“Just leave everything to me,” her brother said. “I have it all worked out in my mind. I have no intention of appearing as we are right now as Mr. and Miss Dawson in whom no one, if they have any sense, would be interested for one moment.”
Weena laughed.
“Now you are being unexpectedly humble!”
“I am playing the part of a dealer who has gone to Russia to find valuable objects to sell, but, when we reach England, it will be Prince Ivor Kerlensky who is selling part of his collection so that he can buy even better things. Even Russians, rich though most people think we are, do not always have the ready cash for anything they want to buy.”
He paused for a moment before he added,
“I will make it clear what I am looking for and you, of course, must help me by looking beautiful all the time.”
“Perhaps no one will admire me, then I will have to go back to being just an unimportant Russian or perhaps remain as an unimpressive Englishwoman!”
“I believe we will be successful in what we have set out to do,” Ivor replied. “As you know, we can only look back and see the ruins of what was once our home and you can be certain by now that they will have grabbed our land and we are powerless to take any of it back.”
Weena was silent for a moment.
She was thinking that she and Ivor were moving between Heaven and Hell.
They could only hope when they reached Heaven, which to him was England, it would be as wonderful as he expected it to be.
It was no use saying they had left behind everything that had been theirs since they were born and it was no use regretting that all the people they had trusted had, if not deceived them, then forgotten them.
She too, like Ivor, believed that what lay ahead was going to be marvellous and she hoped and prayed it would be.
It was on the first night at sea that Ivor found that there were some congenial men on board who asked him if he would like to join them at bridge.
“We were four when we started,” they said, “but one of our friends has decided to stay in Constantinople, so if you would care to join us we would be delighted to have you.”
“I should be pleased to have a game with you,” Ivor replied. “Thank you for inviting me.”
They moved into a room where bridge tables were laid out by the portholes, leaving Weena alone.
“Perhaps you should retire to bed,” Ivor suggested. “You know as well as I do that you have had a long day and you must be feeling tired.”
He did not wait for her to reply, but went after the man who had gone ahead of him.
Weena longed to say that she hoped he would not lose any money.
At the same time she felt that he was too astute to do so. He had always been very fond of bridge which he had frequently played with his father’s friends even when he was quite young.
She walked towards her cabin and then she thought that she would go up on deck and say goodbye to Greece, the Gods and Goddesses and their sublime Temples.
She longed to have seen more of it all, but at least she had seen the Parthenon and thought that she would always remember the exquisite statues it contained.
Having gone up on deck she went to the bow of the ship which was now moving smoothly through the water.
It was a warm night and the moon was rising in the sky and it was pouring its bright light over the land they were leaving.
She was thinking just how beautiful it all was when she was aware that a man was walking along the deck and was just passing by her when he stopped.
She looked at him and realised that it was the same man who had helped her down from the Parthenon.
To her surprise he recognised her and exclaimed,
“It is really you! Are you now safe and sound as I hoped you would be?”
“I am still very grateful to you,” Weena said. “If I had hurt myself, as I might have done, I would have had to stay in Greece rather than be here.”
“But you are here and it is so delightful to see you again,” the man replied.
She had been leaning on the rail and he came and stood beside her and leant on it too.
“I was thinking of you, strange to relate,” he said. “In fact when I first saw you I was not certain whether you were real or one of the Greek Goddesses.”
Weena smiled.
“That is a charming compliment and I should love to be one of the Goddesses. I only wish that I could have seen more of them, but my brother is in a hurry to reach London.”
“So that is where you are going,” he said. “I think it appropriate that we should introduce ourselves. My name is Hart, David Hart. Please tell me yours.”
There was just a moment’s hesitation while Weena remembered that her chosen name was now Dawson.
Then she said,
“My name is Dawson, Weena Dawson. My brother and I are travelling to London.”
“Well, I only hope you get there without any sort of accident,” David Hart observed.
