Apollo's Daughter

by Rebecca Stratton

  'You little fool!' He hissed the words between tight lips, and they breathed hotly on her mouth. Tou disobedient, stubborn little fool!'

  Bethany drew a breath to say something, she was never sure what, but before she could utter a word he smothered her mouth with his and all the suppressed fury in his voice was given rein in the violence of his kiss. She tried to move, making a small unintelligible sound of protest, but it never quite formed, and she succumbed breathlessly to a kind of excitement she had never known existed, while Nikolas bore down on her more fiercely, almost as if he sought to force her into the hard stony ground.

  'Niko!'

  Her response was an almost unrecognisable whisper when he freed her mouth, and her lips brushed the hot smooth skin of his jaw while he buried his face in the curve of her shoulder. It seemed that her body no longer belonged to her, and she had never felt so wildly exultant as she did at that moment. Her head turned back and forth while his mouth moved slowly over her neck and throat, hot and bruisingly hard, upwards to her mouth once more. But when she twisted under him, freeing her arms and putting them around his

  neck, it was as if the movement brought him to realisation.

  'Niko?'

  She looked into his face, seeing the passion that burned in his dark eyes and the sensual thrust of his mouth as he gazed down at her. But while she watched through drooping lashes, his expression began to show a subtle change, and he was looking at her as if she was a stranger suddenly, a small frown suggesting that he found something unexpected in h^r response.

  Then he let her go, slowly and With apparent reluctance, his hands sliding from around her in a curiously caressing movement. *Are you hurt?'

  The question had a strangely flat sound after the elation of the past few minutes, and Bethany recalled hazily that he had asked much the same question the last time he kissed her. She shook her head without speaking, and after a second or two he got to his feet, leaving her there on the stony ground, watching him cautiously and trying to bring herself back to earth.

  He brushed the red dust from his clothes with sharp, hard gestures and he didn't look at her, then, as if he suddenly realised, he reached for her hands and raised her to her feet, retaining his hold on her for a moment but still not looking directly at her. 'Are you quite sure you're unhurt?'

  *Yes, yes I'm quite sure, Niko.' Her voice sounded strangely husky still and she brushed down her dress with hands that she just had to keep busy because they were shaking so much. Then she laughed lightly in a not very successful attempt at levity that was meant to bring the situation strictly into perspective. 'Lucky you came after me!'

  Tm glad you find it amusing!' He was no longer avoiding her eyes as he had in the first few seconds after they got to their feet, and she saw that the heat of anger now burned where passion had been before. 'You deliberately disobeyed me!' he said harshly. 'It was because I'm beginning to know your penchant for stubbornness and your dislike of not getting your own way that I followed you! If I hadn't you would prob-

  ably be lying there under that last earth-fall, and I'm in no mind to give you as a human sacrifice to your precious god, whatever you believe!'

  'Nikolas, I only '

  'Don't make excuses!' Nikolas ordered sharply. 'You can't deny that you completely ignored my warning about possible danger simply because you had to have your own way. Holy Mother, do you imagine I say these things merely for the pleasure of hearing my own voice, child?'

  'Child?' Again she picked on the word that of all the things he ever called her pricked her the most, and she turned on him swiftly, her eyes bright with defiance. Her courage inspired by the memory of the same mouth that now looked so tightly angry. 'You didn't treat me much like a child a few minutes ago,' she charged huskily. 'And considering the lengths I've known you to go to preserve my reputation, you were taking quite a chance! Or was that all part of my training?'

  She was speaking rashly and unfairly, she realised it the moment she saw his expression, but at the moment his strict ruling regarding his brother's behaviour towards her did not make much sense. She had never seen him look so furiously angry and she took an instinctive step backwards away from him, her eyes wide and suddenly wary.

