South of Mandraki Read online

  The high wrought-iron gates were open and Daros drove along a tree-lined drive to pull up in front of the house. Maria came at once and took a good look at her new mistress. It surprised Toni that Daros should have taken the trouble to let his maid know of his marriage, but he had done so, because Maria gave a little bow and said, in Greek,

  ‘You are welcome to the master’s house, Madam Latimer.’

  Toni looked up at her husband inquiringly.

  ‘Maria says you are welcome,’ was all he repeated, and graciously Toni said in English,

  ‘Thank you, Maria - er - efharisto polie,’ she added uncertainly.

  Maria was delighted.

  ‘You speak Greek?’

  Again Toni glanced at her husband. He spoke to Maria.

  ‘No, Maria, Madam Latimer does not speak our language.’ Maria’s husband appeared and after a similar greeting began to take the suitcases from the car. Toni’s he handed to his wife, who led the way upstairs. The room faced the sea and the side window looked on to the village with the acropolis above. A dividing door was slightly open; Toni pushed it and glanced into Daros’s bedroom. Her eyes fell to the lock ... no key. She did not like that. But she could not ask Maria where the key was. A short while after the maid’s departure she heard Daros moving about and went to the door.

  ‘There’s no key,’ she said, flushing a little at his sardonic smile as his glance went automatically to the lock.

  ‘I’m afraid there isn’t one. But it’s not all that important. Neither of us will attempt to trouble the other.’

  Her flush deepened.

  ‘I’d prefer a key, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘I’ve just said there is no key. It was lost by a guest, a long while ago.’

  ‘Another can be made, surely?’

  He frowned at her.

  ‘Is it so important?’ A faint sneer touched his lips. ‘I can assure you you’ve nothing to fear from me.’ She made no comment and he added, this time with a hint of amusement, ‘Put a chair under the handle - that’s what women usually do, isn’t it?’

  ‘You seem to know,’ she returned, diverted. ‘Perhaps you’ve been locked out by this means at some time or another,’ she added with a hint of mischief, and his black brows rose.

  ‘My dear girl, if I wanted to get into a room a small thing like a chair by the door wouldn’t stop me.’

  ‘In that case I’ll have a key,’ she was quick to retort, and instantly wished she had kept her mouth closed.

  ‘Yours is the last room I’d want to get into,’ he said with a

  glance of disdain, And the next moment he had closed the door, leaving her standing just inside her room, her cheeks flushed, his whole body quivering with rage. Another insult to add to the score! He would pay ... how little he knew what his arrogance was going to cost him!

  CHAPTER THREE

  Toni and Julia were on the beach, lying in the sun. The graceful white boat bringing Margharita and her husband from the little island of Cos could be seen in the heat-hazed distance and as her eyes wandered to it Julia said petulantly,

  ‘Wasn’t Daros mean, not taking us with him?’

  ‘Greek men don’t often take their womenfolk out.’

  ‘But Daros is half English. Our mother was left a widow when Daros was only two and she married again a year later.’

  ‘So Daros has been brought up as a Greek?’ Without waiting for an answer Toni went on, ‘That’s why he’s more Greek than English - in fact, I never think of him as English at all - and that’s also the reason why he didn’t take us with him.’ This was not quite true. Daros would not ask Toni to accompany him to Cos and therefore he could not very well ask his sister either.

  Julia fidgeted and Toni became tense, waiting for something. Julia had been with her brother for over a week, having come from Athens immediately her vacation started at the beginning of June. From about the third day she had cast Toni odd glances now and then and it had seemed as if she was on the point of confiding in her new sister-in-law, but on each occasion she had changed her mind. She was looking at Toni with a strange intentness, and at last she said, her words coming far quicker than was natural,

  ‘Toni, do you think it’s wrong to have a boy-friend before marriage?’

  Toni’s eyes strayed to the engagement ring on Julia’s finger. It had been there less than a month.

  ‘I don’t know how to answer that. In my country it wouldn’t matter in the least, but here ... well, Greek girls don’t have boyfriends before marriage, do they?’

