'I told you I'd pay your expenses!' she managed to say.
'But if he's prepared to pay'
'Never!I'll pay every penny of it myself!'
Colin shrugged, puzzled in the face of her wild anger. 'Why didn't you speak to him yourself if you don't approve of anything I said?'
'Because he wouldn't discuss it with me!He's a Greek, after all!'
'You sound as though you admire him for it!' Colin said resentfully. 'If I tried to exclude you' 'I don't!' Charity denied in a shaken voice. 'I think, if
anything, 'I hate him! Oh, what does it matter? He can't buy us with his horrid money, and when he realizes that, he'll leave us alone! There'll only be Alexander, and surely any arrangements we make about him can be done through our solicitors?'
'That'll cost a pretty penny'
'I don't care what it costs! I don't want to have anything more to do with Loukos Papandreous, and that's that!'
'You'll have to,' Colin said. 'He's asked us to go to his place for Christmas Day and I said we would.'
'Oh, Colin, I don't want to go!'
'Why not? He should do us pretty well. He has the wherewithal to make it quite a day!'
''I prefer to share Christmas with the people I love,' Charity said. She tried to throw off the despair that had gripped her ever since she had been forced- to realize that Colin was envious of Loukos' wealth. How could he be? She didn't think that Loukos could be half as rich as Colin seemed to imagine, but even if he were, it didn't matter to them. It was none of their business, just as it was none of Loukos' business to start arranging marriage settlements on her behalf!
'I've said we'll go,' Colin repeated with a sulky droop to his mouth. 'As a matter of fact I'm looking forward to it. It's the first decent thing that's happened since I got here.'
'All right,' Charity agreed abruptly, 'we'll go!'
She parted from Colin in the hotel foyer, going straight up to her room in the lift. She badly needed time by herself to sort herself out. What was she to do? One thing was certain, it had been a mistake to ask Colin to come to Athens. She hadn't doubted at the time that she wanted to marry him, it hadn't seemed particularly important whom she had married as long as it meant that Loukos would allow her to have Alexander. But she wasn't at all sure now that she wanted to marry Colin. She hadn't liked the way he had looked round Loukos' apartment, calculating the cost of
everything just like an adding machine. And to think that he would accept a marriage settlement from Loukos, as if he needed some bribe to go to the altar with her! Yet, if she didn't marry him, she knew Loukos would never let her have Alexander. She would see him for a brief fortnight every second year, because she wouldn't be able to afford to come to Greece more often than that. She would lose hirn entirely, and with him her last link with Faith.
About Loukos himself, she resolutely determined not to think at all. It was only too easy to dwell on the image of him that seemed to have taken up residence in her mind. The bright brilliance of his dark eyes, the way his gleaming black hair grew out of his scalp, the hardness of his golden-skinned body, the touch of his essentially masculine hands that could coerce or be as gentle as a woman's, and most of all the firm moulding of his face and the longing she felt to feel his lips against her. But there, peering at her over his shoulder, was Ariadne, who had known him more intimately than she ever would. It wasn't pleasant to know that that fact in itself could make her feel quite sick with jealousy. But when she tried to tell herself that Loukos would expect of any woman something that she was quite unprepared to give to any man, an unquestioning deference in every sphere of life, she only longed the more for him to ask it of her.
Christmas Eve came and went. Charity tried to put her problems behind her and join in the general merrymaking in the hotel, but the thought of the morrow reduced her to such a pitch of nerves that even Colin noticed she was not herself and advised her in a rather heavy-handed manner to have an early night and not to follow her earlier intention of going to Midnight Mass.
Then Christmas was upon her and there was no longer any escape from seeing Loukos again. Surprisingly, it was Colin who held back as the lift doors opened and it was left to Charity to ring the bell and to be the first to greet Electra as she opened the door to them.
Charity had decided that it would be enough for her to take a bottle of Scotch whisky with her, and some sweets for the women, who probably didn't drink whisky. She handed both packages over to Electra in the hall, accepting in return Alexander from her hands, who gave her a long, searching look and finally fell asleep with the ease of the very young.
"If he would have slept a minute ago how happy I would have been!' Electra sighed. 'He is having wind all morning!'
'Poor mite!' said Charity. She smiled at her nephew's peaceful face and was suddenly aware that Loukos had joined them in the hall and was watching them. The colour flew to her face and she would have given anything to have taken to her heels and run. 'Happy Christmas!' she murmured, forcing herself to stand her ground.
'Happy Christmas,' he returned gravely. 'Are you going to put Alexandros to bed, or do you wish to nurse him for a while?'