  If you '

  His mouth twisted into the harsh mockery of a smile, and he thrust both hands into the pockets of his slacks. 'Obviously you realise what you deserve,' he said. 'God knows why I'm so lenient with you, but this is the very last time, my girl, you'd better remember that! From now on you do exactly as you're told, do you understand?' Bethany was too choked to say anything, but she looked up at him with mingled anger and frustration showing in her eyes, and gave a barely perceptible nod. 'Good!' Nikolas said shortly. 'If I catch you here again I shall make you sorry you were ever born, believe me!'

  'Nikolas!' She made the protest when he encircled

  her wrist with his long fingers and took her with him across the dusty hollow. 'The Apollo, I '

  'The Apollo will stay where it is until someone with more skill and authority comes to recover it,' Nikolas told her adamantly.

  Again Bethany tried to appeal to him, but he had a firm, hard look about him that told her she would be wasting her time, so she cast a last glance in the direction of the even bigger pile of rubble covering the Apollo, and shrugged. She allowed herself to be helped out on to the hillside again, and followed with apn parent meekness when he led the way back to the house.

  Let him think he had things his own way; there would be other times, other opportunities. She just wished it was easier to forget the crushing weight of his body and the burning excitement of his mouth; and it made her distinctly uneasy to realise that she enjoyed provoking Nikolas in a way she would never have dreamed of doing with any other man.

  More restless than ever and uneasily defensive in Niko-las's company, Bethany was distracted only a couple of days later by the arrival of two men who came via the island ferry. In shorts and denim shirts they arrived carrying an assortment of paraphernalia in rucksacks and were met on the quay by Nikolas. The information was conveyed to her by Takis who had apparently seen them come, and the moment she heard about them Bethany was avid for more information; new arrivals were rare in Apolidus and of interest to everyone on the island.

  'Who were they, Takis, do you have any ideas?' she asked.

  It was Takis's way these days to assume an air of nonchalance, as if island affairs no longer interested him and he waited only for the day when he could leave Apolidus and take up his new and more exciting life. He was getting ready to go and join some of the village boys in a game of football when he told Beth-

  any about the new arrivals, and he was not very interested, so he merely shrugged.

  'Business perhaps?' he suggested, but Bethany shook her head.

  'Not if they were dressed in shorts and carrying rucksacks,' she decided with certainty. 'They sound more

  like ' An idea struck her suddenly and she frowned

  at Takis curiously./They sound more like archaeologists, don't they?'

  'They could be,' Takis agreed obligingly.

  Bethany was juggling with the idea of risking Niko-las's wrath and leaving her kitchen chores to go and see for herself. 'Did you notice where they went?' she asked Takis, and he shrugged, obviously neither knowing nor caring, so that she felt a twitch of impatience.

  'I don't know—into the taverna maybe?'

  'Not with Nikolas!' She knew she was safe to assume that Nikolas would never have taken businessmen to the taverna, any more than businessmen were likely to be wearing shorts and carrying packs. 'Takis, are you sure they didn't go up the hill, towards the dig?'

  Just for a moment it seemed she had his interest, and he eyed her curiously. 'The dig?' He pursed his lower lip in imitation of Nikolas, then pulled a face. 'Maybe,' he agreed. 'I suppose they could have, I didn't really notice.' He eyed her steadily for a moment and it occurred to her in that moment that Takis was rapidly changing from the little brother she had
always known into a youth approaching thirteen. It seemed for a moment almost as if he was rapidly catching up with her and closing that five-and-a-half-year gap between them. 'Why?' he demanded, again in imitation of Nikolas. 'What makes you think they've gone to the dig, Beth?'

  In as few words as possible, she told him of Niko-las's promise to have their discovery unearthed by someone more qualified, and she realised as she told him, just how detached from one another their lives had become lately. At one time she would not have needed to tell him anything about their dig, he would

  have been as well informed as she was herself, and as interested. Could he, she wondered, recall the man on the quay?

  'Oh well ' He shrugged, making it obvious that

  his interest had been only passing. 'Maybe Nikolas has taken them to the site and they'll get the Apollo for you.'

  'And for you' said Bethany, unable to resist the reminder that he had been one of the original finders. 'Takis, do you remember if the man you spoke to on the quay that evening looked anything like the Apollo?'

