An eagle swooped Read online

  As neither desired to waste any more time, they were to be married on the Tuesday, less than a week after Tessa made her first appearance at the lovely villa on the mountainside. The days preceding their marriage were a revelation to Tessa. Before meeting Paul she had, like every other girl of her age, imagined herself in love, trying to form a mental picture of the change which the advent of a lover would bring to her life. But this was enchantment beyond her wildest hopes and dreams; she felt sure that heaven Itself could hold no greater bliss. Already she was seeing for him, as they walked together in the gardens or took to the lane beyond.

  'This is good, Lucinda, to come out.' It was April and the air smelled freshly of rain. 'I've rarely been out much since coming to Cyprus, Takis is not much of a Guide, I'm afraid, so I've contented myself with sitting in the garden.'

  'There's a grassy bank here, Paul, by a tiny spring. Shall we rest awhile?' She had brought their lightweight mackintoshes, for on starting out there had been clouds, and these she put down on the bank, one on top of the other. .

  "The spring sounds nice. Is there much water coming from it?'

  'Not much.' Tessa sat down beside him and he took her hand in his. 'It's coming out of the mountainside, all sparkling in the sunshine, and quivering like a silver ribbon moved by the breeze. And the flowers, Paul, they're magnificent. I had no idea so many wild flowers grew here.'

  'The island is very rich in flowers.' Absently he moved his fingers over the back of her hand. 'What are these you can see?'

  'I don't know the names but the slopes above us are covered with pink and white flowers—Wait, I'll get you one.'

  She handed it to him, watched his almost tender examination of its petals before he said, 'Cyclamen, you'll see drifts of these on the mountainside near Kantara Castle. Perhaps we shall go some time though I expect these flowers will be over by then.'

  'We'll go next year.' she said happily. There would be many years for them, with all the time in the world in which to explore the island.

  'What other flowers can you see'

  There were poppies in profusion, growing in the fields below, and with them the brilliant chrysathemums that splashed their gold beneath the misted green of the olive trees. On the side of the rough uneven lane grew masses of dainty purple bindweed and the deeper, more bluish purple anchusa.

  'The colours blend so well,' she said, on describing to him what she could see. 'But nature always does

  things right, doesn't it?'

  'Yes, Lucinda, nature always does things right.

  She glanced at him, all attention, but nothing was revealed in the firm line of his mouth that could in anyway strengthen the idea she had gained that his voice held a touch of cynicism. Yet it was almost as if he had added,

  'It is only man who makes mistakes.' And with that he could have meant woman ....

  'Paul,' she said urgently, 'I love you very much.'

  'And I love you, Lucinda.' He turned and rubbed his face against hers; all her world became rosy and the idea of his being cynical was dispelled as, raising her hand, he touched it with his lips.

  'Tell me some more, my darling .. Can you see the sea?'

  'Yes, far down below us. It's a beautiful turquoise close to the shore, but then it shades to a dark blue, with here and there a lighter colour which I imagine is caused by the reflection of the clouds in the water.'

  'There are clouds over the sea?'

  'They're only slender wisps of cloud, and the brilliant blue of the sky is far more evident. Then farther out still in the sea, I mean the blue becomes violet tinted a sort of indigo, and then you get the line where the sky and sea meet. You have no impression of vast width, and could almost imagine it' were possible to throw a stone from the shore to the horizon.'

  'The sea appears as a narrow strip?'

  'In a way, yes and yet—There's a ship, a beautiful white ship, Paul, and this of course gives you the true perspective and you realize just how vast the sea is, for the ship appears as a mere matchbox toy—' She broke off as something moved by the stone at Paul's feet. 'Oh, look, there's a lizard! just about nine inches long '. Isn't it beautifully streamlined? And that gorgeous colour of green with such beautiful markings, emerald and brown Watch ... it's cocking its head on one side to take a good look at us! There, on that stone by your foot can you see ... .'' Her voice became a whisper and her hand in his quivered. 'Paul, I-- '

  'Yes, darling, I can see it. It's gone on that stone to get the heat.'

