The Realms of Gold

by Elizabeth Hunter

  She nodded again. Not worry! That would be the day! ‘Mr. Kaladonis—’

  He put a finger across her lips. ‘Hush! Say it in Greek,’ he commanded her.

  But she didn’t know the words to ask him if he was angry. ‘Entaksi,’ she murmured instead, signifying that she was ready to go and that everything was in order.

  ‘Good girl,’ he commended her, and she went out with him without a backward look.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The car was large and comfortable. Emily noticed the name of the hire company on the key-ring and saw it was a London firm. So he didn’t always travel by train, she reflected, but perhaps he had wanted to use it over the Christmas period when the trains didn’t run.

  ‘I don’t know how I’m going to begin to explain—’

  ‘Then don’t,’ Mr. Kaladonis advised.

  She was tempted to take his advice, but in justice she didn’t see how she could. He was owed some kind of explanation even at the expense of her self-respect—and she would make it, just as soon as she could find the right words to make it clear how she had got herself—and therefore him—into this pickle.

  ‘You have every right to be angry,’ she admitted, increasingly concerned because he seemed to be taking the whole episode in his stride just as though it were an ordinary occurrence that was hardly worth his bothering about. ‘Do you dislike driving on the left-hand side of the road?’ she added, seeing him hesitate as they came to the end of the drive.

  ‘Not really,’ he answered. He cast her a fleeting look that was nonetheless comprehensive. ‘Relax, koritsi. I am not an ogre waiting to pounce on you!’

  ‘No,’ she agreed, feeling slightly breathless and turning her face away. ‘Was it awful with my father?’

  ‘Why should it have been? He is a very nice man with a good grasp of what his business entails. We came to an agreement almost immediately.’

  ‘Oh.’ Hadn’t they discussed her at all? ‘Are you in the same kind of business?’

  ‘My interests are many and varied, but your father’s firm fits in very nicely with some aspects of my own. It would be useful to me to have a well-established outlet in this country for some of my products. But I doubt if you would be interested in all that.’

  ‘Why not?’ she retorted.

  ‘I understood that none of his children were much concerned with how he made his money—not even his son. Am I wrong about this?’

  ‘I suppose not,’ she said. ‘Patrick has always wanted to do something creative and my father could well afford to indulge him in that. Margaret is married now—’

  ‘And before she married?’

  ‘It wasn’t worth her while working,’ Emily excused her sister. ‘You ought to understand that, being Greek.’

  ‘Many Greek girls work nowadays, even if there is no necessity for them to do so. You work for your own living, don’t you? Why are you different from your sister?’

  ‘I lecture in Home Economics, but that’s only a stepping-stone to what I really want to do, which is to have a restaurant of my own. I have great plans for that!’

  ‘Tell me about them,’ he suggested.

  She looked at him uncertainly. ‘Are you interested, or being polite?’ she asked him.

  ‘I am always interested in any new business venture,’ he assured her.

  Emily was surprised. Somehow she had never thought of her projected restaurant as being a business. To her it had always been the prize at the end of the hard slog she had set herself, first qualifying in her chosen subject and then teaching it to others, saving frantically while the balance in her bank grew steadily until the day she could realise her dream and put her cherished ideas into practise.

  ‘It should always be an occasion to eat out, but how many restaurants remember that? Most of them are too routine in their approach. They forget the little touches of glamour that can make or break a party for their customers.’

  ‘And you would not?’

  ‘I hope not.’ She struggled against the temptation to tell him one of her most dearly held theories, and lost. ‘Catering is a vocation,’ she informed him. ‘It has to be a privilege and a pleasure to feed people well, or it’s nothing. One might as well pound a typewriter, or stay at home being a social success like Margaret—not that I have anything against that sort of thing, but I want the meals I serve to be an event in people’s lives!’

  ‘Have you thought what place your husband will take in these plans?’ he inquired with a sidelong glance that she found more than a little disturbing.

  ‘I shan’t marry for ages!’ she declared.

  ‘What makes you think that?’ he pressed her.

  ‘I’ve never met anyone I want to marry. Besides, I’m almost sure I want a restaurant of my own more than I want a husband.’

  ‘I’m glad you are only almost sure. You may find yourself marrying sooner than you think.’

  She shook her head. ‘Never!’

  ‘It is what your father wants for you. You have raised his expectations now that his ambition for you is about to come true. Won’t it be a little difficult to disappoint him when he is not well and is so pleased to have everything working out so happily?’

  Emily clenched her fists in her lap. ‘Did you discuss it with him?’ she asked.

  ‘Of course. It was why he wanted to see me.’

  ‘But you said you’d been talking business with him?’ Her mind whirled as she contemplated the disaster her deception had set in motion. ‘Did you explain that we had never met, except that once on the train yesterday?’

  ‘I thought it better not to mention the extent of our friendship—’

  ‘But we’re not friends!’

  ‘No? Perhaps you are right. A man and a woman are seldom friends.’

