Apollo's Daughter

by Rebecca Stratton

  She darted a brief, almost defensive glance at Nikolas when she realised he was watching her, and she was never quite sure why she did it, but when their eyes

  met for a second, she smiled. 'Thank you/ she whispered, then hastily snatched her gaze back to the fast approaching shoreline and the familiar landmarks.

  The fishing boats were still in harbour, for there was an hour or so yet until they would put out for the evening's fishing, and the men working in them looked up, acknowledging their arrival silently; dark eyes noting that the xenos had returned with them. Nikolas was viewed warily, Bethany guessed, not because he was a stranger, but because of the kind of man he was. But the judgment was not likely to be unfavourable, for he was caring for the family of Pavlos Meandis, and Pavlos had been well-liked. No one would have liked to see his family left to fend for themselves.

  Takis was ashore first, taking the mooring line, then Nikolas assisted Alexia, leaving Bethany until last, and she could scarcely wait to set foot on her beloved island again. Holding tight to Nikolas's hand while he helped her ashore, she looked along the length of the quay, forgetting for the moment that she still clung to him.

  *Are you happy now that you're back?' he asked, and she turned quickly to smile at him, her eyes shining.

  *Oh, yes, Nikolas, I was so afraid that *

  'That I'd break my word?' He looked faintly amused, she thought, but she was in no mood to criticise him at the moment, and the slight pressure of his fingers reminded her that she was still holding his hand. Releasing her, he walked beside her in the direction of the house, following Takis and Alexia along the path from the quay. 'You didn't believe I'd bring you back, did you, Bethany?'

  'Yes, of course I did. you promised!' She stopped herself there, because she remembered that he never actually promised; only her own conviction that he would had sustained her. 'Well, if you didn't actually promise, you gave me the imoression that we'd come back.' She glanced ahead at Takis, hands thrust into his pockets and swaggering a little as if he felt himself much more important after a sojourn in the city.

  'When Takis goes to his other school,' she ventured, 'what happens then, Nikolas'?'

  'Shall we wait and see?' he suggested, in a voice too quiet for either Takis or Alexia to have overheard.

  Ahead of them, the old house looked frankly shabby in the sunlight, its paint peeling and the garden seeming more than ever like a jungle after the gardens in Rhodes. But Bethany loved it and, she told herself, she was never going to leave it, no matter what Nikolas decided; it was hers because Papa had willed it to her.

  'The house is mine,' she reminded him. 'You said Papa left it to me, so I can stay here, Nikolas, if it's mine.'

  Dark speculative eyes turned on her and for a moment the corners of his mouth curved upward in a hint of smile. 'Not quite as you put it, Bethany,' he said. 'Pavlos left the house as your dowry, but until you marry, your home depends on where I decide you shall live. I'm responsible for seeing that you're safely settled and that you come to no harm in the meantime. You know that, child, we've been through it all before.'

  'And suppose I don't?' she asked, sounding a little breathless. 'I mean suppose I decide not to get married?'

  She made the suggestion out of sheer bravado as they passed through the arched gateway and into the scented jungle she knew so well, and Nikolas shook his head as he opened the door and let the hot musty breath of emptiness out of the house. He admitted Alexia first, then ushered Bethany in behind her with an arm across her back, a touch that reminded her of the day at Kamiros when he had carried her down to his car. That rare, disturbing contact that had not been mentioned since.

  'I think there's very little chance of you remaining unmarried/ he told her with confidence, and contemplated the big cool room thoughtfully for a moment. 'This is a good house, and a woman with such a dowry would have little difficulty in finding a husband, how-

  ever undisciplined she was/ The dark eyes came back to her, deep and faintly mocking. *Even less if she's young and very beautiful; lack of discipline can always be—remedied.'

  'NikolasI'

  She stared at his back when he walked across to open a window and let in some fresh air as well as the hot, heady scents of the garden.

  *Why do you have this fixed objection to marriage?' he asked, as if her answer was of little consequence and he merely asked out of casual curiosity. 'You're woman enough to have the normal feelings and needs, are you not?'