  She looked at him uncertainly, but he was smiling, 'It's still watching us,' she whispered. They sat very still, but presently the lizard darted away and they began to talk again. After a while another appeared and Tessa told him about it. Different from the other in appearance, it was not nearly so attractive .. looking in fact rather like some prehistoric monster in miniature. It was a tree lizard, Paul informed her. 'The first was a gecko,' he went on. 'They like walls or hot stones, but often they come into the house.'

  'They come in the house?' Although she owned to their attractiveness Tessa gave a little shudder at the idea of finding one in her bedroom.

  'They're very good to have in the house; they eat all the insects.'

  'The gecko, Paul, he's back—Hush, here's an other!' ,

  'I wasn't making a sound,' he returned with a hint of humour, and Tessa laughed.

  'It's I who am doing all the talking, isn't it? Have you had sufficiency of my chatter?'

  'Your voice is like music, Lucinda. And apart from that, you describe things so beautifully. You know, darling, I never noticed this before.' He paused and then added strangely, 'I wonder why?'

  Fear touched her heart.

  'But there weren't such interesting things to describe,' she hastily reminded him, and to her relief he nodded his agreement.

  'The sun's beginning to go down, my love. Do you want to move?'

  'If you do.' What did it matter where she was so long as she had Paul beside her? 'You're not cold?'

  'No, dear, I'm certainly not cold. Nevertheless, I think we'll make for home. A cup of tea would be very welcome.'

  They rose; Tessa picked up the mackintoshes, but Paul now knew she had them and he took them from her. Then she held his hand and together they made their way along the stony track that served as a road. It had been cut out of the mountainside and there was a sheer drop to Tessa's left. Walking was safe, she decided, but she felt it would be quite terrifying to drive a car over this road. And yet she had seen one or two cars, for farther along, though unseen from Paul's villa, was the house of a retired English businessman. Paul had told her this when she inquired about the car she had seen passing.

  'Friends visit him, so you'll see other cars,' he had said.

  'You don't have him call on you?' she had asked hesitantly.

  'I have no visitors.' The first sharp note She had heard since coming, and Tessa intended to avoid a repetition. Basically Paul was strong, with a vigorous personality and an air of arrogance and self-possession that set him high above the ordinary run of men she had known. But his blindness made him weak. To be dependent on another, to have assistance with almost every little task attempted .... In private, yes, for there was no alternative, but Tessa could well understand why he admitted no outsiders to his home.

  'You're right about that tea, Paul. I'm feeling quite thirsty.'

  'Have we far to go?'

  'About half a mile still. We'll be home before the sun goes down.'

  'We can have tea on the verandah and you can describe the sunset to me.'

  Takis had the tea laid in the hall, and the front door was thrown wide open, so they had their tea there, going out on to the verandah afterwards.'

  'It's sinking,' she said. standing close to him and slipping her arm through his. 'It's a great fiery ball you can quite easily imagine the flames hundreds of miles high coming from it. And the sky ... It s crimson and gold and amber. And, the streaks of cloud are ablaze .... How quickly it goes; you can watch it moving.'

  '. . And yet it's really we who are moving.

  'I find it difficult to imagine that.' She paused as the sun touched the rim of the earth. 'Part of it has gone now, Paul, so quickly it has moved. Now there's only half ... .' Within minutes the remaining curve had sunk below the horizon, leaving its trail of fire behind it. 'That's the last, until tomorrow. Oh, but Paul, the sky! There's violet in it now, and vivid orange Right across it is, this stretch of colour'.'

  He gently took her arm from his, so that he could draw her into his embrace. With a sigh of sweet contentment she leant her head against his shoulder. For a long while they stood there, out in the soft evening air, with all around them the perfumes of flowers mingling with the more heady scent of the lemon blossom. A faint breeze blowing down from the fretted heights of the Kyrenia Range rustled the leaves of the olive and carob trees; from far below drifted the melodious echo of the crickets and occasionally the fretful, protesting bray of a donkey. Tessa felt Paul's hand touching her hair, and measuring its length.

