Lark in an Alien Sky

by Rebecca Stratton

  'You probably know Kiria Chambi too, don't you, doctor?'

  The-dark eyes looked at her for a moment as if they suspected a trap, but he nodded. 'Yes,' he said quietly. 'I know Kiria Chambi also.'

  'Then it was probably she who was lunching with my husband, wasn't it?'

  Obviously he would much rather not have answered her, but Corinne was looking at him with a bright unwavering gaze that compelled a response. 'I believe it was. Mrs Kolianos,' he said. 'And now, if you will forgive my brusqueness, I have another appointment.'

  'Yes, of course. I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time—I know you must be busy.' Her voice sounded vague and not quite steady and Corinne felt a sudden need to be in the open air. 'Thank you, doctor—goodbye!'

  She felt rather as if someone had struck her a blow

  and knocked the breath out of her. All the happiness of the past few days she now saw as a fool's paradise. The fact that Gregori had been lunching with Persephone while she herself was on her way to confirm that she was having his child left a bitter taste in her mouth and she wanted to weep in anger and frustration.

  `Mrs Kolianos, are you feeling quite well? Should you perhaps sit here for a while until you feel better able to—'

  'No, no, really!' She dismissed the need for his professional concern hastily. `I'm perfectly all right, doctor, thank you. The fresh air will soon clear my head.'

  `If you are quite sure.'

  Obviously he was far from happy to see her leaving when she was so obviously agitated. but there was little he could do to detain her if she was of a mind to leave, and eventually he shrugged resignedly and saw her out.

  'I shall of course be seeing you about the results next week?' be asked, and she nodded.

  `Yes, of course. Goodbye.'

  She left the building hurriedly, consumed by a chaos of emotions that confused her with their complexity. Anger brought a bright hot flush to her cheeks and unhappiness gave a droop to her mouth, her eyes stinging with unshed tears as she walked without having the least idea of the direction she took at first.

  Then gradually her brain began to clear and she realised how impulsively she had reacted. If Doctor Merron was not conversant with Gregori's affair, then she had almost certainly given him a strong clue; and if he was then she had shown quite clearly how she felt about it.

  Nothing had changed, she told herself as she made her way back through the maze of Piraeus's streets to where she had left the car. The doctor had merely reminded her

  of Persephone's continuing existence in the background, that was all. He had revived the bitterness of that first encounter, aroused the furious jealousy that she had vowed she would control because she, not Persephone, had the upper hand in the long run.

  She had a free choice, she decided. Either she could leave and go back home to England and never see Gregori again, or she could stay and put up with the knowledge that always in the background, like a cloud on an otherwise sunny horizon, was Persephone Chambi. The light, unconscious pressure of one hand allowed her to imagine she could already feel the pulse of the new life she carried, and she knew what she would do.

  'Corinne!'

  She was snatched swiftly from her reverie, and turned around at once. Robert came running after her along the narrow, shadowed street, his face red and shiny with the heat, and his sudden appearance brought a welcome sense of comfort to Corinne in her present mood, so that she greeted him eagerly.

  'Robert—where did you spring from?'

  'Didn't you hear me yelling at you?' he asked with a great blow of relief when he stopped running. 'Hello, darling, how are you?'

  He did not hesitate but bent and kissed her mouth, an arm thrust familiarly about her waist as he fell into step with her, and she made no objection. 'I'm fine, thank you, Robert.' Her answer was absent and her mind was so obviously on other things that he frowned briefly. 'Are you still enjoying island life?'

  'Not for much longer.' He dismissed the question airily, seemingly more interested in talking about her. 'You don't look fine to me,' he declared with his customary forthrightness. 'What's wrong, Corinne? Isn't it as much

  fun being a millionaire's wife as it ought to be? Be honest, darling; this is old faithful Robert, remember? Just say the word and if he's not treating you right I'll sort him out, no matter how much he glowers at me!'

