The Tower of the Winds

by Elizabeth Hunter

  Loukos took the main road out to the Apollo coast road that hugged the many bays that the Athenians swam in and picnicked beside in the long, hot days of summer, and which had made Sounion into a pleasant afternoon's ride. Charity maintained a defiant silence the whole way through the pleasant suburbs of Ellinikon, Glyfada, and Voula. She couldn't share Colin's interest when Loukos pointed out the

  house that was owned by Aristotle Onassis, and the rather larger one next door that was owned by his sister. She could only despise his interest in people he didn't know merely because they were rich. Had he always been like that? She couldn't remember, no matter how hard she tried to recall the things he had said and done in England. She sighed, no longer able to put off the realization that she had never known Colin well, and that she didn't much like what she did know.

  Her eyes were caught by Loukos' in the driving mirror and she blushed, sure that he had read her thoughts. She was even more sure when he said: 'If a woman commits herself to a man, she should trust him to look after her and protect her interests. In Greece, we look very carefully at the man before we allow him to marry a woman of our family.'

  'In England we choose our own husbands!' she said firmly.

  He shrugged his shoulders. 'I would not allow it. A woman can never see a man as another man sees him—' 'Perhaps we don't want to!'

  He looked her straight in the eyes for a long moment. 'So? It seems a cold kind of loving to me. My woman will commit herself to me absolutely, not this half-hearted way of thinking that she may be better off making her own way after all. What future is there without trust?'

  'And if the man is untrustworthy?' Charity burst out.

  'It is better to find that out before any commitment is made,' he said dryly. 'As I'm sure Colin will agree?'

  'We know each other better in England,' Colin said, feeling he was expected to say something. 'I've known Charity for years!'

  Charity opened her mouth to contradict him, but, in a way, it was true. They had first met, was it five years ago? But it didn't mean that she knew him any better than she knew - Loukos!

  'So you said before,' Loukos drawled. 'Her father ap-

  proved you as a suitor for her hand. It's nice for her to know that she has you to protect her.'

  Colin coloured guiltily. He cast a quick look of appeal over his shoulder at Charity who stared at him, wondering what other claims he had made for himself. She forced a smile, but she was badly shaken by this new slant on Colin's character. Was that why Loukos had let the information drop, because he hadn't believed Colin? Oh, how she wished it was the other way about and it were Loukos who was looking after her interests! She wouldn't have minded then being treated as though she were an incompetent female with no idea of which way she was looking!

  They saw the Temple of Poseidon from a great way off. It stood on the summit of the headland, a few crumbling pillars, pale in the winter sunshine, but somehow magnificent. It was fitting that Poseidon's temple should appear to dominate the surrounding sea, as he had been the god of the sea, and it did in a strange way seem to be more a part of the water that lapped the shore below the cliffs than of the land on which it was built.

  The wind struck cold as they left the car. Charity shivered, then wished she hadn't, for Loukos was watching her and nothing much escaped him. She tossed her head in the air and set off at a great pace up the slope towards the temple. The men followed more slowly, Colin slouched in his coat, looking miserable, and Loukos with his hands in his pockets, his long legs covering the ground with an ease that Charity could only envy.

  ''I suppose you know the story of Theseus?' he asked Charity as they gained the temple walls.

  She turned and looked at him. 'Tell it to me,' she commanded.

  The brightness of his eyes made her turn away, but she was still listening. She thought that she had heard the story once, but it sounded different told by him, just as though he had known the hero himself, and had known him well.

  'Theseus was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, or so some people say. He lived at the time when the Cretans demanded seven youths and seven maidens as an annual tribute to the Minotaur. Theseus volunteered to go with them, to his father's sorrow. He decked the ships with black sails as a sign of mourning and departed. His father had told him that he would be watching every day for the return of the ships and, that if Theseus were slain by the Minotaur the sails would stay black, but if Theseus succeeded in killing the monster, the sails would be white.

  'Theseus was fortunate in Crete to catch the eye of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos the king. She gave him a ball of string that he could pay out as he went into the Labyrinth, and which would help him to find his way out after he had killed the Minotaur. All she asked in return was to return to Athens as his wife. Of course Theseus slew the monster and claimed his bride, but on the way back to Athens they passed the island of Naxos, where Dionysius, the god, saw Ariadne and wanted her for himself, so Theseus was forced to leave her there.

  'Such was his sorrow that he forgot to change the sails, and Aegeus, standing on this very spot, saw the black sails coming over the horizon and cast himself into the sea below, thus giving his name to the sea where he died.'

