Lark in an Alien Sky

by Rebecca Stratton

  `Oh, I shan't be lady of the manor,' she denied. `Madame Kolianos is firmly established in that role.'

  Catching a tone in her voice, Robert raised an enquiring brow. 'A dragon?' he suggested, but Corinne hesitated before confirming it.

  `She's a very strong and a very brave woman,' she said after a moment or two. 'She received some kind of an honour from the Greek government for her wartime work. But I have the feeling somehow that despite that stern exterior I'd be very happy to have Madame K. behind me in a crisis.'

  Robert squeezed her hand and brought her back to matters more important to him. 'Will you come and see my island hideaway, Corinne? Just for a couple of hours; I'll get you back in time for dinner.'

  It was a temptation to go somewhere other than the shops in Athens with Irine and Iole, and it could not possibly do any harm. She chose to ignore the fact that Gregori would certainly oppose the trip if he knew of it, and told herself that she was still mistress of her own life for a few more days yet.

  `I don't see why not,' she said. 'I'll have to pop back to the house for a handbag and to let them know I'll be out for the rest of the day; after that I'm free.' She could see the question in Robert's eyes and answered it quickly and with a touch of defiance that he noted with a brief smile. `Gregori's at the office in Piraeus, and he won't be home until this evening.'

  Robert kissed the tips of her fingers before he let go of them. 'Good,' he said. 'Then I'll wait here for you, there'll be a bus along very soon.'

  The island was smaller than Corinne expected, but en—

  chantingly picturesque, and she thought it delightful the

  way the one and only village straggled upwards from a tiny quay. Fishermen's cottages clustered closest to the quay, and one or two farm cottages up on the higher ground where the land was more arable.

  `It's like a Lilliput island,' Corinne told Robert when he took her up to the highest point of the island to show her the view. 'And you're the only visitor.'

  He seemed well pleased with the situation. They had lunched on bread and cheese and a bottle of rough but palatable local wine, up on the hilltop, and now they made their way back down to his rented house. Small, with only three rooms, it was primitive but spotless, despite the lingering smell of fish.

  `Unless you decide to stay I'm the only outsider,' he told her as they entered the tiny cottage, and Corinne shook her head firmly. Sitting himself on the edge of the table he sighed resignedly. 'You really mean to go through with the marriage?'

  Corinne traced a line with her finger-tip along the edge of the table. 'All the arrangements have been made. The feast is being prepared and the priest primed in English as well as Greek so that I know exactly what's going on; there's no going back now, Robert. In three days' time I shall become Kiria Kolianos.' She laughed a little wildly when she thought of being Gregores wife, for it gave rise to a thrill of excitement as well as those never-ending doubts.

  Robert, still perched on the edge of the table, reached for her hand and held it tightly. 'And then I'll have lost you,' he said, and his voice was not quite steady.

  `We'll still be—'

  `I'll have lost you! ' he insisted, and Corinne shifted her gaze uneasily.

  It dawned on her then how much she risked by being

  there with him at all, and the afternoon had sped by so quickly. Picking up her handbag, she eased her other hand free and glanced at the watch on her wrist. 'I really think it's time we thought about getting me back to the mainland, Robert,' she told him. 'I've enjoyed seeing your island and it was lovely to sit on the hilltop and have lunch, but it's getting rather late, and '

  `Yes, I suppose it is.' It was quite clear how much he disliked the idea of taking her back to Gregori, but he shrugged and eased himself from the edge of the table. 'O.K.,' he said. 'You're the boss! It wouldn't do for your Greek to come home from his honest toil and find you missing—especially in the circumstances!'

  His bitterness made her anxious, but she did not see what she could do about it at the moment. 'I would rather be there before Gregori gets home,' she said quietly. 'then I can tell him myself.'

  Robert's eyes were evasive as he took her hand while they walked down to the quay. But having helped her aboard the borrowed boat, he set about fiddling with switches and buttons, taking so long about it that Corinne frowned at him curiously, and eventually got up to go and see what he was doing.