  It was such a temptation to tell him what was wrong. To pour out her troubles to him; about Gregori and Persephone, and how for a while she had managed to push the other woman into the background and revel in the love of her husband. But she loved Gregori no matter what happened, and not even to Robert could she say a word against him.

  So she smiled. 'There's no need to sound so belligerent, Robert,' she told him. 'I get along with everyone very well now, except perhaps Zoe, and I have no regrets at all.' She placed a hand over the one that hugged her comfortingly close, and smiled up at him. 'But thank you for being so ready to champion me.'

  `Haven't I always?' Robert demanded, and she nodded. Looking at her slightly pale face and the too bright eyes that just evaded his, he squeezed her tightly for a moment. 'Just see that you remember it. I'm glad to see you're not so wary of being seen with me, though, that at least is an improvement. Has your Greek tyrant relented?'

  'I don't know.' She sounded far more offhand than she felt. 'I don't think he's likely to see us anyway, he's—busy.'

  Robert looked faintly surprised at her manner, but said nothing more. 'I was going to give you a ring, as a matter of fact,' he told her. 'I'm going back to morrow, and you promised you'd see me before I went.'

  `Tomorrow?'

  Taken aback, she swallowed hard, for she felt rather as if she was at the end of an era with Robert departing,

  and he was eyeing her as if he knew how she felt. 'If you're sorry I'm going,' he said, 'I shall probably give up my job and stay for good ! Seriously though, darling, the party's over as far as I'm concerned, and I can't honestly say that Greece is much fun without you. Each time I went to the top of that hill behind the quay I thought about our picnic and how perfect it was with just you and me. Greek islands are idyllic, my sweet, only if you're in the right frame of mind, and without you I'm not.'

  'Oh, Robert, I'm sorry!'

  She spoke as if she was on the verge of crying and from his look Robert guessed it. Making an effort to be facetious, he cocked a brow at her, his eyes less quizzical and more anxious than he realised. 'Because I don't like your Greek islands, or because I'm going?' he teased.

  'I'm just sorry that you couldn't have enjoyed your holiday more; that things couldn't have been different for you.'

  'Couldn't be in the circs, darling,' he told her with forced carelessness. 'You apparently loved your Greek after all!'

  Corinne caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and her eyes had a mistiness she did her best to hide. 'Yes,' she agreed huskily, 'I love my Greek.'

  CHAPTER NINE

  CORINNE had not been to see Gregori at the office after all. Having said goodbye to Robert she found herself in a very different mood from the happy excitement with which she had anticipated telling Gregori about the baby, and she had gone straight home.

  It was not the first time that he was a little later coming home either, but the fact that he did so that evening, when she was feeling as she did, simply added to her dispirited outlook. When he immediately came across to her the moment he came in and kissed her as he always did, she almost hated him for his duplicity, even while she lifted her mouth for his kiss.

  She was unusually quiet during dinner and afterwards, although the fact seemed to go unnoticed, and she did not feign sleep as she thought of doing when Gregori came to bed either. Instead she responded to his lovemaking because she could not help herself, and because no matter what he did she loved him as desperately as ever.

  But it was a long time before she slept. Lying there in the dark beside him, trying to untangle her tortured emotions, her mind was alive with questions an
d no answers, and she was no nearer to solving anything when she eventually drifted into a restless sleep. As a result she woke later and Gregori, as he sometimes did, had not disturbed her before he left, but let her sleep on.

  It was all the more surprising therefore when she eventually went downstairs herself, to find him still seated at the table with his mother and Zoe. He said little, but

  leaned across and kissed her cheek when she took her place beside him, and while she ate her somewhat frugal breakfast, she got the feeling that he was waiting impatiently for her to finish.

  `You look tired, pethi,' Madame Kolianos observed. 'Are you not sleeping properly?'

  Gregori appeared to notice the shadows about her eyes then, and he stroked a long hand down her cheek, pressing the backs of his fingers to her brow and smiling enquiringly at her. 'I'm all right, Mitera,' she assured her mother-in-law. 'I just took a long time going off last night, that's all.'