  Charity plucked a piece of grass and rubbed it between her fingers. 'Couldn't Theseus withstand Dionysius?' she asked huskily.

  'He was not sufficiently the hero to take on one of the gods,' Loukos answered, his eyes on her face. 'Ariadne seemed to approve the change in lover. Dionysius was an untidy-looking god, but he knew how to make her happy.'

  Charity bit her lip. 'But he was the wrong god for Ariadne!'

  Loukos burst out laughing. 'She didn't share your predilection for Apollo!'

  'But your Ariadne does,' she observed before she could

  stop herself.

  His eyes glowed and she blushed guiltily. 'MyAriadne?' he repeated.

  'You know very well what I mean,' she said. She hurried up the steps into the temple itself, looking for Colin. She saw him walking away from the temple to the restaurant below. She wished he had said he was going for she would have gone with him rather than to be left on her own with Loukos.

  'The floor is very uneven, isn't it?' she said when Loukos joined her in the temple.

  'The local villagers thought that this was the ruins of a princess's palace,' he told her. 'They used to come here by moonlight and dig for the gold that they thought she had buried under the floor.'

  Charity made a face. 'The columns look a bit battered too,' she remarked. 'Look at all the names that have been carved into them!'

  'Some very famous names,' Loukos smiled. He pointed at the column beside him to one name, darker than the surrounding ones because so many people had traced the letters with their bare fingers. It ready simply BYRON, and was surrounded by a host of other inscriptions, many of them English.

  'Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, Where nothing, save the waves and I, May hear our mutual murmurs sweep''

  Charity quoted, slightly surprised that she was able to. Byron had never been a great favourite of hers. Loukos peered at the name, standing so close to her that she could feel his breath on her cheek. She made to move away from him, but he caught her wrist in his hand and pulled her back against him.

  'What was all this about Ariadne?' he asked her.

  'N-nothing.'

  His grasp tightened about her wrist. 'Ariadne is not mine,' he said. 'You shouldn't listen to gossip, pedhi.If you want to know anything about me, you have only to ask. But ask me, not my aunt!'

  'I didn't ask Electra !' Charity denied.

  'But she told you something. What was it?'

  'I'm not going to tell you,' Charity stormed. 'It isn't any of my business what you or she does or doesn't do. I'm not in the least bit interested!'

  'Indeed?' he said grimly. 'I suppose Electra told you that I was in Naplion these last few days, and that Ariadne was with me?'

  Charity shook her head. Was that where he had been? She felt a gre
at weight on her spirit and wished that he hadn't seen fit to tell her about it. 'No, she didn't,' she said.

  'We owe Ariadne something as a family,' he went on. 'But that does not make her mine. Understand?'

  Charity understood only too well. Hadn't Electra said that he would never marry Ariadne? Why should he? He had already had all he wanted from her. She tore her arm out of his grasp and walked quickly over to the far side of the temple, staring down at the sea below.

  'Come here, Charity,' he commanded her.

  She hesitated. She glanced at him nervously over her shoulder and stumbled at the bright look in his eyes. 'Why?' she said.

  'Come here and you'll find out!' There was a tremor of laughter in his voice that somehow reassured her. She walked slowly back to him, her head held high.

  'Loukos, I know you don't like Colin, but you won't let that make any difference—' She broke off, alarmed by his smile. 'You said you wouldn't touch me. You said you wouldn't!'

  'While you were alone and had no one to protect you,' he reminded her. 'But now you have Colin—' 'He's gone to the cafe!'

  'Leaving you to me,' Loukos agreed. 'Just as I hoped he would!'

  Afterwards, she was to remember that she had made no move to prevent him from taking her into his arms. He had touched her on the shoulders and the panic within her had melted into ecstasy. She had shut her eyes and given herself up to his kiss as eagerly as if she had been in love with him! And he had held her closer still, parting her lips beneath his own, and exploring the curves of her body with his hands. When he put her away from him, she stumbled and would have fallen if he hadn't kept his hand below her elbow.

  'Will you tell Colin?' he asked her.

  'Why should I? It meant nothing!'

  He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her again, not gently as he had before, but as if he wanted to show her once and for all who was master. She thought her ribs would crack and her mouth felt bruised beneath his.

  'Please, Loukos, you're hurting me!' she sobbed.

  'Nothing?' he repeated. 'Was that nothing?'

  She shook her head, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. 'Why should I hurt Colin by telling him?' she demanded.

  He put a hand under her chin, forcing her to look at him. 'He should look after you better. What good is such a man to you?'

  'He's k-kind,' she stammered. 'And he looks on me as a person, not just a - a thingto kiss whenever he feels like it!'

