Lark in an Alien Sky

by Rebecca Stratton

  The endearment came so easily to his lips, and Corinne brought her mind back hastily to Iole's affair. The fact that he was still seeing Persephone Chambi, whether or not she was someone else's wife, was something that would have to be gone into later. In the circumstances, she told herself, she had no need to be reticent about telling him that she had acted as Iole's go-between.

  `It's—it's about lole.'

  She brushed her tongue anxiously across her lips when she saw his frown. 'Something has happened to her?' He looked tense and alert suddenly, ready to spring to his niece's rescue if need be, and Corinne felt the same thrill of tenderness for a moment that his love for the girl always inspired in her. 'She has not seen Lemou again?'

  Hastily Corinne shook her head. 'No, but—she asked me to—I mean, I took a message to him for her and—'

  `You did what?'

  Oregon was on his feet and the cigarette was crushed out of existence by twisting pressure of strong fingers. Standing over her, he looked down at the top of her

  bowed head for several seconds, then thrust a hand under her chin and lifted her head up, forcing her to look at him—at the unmistakable anger in the set of his mouth and jaw, and the rather unexpected look of hurt in his eyes.

  `Don't look at me like that, Gregori !' She got to her feet, brushing away his hand and walking over to the window to gaze unseeingly at a panorama of buildings and streets and docks below. 'I couldn't refuse to take a letter; I couldn't! Not when she was so anxious to hear about him, to know—oh, how do I know what she felt like, she didn't know she'd been let down!'

  `Let down?' He had not moved and when the very stillness of him became too much to bear, she spun round and faced him again, the sun through the window making a fiery nimbus of her hair. `Go on,' he said quietly. 'I am waiting to hear what it is that has disturbed you so much that you came here to find me.'

  Corinne hesitated, her hands curling and uncurling ceaselessly. It was much harder to say, even to Gregori, than she had anticipated and she could not imagine how anyone was going to tell Iole. Gregori would do it with gentleness, she knew, and she wondered at how sure she could be of that when he had quite boldly introduced his wife to his lover only a few moments ago.

  'I—I can't go back and tell her that he's flying to the United States in just a few hours,' she said huskily. 'He's leaving her, even though he knows that she's having his baby, and—'

  `I would suggest it is because he knows!' Gregori interrupted harshly. 'What did you expect of such a man? That he would be willing to give up his freedom, his reputation as a lady-killer, to settle down to be a husband and a father?' Turning back to the desk, he took another cigarette and lit it while Corinne watched him dazedly. 'I

  only wish that he had gone before he caused so much damage! Thetis, Corinne, do you expect me to weep at his departure?'

  Close to tears once more, Corinne looked at him reproachfully. 'I thought you might have wept for Iole,' she told him in a small husky voice, 'she loved him!'

  He drew hard on the cigarette, drawing the smoke into his lungs, then expelling it in fierce jets between his lips. `Do you think I do not weep for her?' he demanded. 'Am I not to be the one who tells her of this—this creature's deception? Is that not why you came to see me—to ask me to break this news to her?'

  Corinne caught her breath, her eyes wavering before that fiercely steady gaze. 'I—I couldn't bring myself to do it,' she confessed. 'I could have told Irine, I suppose, but I came to you. I didn't know ' She glanced at the closed door of his office, imagining him in here with Persephone Chambi, then shook her head quickly. 'I wasn't sure what you'd do about him.'

  `Not even for Iole with her foolish notions of romance will I go to Takis Lemou and force him to take the responsibility of his child,' Gregori stated firmly. 'The matter will be ended when that flight to America takes off this evening, and not even you will be able to carry messages to him, even though you swore to me you did not!'

  `This was the only one!'

  `The crucial one, as it turns out!' Gregori said. 'And surely now you can see how right I was to forbid the association that you thought so romantic!'