  A soft flush spread over Julia’s pretty face.

  ‘I had a boy-friend at university. His name is Costas.’ Julia absently picked up a pebble and turned it over in her hand. She seemed more than a little embarrassed.

  ‘Does Stephanos know of this boy-friend?’

  ‘No, I dare not tell him!’

  ‘Daros - and your mother? Do they know?’

  Julia nodded, her flush deepening.

  ‘They know of Costas, yes, but of course they don’t know everything.’

  ‘Everything?’ Toni felt her heart give a little jerk. ‘What do you mean by that, Julia?’

  The Greek girl swallowed hard.

  ‘I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known he didn’t want to marry me.’

  ‘You—?’ Toni stared unbelievingly. ‘But, Julia, that is not permitted in Greece. Why, you’re forbidden even to go out with a boy.’

  ‘At university it is different. Things are changing. We’re all away from home and so - so we have boyfriends.’

  Why should I tremble? Toni asked herself. And yet she was trembling as she asked,

  ‘Will Daros ever find out about this?’

  ‘I don’t know, Toni.’ Tears filled Julia’s big brown eyes. ‘You see, I must tell Stephanos before we’re married, mustn’t I?’

  Toni considered this a long while. She knew, through living in Greece, that there would be dire trouble for Julia when her bridegroom discovered she was not chaste.

  ‘I think you have to tell him; yes, you must.’

  ‘In that case, Daros will get to know, because Stephanos will probably want to break the engagement.’ ‘What a muddle!’ Toni looked with compassion at the younger girl. ‘Why did you become engaged to Stephanos?

  ‘Daros and my mother thought it was best to forget Costas, and as Daros had known Stephanos some considerable time he said he would make me a good husband.’

  Toni gritted her teeth.

  ‘Your brother forced you into an engagement simply because he had known this man! Because he thought Stephanos would make you a good husband. Oh, I get so mad when I hear such things! You are the one who knows what you want, not Daros!’

  Julia looked up in surprise.

  ‘You should not speak about your husband with disrespect, Toni,’ she admonished, though on a note of faint apology. ‘As for his forcing me to become engaged - Daros merely advised, as did my mother. I could have refused to become engaged to Stephanos.’

  ‘You love him?’

  ‘No, Toni. I love Costas.’

  ‘Then why did you consent to have Stephanos? You knew the difficulty facing you.’

  ‘I didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t heard from Costas since he left Athens last June. And Daros would have thought it very strange if I’d refused Stephanos—’ Julia broke off, her eyes filling up again. ‘I suppose I became worked up into a panic, for I knew if I refused Daros would ask for a reason.’

  ‘You could have told him you were in love with Costas.’

  ‘I didn’t want to say much about Costas, in case Daros suspected something. You have no idea, Toni, how sharp my brother is. I was so dreadfully afraid he would guess, because I used to blush every time I mentioned Costas.’

  Toni gave a little sigh. Julia was asking for help, and Toni felt quite unable even to proffer advice.

  ‘Did Costas ever tell you he loved you?’

  ‘Many times. I wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’
t. I always

  expected he would marry me when we both left the university.’ ‘Where does he live?’

  ‘On the island of Cos.’

  Toni’s eyes strayed to the boat, coming straight for the shore.

  ‘So that’s why you wanted Daros to take you with him.

  ‘Not really. You see, even when I have been with Daros we only tie up at my brother-in-law’s house, have some refreshment and then come on here. Daros likes to sail and that’s why he fetches Margharita and Panayotis himself each time they want to visit him. No, I wouldn’t have seen Costas. How could I get in contact with him? He promised to write, but he never has - not one letter in all that time. Daros said if Costas was serious he would have approached Daros or my mother long ago and asked if we could be engaged.’

  ‘Perhaps he’s ill or something.’

  ‘He isn’t ill. My cousin saw him and he told her he didn’t want to be friends with me any more.’ Julia had been playing with the pebble; she threw it into the sea, at the same time brushing away her tears with her other hand ‘I suppose I must forget him and marry Stephanos.’