  `Is something wrong?' she asked, and her heart was beating with sudden urgency.

  Wiping his hands on a rag, Robert shrugged. 'I'm afraid we're out of fuel, love. I'm sorry.'

  Corinne stared at him for a moment, unwilling to believe it, but he was already out of the boat and reaching down a hand to help her on to the quay beside him. `Robert, it can't be as final as that,' she protested. 'Surely someone can let you have some fuel, can't they? There must be a—a depot or something.'

  `There's no depot,' Robert assured her, 'and these

  people use their boats to make their livelihood, Corinne. Every drop of fuel is brought in from Piraeus and there's a delivery due tomorrow. I can't ask one of them to give up his precious fuel supply so that I can take my girlfriend home. I'm sorry, love, but you're stuck until morning, there's just nothing I can do about it.'

  `But there must be something!'

  She was filled with an unreasoning panic suddenly as she looked around at the other small boats in the harbour. Already most of them were preparing to set out for the night's fishing and she had to concede that Robert had his priorities right. But she was too stunned by the unexpectedness of it at the moment to think of an alternative; all she could think of was Gregori's reaction when he found her still missing when he arrived home. It was almost as if Robert might have planned it to happen that way.

  She gave him a swift sideways glance suddenly as he guided her across the quay and back towards his cottage, speaking impulsively. 'Robert, you didn't do this on purpose, did you?'

  `Don't you trust me?' There was an edge of bitterness on his voice and his smile lacked warmth, so that she feared she had hurt him with her suspicion. 'Oh, I admit I might have done it if I'd thought of it,' he confessed with a short laugh. 'All's fair in love and war, you know, my sweet, and it's really not much different from the classic situation of the car running out of petrol and the girl having to walk home to save her honour, is it?'

  Corinne was looking across at the mainland, growing less clear in the already fading daylight, and she frowned anxiously. 'Except that I can't walk home,' she said.

  It was almost dark and the sunset had left splashes of

  red and purple in its wake, staining the rocky headland of the island that Corinne could see from the tiny kitchen window. They had to eat, as Robert pointed out, and preparing a meal at least gave her something to do and stopped her dwelling on what was happening in the Kolianos home right now.

  Gregori would be home by now and she shivered involuntarily when she visualised his reaction. He would have been told where she had gone and who she had gone with, and she knew in her heart that he would be hurt as well as angry, although she would not have admitted it was that that she regretted most.

  The sudden pounding that shook the planks of the cottage door startled her so much that she dropped the knife she was using and stared over her shoulder as Robert first frowned curiously, then got up to go and answer it. But he had scarcely time to open the door before Gregori came into the room, brushing past him as if he did not exist.

  He came straight through into the kitchen to where Corinne still stared in stunned amazement, with the kitchen knife on the floor at her feet and her hands clasped loosely in front of her. His face was dark with fury and his eyes glittered blackly like chips of jet when he looked at her.

  `Gregori—'

  Her explanation was cut short when he seized her wrist in a bruising grip that brought a cry of protest from her, and an angry flush flooded into Robert's face. Gregori turned and walked back towards the door, dragging
Corinne with him and pulling her round in front of him with a sharp tug, as he turned to glower at Robert.

  `Who the hell do you think you are to come barging

  in here?' Robert demanded. 'Dragging Corinne off as if she was—'

  `I came for the woman I am to make my wife in three days from now,' Gregori informed him harshly. 'I know that does not meet with your approval, Mr Morgan, but it is a fact and there is nothing you can do about it!'

  `Gregori, will you please listen to me!' Unexpectedly he turned and gave her his attention, and Corinne moistened her lips anxiously before she began. 'I came on a trip to the island with Robert—'

  `Even though you knew I would not wish you to?' he demanded, and brought a flush of resentment to her cheeks.

