by Craven, Sara
Lacey sighed. 'I'm not completely naive,' she said in a low voice. 'I'm well aware that there have been other women in his life. It's just Michelle's part in his past that I can't accept.'
`Kyria Lacey, you are wrong. I swear this to you. Your
stepmother is not and has never been Troy's mistress.' Lacey stared at him, moved by his obvious sincerity. `Then what is she doing on Corfu?' she asked.
Stephanos shrugged. `Making mischief, perhaps—and succeeding beyond her wildest dreams, it seems.' He paused. 'There are things I see I must tell you, Kyria Lacey, although they may hurt you—things that Troy never intended you should know.' He hesitated again, choosing his words with care. 'I don't know how well you know your stepmother, but I believe she is a sick woman. I have had to be in her company a great deal in the past year and it seemed to me always she was obsessed—by herself, and by the money and possessions she seemed to think were her right.' He smiled faintly. 'You have a saying in England, Kyria Lacey—she felt the world owed her a living. That, it seemed to me, was Lady Vernon's attitude.'
Lacey thought sombrely back over the years and nodded.
`I always knew she had married Daddy because he could give her money and position,' she said. 'But I thought that it didn't matter as long as she made him happy.°
`Oh, she was probably content to do so at first,' Stephanos said quietly. 'But when things started to go wrong for Vernon—Carey, she grew alarmed. Her position, you see, was being threatened, and when your father became ill, she was desperate. Only one thing came to matter—the saving of Vernon—Carey—not for the sake of
your father or the investors, but for the sake of Michelle Vernon.'
Lacey sighed a little. 'Perhaps we're doing her an injustice.'
'I don't think so,' Stephanos returned firmly. 'You were at your school, Kyria Lacey, but I was there. I saw her while the negotiations between your father's bank and the Andreakis corporation were going on. It was clear to Troy and myself that her sole motive was self-preservation—at any price. She was incredibly greedy—rapacious. She persuaded your father to ask for exorbitant terms. At one point negotiations had almost broken down altogether.' He paused again. 'We had stayed at Kings Winston and Lady Vernon had—forgive me—made it more than clear that she found Troy physically attractive.'
Lacey bent her head. 'I see—and Troy?'
Stephanos smiled slightly. 'What do you want me to say, Kyria Lacey? She is a beautiful woman and he is a normal man. He may have been—tempted, but it went no further than that. Troy liked your father and respected him too much to dishonour him in such a way, even though he knew that he would not be—the first.'
Lacey looked at him quickly. 'There were others?'
Stephanos nodded. 'She made frequent trips to Paris. Frankly, she was becoming notorious there. How much your late father knew and how much he closed his eyes to, it is impossible to say.'
Lacey was bewildered. 'But Troy was with Michelle in Paris,' she argued.
`Troy and I were in Paris,' Stephanos corrected her gently. 'He received a message one evening—apparently from your father. There were papers involved, essential to the negotiations, and he was told these were now ready for him to sign, on his own terms, so he went to the hotel at the time appointed. Instead, your stepmother was there, alone. Oh, she had the papers he wanted, or he would have left immediately,' he added, seeing her questioning look. 'But she had a private deal of her own for him—he was to make a substantial settlement for her abroad in return for her favours. I don't think it was the first time she had made
that kind of proposition, but it must certainly have been the first time she had been refused. She was—surprised, to say the least, and when Troy threatened to withdraw from the negotiations altogether, panic-stricken.'
`How do you know all this?'
'Because I was there.' Stephanos gave her a wry look. `Your stepmother left Troy alone for a few minutes, presumably while she changed into "something more comfortable" and he was able to telephone me to join him.' He gave a reminiscent smile. 'Lady Vernon was not pleased to see me. I cannot altogether blame her. There were some angry words.' He sighed. 'Later Troy noticed he had lost part of his cuff link. He was annoyed because they held great sentimental value for him. They were one of the last gifts his father gave to him. He telephoned Michelle's hotel, but was told she had gone out of Paris for the day.'