  She sensed that there was a rebuke implicit in his words. ‘I didn’t mean to involve you in this. Why don’t you go away and leave me to get out of the mess on my own? I can explain things to my father—’

  ‘You would soon find yourself in difficulties,’ he observed. ‘Your father has old-fashioned ideas about the way he wishes the women of his family to behave. Besides, it suits me better to leave things as they are.’

  She could scarcely believe her ears. ‘How can you?’

  ‘When we have had lunch,’ he promised, ‘I will tell you what your father and I have arranged for our mutual future and we will make our plans together. It is not half as bad as you think. All you have to do is leave everything to me. Will you do that?’

  ‘How can I? I got myself into this—’

  ‘Did you? I think your mother and your sister may have had something to do with it. But you need not worry any more. I shall look after you.’

  ‘I don’t think you realise how bad it is,’ she sighed. You wouldn’t be so sanguine if you did.’

  ‘No? Perhaps I too planned it this way. Have you thought of that?’

  There was something in his tone that warned her he was not joking but was trying to tell her something. She shrugged. ‘I don’t understand.’

  He navigated through the town traffic as though he did it every day, coming to a stop outside the most fashionable restaurant in the place.

  ‘I booked a table here,’ he told her. ‘I am not sure it will come up to your high standards, but it seemed adequate when I called there earlier.’

  ‘It’s the best there is—at the moment,’ she conceded. ‘One day I hope to open up in competition and then my restaurant will be the best locally!’

  He put a hand over hers, preventing her from opening the door of the car. ‘I’m afraid not, my dear. Your father and I have made other plans for you. There is no need to look like that. Your father is deeply concerned for your happiness. Do you think he would do anything less than the best he can for you? Well, do you?’

  Her mouth felt dry. ‘He has no say in my life,’ she said at last. ‘Oh, I don’t mean to sound hard and horrible, but I’ve earned my freedom. I’ve earned every penny I spend, and that�
��s the way I like it. My life is my own, and nobody is going to tell me what to do with it!’

  ‘If you were a man that would be admirable,’ he said with calm arrogance. ‘But a woman must always adapt to the lives of others. You cannot always earn your own money. You will marry and have children, and then it will be for your husband to decide your way of life. Until then your father has that responsibility.’

  ‘Mr. Kaladonis, this is the twentieth century, or hadn’t you heard?’

  His glance mocked her. ‘Human nature doesn’t change,’ he said.

  He put out a hand and opened the door for her. For an instant she felt the hardness of his body against hers and she was suddenly afraid of being swept away in his train and that there would be nothing she could do about it, for no one would listen to her and she wouldn’t be able to resist him all by herself.

  She slipped out of the car and stood on the pavement waiting for him to come round to her. He parked the car with an ease she could only envy and had locked all the doors in a flash, trying them as he moved round to her side, before putting his hand firmly on her elbow and leading her into the restaurant. She pulled her arm free of his grasp and refused to meet his eyes as they were ushered across to their table. But that didn’t stop him looking at her. He waited for her to sit down and then threw himself into, the chair beside her, his eyes watching her every movement.

  ‘Mr. Kaladonis—’ she began at last.

  ‘You had better make it Demis,’ he drawled.

  She flushed, wishing she had never heard either part of his name, or that she had remembered where she had seen it, or anything not to have told her father that he was the man she was in love with.

  ‘Demis, if you wish,’ she replied. ‘It doesn’t matter because after today and, if we have to, tomorrow, we shan’t be seeing each other again.’ Not if she had anything to do with it!

  He went on looking at her. ‘How old are you, Miss Emily Thorne?’ he asked finally.

  ‘Old enough to be able to run my own affairs!’

  ‘Your father thinks differently. He has never been happy about your living on your own in London. He thinks, as I do, that he should have taken steps to keep you at home where he could keep an eye on you. Big cities are no places for young girls to be on their own. They are bound to fall into trouble sooner or later.’

  Emily’s temper kindled at his words. ‘I never had the least trouble in London,’ she denied. ‘I never had any trouble at all until I met you!’

  His eyebrows rose. ‘You were lucky. In Greece it would have been otherwise. Are Englishmen so slow that they will allow such a pretty girl to get away from them?’

  ‘There’s never been anything I couldn’t handle. At least my compatriots know when to take no for an answer.’

  ‘But, like the rest of your sex, you prefer the spice of a little danger?’ he suggested, amused. ‘You understand our Greek ways better than you will admit. You will not be as lost among us as I had feared.’

  She froze. ‘I’m not going to Greece!’

  His light eyes rested on her indignant face. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, but she was sure that whatever it was it boded no good for her. She tried to give him back look for look, but failed miserably when she realised that he could not be forced into telling her what had transpired between him and her father before he was good and ready to do so. It simply wasn’t possible to bend his will to hers using normal, direct means. In his opinion she was a woman and therefore to be despised, and if she lost her temper with him, it would be no more than he expected from a female of her years. Very well, she thought, she would see what charm could do. She' was not a Thorne for nothing!

  She smiled slowly. ‘I’m glad you weren’t embarrassed by my foolishness,’ she said aloud. ‘Many men would have been.’

  ‘You were embarrassed enough for both of us,’ he said dryly. ‘It takes a great deal to embarrass me. You would be well advised not to try to do so.’