  Something burned inside Corinne as she looked across at him, and her hands tightened over the clasp of her bag. Ignoring the flood of tears that came pouring down her cheeks, she raged against her own hurt as fiercely as she did against Iole's. 'Oh, you're right, of course!' she

  whispered hoarsely. 'You're so very good at spotting a bad match, aren't you, Gregori? You slipped up badly in your own case, of course, but then you didn't want a Greek wife, did you? It would have been too—too painful for you! But you see I don't like being second-best, and I'm not sure how much longer I can go on accepting it! I might just decide to pack up and go home!'

  He was staring at her, his fingers automatically putting out the cigarette, and she could scarcely see him for the tears that blinded her. She had shocked him, she could see that, and already she regretted having gone so far. This was not the time, not when he had to think about lole, but she had hurt so much, seeing Persephone Chambi there with him, that she had struck out wildly.

  'Corinne, what are you saying?'

  'I'm saying that at this moment I wish I'd never been born,' she whispered, and moved quickly when he came towards her, evading the hands that would have reached out and taken her.

  She ran from the room and on through the reception hall where the girl behind the desk stared at her in puzzled alarm. Without pause she went through the swing door and out into the street, guided by instinct rather than sight: Only as the door swung to behind her did she catch the faint sound of her name being called, and she fled from it as she did from the longings of her own heart that wanted her to g back to him.

  Her sudden appearance took the chauffeur by surprise, and she had opened the door of the car and ducked inside before he could move, her voice light and breathless from running. 'Take me home!' she told him, and never for a moment gave a thought to the irony of the phrase.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  IF she had given way to blind instinct when she got back from Piraeus, Corinne would have gone straight to her room without seeing anyone. But she knew that Iole would be anxiously waiting to know that her letter had been delivered, and she had to let her know, no matter what the circumstances. With any luck, Iole would be in the salon with either her mother, Zoe or Madame Kolianos, and possibly all three, so it was to the salon she went as soon as she came in.

  Catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror as she passed, she was appalled to see how pale and red-eyed she looked and so obviously unhappy. Her appearance was bound to cause comment, from Madame Kolianos if from no one else, and she took a moment to try and compose herself, repairing as much damage as she could with the hasty use of make-up. Even so it was obvious that she had been crying.

  She found Iole with Irine and Madame Kolianos, and managed in the first few seconds after opening the door to convey the fact that the letter had been delivered, by a nod of her head, hopefully unseen by the other two women. Iole barely inclined her head, and the look of relief in her eyes made Corinne despair of her reaction when she heard the news that Gregori had to tell her.

  `Are you not coming to join us, Corinne?' Irine asked, and she shook her head.

  'I just looked in to let you know I was back, that's all. I'm going up to my room.'

  `Is something wrong, Corinne?' The strongly accented voice of her mother-in-law arrested her as she turned to go, and Corinne about-faced reluctantly.

  `No, Mitera.' Her answer was cautious, and it must have been obviously so, for Madame Kolianos narrowed her dark eyes shrewdly and looked at her across the room, speaking up again before she could go.

  `Are you feeling unwell, pet hi?'

  In fact she felt sick with regret, but not for anything would Corinne have let that fearsome old lady know it. She had made what amounted to a threat to leave Gregori, and not waited for him to say anything in reply, but that was between her a
nd Gregori, whatever the next move was to be. She would not discuss it with anyone else.

  Unable to disguise the fact that she had been crying, Corinne nevertheless put on a brave face, and she smiled with her mouth but not her eyes. 'I'm perfectly all right, thank you, Mitera.' But still that unrelenting voice detained her.

  `You have been crying,' Madame Kolianos declared with confident certainty, 'and you look much too pale. Do you feel faint?'

  `No, Mitera, not in the least!'

  Very obviously she was not believed, and Madame Kolianos was nodding her head sagely as if she knew better. 'Nevertheless you look unwell,' she insisted. 'I shall have a word with Gregori and he will see that you consult a doctor!'

