Dark Avenger

by Anne Hampson

  "I - I think I'll go now, and let you get on with your work," was all she could find to say, her glance straying to the young cripple who had come from the side of the building, carrying some cardboard boxes and papers.

  "Kyrios Doneus," he called as Julie and Doneus began walking towards the gate, Jason bounding along in front. Doneus stopped and turned.

  "Nai, Petrakis ?"

  The man held out the papers, which Julie saw at once were magazines, and even as she looked they fell from the man's hands as he hitched the cardboard boxes more securely under his arm. Country Gazette! So this was where Doneus had seen the magazine with her photograph in it. The man's face had twisted at his clumsiness; before he could bend down Doneus had picked up the magazines for him, taking one of the boxes from under his arm and placing them into it, making it easier for Petrakis to carry them. Both men were speaking in Greek.

  The man nodded and went away. Unmoving, Julie stared up at her husband.

  "So at least one infinitesimal part of the mystery's solved," she said quietly. "It was from here that you got the magazine you gave to your mother."

  He nodded and began to walk on.

  "What was Petrakis saying?" she inquired curiously.

  "He's made a fire somewhere at the back to burn rubbish.

  Calliope - she's one of the maids - gave him them to burn, but he wasn't sure if - if the owner would want them burned."

  Why the hesitation? What slip had he averted, just in time?

  Again that tingling sensation ran down Julie's spine, but as there was no accounting for it she was only left, as always, floundering in a web of uncertainty and frustration from which she would gladly have given half her fortune to escape.

  Lambri, or Easter, the most important of all Greek festivals, was still steeped in the dark and ancient myths of paganism. For a whole week the campaniles rang, calling the people to church.

  On the "Saturday of Lazarus" children would fall down in the road, then jump up, laughing

  at their resurrection. They would go round begging for eggs, dyed a brilliant red, or they might ask for money.

  Their mothers baked koulouri, the sweet pastry kneaded into all sorts of exciting shapes. The following day, Palm Sunday, priests distributed branches of myrtle for the people to hang by their ikons - to keep away the evil eye for the whole of the following year. Brides invoked fertility by being touched with the leaves.

  On the Wednesday the diving boats were blessed by the Bishop, and Julie had persuaded Doneus to take her into the harbour town. They drove in the big car from the castle, Doneus strangely preoccupied, but somehow even in his silence lacking the coldness in which he had become steeped during the past weeks. One boat was chosen and on this the ceremony took place, an altar having been improvised and decorated with a beautifully embroidered cloth and flowers and tall candlesticks taken from the church.

  From stays were hung such things as divers' helmets, pieces of sponge and small scraps of octopus tentacles. Many attendant priests accompanied the Bishop in his procession, their robes brilliant and colourful in the dazzling spring sunshine. All climbed aboard and then the service began beneath the new white rigging which swayed about in the breeze. A diver appeared with the bowl of holy water which the Bishop sprinkled over every part of the boat.

  "For the men's safe return." Julie whispered the words; they were wrung from her as tears filled her eyes. Doneus, hearing them, turned his head, but his wife's face was lowered and his lips twisted. Pity!

  The sprig of mountain herb was repeatedly plunged into the bowl, and then shaken over and over again. The divers themselves, the food and fuel, and ropes and other gear, the stove, diving-suits, and even the anchor ... all were blessed.

  Finally, the diver handed the basin to the Bishop who emptied the remaining water into a diving-helmet that had been made ready. There was a series of happy exclamations as divers rushed forward to kiss the Bishop's hands. It was the most moving spectacle Julie had ever seen, moving and a little frightening by its futility. The numerous cripples who thronged the waterfront were a testimony to this.

  Thursday was given over to the preparation of the feast, and Kyria and Maroula appeared at the cottage with presentations of red eggs and tsoureki, the special Easter bread which they had baked and which they wished to share with Julie and her husband.