  `Ah! ' The conclusion she came to was so obvious that Corinne felt herself colouring under the gaze of those shrewd dark eyes. 'You should take care and get plenty of sleep,' Madame Kolianos counselled. 'We cannot have you so pale and tired in the mornings.'

  Mitera.'

  She reached for a second bread roll and began buttering it, conscious of Gregori watching her, so that she found it hard not to look at him. Leaning an elbow on the table he watched her eat, uncaring that he obviously made her self-conscious.

  'I hope you are not too tired, my love,' he said. 'I am taking you for a drive this morning.' Corinne, taken by surprise, simply stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, not knowing quite how to react.

  Her pulse was fluttering uneasily as she tried to think of a reason for this unprecedented departure from the normal, and she was too wary to do anything more than murmur acceptance, and a brief, irresistible question. `To anywhere special?' she asked, and Gregori's dark eyes sought and held hers steadily for a second or two before

  he replied. A response that betrayed his impatience by the tone of his voice.

  `Yes, my love!'

  Madame Kolianos glanced from one to the other and Corinne, noticing her tight-lipped look, hoped her mother-in-law was not going to remark on his abruptness, however well-intentioned she might be. In the event the old lady said nothing, and the moment Corinne had finished her meal Gregori got up from the table and reached for her hand, offering that brief but irresistible invitation she was so accustomed to.

  'Hmm?'

  Obediently she placed her hand in his, but she felt much too unsure of him for her own peace of mind. He could always persuade her, coax her back to him, no matter how resolutely she tried to harden her heart. And when she considered the choice she had, of years ahead when she must suffer the presence of Persephone Chambi always there in the background, or of giving up Gregori altogether and taking herself and their unborn child back to England, she knew she would always follow her heart.

  When she came down, ready to go, she found him waiting in the hall for her, and he took her hand again, holding it tightly and pressing it with his own to the spot where his heart thudded strongly in his breast. Instead of making for the main garden where it was possible to get lost among the shrubs and trees, they went around the side of the house to where a small forecourt fronted the garages, and was itself surrounded by garden on three sides.

  `Aren't you going to the office this morning?' she asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

  She had not meant to sound so flatly discouraging and only realised it when she saw his expression, one black

  brow slightly arched. It was simply that he so seldom took time off from his work that when it happened she knew inevitably that it was with very good reason; and it was the nature of his reason in this instance that made her so uneasy.

  'You wish to be rid of me?' Gregori enquired, soft-voiced, and she hastened to deny it.

  `No,' she said in a small voice. 'No, of course I don't want to be rid of you.'

  `I am very relieved to hear it!'

  She allowed him the mild sarcasm without reproach, because she was so very unsure of herself, but she still eyed him warily, and they were out of sight of the house when Gregori brought them to a standstill suddenly. Putting his hands on her shoulders he turned her to face him, and Corinne noticed in a brief upward glance how disturbingly dark and fathomless his eyes looked.

  `So quiet and distant,' he said, and Corinne stirred uneasily. 'You have seen Robert.'

  Taken by surprise, she looked up quickly, but he appeared so calm that it was almost alarming, and her heart thudded hard and urgently. Perhaps he no longer cared whether or not she saw Robert; perhaps it was part of what he had planned for her. To let her know that he would go his way and she was free to go hers, although if she had stopped to think clearly, she would have known that was not it.

  As it was her eyes had a bright, hurt look that shimmered with unshed tears when she admitted to having seen Robert again. 'Yes, I've seen him,' she said huskily, then added with a bitterness she was unaware of, 'How do you know?'

  `I saw you.'

  Corinne was trembling and she hoped he was not aware

  of it, even though he still had his hands on her shoulders. 'When you were coming back from lunch, no doubt?' she guessed, and his acceptance of the jibe added to her fears, so that she went on without stopping to think. 'You're surely not going to have the nerve to object, are you? You can hardly act the injured innocent in the circumstances, can you? Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, you know!'