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Still, it was a terrible thing to do to you and I’m truly sorry about it. I’ll put things right with my family as soon as I can.’

  ‘I have already done so. Your father and I are in complete agreement that your future is safe in my hands. It has been a great relief to him to have everything settled to his satisfaction. He has been wanting to retire from his business for a long time now, but neither your brother nor his son-in-law were the right people to take over from him. He knows that I was already interested in buying his firm before I ever met you and that has made it easier still for him to relinquish the reins into my hands. His health depends on his peace of mind, Emily, and I forbid you to disturb him unnecessarily any further. Is it understood?’

  She was really angry now. ‘You forbid? Who are you to tell me how to treat my own father?’

  ‘As your future husband I think I have some rights in the matter, don’t you?’

  ‘How dare you? I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man left on earth!’ She lowered her voice to a whisper, conscious that the half-dozen other people in the restaurant were staring at her. ‘I’ll never forgive you! Never!’

  ‘But it was you who told your family that you wanted to marry me. I saw no reason to contradict you, that’s all. Would you have preferred me to have denied any knowledge of your existence to your father?’

  ‘No,’ she admitted. ‘At least not at once. But you didn’t have to agree to marry me, did you?’

  ‘Not even when you will bring me your father’s firm as a going concern as your proika!’

  ‘You mean my father’s giving you his whole business if you marry me?’

  ‘He recognises that a Greek seldom takes a woman empty-handed, even in these days,’ Demis acknowledged. ‘It’s an arrangement that suits us both.’

  ‘Well, it doesn’t suit me! I’m not for sale, Demis Kaladonis! My father’s business is nothing to do with me—’

  ‘And your father?’

  She glowered at him across the table. ‘That’s unfair,’ she said crossly.

  He gave her an interested look. ‘Perhaps it is. Emily, won’t you accept that we have only your best interests at heart? You will enjoy Greece, I promise you that, and your father will have peace of mind. He will receive a generous pension, which your mother will inherit should anything happen to him, and he will have the joy of knowing that the firm he built up has not passed completely out of the family. Will you deny him all that?’

  She couldn’t believe that he was serious. ‘Marriage isn’t a business deal,’ she said. ‘When I marry it will be for love. I couldn’t accept being married to someone on any other terms.’

  ‘I see,’ he said. ‘It is the intimate side that worries you. I had forgotten for the moment that you are English and romantic. In Greece we are more realistic about these things. Marriage is not the ordeal you imagine. I am confident that I can teach my own wife to love me in time. It is something we can work at together, don’t you think?’

  She was caught up in the brilliant fire in his eyes and, just for a moment, she even thought that she might quite like to marry him. But that was ridiculous! And she would tell him so. It shouldn’t be difficult to make it clear to him that she preferred to make her own plans and stick to them. She wanted her own restaurant more than anything else in life, riot a shadowy future in exile from her own land because it suited him and her father. It was outrageous that such a possibility should even have been put to her.

  ‘Demis, how can you consider marrying someone you have no feeling for? Is my father’s firm so valuable to you?’

  He shrugged. ‘I have to marry some time.’

  ‘Someone who doesn’t want to marry you?’

  The glimmer of a smile came into his eyes. ‘She would not be reluctant for long.’

  ‘You can’t possibly know that!’ Emily looked down at her hands and was annoyed to discover that they were shaking. She smoothed down her skirt over her knees, aware only of the pounding of her heart in h
er chest and the most extraordinary desire to have this golden Greek say that she did mean something to him. But of course he wouldn’t. To him, marriage was a business deal, no more than that. Hadn’t he already made that clear to her?

  ‘Why can’t I know it?’ he asked in a coaxing tone. ‘I would not have promised your father to make you happy if I had thought it beyond my powers.’

  ‘Oh, how conceited you are!’ she exclaimed, but she didn’t sound as certain as she would have liked.

  ‘Am I?’ He looked surprised by the idea. ‘I don’t think I am. I am not exactly ignorant of the ways of your sex—’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t be!’ she said with deep feeling.

  ‘I have two sisters,’ he told her, amused. ‘I think they would give me a good reference if you were to ask them for one. When my father died they naturally became my responsibility and remained so until the elder married—the younger is so still. My younger brother lives with my elder sister now until he is old enough to start work with me. We are a very close family and you would be very welcome among us.’

  ‘But I wouldn’t be your sister!’ she said.

  ‘Is that what bothers you?’ There was something magnificent about his complete calm, she thought, uncomfortable as she found it. ‘It need not,’ he went on. ‘It is necessary for us to get married first, but you will have all the time you want before you become my wife, agapi, I promise you that. It will be like an extended holiday for you—until you yourself want to be my wife.’

  ‘And supposing I don’t? Supposing I want to come back to England and live my own life?’

  ‘That too can be arranged. If after two or three years you want to come back to England, I shall not stand in your way. More, I shall set you up in the restaurant you want so badly myself. I have no wish to force you against your will.’

  She considered his offer carefully, mulling it over in her mind. ‘It costs real money to set up a restaurant,’ she warned him. ‘And it’s much more likely that that’s what I shall want to do.’