  "Thank you both, very much indeed." Julie asked them inside, saw their all-embracing glances before, rather surreptitiously, they exchanged glances between themselves. "It's so very kind - and thank your mothers, too, for I'm sure they've had a hand in this."

  Both girls smiled happily, and rather shyly.

  "You come to church tomorrow? Mr. Doneus bring you?"

  "Yes . . ." Julie replied hesitantly, looking at Kyria. "I expect we shall be going to church." Would Doneus take her? she wondered. She had asked him once before and he had refused, saying she would be lost with the language and in addition she would resent the segregation, as the men and women were not allowed to be together.

  Julie asked him again when he came in that evening, and he

  promised to take her on Saturday night to the church in Kalymnos.

  Holy Friday, a day of total fast, was the day of the funeral procession. The streets were packed with people; women were weeping, men grim-faced, and all were obviously going through some form of religious ecstasy.

  At eleven o'clock on Saturday night the bells called the devout people to the church for the final victorious ceremony. The whole congregation held unlighted candles, the sole illumination in the church coming from the candles on the altar. At midnight these were extinguished and the restlessness of the congregation was clearly sensed by Julie, who was beginning to feel stifled in the heat and the crush of bodies pressing around her.

  Midnight ... and a priest appearing with a lighted can-dle. His voice suddenly rang out, loud and clear and triumphant, "Christos Anesti!"

  At his words those closest to him rushed forward to light their candles from his, turning immediately to hold them out to those behind. A black-robed woman, inviting Julie to light her candle, smiled with sheer joy as she said, "Christos Anesti!"

  Julie replied in the way she had been told to do by her husband.

  "Alithos Anesti." He is indeed risen. She felt very close to tears, so moving had been the service, and in fact her eyes were moist when, a few minutes later, she had joined Doneus and they were leaving the church.

  d"Touches one deeply," he murmured, smiling faintly. "Pagan in origin, because in fact Adonis also rises this ay.

  "It was beautiful," she breathed. "I wouldn't have missed it for anything, even though I didn't understand a word the priest was chanting."

  The crowd was rushing from the church, holding their lighted candles and shielding them from the night. Those who managed to get their candles home without the light being extinguished could expect good luck for the rest of the year.

  Three young divers and their wives ran up to the car just as Doneus and Julie reached it.

  "You join us, Mr. and Mrs. Doneus? We have big feast ready.

  Come! "

  "Thank you, Spiros." Doneus turned to Julie. "Is it all right with you?"

  Julie bit her lip. She desired only to go home, to have her husband to herself for a little while because very soon now he would be sailing away, for five long months at least. But she knew Doneus's question was phrased merely for politeness, since it was considered an insult to refuse food from a Greek.

  "Of course," she replied, forcing a smile.

  It proved to be an orgy of eating and drinking. She and Doneus started off with eggs, dyed red; then came Easter soup followed by roast lamb and salads. The sticky pastries dripping with honey were served for the sweet and all was washed down with the delicious Kalymnos wine.

  It was half-past two when Doneus drove up to the front door of the cottage and although despite her tiredness Julie would have stayed up and talked for a while, Doneus bade her good night and im
mediately went to his room.

  Refusing to listen to any argument from Julie, Doneus insisted she leave the island the day before he was due to sail. The Lindos would be leaving for Rhodes and he had already booked her passage, he said.

  "But I want to see you off," Julie protested over and over again, but to no avail.

  "I never allowed Mother to see me off and I'm not allowing you to do so either," he returned inflexibly, and Julie was not allowed to prolong the argument. He went out and she went into her room and reluctantly began packing an overnight bag, for she was to sail the following day. She had just finished when there was a rather timid tap on the front door. She opened it to find Mrs. Lucian's next-door neighbour standing on the step, her sun-wrinkled face rather scared.

  "Mrs. Lucian," faltered Julie. "She's ill?"

  "Not ill, Mrs. Doneus, but sad - in heart, you understand?"

  Julie nodded. "Because Doneus is going to sea. But why have you

  come here? Do you want to see her son?"

