It was too late to show surprise now, so Corinne simply shook her head. I’m—I'm so sorry, my darling,' she said huskily. 'I know what a shock it must be for you.'
He said nothing for a moment or two, and Corinne sat with her heart thudding hard and her eyes looking anywhere but at him. It was only just dawning on her just how hurt and angry he was going to be because she had kept something as important as this from him, and she had never rued anything in her life as much as she did making that rash promise to his niece.
`When did you know?' His voice had a chill flatness that she hated and she shook her head quickly.
`Not very long, I..
But no one else knew!' The dark face was savage with emotion. 'Why did she not confide in those who love her? Why should she trust you with her secret? Not her mother, not me or her grandmother, but you! Why?'
He looked so tall and virile standing there at the end of the bed and she wanted so much to feel the strength of his arms around her, and the hard, relentless pressure of his kisses on her mouth, that she ached for him. She
had never loved him as much as she did now, when he stood looking at her so accusingly.
`I--I found out,' she whispered.
Gregori approached the bed and she instinctively lifted herself to a more upright position and tucked her feet up under her, gasping aloud when he suddenly clamped a hand about her wrist. Bringing his face down close to hers, his eyes gleamed darkly with anger, hurt, blame, who knew what passions burned behind their fierce blackness?
`How much more have you—found out—about this sordid business?' he demanded. 'Theos mou, you know so much and say nothing to me! What kind of a wife have I married?'
`Gregori, don't, please, you have no right
`I have every right to be angry when my wife keeps such important matters from me!' he declared firmly. `As Iole’s guardian as well as her uncle, I have the right to protect her from her own foolishness, but how can I when such matters are kept from me by my own wife?'
`It isn't foolishness to want to choose her own husband!' Corinne argued desperately. 'You should have let her marry Takis Lemou instead of making it necessary for them to meet in secret!'
He looked down at her flushed and defiant face as if he saw someone there he had never seen before, and his eyes narrowed like chips of jet between their thick lashes. `You are very well informed,' he said harshly, 'What else have you kept from me, Corinne, eh?'
Uneasily Corinne remembered her wedding day, when she had seen Takis Lemou coming from Iole's room, although she had not realised it at the time. But it could do no good to tell Gregori about that now and she pushed it firmly to the back of her mind.
`There's nothing else,' she denied huskily, but Gregori's expression showed how hard he found that to believe.
`You were her confidante, I suppose,' he went on in a flat bitter voice. 'Knowing that you sympathised with her, she made you her courier, did she, my scheming little wife?'
`No, never!' Corinne tugged at her wrist, looking up despairingly into that dark implacable face. 'Though I don't deny they had my sympathy!' She shook her head, her eyes bright and defensive, at once pleading and indignant. 'I would have told you, Gregori, but I'd made a promise I couldn't break. Anyway,' she added recklessly, 'I imagine you're the last person she'd want to know about it, when you've gone to so much trouble to marry her off to a man she doesn't want!'
She knew the jibe would strike home, but she regretted it almost before the words left her mouth, and for a breathless moment she thought he was going to hit her. One hand clenched and his dark eyes blazed with such fury that she instinctively shrank back. 'Thes mou!' Gregori whispered harshly. 'You really believe I would strike you! What a monster you and Iole must think me!'
He turned and went abruptly out of the room and Corinne sank back against the pillows, feeling weak with reaction after such an emotional upheaval. Then she turned and buried her face in them suddenly, and wept. Just when she had thought everything was going so well between them, she had raised a barrier of secrecy and broken his trust in her. It must seem to him that both she and Iole found it easier to confide in a near stranger than in him, who loved them both.
Never since their marriage had she been in any doubt that she loved him, but there were so many things about him that she had to learn that sometimes she despaired
of ever knowing him completely, much as she longed to. Maybe, she thought, as she hugged the pillow to her breast, she never would know him completely.
