Lark in an Alien Sky

by Rebecca Stratton

  `Kiria Kolianos.' She corrected him automatically, then shook her head. 'But of course you don't stand on ceremony, Robert. I'm still Corinne to you, surely, I haven't changed that much in three days.'

  Standing with his hands thrust into the pockets of his jacket, he said nothing for a moment, then shrugged uneasily. 'The last time we saw each other I tried to—make things difficult for you. I'm sorry, Corinne. I was jealous, I'm still jealous, but I hope I'm a little more sane than I was then. I came to say—I came to wish you every happiness. I hope you'll be very happy, even though I still think you've done a foolhardy thing, marrying that man.'

  `We'll see,' she said softly. 'But thank you for your good wishes, Robert; I know they're sincere.' She felt discomfitingly close to tears suddenly and she must not cry or it would give him quite the wrong impression. `Won't you come and join the ' Her voice trailed off when she realised what she was suggesting. 'No. No, of course not— I'm sorry, I didn't think.'

  `It wouldn't be a very good idea,' he said.

  `You're going home?'

  He hesitated a moment, then shook his head. 'Not yet,' he said. 'I've got plenty of leave, so I might as well make the most of it. I doubt if I shall ever have another opportunity to spend so long in the Greek islands.' He fixed his eyes on her face for a moment and she noticed how darkly grey they looked. 'You'll be going away yourself?'

  he guessed, and there was a tight, clipped sound to his voice.

  `Only for four days; Gregori has to attend a business conference, so we have to come back.'

  Robert drew breath to say something else, but like Corinne he had caught the sound of someone coming through the hall, and the firm tread of a man in a hurry was enough to tell them both who to expect. Robert gave her a swift look that apologised for once again making things difficult for her, and Corinne shrugged. Maybe it was coincidence, or perhaps Iole was less afraid for her own secrets than Corinne thought.

  When the door opened and Gregori stood framed in the opening for a second or two, it was clear that the sight of her visitor took him by surprise. His black brows drew swiftly into an instinctive frown above that glitteringly fierce look that Corinne was by now so familiar with. But as always he showed remarkable self-control.

  `I was unaware that my wife was entertaining a visitor,' he said with deceptive quietness, 'I came merely to see why it was she had not yet returned to me. Good morning, Mr Morgan; will you not join the rest of our guests in the garden?'

  Robert( mouth tightened ominously, and Corinne prayed that he was not going to say something that they would both regret. 'No, thanks,' he said shortly. 'I just came to see Corinne.'

  `Ah!' The gleam in Gregori's eyes was unmistakably satisfaction. 'You are leaving Greece?'

  `No, I'm not,' Robert declared firmly. 'I'll be around for quite a while yet. I just wanted to have a word with Corinne, that's all.'

  `But not, I imagine, with the idea of congratulating her

  on her marriage,' Gregori guessed, soft-voiced, and Robert's mouth hardened into a straight, tight line.

  `You're damned right!' he confirmed harshly. 'The last time I saw her you were dragging her away like a stray dog, and I don't trust you any further than I can throw you, Kolianos! I wished her happiness, but I haven't much hopes that she will be, with you!'

  'Oh, Robert, no, please don't—not today of all days!'

  Corinne made her plea in a small and not very hopeful voice, for she had never known Robert be so quick to anger, or so determinedly quarrelsome as when he and Gregori came into contact. And when she saw the dark fury in her husband's eyes she wished fervently that she had been sensible enough not to see Robert alone.

  `I'm sorry, Corinne.' Robert's jaw looked square and stubborn and she had little hope that he was going to change his opinion to please her. 'You know my opinion of this—this marriage, and I still think you've been coerced in some way.'

  'No, I haven't!

  `I assume you have said your goodbyes,' Gregori's voice cut across her anxious protest. 'You will now leave, Mr Morgan.' His eyes glittered blackly, and he raised his voice just slightly to forestall the objection that Robert was about to make. 'And in future you will have the goodness to stay away from my wife; do I make myself clear?'