  He wrinkled his brow for a moment, but it was clear that he had little or no recollection of the man. 'I can't honestly say I remember what he looked like,' he confessed after a second or two, 'but it was almost dark, Beth, and I didn't really take a lot of notice of him.'

  It had been a jx)ssibility all along, Bethany recognised, but she doubted very much if Nikolas was going to give much credence to her story without Takis's support, and she sighed deeply as she turned back in to the kitchen. 'Then there's only my word for it, and Nikolas isn't going to believe that. Not that it really matters whether he does or not,' she added after consideration. 'It doesn't make any difference if I know I'm right.'

  In fact Nikolas was unexpectedly forthcoming when he returned to the house, and when she brought him his coffee outside on the terrace, he asked her to sit down, he had something to tell her. The two men, he explained, had insisted on lunching at the taverna and had returned on the afternoon ferry to Siros. Time was short and the Apollo had been easier to recover than Nikolas had anticipated.

  'Then it is Apollo?' said Bethany, her eyes gleaming with anticipation, and Nikolas hesitated before he answered.

  'It seems likely that it's some kind of Apollo,' he allowed, and she fidgeted with impatience because he was being so cautious.

  In the shade of the plane tree that overhung the table his face had that hint of the Orient about it, as the shifting dark shadows emphasised the contours of cheekbones and eyes. She had not realised before how much more often she watched his face lately; fascinated by the austere strength of the features and the mouth that looked so stern but could soften almost uncannily when he smiled, or kiss so fiercely that it took her breath away.

  'What exactly does that mean?' she asked curiously, 'Some kind of Apollo?'

  'It means,' Nikolas told her with pedantic precision, 'that there's a possibility the sculpture isn't very old after all.' He saw the way her face fell, and held up a cautionary hand. 'Don't be too discouraged yet,' he advised. 'The two men who came this morning are on the staff of someone I've known for some years now, and they're almost certain, but the Professor has the last word, of course.*

  Bethany sat at the table facing him and with her hands supporting her chin, her eyes fixed anxiously on his face. 'The Professor?'

  'His name is Professor Carl Bailey, and you can rely on his opinion, Bethany.'

  He sipped his coffee, then reached for a piece of the loukoumi he showed such an unexpected partiality for, and Bethany wished he was not so intent on taking his time, for he had something else in store for her yet, she felt sure. He licked the powdery white sugar with obvious pleasure before putting the rose-flavoured jelly into his mouth, and his eyes were hidden from her while he concentrated on what he was doing instead of looking across at her.

  'Nikolas?' she prompted him anxiously, and he licked his lips with the tip of his tongue in a curiously sensual gesture of pleasure.

  'I shall take you to Siros tomorrow,' he told her, making no pretence of consulting her wishes in the matter. 'Takis will be in school and Aunt Alexia has, I believe, some arrangement with one of the village women concerning a sick child, so we shall go alone/

  Her heart was thudding, but somehow she managed to control her voice. 'To Siros?' He nodded, taking another morsel of loukoumi iiom the dish. *To see your friend Professor Bailey?'

  'It was through him that I was able to arrange the excavation of your Apollo so quickly,' Nikolas explained, licking sugar from his fingers, and for the first time Bethany realised just how much effort he had taken to get the Apollo recovered for her. 'By tomorrow,' he went on, 'he'll have had time to decide

  whether or not you've made a real find, or ' He

  used his hands to express what he obviously believed to be the more likely, and Bethany tried quickly to bring her wandering thoughts to some kind of order.

  'You mean—it's gone? They've taken it away?'

  For a moment his brows gathered into the more familiar frown, and his tone hinted at impatience. 'You'll see it again tomorrow, child, don't make so much fuss!' Briefly she met his eyes and found them fixed on her unwaveringly so that she hastily averted her own gaze from him again. 'You weren't thinking of turning down the trip to Siros, were you, Bethany?'