Her eyes flew from Alexander to Colin's disapproving face and back again. She couldn't bring herself to look at Loukos at all. 'I'd like to hold him for a few minutes. He needs loving'
'Then bring him into the sitting-room. My parents are already here and are waiting for you to arrive to have a drink.' He smiled directly at Charity. 'Is the whisky a hint that that is what you prefer? Or will you have retsina?'
'Retsina,' she said shyly. 'I'm acquiring a taste for it.'
When they had all sorted themselves out, Colin was the only one who was drinking whisky. He had the bottle close beside him, pouring it out for himself. Charity hoped that he wouldn't take it as an invitation to help himself to more than a couple of drinks, or think it amusing to celebrate Christmas as noisily as they had in the hotel bar the night before.
Xenia Papandreous looked at the picture that she and Alexander made with something like approval. She patted
the seat beside her on the sofa and beckoned imperiously to her sister to translate for her.
'You are fond of the child and he feels that,' she said. 'We are all too old to have our lives turned upside down by him -even Electra, who will make herself ridiculous over any baby! I have been telling Loukos that you must have Alexandros with you, once you are married, of course.' She turned bodily in her seat, the better to survey the unsuspecting Colin. 'You are to marry him?'
Charity bit her lip and nodded. 'It isn't completely sure yet.' She despised herself for being so indefinite! Why couldn't she commit herself and have done? Why did she always have to say maybe, and 'I think so, instead of a resounding yes?
Xenia actually smiled. 'It is better for people to marry their own kind,' she said. 'That was the mistake your sister made. 'I am sure you will be very happy with your Englishman.'
Electra looked rather less sure as she obediently translated her sister's words. She hesitated for a long moment, her mouth working anxiously. 'The baby is Greek. He will be cold and unloved with your Englishman!'
'He'll have me!' Charity said evenly.
Loukos came and stood behind her, his hand on Electra's arm. 'There is no question of Alexandros going to England. The child will remain with me. Charity already knows that!'
'But when I'm married' Charity protested.
Loukos touched the baby's cheek with a very gentle finger. 'I have decided that Alexandros will stay in Greece whether you marry or not. His place is here with me. There is no point in discussing it further.'
Electra made a small, joyful noise in her throat. 'Shall I take him and put him down in his cot? It will soon be time for lunch.'
Loukos nodded. He picked the baby up himself, without looking at Charity, and handed him over to Electra. Charity
looked down at her hands, trying hard not to cry. What was the use of anythingif she couldn't have Alex
ander? She felt Loukos' hand hard on her shoulder and attempted a smile.
''I have a small Christmas present for you,' he said. 'I would like you to have it before lunch.'
'For me?' She gulped, afraid of giving way completely before the interested eyes of the Papandreous family. 'I d-don't think I want anything from you,' she stammered.
His eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. Charity immediately felt she had been ungracious and flushed. ''I m-meant that the only thing I want is Alexander!' she rushed on. 'L-Loukos, your mother is quite right. There's no place for a small baby here.'
'If you want Alexandros you will have to make up your mind to staying in Greece,' he answered.
'But I can't!'
'Then you'd better make the best of things as they are,' he advised, quite gently, indeed almost as though he sympathized with her dilemma. He took her hand in his and pulled her up on to her feet, leading her across the room to where the table was already set for lunch.
'You shouldn't give me anything,' she began helplessly. 'You don't have to! I'm nothing to you'
'It is something quite small,' he cut her off, smiling. 'You can say, if you prefer it, that it is not from me at all. It is a gift from Apollo.'
Her eyes widened. 'What do you mean?'
'This,' he said. He took a small box out of his pocket and opened it, drawing out a small gold brooch shaped like a laurel leaf. 'The Badge of Apollo!'
She said nothing at all, but stared at the brooch almost as if she was afraid of it. He pinned it to the front of her dress, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth, as though he knew But he couldn't know! She didn't knowherself, so how could he know! A rising wave of panic swept through her and she took a swift step backwards, wrenching the brooch out of his
hands, closing the clasp herself with fingers that shook no matter how hard she tried to control them. 'It's beautiful!' she whispered.
He really smiled then. 'Aren't you going to thank me?' he asked her.
She glanced across the room towards the others, but none of them were showing any interest in the exchange between herself and Loukos. 'You, or Apollo?' she asked.
'Perhaps it is the same thing,' he said, his expression inscrutable. He followed her quick look across the room in Colin's direction and took her hands in his. 'You have your protector with you to object - if he wishes to do so,' he went on. 'So why should you not thank me? Do you want me to think you ungrateful? Or that you don't like the brooch? Or - that Apollo no longer has any sway over you?'
She said the first thing that came into her head. 'He didn't answer my request at Delphi.'
'I told you you might get a double-edged answer that you might not like, but you have to be patient. What do you expect? A miracle?'
'It would only be a very small one.'
