by Kahn, Denise
“Just relax!” Eric said, watching Ruth come into the bar. He winked at her.
Ruth sat on a stool next to Adam. “A pint of ale please.”
Adam thought his heart would stop. He turned and came face to face with her. She was a picture of health and beauty with naturally red cheeks and a slight hint of lipstick. She looked lovely and very sexy. Her long blond hair was pulled back in a chignon held with an orchid, and her blue evening gown reflected the sapphire of her eyes, even deeper and lovelier than he remembered. “Ruthie…”
“Adam, I’ve missed you so much,” she said, putting her arms around him.
Alejandro put a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Leave some for later, old man. We want to say hello too.”
Adam reluctantly released Ruth. Alejandro introduced his brother.
Bianca had never seen Ruth before but she knew immediately who she was. “Davina is dying to say hello to Ruth,” Bianca said.
“She just got here!” Adam complained.
“I’ll have her back in a flash.” The two women made their way to Davina’s dressing room.
Davina jumped up from the vanity and hugged Ruth. “You look absolutely smashing, Ruth! This is Jean, a good friend. Jean, this is Ruth, a very brave woman. She saved my life.”
“Thank you so much for inviting me.”
“My pleasure. Have you seen Adam?”
Ruth nodded. “It’s special for me because he’s here.”
“You know he adores you. All he talks about is you.”
“The problem is getting the time to get together somewhere in this world.”
“I’m sure you’ll both work it out.”
Bianca held up her wrist and tapped on her watch. It was time for Davina to dress. Bianca said to Ruth, “I have to get you back to Adam or he’ll make me ride in the cargo hold.”
When they left the dressing room, Jean sat next to Davina. “What do you mean she saved your life?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you sometime, but not now.”
“Davina, you have done so much for me. You saved my life. You gave me hope when there was none. I owe you so much. I know this might sound silly but if I can help you in any way…” But how in the world could she help Davina Walters? What possibly could she do for this woman?
Bianca returned to the dressing room and took Davina’s gown off the hanger.
“It’s time for me to get dressed,” Davina told Jean. “We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Okay,” Jean said. She kissed Davina on the cheek. “Good luck tonight.”
Davina slipped out of her robe and went to Bianca who was holding up her dress. “Thank you, bella.”.
“Piacere. My pleasure.”
The Sporting Club was filled to capacity with distinguished guests—wealthy businessmen, ship owners, entertainers, diplomats, professional athletes, old titled European families. It was an elite crowd of different nationalities and cultures.
Davina stood behind the curtain awaiting her cue—the orchestra playing the overture. She sang for more than two hours in several different languages. When someone in the audience asked for a song that was not on the program and not known by the orchestra, Davina sang it a cappela. The crowd gave her a standing ovation.
But the night was just beginning for certain members of the audience, the lucky ones who would be joining the singer on the yacht Aphrodite.
♫
THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
CHAPTER 27
The Aphrodite, which was moored in Monte Carlo’s harbor, belonged to Stefanos Koulouris. The yacht measured almost three hundred feet with over 1,800 tonnage. The sides were decorated with raised gold lettering. A gold statue of the goddess of love and beauty adorned the bow of the ship, making her the unmistakable property of the Greek shipping magnate. The yacht easily reached twenty knots, generated by six thousand horsepower from her twin engines. The bridge was equipped with the most sophisticated equipment, and there was a communications room that was a wonder in itself. It was said that one could rule the world from that room.
The yacht was manned by forty-five crewmembers, including five chefs (Greek, Swiss, Chinese, Mexican, and a French pastry chef). A disk jockey housed behind a 360-degree panel of buttons would simultaneously conduct a laser show, let mist envelope the dancers, and play a mélange of international popular music while the guests danced on a polished parquet floor under a mirrored ceiling. If a visitor wished something subtler, he or she could relax in an adjacent room of pastel tones of peach and beige as a piano player’s fingers shuffled along the ivory keys, playing more mellow melodies.
The Aphrodite was renown as the grandest personal museum afloat. The décor and the art, the antiques and the paintings, reflected the exceedingly good taste of its owner.
Stefanos Koulouris had not always been so wealthy. Born in a poor fishing village on the Greek island of Chios, Stefanos was raised by a neighboring family who had taken him in as a child when his parents died in an earthquake. The family had lost their own son in the same earthquake. Stefanos had no brothers or sisters, and he did not know if he had any other living relatives. His young life had been difficult. The family he lived with meant well and tried to provide for him as best they could, but times were difficult and Stefanos had to do his share of hard work. Their home was a one-room shack on the waterfront and they lived off the sea. His dream was to become a ship owner. Chios boasted the largest number of men who had become ship owners and who now held the impressive title of owning the majority of ships of the largest merchant fleet in the world. Koulouris had become one of these men, and he was the richest of them all.
At sixteen he found a job as a deck hand on a merchant ship. He worked twelve hours a day and spent another six learning everything he could about the ship and the shipping business from the crew and staff. The area on board he enjoyed the most was the engine room. The gigantic machinery that made the tons of metal move rhythmically through the seas fascinated him, and he scrupulously learned everything there was to know about the mechanics and the heart of the enormous vessel. In just six short months, Stefanos was promoted to the job of assistant in the engine room.