  Corinne knew exactly what was in her mind. It had become a regular thing lately for Madame Kolianos to enquire closely after her health, and the reason was obvious. Her mother-in-law was desperately anxious for her only son to have sons of his own to carry on the

  Kolianos name, and she awaited the event with small patience. Gregori was nearly thirty-six years old and in his mother's opinion it was high time he had a family.

  Normally it was something that Corinne found vaguely amusing, but not today; not as things were with her and Gregori at the moment. 'I don't need to see a doctor, Mitera,' she insisted in a slightly unsteady voice. 'I'm not ill, I'm just very hot and tired, and I'd like to have a bath, if you'll excuse me.'

  `Possibly the heat has made you pale,' Madame Kolianos conceded. 'You are not accustomed to the climate of our country yet. But mind and do not have your bath water too hot, Corinne!'

  The warning followed her out of the salon, and Corinne closed the door with a sigh of relief. Having made good her escape, she hurried across the hall, keeping an anxious eye over her shoulder, just in case Iole should take it into her head to follow and ask for details about her meeting with Takis Lemou. That was the last thing she wanted to happen. At the moment she needed some time to consider her own emotional situation, not become more deeply involved in Iole's.

  But she had managed to get no further than the foot of the stairs when she heard the salon door open again and footsteps coming across the hall. Iole's voice, kept low but anxious to be heard, checked her as she put a hand on the newel post. If she could have ignored the call she would have, but instead she half-turned and spoke over her shoulder.

  `Please, Iole, can't it wait just a little longer, whatever it is? I don't feel like talking to anyone at the moment.'

  'I wish to say that I am sorry.' Something in her voice made Corinne turn right around and face her. Iole's face

  was flushed and rather unhappy, and it was clear that she found it hard to say whatever it was in her mind. 'I should not have asked you to visit the cafénion to find Takis,' she went on, not looking at her when she spoke, but I had to let Takis know that I was well. You understand?'

  Corinne understood all too well how hard it was going to be for Iole to accept that Takis Lemou, her precious lover, did not care how she was. She loved him with all the passion her seventeen-year-old heart was capable of, and she looked so very vulnerable standing there that Corinne felt a lump in her throat.

  `I understand, Iole,' she assured her softly, 'but you don't have to blame yourself for anything. I've had a wretched morning; I shouldn't have gone in to see Gregori and I shouldn't have quarrelled with him.'

  She stopped there when she saw the look in Iole's eyes and realised what she had said. 'You told him!' Iole accused, and her dark eyes were bright with anger as well as tears of reproach. 'You told Thios Gregori, and you gave me your promise!'

  `Iole, I had to tell him! I—I couldn't do anything else, I—' She was shaking her head, seeing herself on the brink of the very situation she had sought to avoid, and it was almost as if he came in on cue when Gregori arrived just at that moment. She had not even heard his car draw up outside, and yet there he was suddenly, and she could not pretend to be other than relieved to see him.

  She forgot her own situation for a moment in her relief, watching as he came into the hall and saw her standing there with Iole. Then Iole turned quickly and went running across to him, clasping her arms tightly about him and burying her face between the open fronts of his

  jacket. It was an impulsive, childish gesture that must have happened a thousand times before, only this time was more than a simple homecoming.

  Gregori murmured something softly in Greek, then dropped a kiss on the top of her dark head, pressing her close to his breast for a moment with one big hand at the nape of her neck; already protecting her from the hurt he knew was to come. But although his arm curved protectively around Iole’s shoulders, his gaze was on Corinne at the foot of the stairs.

  'Go and wait for me in the salon, moro,' he told lole, and gently disengaged her arms from his waist. 'I will come and see you in just a moment, I promise. Corinne!'

  She had so nearly made her escape, but Gregori's voice halted her at once, and he came striding across the hall to her, putting a restraining hand over hers on the balustrade. Corinne's heart thudded hard, and she would have given anything to avoid this moment, for she already felt too emotionally drained to face another scene with Gregori, and he obviously had something of the sort in mind.