  "Not Mr. Doneus! " The woman glanced furtively around. "I wait till he go out, then I wait longer in case he come back. Savasti want you - quick! The taxi come this way today and we catch, yes?"

  "What does Mrs. Lucian want with me?" Julie looked bewilderedly at her. "What's the matter?"

  "I no tell -" The woman put her hand to her mouth. "We go now

  and Savasti talk with you."

  An hour and a half later every piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. Julie, pale but overflowing with happiness, was seated in an armchair, smiling at her mother-in-law. It had been a difficult conversation, but Julie had helped with the little Greek she had learned since coming to Kalymnos and now her heart was filled with gratitude and she could have hugged the frail and aged woman who was looking at her a little apprehensively.

  "You not-not- orghi?"

  "Angry?" Julie laughed with sheer joy. "How can I be angry after what you've told me? You've forgotten already that I love Doneus."

  A sweet and serene smile hovered on Savasti's bloodless lips.

  "I not forget. I go and light candles to all the saints for this good thing that happen to my boy. I cry and cry when Doneus tell me you go home, and I go to church. The saints tell me to talk to you and it come right."

  "I only wish you'd told me all this before, Savasti. Doneus and I have been very unhappy." Mrs. Lucian's earlier declaration that it were better that Julie cry now came back to Julie and she fully understood it. Had she cried for Doneus it would then have revealed to his mother that she loved him.

  "My son - I see this thing in his eyes all time, and my heart cry for him -" She broke off, glancing at the clock. "Taxi - it come one minute. You go to my boy and he lose this look in his eyes, yes?"

  Julie nodded, too full to speak for a moment. What a fool she had been - but Doneus was no better. Only this dear sweet old lady seemed to have any sense at all. Julie recalled vividly her own convictions regarding her husband's character, she recalled her numerous odd sensations and her husband's repeated evasions to any question she might ask. How utterly stupid they both had been!

  "You were so brave to go to England all by yourself," she said at last. "But we're going to be grateful all our lives that you did."

  Savasti had risen from her chair and was moving towards the door. Julie stood up and followed her.

  "Doneus angry when he know. He away in Athens on business as I tell you, and I decide to go because all the time he look at this picture and I know he love this girl. And now he be glad, yes? - because this girl now love him." She had great difficulty in articulating her words and Julie merely caught the gist of what she was saying.

  "Thank you for all you've done. Thank you, dear, dear Savasti ... Mitera," she added softly, and the old woman's face became wreathed in smiles.

  "It is good - poli kala. You call me mother. I have now kori as well as son." She opened the door and they saw the taxi some way along the street, where it had stopped to pick up a fare.

  "Won't you come and live with us?" pleaded Julie. "Do think about it."

  "I happy in this place, which Doneus make com - com ... ?"

  "Comfortable for you? Yes, it is comfortable, but we want you with us."

  "I think - like you say, and I try to get used to this megalos place that my son buy."

  "It is big, I admit, but it's home, Savasti."

  "Then I think - and I ask the saints if they guide me." Julie laughed to herself. Whatever the decision of the saints her mother-in-law was going to live with her son and his wife.

  "Adio, my mitera. Doneus and I will be along to see you this evening." Julie kissed the wrinkled cheek and turned away.

  She asked the taxi-driver to take her to Santa Elena, scarcely noticing his surprise as she immediately lapsed into thought.

  Would Doneus be at the castle? He had not said where he was going and she knew he sometimes went to the harbour. If she had to wait till this evening she would be a nervous wreck, for every time the taxi stopped she breathed a sigh of impatience.

  But at last she reached her destination, and fumbled with the gates, aware of Jason racing towards her.

  They ran back together, and there was Doneus! He was wheeling a barrow loaded with dead wood and leaves, but stopped, astonished by what he saw.

  "Julie! " His glance was anxious, questioning. She covered the last few yards separating them, impatient even with Jason, who kept getting in her way.

