Half the milk had gone when the braying of the donkey down below told them they had a visitor. Loukos frowned across the room at the door, but made no move to get up to greet whoever had come.
'Iphigenia!' he called out, and jerked his head towards the door. The Greek woman stumbled across the room and opened the door a crack, letting in a gust of cold wind.
'Thespinis Ariadne Vouzas, kalos orisate!'
'Kalos sas vrikame!'The voice was light and very feminine, as were the footsteps that came hurrying up the stone steps. Charity looked up from feeding Alexander, wondering who this unknown woman could be. She almost sprang into the room, pausing in the entrance and giving them look for look. She had the classic Grecian features and carried herself well, though a certain heaviness of the shoulders gave her the full-breasted, matronly look of a Demeter sadly seeking for her lost daughter, Persephone. When her eyes fell on Charity, she was visibly dismayed.
'You are Faith's sister,' she said abruptly and in English.
Alexander, deprived of his milk by the angle of the bottle, let forth a roar of aggrieved temper, recalling Charity's attention to what she was doing. Charity smiled down at him
and made some soothing noises.
'This is Charity,' Loukas said in the calm that followed. 'Ariadne Vouzas, one of our more famous actresses. She was to appear in Nikos' productions next summer.'
Ariadne looked sulky. 'He got me a room in the village,' she explained. She gave Loukos a swift glance from under her eyelashes. 'Loukos didn't approve,' she added. 'I'm going back to Athens to please him, but he is very hard to please. Believe me!'
Charity did. She watched, fascinated, as Ariadne crossed the room and placed both her arms round Loukos' neck in a threatrical gesture that was none the less gracious. 'Say you are pleased to see me!' she begged him.
'Why are you still here?' he countered.
''I thought somebody else might continue with the production of the plays, but nobody will. It is all so miserable without Nikos!'
Loukos leaned forward and kissed her gently on the cheek. 'More miserable still for Alexandres!'
Ariadne shrugged, 'He has his aunt.'
'And you have all that awaits you in Athens,' he answered, smiling. And he kissed her again.
CHAPTER FOUR
Charity averted her eyes, wondering at her own outraged feelings. They had probably always been on kissing terms. It was more than possible that their families had known each other for years and years. Besides, Ariadne had been going to work for Nikos and thathad nothing to do with Loukos. But what was it that awaited her in Athens? A new part? Alexander hiccuped and protested, waving a small fist in the air while his aunt did her best to clean his face with a tissue.
'You look as though you know what you're doing,' Ariadne observed.
'Up to a point,' Charity agreed. ''I have had friends with young babies, but I've never actually had much to do with them myself.'
Ariadne smiled with malicious amusement. 'What a pity Iphigenia won't go to Athens!' She turned to Loukos. 'What are you going to do with him? Your mother isn't going to like having him at Kifisia.'
'There's always Electra,'' Loukos said dryly.
Ariadne laughed. 'Ah yes, Electra! I had forgotten her! Poor little Alexandros, I hope she doesn't completely smother him with love!'
Loukos frowned. 'You are frightening Charity by speaking like that!' he rebuked the Greek girl. 'She wants Alexandros for herself.'
'Only Alexandros?'
Loukos shrugged. 'That is no business of yours. Charity, if you haven't finished feeding that baby, Iphigenia will have to do it. If you wish to see the museum, we must hurry.I don't want to be too late delivering Alexandros to my parents.'
Charity gave her small nephew a hug and put down the
finished bottle. 'He has a terrific appetite - another Archer characteristic!'
Loukos let that go by. He took the child from her with competent hands and went himself into the bedroom to put him back into his cot. Ariadne looked sulkily after him.
'I thought you were looking at Delphi this morning? If I'd know you were going back there I wouldn't have come! It depresses me to see that glorious theatre and know that I shall never now play there. We had such wonderful plans, Nikos and I. He was a genius in his way, though I am afraid that your sister never believed it. She was always saying that Eva Sikelianos had done it all before and that it didn't require genius to copy a good idea. Nikos was the first to admit that the American woman really livedwith the ancient Greeks, and that her production of Prometheus Boundwas truly fantastic. She made no compromises with the modern ideas about the play. That is where Nikos would have gone one better. He would have made it a wonderful experience also, but a modernexperience! Faith never appreciated what he was trying to do. She wanted him to go back to Athens.'
Charity looked round the room. 'I'm not surprised,' she said.
'Oh, this? This is not important! She didn't have to come to Arachova'
Loukos emerged from the bedroom. He said something in Greek which reduced Ariadne to a hurt silence. Loukos went on in English, 'If Nikos came to Arachova, of course Faith would be with him. She was the woman of his house and his wife, Ariadne!'