“Thanks to you I was rescued from having a very nasty one,” Weena replied. “I just cannot believe that there will be an accident on this ship unless, of course, we fall into the sea!”
David Hart laughed.
“I expect, like most people, you wanted to explore Greece, which I have just been doing. I can assure you it is still the most beautiful country in the whole world.”
“You speak as though you have seen a great deal of the world,” Weena commented.
“I have as it happens,” he answered. “I have been journeying round seeing places that I have only read about and which I have found fascinating.”
“You are very very lucky!” Weena exclaimed. “It is what I have always wanted to do myself, but have never been able to leave home until now.”
“So this will be your first visit to England?”
Weena nodded.
“Do you think it will be as beautiful a country as Greece?” she asked.
As she spoke, she looked out at the hills they were passing, which she felt looked magical in the moonlight.
They were, in fact, filled with the wonders they had known in the past that were still vibrating over the world when people read about them and learnt how much Greece had brought to civilisation.
As if he guessed what she was thinking, David Hart said,
“I love Greece. When I was quite a small boy and was told all the stories of its Gods and Goddesses by my mother, I was thrilled by them.”
He paused before he went on,
“This is the third time I have visited Greece. It still has a great deal to teach me.”
”How lucky you have been. I have always wanted to go to Greece and I have read so many books about it. Now I have spent a short time in the Parthenon from where you rescued me and, of course, it has made me want to see more and more.”
“Which I am sure one day you will,” David replied. “I think that, as I met you in Greece, to me you will always be a part of the beauty which was Greece and which is still there for us to see and admire today.”
Weena smiled.
“Thank you so much, kind sir, for the compliment. And thank you once again for saving me from breaking my leg or being hurt in some other painful way.”
“Perhaps it was indeed Fate like everything else in our life,” David remarked. “I have often found that the most surprising things happen unexpectedly. Just as one is entranced by a treasure such as Greece, one finds another place a disappointment and not the least what you expected it to be.”
“It must be very sad when you feel that you have wasted your time and your money?”
“Exactly!” David exclaimed. “I expect when you get older you find, as I have, that one is always afraid that one will not see and do everything one wants to do before one dies.”
Weena laughed.
“It’s asking too much to see the whole world. But at least you have been lucky to see some of it. Who could ask more than to go three times to Greece?”
�
��You are quite right. I am just being greedy. But I have always wanted more than I have. That is why I am exploring the world whenever I can find the opportunity.”
Weena thought that he would probably have to save up for such journeys and reflected,
“I think like most people you have to be grateful for small mercies. I will be grateful when I have seen a tiny bit of Greece and hope, like you, that one day I will be able to return.”
“Of course you will. Not only will you see Greece but very many other places that are often more entrancing than one expects, although on the other hand some are even more disappointing.”
“Tell me about the places that are as beautiful as Greece,” Weena implored him. “I have seen so little of the world and have had to be content to read about it from the books which had made me long to visit Greece.”
She paused and looked a little sad as she added,
“Now I am leaving it. I did so hope that I would have a chance of seeing the Island of Delos where Apollo landed and claimed that small part of Greece for himself.”
She was speaking softly because she thought at that moment, although she was not really certain, they must be passing the island where the ancient race who were called ‘the Shining Ones’ lived.
Not far away from them was Olympus itself where the Gods and Goddesses had met and enchanted the outside world, which had then worshipped them.
“You will see it all one day,” David said quietly. “But what is important is that it is already yours because it has touched your heart and that is a magic that you will never forget.”
“You are right, of course you are right. It is the things that touch one’s heart that are of real significance not those you miss.”
“Exactly! But so few people realise that especially when they are as young as you.”
They were then both silent, as they leant over the rail gazing out towards the land they were passing.
Then Weena was aware that he was looking at her rather than at the land in front of them.
There was something in the vibrations coming from him that made her feel shy.
