The Realms of Gold Page 11

  ‘There are other things to see,’ Keith told her as she set her face towards climbing up to the temple.

  ‘We could see everything from up there,’ she objected.

  ‘Not the fountain of Peirene.’

  She hesitated. ‘Is that so special?’

  ‘It is formed from the tears of the nymph Peirene. I think she is weeping for her dead son, or lover, or someone like that. Come, let me show it to you!’

  Still Emily hesitated. She didn’t want to leave the main concourse of the site where the other tourists gathered and discussed the various features of the ruins they could see. She didn’t want to be alone with Keith in some damp hole, where she might not be able to escape if he insisted on kissing her, an intention she could see was still in the forefront of his mind.

  ‘Please, Emily. I shan’t hurt you, I promise you!’ He held out his hand to her and she put her own into it and allowed him to lead her away from the foot of the temple and towards the underground fountain. She held back when he wanted to go inside, however.

  ‘I don’t want to go in there,’ she told him meaningly.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ he answered roughly. ‘No one can see us from here!’

  He tightened his grasp on her hand and drew her close up against him. ‘You didn’t really think I wouldn’t kiss you, did you?’

  ‘Yes, I did! Keith, I don’t want to!’

  ‘But I do!’

  He was much stronger than she had suspected and she had no chance of escaping the hot kiss he planted on her own lips. She struggled to retain her balance, bringing her knees up sharply just as he stepped away from her.

  ‘You fool!’ she turned on him furiously. ‘I told you I didn’t want to!’

  ‘I didn’t believe you,’ he admitted, a wry twist to his mouth. ‘I only want to kiss you, Emily. What’s so wrong about that?’

  ‘Well, Emily?’ An only too familiar voice interrupted icily.

  Emily’s blood froze within her. Demis! But it couldn’t be—he was in England. ‘I think you’d better introduce us,’ he went on in the same cold, deadly tones.

  Emily pulled herself together with difficulty. ‘Yes, of course,’ she muttered. ‘Demis, this is Keith Forest. We—we came to see Corinth together. Keith, this is Demis Kaladonis.’

  Keith held out his hand, a strained expression on his face. ‘Kaladonis? Miss Thorne is staying—’

  ‘Miss Thorne?’ Demis repeated. ‘Emily must have misled you, Mr. Forest. She is Miss Thorne no longer. She is the Kyria Kaladonou, my wife. Kaladonou,’ he said again. ‘Belonging to Kaladonis and therefore to me. Do I make myself clear?’ He put a possessive arm about Emily’s waist, putting himself between her and Keith. ‘I shall be taking Emily back to Nauplia,’ he added in the same inexorable tones. ‘You can drive my sister’s car back when you are ready, yes?’

  ‘But, Demis, I want to see the Temple of Apollo—’

  His arm tightened about her until she thought her ribs would give way under the pressure. ‘You are ready to leave now,’ he said. ‘Now, at once!’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘I thought you were still in England.’

  It was the first time Emily had spoken since Demis had practically thrown her into his car and had driven off without a single backward glance at Keith’s stunned and fearful face.

  ‘Yes, it is bad luck that I am not, isn’t it?’

  She wished she were not quite so afraid of him. ‘You’re angry, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I am angry.’

  ‘You have no reason to be.’

  ‘We shall not discuss it while I am driving,’ he cut her off.

  ‘We shan’t discuss it at all!’ She raised her head. ‘There is nothing to discuss!’

  His eyes flickered over her resentful face. ‘Perhaps you are right,’ he conceded. ‘There is no need for any discussion between us. It was my fault for not understanding what you meant when you said you were more like Aphrodite than I knew. Now that I do understand, I shall see that you have no further cause for complaint.’

  Genuinely bewildered, she raised startled eyes to his. ‘What has Aphrodite got to do with it?’

  ‘Didn’t you claim to share her liking for variety? That I cannot give you, but there seems no reason why I shouldn’t enjoy what is, after all, mine for the taking. I am confident that you won’t miss your other lovers once you have learned the joys of being mine.’