Lacey nodded wretchedly. 'She'd gone to the convent to fetch me. Troy—rang again, didn't he?'
'I think so.' Stephanos studied her unhappy face with some compassion.
Lacey roused herself a little. 'But if Michelle wanted Troy for herself, why did she try and involve me?' She looked away, colour stealing into her pale cheeks. 'She did, you know.'
'I know.' Stephanos gave her hands a comforting squeeze before releasing them. 'Perhaps in some twisted way she hoped to make Troy—grateful to her. Or maybe she realised that in you she had a more—negotiable commodity. She had failed to sell herself, so she would sell you instead.' He paused. 'I think she would have done anything to make her future secure. As I said, she was totally obsessed.'
Lacey shivered. 'Well, she succeeded.'
`But not in the way she expected,' he said drily. 'Forgive me, Kyria Lacey, but I do not think she ever contemplated that Troy and yourself would marry. She could not accept his rejection of her and, I think, convinced herself that it had been prompted by a sense of misplaced chivalry. She was your father's wife, and therefore sacrosanct, but when she became your father's widow—ah, then things would be very different. When Troy announced that he was to marry you, she must have told herself that he was settling for
second-best and that it was really herself he wanted. She hinted as much to him in my presence. That was why Troy came so little to Kings Winston while you were engaged. She was becoming an embarrassment—dangerously so.'
He looked down at his hands. 'There is one further thing you should know, Kyria Lacey. I do not wish to revive your sorrow, but your father and stepmother quarrelled not long before the attack which killed him.'
'You think it was about this?' Her voice trembled.
'Perhaps,' he said quietly. 'Troy was afraid it was so, and that was why he wished to get you away from Kings Winston so soon after the funeral. He wanted you away from her, before she could spread her poison any further, and cause you more grief. But, again, she has been more successful than she could have dreamed.'
Lacey shook her head. 'I—I don't know what to say.'
He smiled slightly. 'You don't have to say anything to me. It is Troy who needs to hear you, I think.'
Lacey swallowed convulsively, then got up from the lounger and walked across the terrace into the villa. The saloni felt cool and she shivered slightly as she stepped out into the tiled hall. The door of Troy's study was tightly shut. Another closed door between us, she thought, but perhaps it will be the last one. Her hand shook slightly as she knocked and waited for permission to enter.
There was no sound from inside the room, and, puzzled, she opened the door and looked in. Troy was at his desk, his head buried on his arms. For a moment she thought he was asleep, but as she hesitated in the doorway, he looked up. His face was like carved granite and there was a look in his eyes that brought her heart into her mouth. It was the wrong moment—she was horribly aware of that, although she didn't know why—but it had to be said, and she advanced towards the desk summoning a courage she was far from feeling.
'Troy, I've come to ask you to forgive me.'
He inclined his head courteously, but there was no softening of his expression as he looked at her. The palms of her hands felt damp and she wiped them unobtrusively on her jacket.
'I've—I've done you a terrible injustice. I know that now
and I'm truly sorry.' She paused nervously, but he said nothing. 'Troy, please help me. You're not making this very easy for me.'
'How unchivalrous of me.' His voice was quiet, but there was a note in it that made her
shrink. 'What are you trying to tell me? That you've taken a more than adequate revenge for my supposed infidelity and are now prepared to call it quits?'
'No.' She stared at him. I—know that there is nothing between you and Michelle—that there never has been. I drew all the wrong conclusions.' She took a trembling breath. 'Perhaps I—wanted to draw them because I thought I hated you.'
'Only thought?'
She bent her head, her fair hair falling over her face.
'I was completely confused,' she said in a low voice. 'It didn't seem possible that what I felt for you—could be love. You were almost a stranger to me—the "groom I'd never seen".' Her lips twisted slightly. 'You don't know what I'm talking about, do you, but what I'm trying to say is that it just seemed easier to hate you.'
'I can appreciate that. Hating is often easier.' He reached out and picked up a large manilla envelope from the desk. Lacey stared at him, taken aback. Did his eternal business deals, papers, contracts and negotiations mean more to him than the fact she was there trying so hard to tell him what was in her heart? He was speaking again. 'And exactly when did love begin to seem a more appropriate emotion in all this—confusion?'