Since his abrupt departure the previous morning, Gregori's attitude had been subtly different. He was quieter and shorter in his speech, although not noticeably bad-tempered. He seemed more aloof than he had ever been, and to Corinne the difference was intolerable. She would have given anything to have things restored to the way they had been before he discovered Iole's secret, and on more than one occasion Corinne privately raged against his niece for extracting that promise from her.
Iole’s coming home tomorrow, isn't she?'
Corinne sat in front of the dressing-table mirror brushing her hair while Oregon shrugged into his jacket, and for a moment their eyes met via the mirror. 'She is,' he agreed quietly, and the abruptness of his tone annoyed her almost as much as it hurt. She had attempted to make her peace, and the least he could do was to meet her halfway.
One hand smoothing down her dress, she got up from the stool and walked over to him, then shook her head as she looked up into that dark, unresponsive face. 'What must I do?' she asked huskily. 'I'm truly sorry that I didn't tell you about Iole, but I promised her, and I couldn't break my promise.'
For a moment he regarded her steadily without saying anything, then he took a glance at himself in the mirror behind her and straightened his jacket. 'You once made me a promise that you would marry me,' he reminded her in a quiet, almost matter-of-fact voice, 'but you were quite prepared to break your promise until I made you change your mind.'
'That was different!' she insisted, not quite steadily,
then quite unconsciously lifted her chin a little, when rebellion stirred in her faintly. 'I suppose you've since regretted making me change my mind,' she suggested, and the dark eyes held hers steadily.
`Have you?' he countered softly, and she shook her head. 'Then why should you imagine me any more disillusioned with our marriage than you are, Corinne?'
'Maybe because you think I make a habit of deceiving you!' Her mouth trembled slightly, but when she looked up at him there was a hint of exasperation in her eyes as well as appeal. 'You're so—unbending,' she accused huskily. 'I admit I should perhaps have told you about Iole, or maybe hinted at it. But all I did was keep quiet about something I was sworn not to reveal and which you were bound to know about before very long, and you treat me as if I've committed a mortal sin! You do,' she insisted when something in his eyes made her pulse flutter so wildly that she put a hand to her throat in an oddly defensive gesture.
`So?' He moved a step nearer and the dark eyes looked down at her steadily, the gleam of passion in their depths arousing her own senses to respond as they always did. He placed his hands in the small of her back and pressed her close to him, then brushed his mouth across hers, lightly and temptingly, until she reached up her arms to him. 'Sometimes I think you have bewitched me,' he whispered against her lips. 'You make me angry, then you beguile me with your eyes. Oh, Théos, but I love you!'
His mouth was hard and fierce and the hungry urgency of his kisses left her breathless and yielding, unaware of anything but the fact that she loved him more than she had ever dreamed was possible. When he raised his head at last, she smiled at the deep dark glow in his eyes with
a sense of triumphant happiness.
`I wish poor Iole could be half as happy as I am at this moment,' she whispered, and the arms that held her so tightly eased her away from him slightly while he looked down into her face. 'I believe she really loves that young man of hers, my darling, and I think she should be allowed to marry him, e
specially now.'
`Oh, you do?' Nothing in his eyes gave her reason to hope he was going to take a more lenient view of Iole's case, no matter how passionately he had healed the breach between the two of them. `Do you know Takis Lemou?'
Corinne chose not to remember the few seconds when she had been face to face with that furtive young man on the landing, and shook her head. 'You know I don't,' she said.
`Exactly!' He dropped a light kiss on her brow, then eased her away from him for a second while he straightened his tie, a quite unconscious gesture that she watched with a vague feeling of irritation. 'But you think that in view of the fact that he has given her a child, she should be allowed to marry him?'
`Oh, darling, yes, if she loves him!'
She felt strangely bereft without his arms around her, and she put her hands on her own arms for a moment to simulate his warmth, while she tried to see his point of view. Gregori watched her for a second or two and heaven knew what was going on behind those deep unfathomable eyes, then he bent his head and kissed her mouth with a lingering slowness.