  She angled her chin defiantly, daring him to dictate her actions. 'I do still have a freedom of choice,' she reminded him, 'and Robert is an old friend. There was no harm in coming over to see his holiday cottage and having a picnic on the hilltop—I enjoyed it. I made no secret of where I was going or who I was going with, and when I told Zoe I'd be back before evening I meant to be! Only the boat Robert borrowed ran out of fuel and there was no more available; not until morning when the supply boat comes over.'

  `So you intended to stay here all night with him?'

  She avoided the glittering darkness of his eyes uneasily. 'I hadn't much option,' she said.

  Gregori said something in Greek, and looked at her with a searing look of scorn in his eyes. 'Are you too foolish to see that he had planned this deliberately?' he demanded. 'Or were you a willing partner in this—charade?'

  Corinne stared at him. It had occurred to her briefly in the beginning that Robert had contrived the situation to suit his own ends, but she still found it hard to believe

  that he would resort to such tactics, let alone have the nerve to carry them off. But Gregori was impatient, and he once more took her along with him to the doorway.

  `Now wait just a minute! Not so fast!'

  Gregori swung around to face him and Robert took a half-step back before the fury in his eyes. His face had such a savage fierceness that it would take a brave man to stand against him, and Robert's present stand arose more from stubborness than bravery.

  'Do you deny that you planned this—this venture with the intention of bringing disgrace to my fiancée?' Gregori demanded, and Robert retreated a step further.

  Nevertheless he found the nerve from somewhere and his grey eyes had a dark glittering look that was quite alien to the man that Corinne knew. For the first time in all the years of their friendship, she felt he was a stranger to her.

  `For your information,' he said, 'Corinne came with me quite willingly—and I mean quite willingly!'

  He pressed on relentlessly. Having offered her a way out, it seemed he meant her to take it, willing or not. In his way he was as single-minded as Gregori when he was bent on getting what he wanted, and she found the revelation too much to cope with at the moment.

  `It surely tells you something,' Robert insisted, driving home the point. 'Damn it, Kolianos, a man like you doesn't want to marry a woman who's made it as plain as she can that her interests lie elsewhere!'

  `Oh, Robert, no, please don't go on!'

  Her own faint protest apparently went unnoticed, but for a moment Corinne thought Gregori was going to hit him, she had never seen him so coldly furious, and the strong fingers that encircled her wrist tightened their grip briefly until they almost stopped her pulse. Then

  he glanced down at her and his hold eased a little, though he still retained his grip on her.

  `Since you appear to have such a clear insight into my character, Mr Morgan,' he said to Robert in a quiet voice that belied the stormy darkness of his eyes, 'you must surely understand that—a man like me?—must claim back his own or risk losing face. I cannot allow another man to kidnap my bride and get away with it, you must see that.'

  Robert's gaze shifted uneasily, although in the brief moment he glanced at her Corinne saw anger still lurking there. 'What are you going to do?' he asked, as if he expected some form-of retribution, and Gregori narrowed his eyes for a moment as he stood there in the doorway with Corinne held fast by one hand.

  'To Corinne?' he enquired softly. 'It is the custom for —a man like me to beat a runaway wife.' His eyes scorned the idea of any possible chance of it happening in this case, and Robert turned hastily away, his face brightly flushed. 'The same rule does not apply to fiancées, however, so you have no cause for concern, Mr Morgan! Another few days and the outcome might have been different!'

  As he finished speaking he turned on his heel and, taking Corinne with him, went out into the night; striding off down to the quay as if he was just as impatient to get away from the situation as Corinne herself was. The quay itself was almost deserted, but there were sounds of voices and laughter coming from the taverna on the waterfront, and, figures hurrying past them in the half-dark spoke a greeting that Gregori responded to automatically. It was such a normal, peaceful scene that Corinne found it hard to believe the violent eruption of temper back there had really happened.