He looked amused. ''I think you will have your answer sooner than you think,' he told her. He pulled her close against him, putting one hand on the nape of her neck beneath her hair. His eyes blazed and she gulped, bracing herself for what was to follow. She must treat it as lightly as he did! A casual kiss, a graceful murmur of gratitude for the brooch, and then she could return to Colin's side and forget all about it.
Only it wasn't like that at all. He was very gentle. He kissed her eyes, and both her cheeks, and then, finally, her mouth. She thought her heart had stopped, but then it rocketed against her ribs, beating out a message that she didn't want to succumb to and was even more afraid that he might hear.
'Isn't that enough gratitude for?'
His lips came down on hers again and it was much better than she had imagined it might be. She had no defences against the wonder of it. She shut her eyes and kissed him back, only to find herself put away from him and having to support herself. She held on to the wall, not daring to look at him, until her shaking knees felt a little less like rhubarb. Then, at last, she smiled vaguely in his direction and said, 'That was for Apollo!'
He didn't look much as though he believed her. 'Tell that to Colin!' he grinned at her. He led her by the hand back to the others, offering her a seat right beside Colin, who was busy explaining the English taxation system to Electra. The Greek woman, who had never filled in a form in her whole life, having always been protected from such hazards by one or other of the male members of her family, looking stunned and at a complete loss. Charity gave Colin a furious glance and rushed into speech herself, horrified to hear herself asking Electra, Xenia, and even Spiro, the most personal questions about the way they lived and how they usually celebrated Christmas. And all the time she was conscious of Loukos' amused expression as he watched her making a fool of herself. But the funny thing was that none of them seemed to mind what she asked them. They were only too ready to tell her all about their most personal affairs, and even more ready to ask her about hers.
'Was your father a wealthy man?' Spiro demanded suddenly, his curiosity getting the better of him. 'We have often wondered about Faith's family.'
Charity shook her head. 'I don't think there has ever been a rich Archer,' she said. She wondered at the quick look Loukos exchanged with his father but she had no means of knowing what it meant, so she dismissed it from her mind. She turned to Colin, dismayed by his glare of sulky disapproval, and smiled at him. 'Money doesn't mean much to us, does it?' she encouraged him.
'Only the lack of it,' he joked. The sound of his voice
jarred on Charity and she bit her lip. What was she going to do if she couldn't bear even to listen to Colin talking? She had never minded what he said before. She had even thought him rather clever, the way he understood all about stocks and shares and could talk about money matters with the most knowledgeable, using his banking flair to the best possible advantage. So why should she quibble now whenever he opened his mouth?
The Papandreous family had done their best to produce a typically English Christmas dinner. They had been unable to buy a plum pudding in Athens, but the turkey was everything that could be desired, served with chestnut stuffing, roast potatoes and brussels sprouts. Charity wondered if they would have eaten something similar anyway, but she didn't like to ask - not even Electra, who had done most of the cooking in between looking after Alexander.
When the turkey had been cleared away, they ate the little honey cakes that the Greeks love so much, and laughed a good deal at the stories Loukos told them in a mixture of English and Greek of the perils of the transport industry, where ships made an incredible amount of money, but occasionally ran aground, or lost their papers in impossible ungetatable places, and aeroplanes made still more money if properly used, but where the knife-edge between triumph and disaster was even more acute. Charity warmed a little towards Colin when he made some intelligent remarks about costing and the difficulties of changing over to new methods of loading and all that that implied for the new freight ports of the future.
Nevertheless, it was a relief when it was at last time for her and Colin to be going. Charity was gratified when both Xenia and Electra clasped her in their arms, kissing her warmly on both cheeks, just as though she really were one of the family and not just Faith's sister, but she was terrified lest Loukos should claim the same privilege and extended a hand to him before he could take any liberties. He took her
hand in both his and raised it mockingly to his lips.
'There were no complaints, were there?' he asked.
She blinked, pulling her hand away as if his touch burned her. 'Why should there be?' she returned. 'It meant nothing. We all knew that!'
He lifted an eyebrow, looking very sure of himself. 'The gods are more jealous than Englishmen. Remember that when you wear your brooch!'
Charity felt as though an electric charge had gone right through her. She preferred not to dwell on what he might mean by that extraordinary remark, preferring to take sanctuary behind Colin's rather prolonged farewells, giving a smiling assent to everything he said. She thought though that she would never forget the very masculine way that Loukos eyed her manoeuvres, right up to the
moment when the lift wafted her away from his view. He had no right to look at her like that. No right at all! She might have kissed him to thank him for the brooch, but that was no reason to study her as if he had some right to an - intimatewas the only word she could think of, yes, intimate knowledge of both her mind and her body. Why, he had looked at her as though he owned her!
The Tower of the Winds Page 10