`You are too blinded by romantic happy endings, .my love,' he told her. 'They do not always happen. Any man may father a child, but he will not always make a good husband. Takis Lemou would not!'
`Obviously Iole believes he would,' Corinne told him, and he put a finger over her lips as he turned to go.
`Then it is as well that my opinion counts for more,' he said.
He left her to make her way down to breakfast with the others, at the long table in the garden. The morning air always smelled so wonderful with the clean freshness of pine mingling with the rest of the delicious scents that the perfumed garden provided, but she always missed Gregori at breakfast-time.
He was usually gone before the rest of them had finished their meals and Corinne still felt a certain reticence when she was alone with his family. Madame Kolianos and Irine both treated her with perfect courtesy, and if Zoe sometimes injected a little malice into her conversation, she always declared it quite unintentional.
When Corinne joined them she found that the conversation was, almost inevitably, centred on Iole. Apparently Costas Memlus had asked to be allowed to see her in hospital and, although Irine was obviously in some doubt as to the wisdom of it, Gregori had insisted that he be allowed to see her; and as usual his argument prevailed.
'My son is a great believer in the power of love,' his mother observed with a hint of irony. 'But no matter how much young Costas declares himself in love with Iole, I cannot believe that Stefan Menelus will allow him to marry her!' Catching sight of Irine's expression suddenly, she reached over and patted her hand. 'We shall need to love and support that foolish child in the months to come, more than ever before,' she said.
Corinne, to whom the solution was obvious, felt a sense of exasperation that none of them seemed to have mentioned it yet. 'Isn't she going to marry—Takis
Lemou?' she asked. 'Surely no one can refuse her now?'
The silence was uneasy and she could sense the exchange of glances between the two older women, just as she was aware, rather unexpectedly, of Zoe's smile of approval. When she looked up at her she saw a curious glitter in her eyes which she found oddly disturbing and hastily avoided.
'It might happen!' Zoe said, then laughed in a way that brought a swift frown to Madame Kolianos's black brows. 'With a little help from the right people.' She gazed at Corinne so intently that she was eventually bound to look at her again, and she quizzed her with arched brows when she did so. `Do you think it is possible, Corinne?'
`I—I don't know.'
She was too unsure just what answer her bright, defiant sister-in-law was after and she went on buttering a roll, with her mind only half on the job she was doing. `Gregori adores her,' Zoe mused, as if speculating on just how much. 'And Iole knows it—it could well be that she counted on his loving her enough to consent.'
It took several moments for the full meaning of what she said to dawn on her listeners, and when it did Corinne stared at her doubtfully. Madame Kolianos, however, put her view more forcefully, and yet something in her expression suggested that she did not entirely dismiss the idea out of hand.
'I do not like your meaning, Zoe,' she told her daughter sharply. Iole is an intelligent child and she would not take such a foolish risk!'
'You cannot believe that, Zoe,' said Irine, but her gentle face showed signs of uncertainty as she considered the perfumed garden provided, but she always missed risky form of emotional blackmail to gain her own ends.
Obviously it was something she could not accept and she shook her head firmly. 'It is a most disgraceful thing to suggest!' she told Zoe, who seemed undeterred by anyone's opinion.
`Would you blame her?' she challenged swiftly. 'If it was the only way she had of gaining Gregori's and your consent to marry Takis Lemou?'
'It would be wicked,' Madame Kolianos decreed. 'And although Iole is certainly foolish, she is not wicked; I will not believe that she is wicked.'
'No, Mama.'
Madame Kolianos looked at her daughter sternly. She seldom scolded Zoe, the child born to her in her later years and the joy of her life as well as the source of most of her anger. Zoe was spoiled and revelled in it, but in this instance she had earned a reprimand and she would get it.
'There will be no more said on this matter,' Madame Kolianos decreed. 'It is for Irine to decide what shall happen to her child.'
'And Gregori,' Zoe murmured irrepressibly, but fell silent when her mother frowned warningly. 'Yes, Mama.'