  ‘But you say Stephanos might not want to marry you.’

  ‘If I don’t tell him about Costas he’ll marry me.’

  ‘And afterwards?’

  A sudden pallor came to Julia’s cheeks.

  ‘I don’t know, Toni.’ She shook her head and added through quivering lips, ‘I’m almost out of my mind—Oh, what can I do!’ Toni frowned. She felt helpless.

  ‘If this Costas should write, if he did discover he cared for you, could you break the engagement?’

  ‘Give Stephanos up? Yes, I think so.’

  ‘Daros would let you?’

  ‘If he believed Costas to be genuine I’m sure he’d let me break my engagement.’

  ‘You surprise me. I should have thought Daros would make you honour your contract. After all, an engagement here is almost as binding as a marriage - or so I’m told.’

  ‘It is. But Daros would consider my happiness. He’s very kind -but then you don’t need me to tell you that.’

  Kind? Toni’s eyes were on the boat, but her thoughts went back to her first meeting with Daros. Heartless was a more fitting description. And he had not softened since. He treated her with a sort of detached, mechanical civility before the servants, ignored her completely when they were alone - which Toni made sure was not often. But she cared nothing for his indifference. The marriage had been a necessity, and was no more than a temporary state in which even friendliness had no part. As for intimacy ... Toni invariably shuddered on those rare occasions when the idea crossed her mind. He had firmly declared he would eventually take a Greek who knew her woman’s place, and Toni’s entire sympathy went out to this unknown girl on whom his eyes would one day rest, contemplatively, and with nothing more than desire. Thank heaven they would never fix themselves with desire upon her, thought Toni when on one occasion Daros had glanced indifferently over her scantily-clad figure as she lay sunbathing on the lawn.

  Clashes between them had not yet occurred because after the first week Daros had spent a fortnight in Athens; and on his return he had brought his sister, who came to him three times a year. So there had been little opportunity for Toni to begin the ‘treatment’ she intended meting out as punishment for all those insults he had uttered.

  The boat sped towards the landing-stage and soon she was being introduced to Margharita and her husband, neither of whom knew the real reason for the marriage.

  ‘There’s no need for any of the others to know about the circumstances of your marriage,’ Mrs. Pitsos had said after the wedding, and her son had heartily agreed. ‘It would only upset the girls to know of their grandfather’s desire for revenge,’ his mother had added, ‘because they do love him so.’

  Grandparents in Greece were always held in high esteem, Toni knew, but how anyone could love that fiendish old reprobate was quite beyond her comprehension.

  ‘We are very pleased to meet you.’ Margharita and her husband shook hands with Toni. Both appeared faintly embarrassed and Margharita seemed guarded, and she avoided her brother’s eyes as she said, ‘We were so surprised to hear that Daros had married an English girl.’

  ‘Why?’ said Toni in a voice of deceptive sweetness. ‘Doesn’t your brother like the English?’ A swift glance from Daros brought home to her the rashness of that remark. She lowered her eyes, vowing not to be so unwise again. Daros must never guess that she understood his language. When the time came for him to know she would tell him - and derive a considerable amount of satisfaction from his embarrassment.

  ‘Of course he likes the English,’ Margharita hastened to say. ‘After all, he’s half English himself.’

  Toni met his gaze, noting the hardness that had entered his eyes on hearing himself described as half English. He was more Greek, though, decided Toni, taking in that dark and rigid profile as he turned to say something to his brother-in-law. He would, had he the choice, gladly thrown off his English connections, she felt sure, and began to wonder if he resented his mother’s marriage and the subsequent infliction upon him of the hated English blood.

  That evening at dinner Toni was treated to an example of the supreme politeness her husband could assume towards her when the necessity arose. Affectionate gestures were, however, not in evidence and she noticed that they were not expected. The Greeks married for convenience, and no pretence regarding their feelings for their wives was considered necessary.