  She knew that Gregori owned a motor launch that he kept in the harbour at Piraeus, but this was the first time she had seen it and she noticed how gleamingly white and sleek it appeared on the dark waters of the little harbour. It surprised her rather to discover a crewman at the wheel, but it was Gregori who helped her aboard. He gave the man an order, then bent to unloose the mooring rope, but paused suddenly and straightened up, so that the man at the wheel looked at him curiously.

  'Ena lepto! Gregori told him, and the man shrugged when he went striding off along the quay.

  Most of the boats that used the harbour were out, but the rather ancient motor launch that had been loaned to Robert was moored only a short distance from them, and Corinne's heart thudded in anxious dismay when she realised Gregori's intention. His air of purpose was unmistakable, and he jumped down into the boat without hesitation, then stood for a moment before the wheel, presumably taking stock of the strange craft.

  The crewman leaned against the wheel watching him, curious but unconcerned. But not so Corinne; she waited with bated breath for that traitorous engine to spring to life, and sure enough she started suddenly when it began to chug hoarsely in the evening still. It ran for no more than a second or two, but she listened to it with tears in her eyes because she realised that an old friend had deceived her all along, for his own ends.

  Having proved his point, Gregori came back, striding along the quay looking as lean and dangerous as a big cat. Bending to loose the mooring line he coiled it in one hand while he leapt aboard, then nodded curtly to the crewman. 'Az primer

  Corinne hastily brushed away her tears as the engine of their own launch hummed richly, sweeping them

  astern across the island harbour, then turning in a wide arc before picking up speed. Corinne, standing in the stern, watched the lights of the ta.verna wink across the darkness, a brisk wind snatching at her hair and blowing it forward about her face.

  She realised Gregori was close by when the smoke from his cigarette drifted across her face, and she stiffened herself for the onslaught she felt sure must come. He had not even stopped to put on different clothes, but still wore the business suit he went to the office in; merely dispensing with the formality of a tie as he normally did the moment he got home. Obviously he had stopped only to learn that she had gone to the island with Robert, and then come immediately to fetch her back.

  Even without physical contact she could feel how taut, and angry he was still, and her heart thudded hard. An emotion between fear and excitement overcame the sense of despair that Robert's deception had aroused in her. It would be almost a relief when the storm broke, and she waited with her hands clenched tightly on the rail.

  `I despise liars, and most of all I despise bad liars!' His voice took on a curiously unnatural flatness out there on the ocean, and she started nervously when he sent the end of his cigarette
spinning over the side into the water.

  Corinne did not look at him, instead she kept her eyes on the receding lights of Damos and the shimmering ruffles of white that followed in their wake. Nor did she answer him, not even to object, and after a moment or two he went on, almost as if he found a kind of relief in berating her.

  `Did it not occur to you how easily I could check that unlikely story simply by starting the engine?' he asked, but still she remained silent, driving him to further accusations. 'You intended to stay on that island with him!

  You intended to spend the night with that man!'

  `Robert! His name's Robert!' Desperation drove her to find her voice at last. 'I stayed only because I thought I had no choice. Robert told me we couldn't get off until morning and I believed him because he's a friend—an old friend.'

  She sounded so desperate because she had need to convince herself of it after the last few minutes. But Gregori was too burned up with his own anger to notice that her protest also had a note of anguish. 'Have you not heard of the telephone?' he demanded, and she stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then shook her head.

  'I didn't—is there a telephone on an island that size?'

  Gregori made a short impatient sound with his tongue. 'Do you also believe that we are still in the Middle Ages? Like that man who is your lover? Was it in the hope of making me so angry that I would free you from your promise that you did this, Corinne? Did you hope to shame me into giving you up?'

  'Oh no, there was nothing like that at all, I swear it!' Her voice quivered and tears stood in her eyes once more, because she was almost sure that Robert had meant to do just that, and she hated to have to admit it, even to herself. 'I trusted Robert! Can't you imagine how I feel? He promised to get me back by the time you came home and I had no reason to doubt him! When he said the fuel had run out and there was no more available, how could I argue with him? I didn't know he was lying to me!'