  `Like hell!' Robert breathed angrily. 'Your wife, as you call her, is an Englishwoman and you can't keep her under lock and key ! You can't lay down the law about who she sees and doesn't see!'

  `On the contrary,' Gregori told him in a voice like chilled steel, 'my wife is now Greek, and Greek women obey their husbands! I repeat, Mr Morgan, you will not

  see my wife again, nor will you attempt to communicate with her until I say so. You will leave my house and I shall give strict orders that you are not to be permitted to enter it again!'

  `Gregori!'

  Corinne's own small protest went unheeded, but Robert was standing his ground. Perhaps he regretted the fact that matters had got so out of hand, but he was not yet prepared to yield; Gregori, she knew, would never yield on the point that he was within his rights to bar whom he liked from his home. 'So that's it?' snapped Robert. 'Well, trying to isolate Corinne from her friends won't work, Kolianos! Not with me, it won't!'

  It could go on indefinitely, Corinne thought, desperate to bring it to an end, and she spoke up once more, determinedly. 'Please stop it!' she begged. 'This isn't doing any good—it's pointless!'

  Robert stared at her as if he saw a different side to the situation suddenly, and he was shaking his head as he thrust both hands into his pockets. He would find it hard to understand her apparent lack of appreciation for his concern. 'I'm sorry,' he said after a moment or two. 'I suppose I'd better go before I make things any worse for you, Corinne.' His eyes switched again briefly to Gregori, his meaning unmistakable. But I'll be around for a few weeks yet, and if you need me '

  Corinne shook her head, not trusting herself to speak, while Gregori watched with his mouth set firmly and his lean body as taut as a bow-string. 'You will not be troubled, Mr Morgan,' he said. 'I am well able to take good care of my wife.'

  Obviously Robert was of a mind to argue the point, and probably would have done if he had not caught Corinne's pleading look. Instead he shrugged and turned

  abruptly to go, sending a parting shot over his shoulder as he made his way across the room without even saying goodbye to her. 'You'd better!' he said.

  The salon seemed incredibly quiet after he had closed the door behind him, and almost immediately Gregori reached for a cigarette; a means of relieving the tension of the last few minutes. Corinne watched, fascinated, while a steady hand applied the flame to its tip and the strong passionate face was briefly illuminated.

  Its hard primitive lines, a deep cleft in the chin and a strong brow and jaw, were softened by shadowy black lashes, and it never failed to amaze her just how many different emotions this man could arouse in her. Anger and excitement were too often akin to make it easy for her to put her feelings for him into any kind of a niche, but he could be comfortingly reassuring too, and certainly there was little chance of their relationship ever becoming dull or stale.

  `If you are ready to leave,' said Gregori his quiet voice breaking into her résumé, 'our friends are waiting to wish us luck and to see us on our way.'

  His friends, Corinne mused a little ruefully, for he had just remorselessly sent packing the one face familiar to her. 'Yes, of course,' she said, snatching her thoughts swiftly back from self-pity. In the circumstances, and taking Robert's determinedly aggressive bad manners into account, she could not blame him for reacting as he had, although her own understanding surprised her for a moment. 'I brought my handbag downstairs with me,' she told him. 'It's in the hall with my luggage, if Vassos has fetched it yet.'

  His smile had a hint of irony that was vaguely discomfiting. 'You do not realise how events have moved along while you were with ' He used one big hand

  to dismiss Robert's brief presence. 'Our baggage is already in the car. I a
m anxious to be away, Corinne, that is why I came to look for you.'

  And found her with Robert instead of in her room, Corinne thought ruefully. 'I had to see—I mean I couldn't not see Robert—' she began, and caught her breath in the second before he smothered her words with his mouth.

  With his big hands either side of her face he looked down at her. He was smiling, but there was a firmness about his mouth that told her he meant exactly what he said. 'I do not wish to hear that name ever again, Corinne, hmm?' He kissed her once more, tempting her with the promise of passion in his mouth, then he took her arm, smiling with the look of a man well satisfied. Now we will say goodbye to our friends and begin life together, eh, ligho ina mou?'