  After a few days’ stay Margharita and her husband went on to Athens; they took Julia with them, leaving Toni and Daros alone. After they had lived for a fortnight as strangers Toni became so bored that she decided it was time to begin her travels. One or two islands first, she planned, but a letter from her parents resulted in her deciding to go home. Her explorations could come later.

  ‘My parents would like to see me,’ she informed her husband. ‘So I’ve decided to have a month’s holiday in England.’ For the first time she encountered interest in his expression. Not difficult to read the satisfaction he felt at the idea of being rid of her for a while! His immediate reply gave added strength to Toni’s conclusions.

  ‘A very good idea. Life here must be rather dull for you.’

  ‘That’s an understatement,’ she retorted, almost before the words left his lips. ‘Life has never been duller!’

  His brows shot up.

  ‘What do you expect me to do about it? I’m not here to provide you with entertainment.’

  Her temper flared. This arrogant snob cared nothing that her life was being wasted as she marked time, waiting for that murderous rogue to die.

  ‘I might even stay away longer,’ she snapped, revealing her thoughts. She had meant to begin making his life a misery right away, but it would be worth delaying that for a while if this all-enveloping ennui could be escaped.

  Daros spoke very quietly.

  ‘A month’s your limit.’ Toni blinked; her chin lifted and she told him in no uncertain terms that she would stay away just as long as she liked.

  ‘I think not,’ he said when she had finished. ‘Grandfather’s coming for a visit at the end of next month and he’ll expect to find you here.’

  ‘And if he doesn’t?’

  ‘It’s my wish that he does. In Greece a wife is not allowed to go off on her own, and your absence could arouse suspicions that we married merely to thwart him.’

  ‘What difference can that make? I’m still your wife, so I presume he won’t suddenly decide I’m not to be murdered, after all.’

  His mouth compressed at her tone; she saw the glints of warning in his eyes, but knew no fear.

  ‘I’m not running any risks — and neither should you, if you’ve any sense at all.’

  Toni miraculously kept her fury in check as she said with a sort of accommodating tartness, ‘I’ll think about it—’

  ‘You’ll do as I say!’

  She stared, for the moment taken aback.

&nbs
p; ‘I must warn you, Daros, that I please myself what I do. If I wish to stay I’ll stay.’ Her husband’s eyes narrowed; his manner warned her to take care. She felt a compulsion to check what he was about to say and added swiftly, ‘I’ll want some money from you for my fare.’

  ‘From me?’ he echoed, amazed.

  ‘But of course. Who else would I ask for it?’

  A jaw muscle flexed; Toni felt a prick of uneasiness even before he spoke.

  ‘You’ll get no air fare from me. You have your allowance and if you were contemplating a visit to England then you should have saved for it.’ Toni would have interrupted, but an imperious lifting of his hand prevented it. ‘No, my girl, you must never come to me for money.’

  ‘Never?’ She stared up into those hard eyes, for the moment completely crestfallen. ‘But I intend to travel.’

  ‘Travel by all means, if you can afford it.’ He lifted a hand to stifle a yawn.

  The gesture enraged her.

  ‘I can’t go to see my parents if you don’t give me the money!’ she cried, reverting to the more immediate question of her fare to England. Never had she contemplated difficulty in this direction. The exacting of money from him was a major part of her planned revenge. ‘I’ve already answered their letter, saying I’ll go home. You’ll have to give me the money! ’ she quivered furiously.

  Her husband remained coolly silent and Toni added in more controlled tones, ‘I’ve no money left - at least - not enough to pay a fare like that.’

  Daros had picked up a small jade figure from the table, a rare piece of his collection, and he was thoughtfully examining it, his manner indicating that as far as he was concerned the argument was at an end. Toni stamped her foot, and regretted the childish action instantly as his eyes moved from the figure in his hand, and

  flicked contemptuously over her. Toni squirmed infuriated that this insufferable man could make her feel so small.

  ‘You’ve plenty of money!’ she flashed, determined to pursue the subject. ‘A hundred pounds is nothing!’

  He looked directly into her eyes and murmured in lazy, but dangerous tones,