  ‘You sound more than confident. I think you’re horrible!’

  He stopped the car and put a hand under her chin, turning her face to his. ‘My dear Emily, if I wish to I can make you fall in love with me like that!’ He flicked his fingers under her nose. ‘And I think I do wish to. Why should I allow you to go on wasting yourself on others when I have a perfect right to have you for myself?’

  She quivered beneath his touch. ‘How do you know I’ve been wasting myself?’

  ‘I didn’t. I do now.’

  ‘It isn’t true,’ she told him. ‘I don’t know why I said it now.’

  ‘Don’t you? Did you already know this boy-friend of yours then? Perhaps you meant it as a warning that I was making a fool of myself where you were concerned? But I shall not be made a fool of twice, as you will shortly discover!’

  ‘He’s not my boy-friend! He’s simply someone I went walking with. You make me sound like a vulgar pick-up!’

  ‘True.’

  ‘But I’m not!’

  ‘Aren’t you? You forget that I saw you with him with my own eyes. You were not walking then! Indeed, it seems you were so anxious to have his company that you took Barbara’s car so that you would not be obliged to walk at all. My sister is neurotic enough without you having to stress that you are the mistress now and that she has no rights at all. It would have been kinder to have asked her if you could take the car—’

  ‘She offered it to me! Oh, don’t believe me!’ Emily added, seeing the hard, unreadable look in his eyes. ‘Ask Demetrios. He’ll tell you. Or Giorgios, he was there too.’

  She could see that he didn’t believe her. His expression remained as unyielding as ever, and she was well aware that this was no small misunderstanding which she could put right with a few words. This was something for which he would never forgive her, because he was Greek and, as far as the Greeks were concerned, their women appeared to hold their honour in their hands. Oh, she had not broken the rules in actual fact, but she hadn’t given a thought to his precious honour when she had set forth with Keith for Tiryns, and even less today when she had driven him to Corinth.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

  ‘So am I!’

  ‘I won’t admit that I’ve done anything to be ashamed of, though,’ she said defiantly. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone alone with Keith, but not for the reasons you are thinking. I didn’t know he thought of me as anything other than another English person he had met on holiday. He didn’t mean anything more than that to me. I don’t see why you can’t believe me about that.’

  ‘Your record for truthfulness is a trifle dubious, shall we say?’ he replied. ‘I wonder if you have ever told me the truth?’

  She could only stare at him. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Do you want a list of the lies you have told? Very well. You said you had never heard of me before I offered you my seat on the train. You told your father you were deeply in love with me. You pretended an innocence you do not possess. You told me the height of your ambitions was to have your own restaurant when you are plainly determined to become a rich and idle wife, giving as small a return as you can on the deal. And, on top of all this, you have the nerve to pretend you are the quiet member of your family, that games with the opposite sex are something in which you refuse to indulge and for which you condemn your sister—your mother even!—while you are too busy working! It doesn’t add up to a very pretty picture, does it?’

  Emily was appalled that he should believe such things about her. ‘If you think all that, why did you marry me?�
��

  ‘I wonder that myself.’

  ‘Well, there is no reason why you should stay married to me!’ she shot at him, pride coming to her rescue. ‘We can have the marriage annulled. I never wanted to marry you in the first place.’

  ‘Didn’t you?’

  ‘That’s what I thought!’

  She would have done anything to have been able to wipe that superior smile from his lips.

  ‘Why don’t you have the marriage annulled?’ she insisted. ‘I would be the last person to object to that.’

  ‘And how would you set about proving that the marriage had not been consummated?’ He allowed her to digest that in silence before going on implacably, ‘And what about your father?’

  ‘What about him? I’m not necessary to the business deal between you. I never was. I can’t understand—’

  ‘You can’t understand! My dear Emily, don’t you ever think about anyone but yourself? Your father spent his whole life building up that business. How do you suppose he would feel handing it over to someone who had no connection with his family? He built it up for you, not for the benefit of someone he hardly knows.’