  Bethany flushed warmly, thankful for the moment that he still had his back to her. 'That's neither here nor there,' she managed after a second or two. *You said once that you knew who Papa had in mind for me to marry '

  'True, I do.'

  'But you promised you wouldn't insist, if I was unwilling, whoever he is.' He nodded, breathing deeply at the open window and reacting as if he was still only superficially interested in the subject. 'You wouldn't go back on your word, would you?'

  He looked back over his shoulder and the gleaming darkness of his eyes brought sudden urgency to her heartbeat. 'Do you think I would?' he challenged, and she shook her head, unable to do other than trust him.

  Both Takis and Alexia seemed to have disappeared, so that they were alone when he came back to stand beside her. Without his actually touching her, his nearness sent little shivers of sensation fluttering over her skin, and she realised how much more familiar he had become in the few days they had been away. A realisation that was oddly disturbing.

  'Then why not trust me?' he asked quietly.

  She passed the tip of her tongue over her lips anxiously, then glanced upward. 'If you know who_ it is that Papa '

  'So that you can set your mind firmly against him?'

  Nikolas interrupted quietly. 'No, Bethany!' He looked over his shoulder at the open kitchen door where Alexia was already moving about preparing coffee for them. 'Hadn't you better give Aunt Alexia a hand with making the coffee?' he suggested. 'There are no servants here, as there were in Rodos.'

  Bethany flushed, realising that things were back to normal as far as Nikolas was concerned. She was once more drawn back into the round of domestic chores, performed under his critical eye, and she flushed as she stepped around the pile of luggage containing hers and Takis's new clothes.

  'I was just going to,' she told him, and thrust out her lower lip in reproach. *You don't need to start hustling me around quite so soon, Nikolas!'

  He said nothing at once, but caught her rebellious eye as she went into the kitchen to join Alexia, and one black brow winged upward. *I won't unless I have to,' he promised.

  Alexia looked pleased to see her, and from her smile Bethany again surmised that she was quite pleased to be back. 'You'll miss Rodos, Aunt Alexia?' she suggested, and Alexia's smile was gently non-committal.

  'I've settled here,' she told her, which Bethany realised did not really confirm her pleasure. 'But you, child, you'll miss it, eh?'

  Bethany could deny it with more certainty, and she did so unhesitatingly. 'I don't think so. Aunt Alex, I've been longing to come home. I missed Apolidus even more than I expected to.'

  But however firmly she asserted it, Alexia's smile suggested she knew better, and as she put the coffee on to brew she watched Bethany set out a tray with cups and saucers and a dish of loukoumi. 'But you will surely miss your cousin Theo,' Alexia insisted, and inevitably she noted the flush that warmed Bethany's cheeks at the mention of him. 'He's so handsome and so charm-in, isn't he? And very much taken with you, child, that was obvious.'

  'Much to Nikolas's annoyance,' said Bethany, and

  gS Apollo's daughter

  laughed a little wildly at the memory of Nikolas's dramatic arrival at Kamiros when he realised she and Theo were there alone—and his solemn warning about playing games with his impressionable brother. 'He didn't trust me alone with Theo, not even for a drive.'

  *But naturally Niko is careful of your reputation,' Alexia told her, making it obvious that she was in agreement with him. 'He
is a man of strict principles, and for you to be seen with a young man, even if he is

  to be your ' She caught her lip between her teeth

  and glanced at the kitchen door as if she feared being over heard, and Bethany stared at her.

  She had a growing suspicion that Alexia had been about to give her the information that Nikolas consistently withheld. *Aunt Alex?' Her heart banged urgently at her ribs. If Theo is to be—what. Aunt Alex?'

  'Bethany, child.' Quite obviously she regretted having betrayed something she was meant to keep to herself, but equally obviously Bethany's expression convinced her it wouldn't be allowed to rest there, in fact she probably felt she would be pleasing her by passing on the news. *I have reason to believe that the man your papa wished you to marry is your cousin Theo.' Seeing the way Bethany looked she frowned at her curiously. *Would it be such a dreadful thing, child?' she insisted. 'Theo is handsome and charming, and many young women would envy you.'