  'You've let Your hair grow,' he commented. 'It's much longer than before. '

  'The fashions change, Paul.'

  'Yes, I suppose they do.' A faint smile touched his lips, and this time there was no mistaking the bitterness it held. 'It's odd, but the fashions will always be as I knew them a year ago. '

  'No darling,' she told him hastily. 'I shall describe them to you.'

  'Of course you will.' He bent and kissed her lips, and after a little while they went inside. 'Read to me, my love,' he requested as he heard her snap on the light. Just for a short time, and then I'll go to bed.'

  'So early?' She looked at him in dismay. Every moment away from him was wasted.

  'You don't want me to go?' .

  'If you'
re tired ... ',

  'Read to me,' he said again, and so engrossed did they both become in the book that it was nine o'clock before Tessa exclaimed, 'Paul, do you know what time it is?'

  'No, darling.' But he had on a watch of braille and his fingers were lightly running over it. 'Good gracious, how it flies."

  'Would you like some supper ?'

  'Not much, dear. Tell Takis to bring me a little wine, and a biscuit, that's all.'

  'It's a beautiful night,' she said as she came back from the kitchen. 'As we missed tea on the verandah, shall we have supper there ?'

  'That's a good suggestion, Lucinda.'

  They sat outside, with the dark silhouette of the mountains behind, and the indistinct sweep of the sea away in the far distance below. Palms stirred in the soft balmy air, looking like gigantic spiders as their fronds swayed against the moonlit vault of the sky.

  'The moon's different here,' said Tessa, careful not to reveal that she had seen many enormous moons during her travels in the East. 'In England it's much smaller.'

  'There's a special quality to it here, so I'm told.'

  'Yes, it's like a great disc of blue ice as if it's the sun, but frozen. The lighting effect of the sky s different too. There's a sort of sapphire glow, which adds to the impression of coldness.' .

  'How well you describe it, Lucinda. I can see It all quite plainly. It's ... disturbing, rather, because there something positive about it.' .

  She stared at him in disbelief. That was her Impression, How, without words, had she managed to convey this to Paul?

  He did not after all go to bed early, for they sat outside until nearly midnight. And when at last they went into the house, and left each other by his bedroom door, Paul took her gently in his arms and said, 'Just a few hours, my darling, and then you'll be mine.' He kissed her with infinite tenderness, yet with a hint of fervour that excited her.

  'That's all I want, Paul ... to be yours.'

  Sleep eluded her and at two in the morning she was sitting up in bed, writing to her father.

  'I feel I've been transported in to heaven,' she finally wrote. 'I'm so happy that I'm frightened.'

  CHAPTER III

  THE reply came ten days later.'

  I would most strongly have advised you to return home at once, wrote her father after expressing his amazement at the news she had so calmly imparted to him, but by the time this reaches you the momentous step will have been taken and even so, my advice would not have been heeded, for I know you would do as your heart dictates, regardless of the consequences. Well, my girlie, this is what you have wanted since the day you met Paul, and I only hope and pray that from now on you will know complete fulfilment of your heart's desire. I must say that Paul's quick forgiveness of the wrong done to him, and his ready acceptance of you (or I suppose I should say Lucinda), as his wife staggers me. As you know, I lived for a while in Greece when I was a youth, and I had until now believed in my ability to read the character of the average Greek. With Paul I always suspected the presence of some inherent streak of primitive cruelty beneath that veneer of Western culture he had acquired through living so long in our country. I could more easily have seen his as the merciless avenger, devising some fiendish plot to punish Lucinda. However, from your glowing account of the way he received you this is not so, and your future seems to be ensured. Write again soon, my darling and be happy always. Remember me to Paul.

  Revenge ... punishment? Tess had to smile, for nothing could be farther from her husbands mind. They had been married for over a week; no bride had ever been more glowing, no bridegroom more tender, no honeymoon more perfect. . .