  "I know everything," she burst out. "Your mother sent for me -

  she was desperate because she felt sure you'd go to sea when I left. All she wanted to ask at first was that I change my mind about going to England, but when I told her I loved you she explained everything. Doneus, why didn't you tell me, long,

  long ago? And you needn't blame me for everything, because you've been stubborn as well! I adore your mother - you said she was sweet, and it's true! And she's brave and wonderful and I want her to come and live with us -"

  "Julie dear," he broke in, dazed and yet miraculously deprived of his haunted expression. "Hadn't we better sit down and then you can tell me everything - when you've managed to get your breath back, that is?"

  She shook her head impatiently. "I don't want to sit down; I want you to hold me ..." Her voice trailed away as she moved very close, lifting her face, her lips parted tenderly, pleading for his kiss. "Hold me till I'm calm, Doneus. It's been such a shock, discovering that you love me, that you loved me all the time and that's the reason why you married me."

  Despite his obvious emotion Doneus's lip quivered with amusement. He looked at his hands, soiled from his work in the garden.

  "I'll just go and wash my -"

  "You're cruel! Don't you want to hold 'me?" She just managed to get the last word out before being swept almost savagely into his arms, and his lips were not gentle either, but Julie supposed she had asked for all she received. She was breathless, laughing and crying when at last he held her from him, his black eyes smouldering with ardour ready to burst into flame.

  "Do I want to hold you? What a question! I don't know how I've controlled myself all these months! Do I want to hold you -! "

  She was crushed to him again, carried on the stream of his passion until, breathless himself, he released her, his hands moving to her waist and remaining there. "You apparently know it all, but let us talk. What exactly did Mother tell you?"

  She was too breathless to speak for a moment, so she just looked up at him, as if to remind him of what he had said about her eyes revealing everything, and he smiled tenderly at her, waiting for her to speak. The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up to the elbow and as he moved his hand to caress her hair she pressed her cheek against one strong brown arm.

  "She told me that it wasn't you who sent her, that she had come on her own initiative while you were away in Athens. She told me about the way you would look at my photograph - I suppose some of your English friends left it at the castle?"

  "Yes, Julie, and it was
from them that I received all the news

  about the Veltrovers' affairs."

  "And Uncle Edwin believed it to be a secret! "

  "Apparently it wasn't, for these friends of mine knew that your uncle and his son had been gambling desperately, trying to repair the damage already done to the Veltrovers fortune."

  "What did you think about my photograph?" she couldn't resist asking, and although a glimmer of amusement entered his eyes his voice was serious as he said, "I saw beauty and goodness and a tender heart." He paused in recollection and she stared, fascinated, at the throbbing movement in the scar, livid against the collar of his shirt.

  "I have never been so affected by a woman's face; this was the woman I would dearly love to marry." Julie blushed adorably and he bent his head to kiss her, tenderly now and almost with reverence.

  "Your mother told me everything, as I've just said," Julie murmured, hastily changing the subject. "Her neighbour came to the cottage and asked me to go back with her as your mother was so sad-"

  "Sad?" he echoed. "Why was my mother sad?"

  "She had convinced herself -" Julie broke off, shuddering against him. "She knew how deeply you loved me and she had truly convinced herself that if I left you'd immediately go to sea ... with the intention of - of n-not being careful."

  An astounded silence followed.

  "My mother knows me better than that. It was for her sake that I gave up diving."

  "She did come to believe you didn't want to live, Doneus. I could see at once that she'd been torturing herself, and it was in desperation that she sent for me, begging me not to leave the island. You would then not go to sea, she said."

  His eyes flickered. "You immediately realized I was not forced to go to sea?"

  Julie nodded and went on to say, "I'd tried once before to draw her out, as you know, but she was obviously afraid of what you'd say and I learned nothing. This time I made a bargain with her: I promised to stay only if she would reveal everything she knew, but even then she was reluctant until I told her I loved you." Julie paused and shone up at him. "It was difficult for her, as you can imagine, but I managed to understand her.