'Almost as soon as I got here.' She took a step closer to the desk, hoping that he would stand up and come round to her. 'I wasn't just angry about Michelle—I was jealous too.' She paused, but he made no move. 'And—oh, Troy, I've been so lonely.'
'Have you, pethi mou?' His voice was loaded with irony. 'I wasn't aware you had lacked for company.'
Of course he could have meant Helen and Aunt Sofia, but Lacey knew he didn't.
He went on smoothly, 'And what has prompted you to tell me all this—at this moment in time?'
'It was Stephanos. He told me ...'
'How very obliging of him,' he drawled. 'What a pity he didn't embark on his doubtless comprehensive explanations a little earlier. Then you would not have been obliged to degrade yourself like this, yineka mou.'
They were beautiful photographs. Even in the first rush of shocked disbelief as they spilled out of the envelope, she could appreciate that. Against the harsh grittiness of sand and rock, the girl's naked body had the texture of silk, the line flawless from the small, proud breasts to the delicate curve of her hip. Her body.
His voice came to her remorselessly. 'I am sorry I was not here to receive your photographer friend when he called, but no doubt you have seen to it that he has been—adequately rewarded already. And of course the sale of the photographs to magazines and newspapers abroad will ensure that he has no need to fear a poor old age.'
`But how ...?' Numbly she stared down at the prints which lay scattered across the desk top. 'We were alone, I swear we were.'
'Naturally.' He almost spat the word. 'Such an intimate scene demands solitude. Spare me any more details, I beg of you.'
Her eyes, wide with dismay, met the blazing anger in his.
'You think that I posed for these?' Her voice hardly rose above a whisper. You think that I did this deliberately to pay you back for Michelle?' .
`Such innocence,' he approved ironically, his eyes raking her with an expression that brought the colour flaming to her cheeks. 'But like your sudden attack of modesty, Lacey mou, rather overdone.'
Two strides brought him round the desk to her and she heard the light material of the jacket tear under his contemptuous fingers as he dragged it from her shoulders. His breathing roughened as he looked down at her, his hand gripping her bare arm.
`Pose for me,' he invited with dangerous softness. 'I don't want to have to wait to see you on the centre-fold of some magazine, my dove. I've already waited too long ...'
His hand went to the fastening of her bikini bra and she shrank from him.
`Troy—no ! Please, not here, like You don't understand ...'
`Try me,' he said roughly. 'You don't know how understanding I can be.'
It was not a kiss. It was a punishment, his mouth a bruising insult, his hands a brutality on her skin. Forcing herself to endure it, she tried to tell herself that he wasn't to blame—that she had misjudged him on much slighter evidence. While inside her, a smaller and more insistent voice warned that if he took her now, by force and in anger, they would both be dealt a wound from which they might never recover.
When he let her go, she was so near to collapse that she swayed and had to catch at the corner of the desk to steady herself. It was as if from a great distance that she saw the cause of the interruption—Aunt Sofia standing in the doorway crying and twisting her hands together. A flood of excited Greek poured from her lips and Lacey heard Troy curse softly as he turned reluctantly to face his aunt. Automatically, Lacey bent to pick up her jacket, to slip it on again covering the dark marks his anger had left on her flesh. She couldn't catch the drift of Aunt Sofia's complaint, but she was sure she heard Helen's name mentioned and she stiffened in sudden apprehension, her eyes going back to the photographs.
`What's happened?' she asked.
'My aunt claims Eleni has run away. Some of her clothes are missing from her room. Food has gone from the kitchen.' Troy's voice was impatient, but the savage note she feared had gone. He turned back to fire a series of questions at the distraught Aunt Sofia and Lacey took advantage of his preoccupation to slip away out of the room. Her own troubles had to wait. What mattered now was the guilty, unhappy child she had come to Theros to befriend. Helen had to be found, and quickly.