Koulouris had been on board for two years when, one day as the ship was docked in the port of Piraeus to unload supplies, he saw a small tugboat moored on the side of the dock. It looked abandoned and run down, and when young Stefanos disembarked and noticed the ‘For Sale’ sign on the helm, his heart skipped a beat. He quickly boarded the little boat and looked her over. The structure was still strong but the machinery was badly rusted. Apparently the owner knew nothing about maintaining an engine and had probably given up any hope of salvaging her. He saw his opportunity. He negotiated the price for the tugboat and bought it for practically scrap metal. He was happy. He would restore it to its original condition and start a business of his own.
Stefanos quit his job on the merchant ship and began restoring his new acquisition. He meticulously took the entire engine apart and rebuilt it piece by piece. During the day he was hard at work on the tug, and in the evenings he went to school and received his license as a tugboat pilot. It took four months of hard work on the tugboat and his course work proved even more difficult as his formal education extended no further than third grade. But he prevailed. Stefanos succeeded in transforming his modest investment into the most powerful tugboat in the entire Piraeus harbor. Freshly painted, looking better than she had on her maiden run, Stefanos took her out and paraded her past the piers. In five years, he would own the largest fleet of tugboats in Greece. On his twenty-fifth birthday, he purchased his first ship. He was now a ship owner.
He was a cunning businessman and knew the shipping industry inside out, but his prowess lay in his imagination for the improvement and rebuilding of ship engines. By the time he was thirty-five, he had become a multi-millionaire and was the sole owner of the Koulouris fleet of ships and the Koulouris shipyards. He had achieved his lifelong ambition, but he had no one to share it with. H
is adoptive parents, with whom he never really had been close, had passed away.
Although Stefanos was a good-looking man with dark Mediterranean features, he had not found a woman he wanted to share his life with. But he needed an heir, a son, to take over the vast Koulouris empire, and when he was introduced one evening to Irene Navaris, the daughter of another ship owner, he decided he was going to marry her. She was pretty, young, well educated, and from an old established shipping family. Yes, he thought, she would make a good mother for his son.
Stefanos and Irene were married two months later. It was not a marriage of love, but of convenience. Stefanos and her parents had arranged it and they had all agreed. Irene did not mind. She believed that her new husband would one day come to love her. She herself thought she was in love with him. She taught him the finer things in life. She was a good teacher and he was a good student, and soon he was an expert in art, jewelry, antiques, music, and even fashion.
Koulouris became a master bettering his teacher. He came to enjoy their evenings together and was ecstatic when Irene announced she was pregnant. Although he felt no passion for her, he was a good husband. He provided her with everything she needed or wanted. It was an easy and convenient relationship, but Stefanos did not know the meaning of love. He had never truly experienced it, not with his wife, and not with his foster parents, but his life was about to change.
Irene gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy. The little girl was born first. Stefanos had already decided their future. His daughter would inherit a fortune, and his son would be the head of the Koulouris enterprises. But then something happened that Stefanos never expected—Irene died in childbirth. His only thought now was for his children, and he dedicated his time and energy to raising them, especially his son.
As the years went by and the children grew older, Stefanos started spending more and more time with his son and paid less and less attention to his daughter. She was a beautiful little girl, but his son would be the one running the business. When Penelope was thirteen, she was sent to a school in Switzerland. She was intelligent and sharp, just like her father, but he never had any real quality time for her. He provided her with a good education and whatever else she needed. What he didn’t realize was that he was grooming the wrong Koulouris. His daughter, not his son, was the one with the brain and the aptitude for business. Even at this young age, anyone could have seen it in Penelope. He would have seen it had he not been blinded by the fact of her gender. Instead, he was desperately trying to form a carbon copy of himself in his son, without realizing that the boy did not want any part of his father’s business.
Stefanos was on a course that could only lead to a great deal of disappointment, and had he not met Eleni Kerzi, he would have been desperately unhappy. He met her through William Walters who was in Athens with his family for a brief visit. William was also representing the U.S. State Department. In this capacity, he met with the executive officers of the Koulouris company, which was shipping a great deal of oil from the Middle East.
Walters and Koulouris took a liking to one another. After their meetings, the Greek man insisted Walters bring his family to his villa for his children’s birthday party. Walters couldn’t refuse.
Walters arrived with his wife Melina and daughter Davina and, of course, Eleni Kerzi, who was more or less a part of the family. Eleni was also the renown Greek soprano, one of the greatest voices of the century. The extraordinary range and dynamic quality of her voice and her unique dramatic talent were equaled only by the versatility of her repertoire. Not since Lilli Lehman and Maria Callas had there been a voice that could range so freely from dramatic to lyric roles. She was the reason so many forgotten operas had been revitalized. Stefanos Koulouris was a big fan. He adored her singing. She was the prima donna assoluta. To have her in his home was thrilling. He was all but tongue-tied now.
