isn't important,' Vidas bent his head to take her lips again, then tucked her arm in his and together they walked towards the door.
'All right,' said Kim with well-feigned indifference, 'it isn't important, so I won't bother telling you.'
He stopped abruptly by the door and glanced into her face. 'It obviously is important,' he began, then stopped as he noticed the delicate colour rising in her cheeks. 'Kim… my dearest wife… it's�
� ?'
'Yes,' she said with a lovely smile. 'So you see, darling, it is rather important, isn't it?'
Her husband made no answer but just looked at her adoringly for a long moment before lifting her hand to his lips.