The subject was dropped as Madame Kolianos decreed, but the rest of the meal was eaten in a rather uneasy silence, and the moment Corinne left the table Zoe hastily excused herself and came hurrying after her. It was unusual enough for Zoe to seek her company to make Corinne look at her curiously from the corner of her eye as they went upstairs together.
Only when they had walked half the length of the landing and stood outside Zoe's bedroom door did the purpose of her uncharacteristic move become clear. She stood for a moment with a hand on the door knob, regarding Corinne with one of her faintly quizzical smiles.
'Do you really care about Iole?' she asked, and the question came as such a surprise that for a moment or two Corinne simply stared at her.
`Well, of course I do,' she said after a while, and felt uneasily suspicious of Zoe's motives suddenly. 'What are you getting at, Zoe?'
Zoe looked briefly puzzled by the colloquialism, then eyed her steadily with a bright gleam of challenge in her dark eyes. 'If you were to beg Gregori to let her marry Takis Lemou,' she said, 'maybe he would relent.'
To Corinne the idea of ever raising that particular subject again with her husband was out of the question, and she shook her head even before Zoe had finished speaking. 'I couldn't,' she told her. 'And it wouldn't do any good, Zoe. I've already tried and failed!'
For a moment the girl's dark eyes studied her narrowly, discomfitingly reminiscent of her brother's, then she laughed shortly and pursed her lower lip. 'A new bride?' she questioned softly. 'Have you no influence over your husband, Corinne? Surely a few soft words, a little—persuasion, hmm? Surely a bride for whom he fought so determinedly has sufficient influence over her man to make him see that others should be allowed their free choice of a marriage partner also? If he truly loves you, he will not refuse you.'
She was being goaded, and Corinne knew it, but she would not risk further quarrels with Gregori for Iole or anyone else. No matter how she sympathised with his niece, she was not going to run any risks with her own marriage, and she shook her head firmly.
`Zoe, for Iole's sake I wish it was possible, but it isn't, I know it isn't. He won't listen to me where Iole's concerned, and I daren't—' She corrected herself hastily. 'I'd rather not make it too much of an issue between us
at the moment.'
Zoe's eyes below arched black brows gleamed at her mockingly. 'You are afraid of making him angry?' she asked.
`Not afraid, no,' Corin
ne denied swiftly, 'but I'd rather not quarrel with him over something that isn't really my business.'
Not even though you claim to care for Iole?' Clearly Zoe had a very poor opinion of her and Corinne hated to have to admit that no matter how he claimed to love her, or how eagerly he had made up their brief quarrel, she did not believe Gregori would listen to any further argument on the subject of his niece. 'Perhaps,' Zoe went on in her smooth quiet voice, 'you do not have very much influence with my brother? In the circumstances it is understandable—'
She shrugged and was about to turn into her room, but Corinne put a staying hand on her arm, troubled by something she was not yet sure of. 'What do you mean, Zoe—in the circumstances?'
The dark eyes were steady but not quite direct. 'Has he not told you about Persephone?' Zoe asked softly. 'Has he not been—honest?'
The thudding beat of Corinne's heart almost choked her, for she could recall a time when Irine had been, so she believed, evasive about whether or not Gregori had ever been close to being married before; and Irine was not normally evasive. 'You said—Persephone?' Her own voice had a whispering harshness.
Zoe's eyes shifted, but not before they had seen the look on Corinne's face. 'I do not think I should say any more about her,' she said. 'If Gregori had wanted you to know he would have told you himself, although it would not be easy for him.'
`Zoe!' Corinne's fingers closed hard over Zoe's arm
and prevented her from leaving her as she sought to. 'I want to know about Persephone! And since you've taken The trouble to mention her to me, you can tell me!'
'Are you jealous?' Her eyes speculated on the possibility, and her full mouth twisted into a tight smile. 'Oh, you have no need to be, Corinne, for she is married! How we all wish she was not!' she added, and sighed. 'What a bride she would have made for Gregori, and how happy he would have been! 'Persephone could have persuaded him to do anything.'
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