  It was a prospect that brought a thudding urgency to her pulse suddenly as he led her across the hall, for with a brief flutter of panic she realised for the first time that there was no going back now. She had made her choice and Gregori would see to it that she never left him again; he had made a vow to that effect and she knew him well enough to be certain it was no idle threat:

  The light was dazzling outside after the coolness of the salon, and the clamour of voices poured over them the moment they were seen crossing the hall. Faces flushed with good wine and smiling broadly, surrounded them as they left the house, and but for Gregori's arm Corinne might have shrunk back. Bright garrulous voices called out good wishes in a meaningless jumble of sound until he translated for her, whispering the traditional sentiments close to her ear.

  `They wish us long life and many sons,' he murmured,

  and when she glanced up his eyes were gleaming with an expression that brought colour to her cheeks and a breathtaking wildness to the beat of her heart. `We hope that they are right, eh, cigapitikos mou?'

  He pulled her round into his arms suddenly and in front of them all kissed her more tenderly than he ever had before, but for so long that when he eventually raised his head she clung to him breathlessly. With the approving cheers of the well-wishers ringing in her ears she was lifted off her feet suddenly and carried out to the car, Oregori's arms tightly possessive about her, his dark and smiling face benign with satisfaction.

  Placing her with loving care into the front seat of the car, he went striding round to take his place beside her. For a moment he gave his attention to starting the car and making sure it was running smoothly, then he turned and looked at her enquiringly. Corinne half-smiled, her gaze held boldly by those gleaming dark eyes, then he turned in his seat and pulled her to him once more, and this time his kiss was harder and more forceful, leaving her breathless. With a deep, soft laugh he let her go and turned to start the car, while Corinne coped with a moment of wild shattering excitement. As they drove along the curving, pine-shaded road she never gave another thought to Robert.

  Not until their flight was called had Corinne had the slightest idea what their destination was to be, and when Oregon took her arm and moved towards the departure gate when the Paris flight was called she had looked up at him in swift and unmistakable pleasure.

  His expression showed that he had hoped to please her with his surprise, and Corinne's reaction could have left him in no doubt that he had succeeded. Obeying an im-

  pulse, she had thrown her arms around his neck and kissed him, bringing a smile of understanding to the faces of a couple who almost collided with them when they stopped so suddenly.

  She recalled the incident now and smiled over it yet again. This brief honeymoon would perhaps give them the opportunity to get to know one another better. Paris had the same magic still, and she smiled to herself as she looked out of the hotel window at the lights and the shimmering dazzle of water in the distance. It gave her a warm, comforting glow to see it all again, and she wondered how she could ever have considered Gregori anything but the perfect lover, when he conjured up such delightful surprises for her.

  They had said little on the flight over; it was as if they were oddly shy of one another since they became man and wife, and yet there was a rapport that made their silence a comfortable one. It was only now, as she stood in the hotel window thinking about the most eventful day of her life, that she remembered Robert again and the implications he had made about the sort of husband Gregori would be. Not that she believed them, of course, but as she stood there looking out at the Paris night, she realised just how little she did know about the man she had married.

  She half-turned from the window and Gregori was coming out of the bathroom, his lean length wrapped in a towelling robe whose shortness left his long muscular brown legs bare. He had washed his hair while he showered and was towelling it dry as he walked into the bedroom, so that it was tousled and curly, making him appear oddly vulnerable for a moment.

  Catching her look he smiled, a slow and infinitely sensual smile that sent thrill excitement running

  through her. 'You look beautiful,' he said, and his voice was several tones lower than it normally was, and shiveringly seductive. 'But why do you look so solemn, my lark? What do you have running around in that busy head of yours, eh?'

  Finding her own responses too overwhelming for a moment, Corinne turned back to the window and pushed one of the curtains aside so that she could once more see the lights of Paris. Very careful to keep her voice steady, she ventured to tell him at least something of what had been on her mind:

  'I was just trying to decide how much truth there was in things I've heard,' she told him. 'Like—will I really be expected to obey you now that I'm married to you? Are Greek wives really obedient to their husbands?'