  'We must talk, Corinne.' It was almost a shock to realise that he was far more anxious than angry now, and she felt a flutter of response from her senses as the strong fingers closed over hers. 'You surely owe me an explanation after the way you left me,' he said, and Corinne looked at him dazedly for a moment.

  She owed him ! He seemed to mean what he said and yet she could not for the life of her imagine how he could believe it. 'You can't mean that,' she said in a quavering voice, but Gregori was frowning.

  'Most certainly I do!'

  'After you ' She shook her head, glancing across

  at the salon door, This was neither the time nor the place

  to settle their differences, when Iole was waiting for him; and surely in the uneasy knowledge that something had happened to bring her uncle home so unexpectedly. `Hadn't you better go and see Iole?' she reminded him. `She must know something is wrong, seeing you home at this time of day, when she knows I came to the office to see you.'

  `You have already told her about Lemou?'

  Corinne shook her head. 'No, but I let slip that I'd been to see you at the office this morning and she guessed I'd told you about her letter. She must know you'll have something to say to her, but the fact that you're here, at this time of the day —'

  Did you also tell her of your own behaviour?' he asked, add his hand squeezed hers tightly, the deep darkness of his eyes disconcertingly steady. 'Did you tell her how you ran from me in a childish tantrum and without explanation? I would like to hear your explanation of that incident! In fact I shall expect to do so very soon!' He glanced over his shoulder at the closed door of the salon, then turned his frown on her once more. 'I shall want to see you when I have talked with Iole and Irine,' he warned her.

  'Oh no, Gregori!'

  He narrowed his eyes and his mouth was set firm. 'I think it is necessary that we talk,' he said, and his voice was well under control as always, only his eyes showing the depth of emotion that burned in him.

  'I don't want to talk!'

  Her protest was instinctive, born of the fear that she might learn more about Persephone Chambi than she was able to cope with at the moment. She could not bear to hear Gregori explain the Greek woman's place in his life, as Zoe had explained it to her. It would be the last

  straw if she heard it from his own lips.

  'I just—want to be on my own for a while to think.'

  Corinne dared not look at him. Instead she kept her eyes downcast, although the intensity of his gaze did not make it easy. 'Very well,' he said after a moment or two, and his voice was hard and chill as steel. 'You shall be alone! I wish you joy of your solitude!'

  He murmured something in his own tongue, then turned abruptly and left her, a tall angry figure that beca
me more blurred as he went further away, because the tears in her eyes blinded her. When the door had closed behind him with studied quietness, she turned and went upstairs, but she had never felt more unhappy in her life. It would hurt less if she could hate instead of loving him so much.

  Gregori had driven back to the office without coming to see her; as he had promised, he allowed her the solitude she asked for. Nor did he stay to have lunch with the family, but drove back to the office as soon as he had broken the news about Takis Lemou.

  By the time Corinne eventually came downstairs, Iole had been put to bed with a sedative, and Madame Kolianos was presiding over a lunch table that was much less animated than usual. Irine was with her daughter, and from the red-rimmed look of Zoe's eyes there was little doubt that Gregori had made her see just what kind of a tragic situation she had contributed to by acting as courier for her young niece, no matter what her motives.

  `You and Gregori have quarrelled about this man Lemou?' Madame Kolianos asked, quite suddenly, and took Corinne by surprise. In any case, she was given no time to answer, for her mother-in-law carried on stating her own opinion. 'You are a fool, kopéla! You risk

  your marriage to further the sordid affair of my silly little granddaughter, and wonder why Gregori is angry with you! Have you no more sense?'

  'Apparently not, madame!' The tone of her reply brought a flush to Madame Kolianos's brown cheeks and Corinne immediately regretted her impulsiveness. She had no desire to alienate her mother-in-law, in fact she felt the need of that strong personality on her side at present. 'I'm sorry, Mitera ' She gestured helplessly with one hand as she pushed her half-finished meal away from her. 'I'm not really hungry. If you'll excuse me I'll go-