  They had been gay, abandoned, each giving generously, supplying the needs of the other. For Tessa, what had gone before, the despair and the heartache, the ever present knowledge that Paul loved her sister, all this had dissolved as swiftly as a dream on the awakening, and she accepted what was offered, caged , yet gratefully, and with absolute trust and confidence in her husband's love. For his part he was In turn teasing and grave, stern and indulgent, but ever the tender gentle lover, determined to raise her high into the realms of rapture, to present to her a vision of delights in store,

  Revenge .... Her father had such odd ideas at times. A new beauty had come to Tessa during, this idyllic period, a beauty born of fulfilment of desire, and the sure knowledge of being cherished by the one she loved. True, in the odd moment of reflection she would face the fact that all this was intended for Lucinda, but to her surprise she had no difficulty in casting it aside and continuing her game of sublime pretence.

  'Sweetheart, where shall we go today?' Paul would ask over breakfast, which was usually laid out on the verandah, very early in the morning, for the sun was up at five thirty and within a matter of minutes everything was golden. They would have a discussion and, the decision made, Paul would ring for a taxi which would be up from Kyrenia in just over half an hour. .

  On the day she received her father's letter Tessa was a few minutes late for breakfast. Paul came to seek her, finding her in the sitting room.

  'Are you there, darling?' His voice thrilled her, as she knew it always would. She twisted round and her eyes were soft with adoration. Paul was tapping the legs of a chair with his stick.

  'Yes, I'm here. I was just coming. You want something'

  'Only my beautiful wife.' He sat down on the chair, smiling and facing her direction.

  'I've just had a letter from Father,' she said without stopping to think. 'Takis brought it up last night, but we'd gone to bed, so he gave it to me this morning.' Bellapais did not have a postman, and all letters 'were left at the cafe by the Abbey and had to be picked up from there. 'Father wishes to be remembered to you.'

  'That's nice of him. Are you going to read the letter to me?'

  The question she had feared.

  'Yes ... .' Her eyes flickered over the page. She invented much, but read the end.

  'Your future seems to be ensured.' he echoed softly.

  'Our future, dearest.' She moved to stand beside his chair. He sought her hand and put it to his cheek. 'It's going to be a wonderful future, Paul.' He remained oddly silent and she went on, an eager note entering her voice, 'What would you like to' do today We could go for a swim if you think it's warm enough or perhaps you'd like to do that shopping you were speaking about?'

  'Yes, I would. We'll get Kypros to drive us to Nicosia.'

  They took the new road through a pass in the extreme western tip of the Kyrenia mountains. Tessa talked as they went along, describing the change of scenery from the semi rugged foothills to the low and undulating plain, golden with ripe corn and bordered with a brilliance of colour as the wild flowers bloomed, all along the sides of the road.

  In Nicosia they shopped in Ledra Street, took an English lunch at a small hotel and then, after a walk in the old part of the city, where Tessa described the honey coloured mud houses, with their picturesque courtyards shaded by cypresses and palms, they went back to where Kypros waited with the taxi and he drove them home by the same route as they came.

  'Tired, darling' Paul's anxious voice awoke Tessa from her reverie. It was later the same afternoon and they were out in the garden, sitting in deckchairs, and the only sounds were the distant echo of sheep bells and an occasional drone of an insect. From the terraced garden came the scent of roses; this mingled intoxicatingly with the perfume from the oleander bushes which formed a thick hedge between the grounds of the villa proper and the lemon groves beyond. These belonged to Paul, as did the olive groves and the several cornfields on the flatter, more productive land far below,

  'No, just content and very happy.' .

  'Very happy.' He mused on this. 'Tell me, Lucinda.' do you think you've reached the pinacle of happiness?

  A strange question, she thought, but could not have explained why.

  'This must be the pinnacle,' she answered softly, looking down at her slender brown legs and thinking for a second of Lucinda's fair and delicate skin. 'Surely it's not possible to rise higher than this, Paul?'

  Reaching out he gave the silent order for her to take 'hold of his hand.