  Gregori was silent for a moment, but she could sense him watching her, as if he was trying to judge just how serious she was. 'Does the idea displease you very much?' he countered, and she took a moment to admit it.

  'It wouldn't work with me,' she told him frankly, 'nor with any modern-thinking woman, I imagine. But is that how Greek men still treat their wives? Or were you and Robert just saying that?'

  'Robert?' She heard the change in his voice and her heart fluttered warningly. 'Have I not said that I do not wish to hear his name mentioned again, ever?'

  'That's exactly what I mean,' Corinne insisted, and turned round to face him again. 'Am I to have no say in what I do or who I speak to from now on? Do you intend to bully me until I'm too frightened to say or do anything without first asking my husband's permission?'

  Gregori got up from the end of the bed, where he had been sitting while he towelled his hair dry, and he came across to her, running his hands through thick curls that gave him a much more primitive look than usual. 'Are

  you frightened of me, Corinne?' he asked, and his voice had the caress of a velvet glove so that she half-closed her eyes in response to its seduction.

  'I will be if you go on laying down the law as you did today,' she told him, and noticed how small and whispery her own voice was.

  `I do not believe it!' He put his hands on her shoulders, his long fingers stroking her soft skin under the silk nightgown she was wearing. 'You will never be afraid of me, for you have spirit; and I have no wish to break your spirit.'

  She turned her head slowly from side to side as he caressed her, and put her hands to his chest, feeling the warmth of his flesh through the towelling robe, fresh-smelling and damp from the shower. He bent his head and found her mouth, forcing back her head as he kissed her and sliding his arms round to draw her close.

  His mouth still on hers, he reached down and lifted her into his arms and carried her across to the bed, then laid her down on it gently. She reached up and put her arms around his neck as he lay down beside her, looking up into his face for a moment, her eyes slumberous and heavy-lidded and her mouth seductively smiling.

  `But you will expect me to be obedient and cut myself off from my friends if you say so?'

  Her head was spinning with the wild uncontrollable beat of her heart, and she was not really interested in anything but the lean muscular body that was pressed so close to her side. Her voice was a husky whisper that trembled each ti
me he kissed her cheeks or her half-closed eyes with their long thick lashes. Then he sought her mouth again, and the soft spot beside her left ear, his face buried in the richness of auburn hair that muffled his words.

  `Can you think of another man at a moment like this?'

  he demanded, and she laughed breathlessly as she pressed her lips to the strong brown column of neck, pushing back the loosened robe he still wore from the bronzed nakedness of his body.

  Only an irresistible desire to hasten the inevitable made her answer as she did, for she knew how he would react. 'I didn't say Robert particularly,' she said.

  Gregori raised his head and his dark eyes had a depth-less glowing blackness that filled her with wild longings she did not even try to control. 'That man!' he muttered in a deep rough voice, and shifted his weight. 'You will forget him, cigapimenos—I will make sure of it!'

  `Gregori—'

  She was half laughing and half fearful when he took possession of her mouth and her body with the fierce exultant strength of a conqueror, and suddenly everything and everyone was forgotten in the passionate, intoxicating joy of becoming his wife.

  The four days in Paris had recaptured everything of their first rapturous weeks together and added something much more exciting, and when they took off on the flight home to Greece Corinne gazed down at the hazy shimmering city below them with an irrepressible sense of regret. Nothing would ever be quite so wonderful again, and she wanted to prolong it as long as possible.

  Gregori had spoken to her twice and had to repeat himself, and he squeezed her hand with his strong fingers, frowning at her curiously when she gave him her attention. 'You are sad, my lark?' he asked softly, and she admitted her mood with a rueful smile.

  `I hate leaving Paris,' she told him. 'All the most wonderful things that have ever happened to me have happened there.'

  He kissed her finger-tips and smiled, his dark eyes sharing her memories. 'We will come back one day, my love,' he promised. 'It will still be here!'