CHAPTER TEN
The search seemed to be well under way when Lacey came down from her room. She had hastily dragged a pair of levis and a cheesecloth shirt over her bikini, while she tried to figure out what Helen's most likely course of action would have been.
It was unlikely that she could have left the island, she decided. A message would soon have been sent to the villa if she had made any attempt to board the morning ferry to Corfu, so it seemed likely she was hiding in the vicinity. But why? It was unlikely that any of the local fishermen would allow themselves to be bribed to take her off the island even under cover of nightfall, so what was left? One of the boats from the boathouse? Lacey almost groaned as she forced the buttons of her shirt into their holes. Surely not even Helen would be that foolhardy.
Aunt Sofia was seated in the saloni, rocking herself backward and forward and weeping. Lacey spoke to her gently, telling her that she was going to the boathouse, but she did not think the older woman had fully taken in what she was saying.
The roar of an engine greeted her as she went outside and she realised that Stephanos was taking off in the helicopter. She shaded her eyes and watched to see what direction he was taking, but he headed away towards the village, away from the shore below the villa.
But the boathouse was deserted when Lacey got there. Troy's sailing dinghy Hera rocked peacefully at her mooring, and the dinghy with the outboard did not appear to have been tampered with either. Lacey stood defeatedly for a moment. There was also a power launch, she knew, usually moored in the harbour at Theros village, but she told herself she was being ridiculous. That was utterly beyond Helen's capabilities. So what was left? A minute later she was clambering carefully over the rocks that led to the adjoining cave.
She jumped down on to the sand and looked grimly up towards the cave. There was no point in calling to Helen, if indeed she was there. She would either not reply, or she would run away again, which would solve nothing. She lifted her hand and wiped a trickle of sweat from her forehead. It was oppressively hot, the air like a great suffocating blanket laid on her lungs. She moved her shoulders restlessly under the thin shirt, telling herself that her sudden feeling of uneasiness had nothing to do with the weather.
She would have to climb again to reach the cave entrance, so she kicked off her espadrilles and moving as quietly as she could, began to traverse the slabs of rock and scattered boulders which helped mask the cave.
The opening itself was narrow, wider at the bottom than at the top, and Lacey had to bend nearly double to insinuate herself through the d
ark gap. It was not very inviting and she wished she had brought a torch with her. But the air inside the cave smelt dry and fresh enough, and the floor seemed firm if rough and pebble-strewn. She took a cautious step forward and heard a faint sound ahead of her in the darkness. Bats? Her skin crawled involuntarily at the thought. The sound came again and was followed by a faint grunt as if someone had jabbed themselves painfully against a rock.
`Helen?' Lacey spoke levelly. 'I know you're there. I've come to take you home.'
`Go away! ' It was a desperate little appeal, couched with none of Helen's usual assurance.
`And leave you to what?' Lacey's eyes were becoming more accustomed to the darkness now. With what light was entering the cave, she thought she could make out her sister-in-law's figure crouching a few yards ahead of her. 'You can't stay here all your life.' A thought struck her. `And you can't get to the boathouse no matter how long you wait. Troy has it watched.'
A gasp told her that her guess about Helen's plans had been an accurate one. She relaxed slightly. She had wondered if, in spite of everything, Helen had planned to leave Theros with Evan Kent. There was a pause, then Helen burst out, 'Lacey, I've got to get away. Help me, please!'
'Like you helped me?' Lacey asked drily. 'Out on the beach there with your friend with the candid camera in close attendance?'
'I guess I asked for that,' Helen muttered. 'I—I don't suppose it makes any difference—but I'm sorry.'
`Where was he—just as a matter of interest? On the cliff? I suppose that flash of light I saw was the sun reflecting off the lens.'
Helen sighed. 'I guess so. Honest, Lacey, I didn't really believe he'd be able to see anything from that distance. I —I didn't want him to do it anyway by then, but he said it was silly to draw back at that stage and that I'd never be able to lean on Troy to let me go back to California unless we did go ahead. But I was just going to tell Troy we had the pictures. I never meant Evan to use them.'