Charity did her best to cover the awkward silence that followed the rebuke by asking Loukos what had happened to Eva Sikelianos. 'Didn't you say she was buried at Delphi?'
'She died here,' he answered, still sounding ruffled. 'They were giving a feast in her honour, in gratitude for the Delphi
festivals that she had made possible. She became uncon-scious and she was never to recover. They placed a coin, between her lips and put a pomegranate in her hand, and buried her in the graveyard high up above the temple.'
'Oh, how wonderful for her!' Charity exclaimed.
Ariadne gave her a curious look. 'That is what Faith said. She said again and again that she had entered Heliou Basi-leuma -you know, the Sun Kingdom. How would you say it?'
'The radiance of Apollo,' Loukos supplied.
Charity jumped. 'Faithsaid that?'
Loukos gave her a wry smile. 'She had a thing about Apollo too,' he said. 'But for different reasons!'
'Oh?' she prompted him, but he only went on smiling.
'Nikos said that Faith knew nothing about him!' Ariadne broke in sulkily. 'She didn't like Delphi, for instance.'
'Why not?' Charity asked.
To her surprise, Ariadne coloured guiltily. 'She was afraid,' she muttered. 'There have been earth tremors in the past, and she was always afraid that the rocks might fall on her.'
'Not in Delphi,' Loukos said abruptly, 'but here in Arachova. 'I think it was an excuse to get Nikos to go back to Athens. She wasn't comfortable here.'
'No,' Charity said, ''I don't suppose she was. Poor Faith!'
'Come,' Loukos said again. 'We must be going!'
The bitter wind blew her skirts hard against her legs as Charity made her way down the stepped alley in the wake of the other two. Ariadne, she noticed, had tucked her hand firmly into Loukos' arm. Charity had always been brought up not to hang on anyone's arm and that made her feel all the sillier as she struggled with the sheer female envy that gripped her as she saw their heads close together, with Ariadne chattering nineteen to the dozen, her eyes never leaving Loukos' face. She was being tiresome and rather
childish, Charity told herself. The others were old friends, whereas she was an outsider and an unwelcome one at that. What did she care what they did? What did it matter to her?
She almost slipped as they came up level with the car. She didn't hurt herself, but it set her on edge. Ariadne had already ensconced herself in the front seat and she struggled with the back-door handle for what seemed like minutes before she realized that it was locked. She banged on the window, but Ariadne made no move to open it for her. It was Loukos who reached right across the car and unlocked it, his smile warm and friendly and all the more hateful because of it. Let him keep his charm for Ariadne!
&n
bsp; The short drive back to Delphi went by in a blur. Ariadne had changed to Greek for her non-stop conversation and Charity couldn't have understood her even had she wanted to. She tried to tell herself that the other girl was being bad-mannered, but she knew better and so the whole argument lacked conviction. Everyone had spoken English in her presence if they could, ever since she had come to Greece, and if Ariadne had been speaking English now she probably wouldn't have been able to hear her above the noise of the engine.
She thought Delphi unbearably beautiful as they came in sight of it again. The wind whipped up the grey-green of the olive trees, moving like some haunted sea at the foot of the shrine. The Phaedriades, the Shining Ones, were less menacing than when she had first seen them, reflecting the gold of the wintry sun that had struggled through the misty clouds for another short interval. It was warmer than it had been in Arachova.
Loukos looked significantly at his watch and then at Charity. 'Half an hour,' he said. 'We can't wait any longer!'
'Half an hour,' she agreed. She wondered if he would come in with her, or whether he would sit in the car with
Ariadne, looking down the valley towards Itea, the small port where most pilgrims had always landed, finding it easier to come to Delphi by water than by the long road from Athens.
He got languidly out of the car, stretching his hard, golden-skinned body. 'Do you want me to come with you?' he asked her.
She nodded quickly, unwilling to actually say that she wanted him. 'Do you mind?' she said as they approached the museum steps together.
'I was coming anyway,' he told her. 'I never come here without paying my respects to the Charioteer!' He gave her a mocking look that brought the colour stinging to her face. 'I'm sorry to hurry you through your first visit,' he added, 'but you will come back.'
'Yes,' she said. 'I shall be visiting Alexander as often as I can!'
''I thought we hadn't seen the last of you,' he drawled. 'If you start up the stairs, I will buy the tickets and catch you up, then I can point out to you the most important things you ought to see.'