“You must be very proud of your children, Mr. Koulouris,” Eleni said.
“Thank you,” he managed to say. “It is indeed an honor to make your acquaintance. I am one of your greatest admirers.”
“Your compliment is very kind.”
Stefanos could not help staring at her. She had a face like a Madonna, from her deep sensitive brown eyes to her full sensual lips. The beauty of her face was hypnotic, so much so that one never really noticed the large heavy body, and Eleni Kerzi had a personality to match her beauty.
Eleni and Stefanos had been together ever since. He never imagined that a woman could be motherly, affectionate, talented and intelligent, all at once. Never had he associated intelligence with women, but perhaps that was due to his peasant background; his father gave the orders and his mother obeyed him like a faithful servant.
Stefanos worshipped Eleni, and he trusted her, occasionally more so than even himself, if that was possible. Her God-given voice and charm had a hypnotic hold on him. He never doubted her judgment. In consequence, many ideas that Stefanos harbored all his life changed, thanks to Eleni. His children Faydon and Penelope adored her.
After graduating from their respective schools in Switzerland, the twins joined their father and Eleni one evening for dinner on the terrace of the Koulouris house on their private island. Faydon and Penelope had both decided to continue their studies at Harvard, but they knew they would have a problem telling their father, let alone convincing him of the careers they wanted to follow. The youngsters knew they faced a monumental confrontation, but Eleni had given them courage.
Faydon had felt it his duty to protect his sister, but this confrontation was different. What weapon could he invent in the next few seconds to shield them from their father’s forthcoming anger?
“Patera, Penelope and I have something very important to discuss with you,” Faydon said.
“I too have good news for you. I have a feeling this will be a wonderful day,” Stefanos said. “What is it, my son?”
“We have decided to continue our studies right away instead of taking off a year to travel.”
“That’s fine, Faydon, but I had presumed that Penelope would have wanted to marry by now,” Stefanos said, as if his daughter was not standing right there before him. “She is at the right age, and I’m very proud to say quite beautiful. It should not be difficult for her to find a good husband.”
Penelope sighed in exasperation. Her father still regarded her as nothing more than a pretty young woman with no brain, ripe to be a servant to some Greek man. “Father, please, I’m not ready for marriage. I want to do things with my life. I don’t just want to settle down and have babies. I want to have a career. That is one of the things Faydon and I would like to discuss with you.”
“Women don’t have careers! They are groomed from birth to marry and raise children. Why can’t you understand that?”
“But Father, that is what women did last century, and unfortunately most village women in this country still do, but in this day and age, most women have wonderful careers. I want to be one of them, and I know I would succeed.”
“No. I forbid it. You will get married like all good decent Greek girls, and that is final. It is not correct for a young lady to even think of such things.”
“But Father,” Penelope persisted, “even Eleni has a career, a wonderful one.”
“Yes, that’s very true,” Eleni said. She was waiting for this.
“She is different; she is an exception,” Koulouris said flatly.
“But…”
“Enough of this. So, my son, contrary to your sister, I am happy to hear that you have decided to continue your studies so quickly. Have you decided on a university yet?”
Faydon looked glum. He knew he would not succeed with his father either. “Yes, I have. Harvard School of...”
“Ah, that is good,” his father interrupted. “The Harvard Business School is one of the best in the world. I’m very pleased.”
“Yes, but...” Faydon hesitated, “it is not the business school I wish to attend.”
“How do you mean?”
> “It is the Harvard School of Medicine. I want to become a doctor.” He felt lighter for finally having said so to his father.
Koulouris turned red. He turned to Eleni with pleading eyes.
“May I be permitted to voice an opinion?” She asked gently.
“By all means,” Stefanos said impatiently. “Persuade my ungrateful children to not shame me or the Koulouris name.”
“Stefanos, I don’t believe the children are trying to shame you in any way. As a matter of fact, I think they are trying to make you proud of them.”
Koulouris could not believe what he was hearing. If anyone could help, it was Eleni. “How do you figure?” he demanded. “He wants to become a common doctor, and she wants to be a renegade!”
“Let me just make a suggestion. If I understand correctly, they both want to go to the same university. Why don’t you let them go for the year they intended to travel and pretend that they are just having a vacation? It is a wonderful school and they would be together. They could take care of each other, and they would be getting some sort of education anyway. If worse came to worse, Faydon would have at least learned how to study in a difficult university and Penelope might change her mind and come back home. I think it is a good opportunity for both of them. I think you should consider it seriously.”
Stefanos smiled at her. His children stood on either side of Eleni.
“I will make a deal with you, agapimou, my love,” he said, addressing Eleni. “I will grant them their wish under one condition. As I had mentioned previously, I have good news.” He took out a small velvet box from his pocket and placed it on the table in front of Eleni. “This is my condition: You must agree to marry me.”
Eleni, the thespian, showed no emotion. Koulouris’ eyes were victorious.
He’s ghastly, Penelope thought. She was disgusted with her father, hated him at that moment for trying to use his children to get a woman to marry him—just another business deal, that’s all we are to him.