  'No, of course not! It's just that I'm rather surprised

  at you taking me ' She bit back the words hastily,

  for the last thing she wanted to do was make him angry, just when things were going her way. 'I'm sure your^rofessor friend will confirm that the Apollo is ancient,' she told him. 'And I'm anxious to see it again to—to convince myself how much like it the other Apollo is.'

  'You know, of course, that Takis was unable to remember him well enough to confirm your rather extravagant claims for him?'

  Her colour rose, but Bethany held firmly on to her temper, for she couldn't afford to annoy him now. 'It isn't extravagant, Nikolas,' she insisted, 'but I don't expect you to take my word for it. I've already accepted that it's something I simply can't prove, but 1 know he's Apollo.'

  When she looked at him again it startled her to re-

  alise how much more gentle his mood was, and his stern mouth was smiling slightly. He reached across the table and stroked a long forefinger down her cheek and it was as much as she could do not to close her eyes in sheer ecstasy. Although realising just how much he could affect her brought on that now familiar and disturbing uneasiness she felt so often in his company lately.

  *You dream too much, little one,' he murmured softly, *and sometimes I fear for you when you have to leave this safe little paradise of yours and join the rest of us in the outside world. You have such—promise, but I shall have to guide you very slowly and carefully so as not to wake you too soon to what life is all about.'

  But even while her blood ran fast at the touch of his hand and the softness of his voice, she felt a moment of panic at the idea of being hauled forcibly from her beloved island, and she leaned back from the caressing hand and shook her head. There was reproach and wariness in her eyes and a soft vulnerability about her mouth as she looked across at him, because she couldn't forget the plans he had for her and Theo.

  *Is taking me to Siros with you just part of preparing me for being dragged into your more practical world, Nikolas?' she asked huskily, and his eyes narrowed just a fraction, she noticed.

  'It's the only way you're going to see your Apollo again,' he told her. 'Whether or not you come with me is entirely up to you, Bethany 1'

  Of course Bethany went. How could she do anything other than go? The trip was nothing like as long as the journey to Rhodes had been, but they travelled by the same method, and it seemed like no time at all before Nikolas was nosing the motor cruiser into the harbour at Ermoupolis, once the biggest port in Greece. She had time to recognise the twin hills amid the modem waterfront, each one topped by a huge cathedral and dominating the ancient city once dedicated to the god Hermes.

  F
rom the harbour they took a taxi to the outskirts of the city where Nikolas's professor friend had his home, and she had a little time to admire the handsome public buildings that surrounded a central square, raised like a dais and supporting a bandstand. Seeing her interest Nikolas smiled, and looked at her in such a way that she suddenly flushed warmly and quickly looked out of the taxi window again.

  The house they sought was Greek in design, but furnished with such Englishness that Bethany realised she was getting her first glimpse of what an English home looked like, and she found it strangely foreign. It was comfortable but somewhat shabby, and the furniture suggested that it might have come out with the Professor when he first came to Greece nearly forty years before.

  *Miss Meandis, welcome.' He greeted her in the Greek fashion but in English, and Bethany was surprised to hear Nikolas speaking English with a pronounced and very attractive accent. It was the first time she had any inkling that he even spoke it at all. Tlease forgive me,' the Professor went on as he saw them seated and off^ered the traditional hospitality. 'Although I have lived in your lovely country for so many years, I've never acquired the ability to converse easily in your language.' He gave Nikolas a grateful nod and smiled. *My Greek friends are kind enough to indulge me, and put me to shame by speaking excellent English.'

  It was on the tip of Bethany's tongue to tell him that she wasn't in fact Greek, but a fellow countrywoman of his, but that would have delayed the matter they had come to discuss. Professor Bailey was one of the foremost authorities on Greek antiquities, so Nikolas had told her, and he was very obviously deeply involved with his subject.

  Also the bust of Apollo stood on a small table between them and from the moment she came into the room she had been unable to take her eyes from it. The features were, she was more convinced that ever, ex-

  actly like those of the man who had called himself Apollo, and to her it was nothing short of a miracle. She longed to tell the Professor about it, but first he must give them his opinion on its authenticity.