  The fact that he said nothing for several seconds was startling in itself, but that he seemed puzzled rather than angry was both unexpected and disturbing, and she found his steady, slightly frowning gaze unnerving. 'You seem to think that the adage applies in some way to me,' he said, and Corinne caught her breath.

  If only she did not feel such an overwhelming need to lay her head on his breast and feel the comfort of his arms around her! Instead she stood there with his hands on her shoulders, his strong fingers digging deeply into her flesh and stunningly aware of the lean, virile body that was just a breath away, and the hands that seemed to be trying to restrain her, even though she had made no move as yet to walk away from him.

  'I was saying goodbye to Robert,' she told him without attempting to explain her earlier statement. 'He—he's gone home.'

  'Thank God!'

  Quickly reproachful, Corinne blinked back her tears. 'I shall miss him, whatever you feel about it,' she told him. 'Even though I haven't been able to see him since I was married, thanks to your ban.'

  'I thank God that he has gone back to England,' Gregori said, 'because now that he is gone I can relax a little.' He noticed her frown and smiled faintly. 'I had the fear constantly in my mind that you would one day dis-

  appear and go back with him,' he confessed. 'And I could not have let you go, my lark.'

  Thinking of Persephone, and how she was expected to turn a blind eye to his affair with her, Corinne was suddenly angry, and her cheeks were flushed as she looked up at him. 'Oh, why do you have to be so—so two-faced?' she demanded huskily, and pulled herself free of his hands. 'I almost envy Iole sometimes! At least Takis Lemou had the honesty to discard her instead of marrying her and playing out a—a role, and pretending to love her! Do you imagine it's any less hurtful because you're more subtle, Gregori?'

  The warning light was in Gregori's dark eyes, but he also looked genuinely confused by her words, and she found that hard to take. 'I do not understand you,' he said. 'What have Iole and Lemou to do with you and me, Corinne?'

  Her face streaked with big rolling tears, Corinne looked up at him in despair. 'Oh, don't go on with it, Gregori! Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about—you know well enough how often you see your—your friend! And I wish I could hate you for it.' Her tangled emotions took over from common sense, and she spoke much too quickly and without thought, her voice catching every so often in a breathless sob in her throat. 'I know about Per
sephone Chambi; I know you deceived me, that you've gone on deceiving me ever since we were married! I know you don't love me as you do her, Zoe told me and I've tried not to care, but I do! I do care!'

  'Oh, Corinne!' He moved swiftly, taking her tear-stained face gently between his big hands, then he bent to kiss her lips. 'As I care, agapitikas! I have never deceived you in any but this one thing, and God knows it

  was never meant to hurt you—quite the opposite, as you shall soon see.'

  It would be unbearable to hear it from his own lips, and Corinne as she stared up at him felt herself go cold suddenly, so that she shivered. She did not want to hear how he loved Persephone Chambi in a way he could never love her; that he had deceived her because he did not want to hurt her. She would rather go on living in her fool's paradise than hear it from him as she had from Zoe.

  `No,' she whispered. 'Don't tell me, please, I don't want to hear it!'

  `Corinne, my love, my lark!'

  Her drew her into his arms and held her tightly, his face buried in the rich auburn hair that muffled the soft words he spoke in his own tongue. And Corinne clung to him in a desperate attempt to shut out everything but the comfort of his nearness, and the precious endearments that he murmured against her ear.

  Inevitably she was soothed by the softness of that deep voice and the gentleness of his hands, his lips on her neck and her cheeks, kissing the tears from her eyes until she eventually leaned against him too bemused to realise that she had yielded yet again to that irresistible magic he wove for her.

  He eased her away from him, his hands cradling her head while he looked down into her eyes that were red with weeping. Then he kissed the corner of her mouth. `Do you trust me enough to drive with me?' he asked, and stroked the dishevelled hair from her brow with a light caressing finger. 'I promise that you shall know just how much I love you; how little desire I had to hurt you. Nor will you have reason to hate me as you have been trying so hard to do. Oh, I know you have,' he in-