Had she gone by herself, she would have glanced briefly at every exhibit, giving equal value to each, but Loukos had quite other ideas. He showed her the curious beehive stand at the top of the stairs, that had once held three serpents twisted together, before it had been taken to Constantinople by Constantine where it has long since fallen apart, though it can still be seen. He told her that this had marked Delphi as being the navel, the centre, of the world, and how Zeus had released two eagles, sending them in opposite directions, and it was at Delphi they had met and taken their rest.
He showed her the archaic statues of the two brothers, Cleobis and Biton, whose mother had been a priestess of Hera. One day, when her oxen had failed, they had dragged her carriage all the way to the Temple, and she had prayed
for them to receive the greatest thing in the gift of the gods. And her prayer had been answered. They had gone to their rest that night and had never woken again, dying in the full powers of their manly strength.
Charity's eyes had brightened with tears as she had looked at them, thinking of Faith and Loukos' brother, Nikos. Had death been a gift to them? How could one know?
But everything else paled into insignificance as they came into view of the statue of the Charioteer. No illustration had prepared Charity for the reality of this, the dearest treasure of Greece. The young man - he was still but a boy - stood, his hair-line gleaming with sweat from the effort he had just made, his eyes gleaming with triumph, shadowed only by the frail wire eyelashes. His feet were so remarkably fashioned that had they moved, it would have been no surprise. Here was the pinnacle of all art, an object that men flew thousands of miles to Athens and drove all the way to Delphi just to see for themselves, in preference to everything else that the ancient world has to offer. This was perfection. And she, Charity, was standing before him now.
'Anything else is a bit of a comedown after that,' Loukos said roughly as they turned away, 'and I'm afraid we've run out of time.'
'I don't want to see anything else,' Charity said.
Loukos took her arm in a friendly way and she did not draw away from him. It was a moment of pure happiness and she was glad of the contact and hoped that he wouldn't let go until they went back to the car.
'Is Ariadne coming back to Athens with us?' she asked as they went down the stairs.
''I hope so. Be kind to her, Charity, if you can. Her parents are rather displeased with her and it is costing her a lot to go back to Athens.'
'Isn't she old enough to look after herself?' Charity said, trying not to sound as catty as she felt. 'I mean, she is over
twenty-one, isn't she?'
Loukos smiled. 'In Greece that matters less than in England - for a woman. Naturally her parents wish to protect her to the best of their ability. That is our way!'
Charity twisted her lips into a smile. 'Didn't they want her to act in Nikos' play? It seems harmless enough to me.'
'Delphi is a long way from Athens,' Loukos answered. He stopped, his hand tightening on her arm. 'Well? Are you going to live up to your name and be kind to her?'
Charity swallowed and nodded. 'If you want me to.' She blinked, wondering why she couldn't be more gracious when it obviously meant such a lot to him. 'I'll try, but I don't think she likes me very much. I don't think she liked Faith either!'
'There were two sides to that!'
'And I'm on Faith's side! Someonehas to be! Nobody considered her. Look at that house at Arachova. How could she live there? We've never had much, apart from a great hulk of a house in which we froze every winter, but we did at least have a chair to sit on! If you want to know, I think Faith was quite right. Nikos should have gone back to Athens and whatever his business was. He had an obligation to support his wife and child, not play around at being the producer of the ages!'
'Well, well,' said Loukos.
'I don't care what you say,' Charity went on, 'I shall stillbe on Faith's side!'
'Why should my saying anything make any difference?'
Her eyes widened. 'It doesn't!'she denied. But it did, and why she couldn't have said to save her life. 'She was my sister. ... Do you think she may be in the radiance of Apollo too?'
'No, you little pagan, I don't! And don't cry!If you so much as shed one tear, I shall regret not taking a much firmer line with you, Charity Archer. Faith may have been
your sister, but she was married to Nikos, and what went on between them is no business of yours!'
'Whereas you can make anything your business, 'I suppose?' she snapped. 'Nikos, Faith, little Alexander, even - even me!'She took a deep, sobbing breath, now thoroughly wound up. 'Even Ariadne!'
'You certainly seem to intrude into my family's affairs. It will be a relief to both of us when this Colin of yours gets here!' He let her go suddenly, the look he gave her dark and brooding. 'Don't try me too far!' he shot at her. ''I may not have your red hair, but my patience is very easily exhausted!'
'Youdon't like me either!' she declared. Then, feeling remarkably silly for having said such a thing, 'What have I done anyway?'
He laughed suddenly and took her arm again. 'You are,' he said, 'and that's quite enough, believe me!'
The Tower of the Winds Page 6