  Bethany thought it quite possible, but there were other, even more discomfiting possibilities troubling her at the moment. 'What makes you say it's Theo that Papa had in mind, Aunt Alex?' she asked. 'Did—did someone tell you?'

  She knew instinctively that Theo with his taste for good living and innumerable girl-friends would die of boredom in Apolidus, and she did not yet stop to think that if she loved him enough she would willingly go wherever he was. Quite inexplicably, it was not Theo who had prior place in her thoughts at the moment, but Nikolas.

  Alexia looked unhappy, as if she would rather not have said any more on the subject. 'Something Nikolas said,' she admitted, and Bethany shook her head impatiently.

  'Nikolasl'

  Very clearly Alexia felt herself in a predicament, and if Nikolas had confided the news in confidence, Bethany could understand her feelings. Nikolas had announced that if it was at all possible, he would see that her stepfather's wishes were complied with, but somehow the prospect had seemed too far in the future to be taken seriously. Now it seemed it was all too close at hand, and she took a moment or two to absorb the fact.

  There were too many disturbing recollections running through her mind, ones she did not care to dwell on, but which thrust themselves to the forefront of her mind as she coped with the unexpected. Right from the beginning Nikolas had determinedly set about changing her into a different kind of woman, and she had simply resented it without really looking for a reason.

  It had never for a moment occurred to her conscious mind that he was making the changes for his own benefit, but every instinct rebelled against the idea of him doing it for his brother's, and the truth hurt like a blow; the more because it was unexpected.

  She recalled his generosity in buying her new clothes, and the uncharacteristically gentle way he had explained how he was trying to make a flesh and blood woman of her—a Meandis for preference. How he had snatched her away from Theo at Kamiros and threatened what he would do if she ever behaved towards his brother as she had with him. And all because he was preparing to hand her over, suitably subdued and obedient, to become Theo'« wife.

  She could recall too easily the warm comfort of his body and the hard, steady beat of his heart when he held her close after her fall, and the feel of being carried in his arms, and she suddenly felt almost physically sick. 'He's—^he's preparing me/ she whispered in

  lOO APOLLO'S DAUGHTER

  a huskily choked voice. 'He's making sure I—I don't disappoint his brother! He doesn't—he never has cared what or how I feel!'

  'Oh, Bethany!' Alexia looked shocked, and once more she glanced at the doorway uneasily. *You mustn't judge him so harshly, child.'

  'Oh, I can judge Nikolas perfectly!' Bethany assured her bitterly. 'He knows exactly what a Meandis bride should be like, and he means to make sure I come up to standard, however he achieves it!'

  'Bethany, no!'

  'Yes!' Bethany insisted, the hurt deep inside her driving her on. 'Yes, yes, yes! He isn't doing it for my sake, all this—this training, or for some mysterious bridegroom that Papa chose for me, not even for himself!' That, she found, hurt most of all, and she laughed without humour, a wild, half-hysterical sound as she shook her head. 'Never mind how promiscuous the bridegroom might be, he's a Meandis so he has to have a suitable bride! No artist's brat for a Meandis, but someone personally trained and approved by the head man himself!'

  Alexia looked blankly shocked, but for the moment Bethany was beyond coring who she hurt or distressed. She clenched her hands tightly, and tears trembled in her eves, because all she could think of was that Nikolas did not see her as a woman in her own right, but merely as a suitable bride for his brother—once he had knocked all the rough edges off her, of course.

  A sound of movement in the living-room made her turn sharply. The situation was unbearable enough without being faced with Nikolas's sudden appearance. Now that she had her bitterness off her chest, it began to dawn on her just how virulent she had been, and it was as much because she realised at last how much she had disturbed Alexia that she acted as she did.

  'If you don't mind. Aunt Alex, I'd like to go away and think about this—I—I need to think.'