  ‘He likes you for yourself—’

  ‘But he thought he was giving you your heart’s desire!’

  ‘I could prove the marriage hadn’t been consummated,’ she threw at him, her eyes fixed on her hands in her lap. ‘You don’t have to go on with it. I know you think I’ve let you down and that you don’t want the sort of woman you think I am to be your wife, so it would be much better to end it now. I’ll explain it to my father and tell him it’s all my fault.’

  ‘So you are a coward too? I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with the consequences of our marriage whether you want to or not. I, too, have my pride. I am well known in Greece, and I have no stomach for the gossip your departure would inspire at my expense. I may not have the virtuous wife of my expectations, but, by God, nobody else is going to know that!’

  Emily shivered at the suppressed violence in his voice, genuinely afraid of him. Yet it would be a mistake to let him know that, she thought. It would be a mistake to show him any weakness at all. She raised her head and gave him back look for look.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked.

  ‘You’ll see,’ he said.

  ‘Surely we ought to be home by now?’ Emily complained, stirring in her seat. They seemed to have been driving for ever.

  ‘Home? Is that how you think of my house?’

  ‘I suppose I must do.’

  She stirred again. The beginnings of a headache dominated her thoughts. She hardly ever had headaches, so she was apt to think it an earth-shaking event whenever she did have one.

  ‘Don’t you object to my calling it my house? Wouldn’t you prefer me to call it ours?’

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t think of it as mine in any way,’ she answered. If he wanted to be beastly, let him! See if she cared! Besides, it was too much trouble to think of clever answers. She yawned, hoping he would notice her new sangfroid. ‘I’m quite happy to think of it as yours!’ Her lips curved into a smile. ‘Is your revenge to drive me around for ever getting nowhere?’

  ‘Is that how it seems to you? I decided we would not go back to Nauplia, but Barbara had sent the yacht on to Kalamata for some reason best known to herself. I am taking you there to meet the yacht and from there we will go on to Hydra and stay in a villa I have there. We shall be alone there. Completely alone.’

  Emily stretched her cramped limbs. ‘I’m surprised you should want to be alone with me!’

  ‘Are you?’

  ‘You don’t like me, and you prefer to believe Barbara sooner than you do me, although you must know she’d like to wipe the floor with your pride.’

  ‘Barbara is my sister.’

  ‘What has that got to do with it? She sounded to me as though she hates you.’

  ‘Well, that’s something you have in common.’

  ‘I don’t hate you,’ she said.

  He looked amused. ‘Another lie?’

  She bent her head. ‘Must you? I was exaggerating, that’s all. But Barbara’s another kettle of fish entirely. She wouldn’t mind seeing you bleed.’ She tossed her hair back behind her shoulders. ‘Why do they live with you? Why don’t they have a house of their own?’

  ‘Barbara has grown used to her creature comforts. The kind of house Giorgios could provide for her wouldn’t suit her at all.’

  ‘Poor Giorgios!’ Emily sighed. ‘It would be a kindness to him if you showed her the door. It isn’t fair on him always being compared with someone like you.’

  ‘He is stronger than he looks. I would never have allowed Barbara to marry him if he hadn’t been.’

  ‘Allowed?’ Emily shot him a speaking look. ‘That’s exactly what I mean! Why don’t you let Giorgios shine for a change? Let him decide where they’re going to live—even how they’re going to live! Why do you have to interfere all the time?’

  A muscle quivered in his cheek. ‘Barbara isn’t given to listening much to Giorgios. I should have thought you would have approved of the woman being the dominant partner.’

  ‘With you pulling the strings? No, thank you very much!’

  ‘If someone didn’t keep an eye on Barbara she would go to pieces altogether. If she were a man, I would have pushed her out long ago, but one can’t turn a woman out of the place she considers to be her home. Giorgios pretends to himself that it’s a necessary arrangement to help with Demetrios and Chrisoula—’

  ‘Why doesn’t he give her some babies of her own?’

