by Celia Scott
'She knows how much I love you kookla mou,' he said.
'And she doesn't mind?'
'Mind! Why should she? You must have sensed that she is very fond of you.'
'But I'm not Greek… I mean… I'm afraid I might not fit into your world…'
He suddenly looked grave. 'Have I ever told you that you do not fit into my world?'
'No… only…'
'The only person who ever mentions it is you, Lorna,' he pointed out. 'Perhaps you do not want to fit into it?'
'I do! I love Crete. I love your world, Jason.' She clasped her hands as if in prayer. 'When I bumped into you like that in Rethimnon I wanted to tell you how sorry I was that I've been so… so difficult. To explain that I get terrified sometimes because… Oh! I don't know… I'm afraid I won't fit in… that you'll turn away from me. It makes me behave like a fool.'
He took her hands in his and gently unlaced her fingers. 'I thought it was something like that,' he said. 'The best way to belong to this country is to marry into it.' She stared into his cat's eyes. 'Will you marry me, Lorna? Say you will. I love you so much. I want to have children with you… grow old with you.'
'Oh Jason! I…' she hesitated, recalling the Cretan insistence on virginal brides.
'You must not think I wish you to give up your career, my darling.' He gripped her hands hard. 'When the work on the dig is completed you could do your book. I could help you, perhaps. We could travel through Greece together.'
He was pleading with her—her beautiful proud Jason—pleading.
'If we married I couldn't carry a bouquet of flowers from the Chaste Tree,' she said.
He looked nonplussed. 'The Chaste Tree?'
'Like Ariadne did. I'm not a virgin.' She prayed she wouldn't lose him, but she had to be honest with him.
'But you are not a child like Ariadne. You are a woman. Also it is clear that you are not promiscuous.' He asked her softly, 'How many lovers have you had Lorna?'
'One,' she confessed. 'The man I once thought I was going to marry.'
'I believe that I can wipe him from your memory,' he said, and she smiled because he'd done that from the beginning. 'I do not want you changed, Lorna. But I do want to bind you to me forever.' He looked at her with such hungry love that she was filled with a wild happiness.
'Yes Jason,' she answered him. 'Of course I'll marry you.'
'Soon?' he insisted. 'You will marry me soon?'
'As soon as you like. I don't want to wait a moment longer than we have to.'
'Agapi mou!' He kissed her possessively and they fell back on the sand, his lips still claiming hers. A throb of desire flowed from her throat down to the hidden, secret part of her.
When the kiss ended he held her close, stroking her spine with firm strong fingers. 'When we get back I will phone your brother,' he whispered softly, his mouth against her ear. 'We can be married either in Canada, or here in the village.'
She remembered her dream of walking beside her brother to the little church, where Jason would be waiting for her to start their life together. 'I'd like to be married here,' she told him.
'Poli kala! I shall bring out your family for the wedding.' He started to gently kiss her throat, and she turned and thrust herself against him, for every part of her was longing for his touch.
His lips found her mouth again, but this time his kiss was almost brutal in its passion, and she responded ardently, matching his passion with her own, until they were like two flames in the spinning golden air.
Much later, when the shadows had lengthened, she stretched languorously and looked up at the limitless sky. The sand felt like silk against her warm skin.
He leaned over her and tenderly kissed her naked breasts. 'My beautiful woman… mine,' he murmured, his voice husky with fulfilment.
She laughed softly and turned on her side. 'You know what?' she said, tracing the dark hair on his chest with her finger.
'What my love?'
'I haven't eaten properly for days… I'm starving!' she grinned.
'And it is getting late. We must go back.' He caught her stroking finger and kissed it. 'But we will never get back if you continue to do that,' he warned, and she smiled at him mischievously.
When they had dressed and were ready to leave they stood for a moment at the outcrop of rock, looking back at the little waterfall and the beach of silvery sand.
'I will build our house here,' Jason said. 'Our married home. Would you like that?'
She looked at him, her eyes as clear as the glinting water of the stream. There was not a single doubt in her mind.
'Our home,' she said, tasting the words like wine. 'Home… home at last.'