  Alexia was appealing to her, alarmed at the fever of emotion she had aroused. 'I shouldn't have told you,'

  APOLLO S DAUGHTER lOl

  she said, her soft voice dull with regret. Tlease don't blame Niko too much, Bethany, he's doing what he thinks is right/

  Bethany twisted her mouth into a parody of a smile. *Oh, I don't really blame him, 1 suppose,' she said. 'Nikolas is just running true to form; I'm just not—I've just never met anyone like him before, and I '

  She shook her head, darting a swift glance over her shoulder when Nikolas's firm and unmistakable tread came nearer the kitchen door. She turned and half ran across the kitchen, brushing past Nikolas in the doorway, but ignoring his call as she went through the living-room and made for the door.

  Without pausing for breath, she hurried through the garden, ducking under the overgrown shrubs and through the gate to the path that led to the harbour. Not even the new shoes that pinched her feet as she crossed the cobbled quay slowed her down, though they made her wince with pain. Already she regretted saying most of the things she had said to Alexia, but being sorry didn't make her any less resentful of his deviousness, and in her present state of confusion anything was better than facing Nikolas.

  Heedless of the direction she was taking, she climbed the hill above the harbour purely by instinct, and made, not for the art colony, but for a deep, secret hollow on the west side of the hill where she had been often with Takis. It was where they had their very minor dig that Nikolas insisted was illegal, and she could be sure of being alone there, with time and opportunity to think.

  Evening was drawing in, but the sun was still hot enough to have made her feel overheated and sticky, and she sank thankfully on to the cool ground on the lip of the hollow. She tried hard to think clearly and constructively, but always she came back to the fact that Nikolas was taking advantage of his situation as her guardian to treat her shamefully, and she would find it hard to forgive him.

  S^ie did not for a moment doubt that Alexia had her facts right, and that Nikolas had given her a clue about Papa's choice of a husband for her. To give Theo his due, he would probably be much less concerned by her behaviour, but Nikolas was guardian of the family name and honour, and in a position to train her to the standards he considered were required in a Meandis wife.

  'Like a performing horse, or a puppet on a string!'

  She thumped the ground either side of her in fury and frustration, and railed inwardly against her own foolishness for wanting to weep when she remembered those gentler moments that Nikolas was capable of. In his way he was as charming and seductive as Theo was, perhaps more so, and he was certainly much more dangerous.

  The new shoes were still making her feet hurt so she pulled them off, holding them in her hands for a moment while she recalled who their donor was. Then she flung them fro
m her in a sudden spasm of rage and despair, watching them tumble down into the hollow, where they lay smart and incongruous on the churned red soil where she and Takis had been digging.

  'That's a very expensive gesture!' She turned swiftly and just managed to conceal the disappointment she felt that it wasn't Nikolas who stood just behind her with his face in the shadows and his back to the lowering sun. 'Shall I be intruding if I join you?* the man asked.

  He indicated a spot next to her and Bethany nodded automatically, a vague sense of anticipation making her eye him curiously as he sat down beside her. It was only when he turned his face into the sun and she could see his features more distinctly that she realised who he was, and her heart gave a sudden and unexpected lurch. For almost certainly the man who settled himself on the ground next to her was the same one she had noticed on two other occasions—at the harbour in Rhodes and at Kamiros..

  APOLLO'S DAUGHTER lOg

  He was tall, and lean to the point of gauntness, and his hands when he clasped them around his knees were long ^nd bony. But it was his face that was so strikingly familiar, and she looked at him covertly for as long as she dared without making it obvious. He definitely was one of the artists from the commune on the hill, for unmistakably the faint colour on one leg of his light slacks was a partially washed-out paint stain.

  He was handsome, almost incredibly so for a man of his years, for he must have been nearing fifty, and in profile his features were classical in their clear-cut perfection, just as her own were. He turned his head and smiled at her, as if he was, after all, aware of her interest, and she noticed that his brow was high and smooth and his nose straight and perfectly proportioned. The mouth was full and definitely sensual, but again classically perfect, and slightly thinning hair swept back in two wings of light brown from a centre parting. Bethany could not imagine where she had seen him before, and yet the haunting familiarity still persisted.