  Demis suddenly reached out a hand and patted her knee. ‘Is that what I ought to do with you, Emily mou?’

  She was taken aback. ‘I don’t think you ought to joke about such things,’ she declared, knowing that she sounded prim and wishing with all her heart that she had one-tenth of her sister’s self-possession. How Margaret would have loved such a remark! And how easily she would have turned the tables on Demis by a single witty retort that would have removed the sting as easily as Emily could make a pie-crust. ‘We were talking about Barbara—’

  ‘I prefer to talk about us. Emily, will you promise to tell the truth this once, just this once in your whole life?’

  She was hurt, but she nodded her head. ‘I promise.’

  ‘Why did you suppose I married you?’

  She paused, giving herself time to answer. ‘You wanted my father’s business.’

  ‘The truth, Emily. You promised to tell the truth!’

  ‘I thought the business was important to you. That is the truth!’ She was silent for a moment. ‘Was there another reason?’

  He nodded his head very slowly. His eyes held hers. ‘When I saw you on the train, laden down with parcels, I wanted to make love to you then. I was determined to get to know you somehow, and to see you again. My mistake was in thinking I had to marry you, but it is too late for regrets about that. You see, Emily, you are married to me and there is no reason for me not to make love to you.’

  ‘You promised—’

  ‘A promise I didn’t think I’d have to keep. I’m not such a fool as not to know when a woman is interested in me, and you were interested all right. I thought I was giving you time to get used to the idea. Did you laugh at me for that? Well, there isn’t any reason for me to wait now, is there?’ He smiled fleetingly at her. It was not a nice smile and she found herself shaking inside with sheer fright.

  ‘Please, Demis, not—not like that!’

  ‘Why not, my Aphrodite? I deserve to get something out of the deal, surely?’

  ‘You have my father’s firm,’ she whispered.

  ‘I have you too,’ he said as quietly as she. ‘You won’t escape me, Emily Thorne. I want you, and I mean to have you!’

  She was glad of the motion of the car, glad that the fact that he was driving prevented him from touching her, giving her a chance to survey the confusion within her. If she was afraid, she would not show it, she de
termined. She would never show him that she was afraid!

  ‘Emily Kaladonou,’ she corrected him on a gasp. ‘You may as well get it right.’

  ‘My Emily,’ he conceded. ‘And mine you are going to be!’

  She averted her eyes from his hands on the steering-wheel, picturing vividly the scene again when he had introduced her to his statue of Aphrodite and had caressed the marble almost as if she had been a real woman. Of course that didn’t mean anything with a Greek: they used their sense of touch as other people use their eyes, or so her father had always told her. Now, if it had been Keith she might have thought that he had been flirting with her—not that Keith would ever have been as subtle as that in his approach to any girl—but with Demis she couldn’t be sure of anything.

  Hermione! The other girl burst suddenly into her thoughts. How could she have forgotten about Hermione? Temper lent her courage. She lifted her chin, giving a pugnacious set to her head.

  ‘You weren’t very long in England,’ she said. ‘Didn’t Hermione like it there?’

  ‘I don’t know if she likes England or not.’

  ‘Perhaps you were both too busy to notice?’

  His smile was less than kindly. ‘You’re beginning to sound like a wife—a jealous wife at that!’ he remarked.

  She made a noise that she hoped sounded as though she was laughing the idea to scorn. It wasn’t very successful. ‘Me? Jealous? What makes you think that?’

  ‘Why else should you dislike Hermione?’

  ‘Why does one dislike anyone? She doesn’t like me either.’

  ‘No,’ he agreed, ‘and she doesn’t mind admitting she is jealous of you. It would have suited her very well to have been my wife. For once her father would have been proud of her, and, instead of being forced to work for him for her money, she would have been rich overnight, with two fortunes at her disposal.’