  'Will that be enough for you?' The contempt in his voice hit her on the raw and she winced away from him, hurrying away from him down the slope to the cafe and Colin. His long legs made it easy for him to keep up with her no matter how fast she went, and she was bitterly conscious of his broad frame just behind her shoulder and of the slight smile of amusement on his face. 'Do you catch fire for him, ylikia?Or is it only for Apollo that you forget to be cool and Eng-

  lish, with your independent ideas?'

  She was determined not to answer him. She would not! 'Leave me alone!' she pleaded with him. 'Why should it matter to you what I do?'

  'You want Alexandros,' he reminded her.

  She came to a full stop. 'Yes,' she agreed, ''I want Alexander.' She gave him a helpless look. 'When are you going to decide about him? You must see that he would be better off with me. You must! Your parents are too old to bring up a baby, no matter how much you want him to be Greek!'

  'True,' he drawled. 'But will he be better off with Colin? He is not my idea of a lover, allowing you to flirt with other men, and even to be kissed by them!'

  She gasped with an exasperated anger that had something to do with her own feeling of disappointment that Colin hadn't stayed by the temple, that he hadn't been the one to kiss her and light a burning fire of desire within her.

  'What I do is my own affair!' she exclaimed.

  He raised his eyebrows, deliberately mocking her. 'It's as well you have chosen Colin, then,' he said. 'You would not say such a thing to me!'

  Charity swallowed, tearing her eyes away from the brightness of his. She turned her back on him and went into the cafe, looking for Colin. He had found a table near the back of the inner room and he didn't even look up when she sat down beside him and poured herself out a cup of tea from his pot.

  'Why did you leave me with Loukos?' she asked him.

  'I didn't think you'd mind,' he answered. 'In fact I thought you'd probably enjoy it. You seem to enjoy talking to him more than you enjoy my society!'

  Charity looked miserably at the cold tea in her cup. 'Well, I don't! I don't like him at all! Colin, please talk to him about Alexander soon so that we can go back to England. I don't want to stay here a moment longer than we have to!'

  Colin shrugged. 'Suits me,' he agreed. He went back to

  eating the piece of seed cake he had in his hand, humping a shoulder in Loukos' direction as he too came over to their table and ordered a fresh pot of tea.

  Charity gave him a kick under the table. 'Now!' she whispered. 'Arrange to see him now, or we'll never get away!'

  He shrugged again, half turning to face Loukos. 'May I come and see you tomorrow morning, Mr. Papandreous? Charity wants a decision one way or the other, and I must say I agree with her. We can't wait round here for ever.'

  Loukos looked from one to the other of them. 'Very well,' he agreed. ''I will see you tomorrow at half past ten in my office. Will that do?

  Colin suddenly looked pleased with himself. 'That will do nicely,' he muttered. He winked at Charity. 'What will you do, sweetheart?'

  Charity studied her hands, trying not to blush. ''I don't know,' she said. ''I think I may go to Daphni and see the monastery there.'

  Colin dismissed her plans with an idle grin, but it was Loukos' reaction which mattered to her. She peeped up at him through her eyelashes and looked hastily away again when she saw the look in his eyes.

  'Take a taxi,' he advised her. 'There are buses, but they leave some way away from'your hotel. Perhaps, afterwards, you would care to have lunch at my flat and see the baby?'

  She nodded quickly, biting her lip as she saw Colin's frown. 'Charity may like to, but you can count me out,' he said abruptly. ''I have other things to do!'

  What things? Charity wondered uneasily. But she said nothing. She only hoped that Loukos wouldn't hold his ungraciousness against him, but that was too much to hope for. Even she could see that he didn't like Colin and didn't think him a suitable foster-father for Alexander. She knew as surely as if he had told her then and there that he was not going to allow them to have Alexander. And what was she going to do then? She couldn't possibly marry Colin for

  nothing!In fact she was beginning to think that she couldn't marry Colin whatever Loukos decided. And how to tell him, she really couldn't imagine.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Charity went to Daphni on the bus. It was a deliberate act of defiance, which she knew to be childish, but which gave her a certain satisfaction all the same. Because she was not seeing Loukos, she wore the brooch he had given her. It looked particularly well against the soft purple of her sweater and, as she nervously waited for the bus that she hoped would take her to Daphni, she fingered it with delight to give herself courage. The bus, when it came along, was already full. The doors swished open to admit herself and the young priest who had been waiting with her, and they pushed themselves into the back of the bush, exchanging cheerful smiles with the other passengers.