“My brother is playing bridge,” she volunteered, “and he told me I should go to bed. I suppose that is where I should be.”
“I will not beg you to stay talking to me,” David replied. “As you have obviously had a long day, you must be tired. But there is always tomorrow and I hope we will be able to talk together here at any rate and, if I tell you some of the secrets of Greece, you must then tell me what you have read about all the different countries we will be passing before we reach England.”
Weena thought this was something exciting which she had never expected.
“I would love that,” she said. “I am so glad that we have met. I can only thank you once again for saving me.”
“I have always been lucky,” he answered. “Perhaps today I was even luckier than usual in that I found you.”
Again there was a note in his voice which made Weena feel bashful.
She smiled at him and said,
“Goodnight.”
Then without waiting for his reply she was hurrying along the deck.
When she reached the entrance to go below, she did not look back.
She only thought as she reached her own cabin that, if Ivor had enjoyed his bridge game, then she had certainly enjoyed meeting a man who understood just how much the enchanting stories of the Gods and Goddesses had always meant to her.
‘This is a piece of luck I did not expect,’ Weena told herself as she started to undress.
CHAPTER FOUR
The next day when Weena wanted to either read one of the books from the ship’s library or hopefully talk to David, Ivor insisted that she go and watch him play deck tennis.
“I am really rather good at it,” he boasted, “and I have been challenged by a man who fancies himself. So I thought you would enjoy watching me beat him.”
She laughed.
“Mind you do,” she urged him, “otherwise I would suppose that I will have to shed tears for you!”
She thought it would be unkind if she did not watch Ivor and she only hoped that David did not wait for her for a long time in the helm where they had met before.
Needless to say Ivor won, but not as easily as he had hoped.
His opponent was rather good as he had had more practice than Ivor, but he still managed to beat him with a tremendous effort and Weena clapped.
They talked a long time over luncheon because Ivor wanted to tell her more about what they would do when they reached England.
“The first thing,” he said, “is we have to try to find a house in a smart part of London so that people will be impressed by us and not think that we are poor refugees who need to beg money from them.”
“I hope we don’t have to do that,” Weena replied. “It is something that would have shocked Mama and Papa who would have been simply furious at the very idea.”
“I agree with you,” Ivor said. “But ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ or too particular in what they can do. So we must remember that if we don’t get married quickly, we are quite likely to starve – ”
“Don’t think about it, Ivor, it’s unlucky.”
“I know that, but we have to face facts and what we have managed to bring with us might keep us going for a year, but certainly no longer.”
*
Later that evening when Ivor went to play bridge, Weena walked up to the deck hoping that David would be there.
However, there was no sign of him.
She thought that it would be a mistake to seem too eager and she moved away from the helm to further along the deck.
She had not gone far when one of the men who had spoken to Ivor before dinner joined her.
“I am the odd man out tonight,” he began, “so I thought I would come and find you.”
He was the one Weena had taken a dislike to and she knew that her mother would have thought him rather common.
He was however tall, fairly good-looking and with square shoulders and dark hair Equally there was something about him which told her that he was not a particularly attractive person and she really had no desire to be with him.
“As it so happens,” she replied to him, “I was just going to bed. I feel rather tired. Perhaps it’s the fresh air and I know that I will fall asleep at once.”
His name was Cyril Bates and he now looked round as if to ascertain that there was no one near them.
He then said almost in a whisper,
“If you really intend to go to bed and not talk to me as I would very much like you to do, you must at least kiss me goodnight.”
Weena felt shocked by his forward behaviour and therefore said quickly,
“Goodnight. I really must go to my cabin.”
Cyril Bates put out his arm and pulled her close to him.
“You’ll go when I let you go,” he insisted. “You’re very pretty, in fact the prettiest girl in the whole ship. I want you to stay here with me!”
Weena put her hands against him and tried to push him away, but he was very much taller than she was and obviously much stronger.
As he bent his head towards her, she cried out,
“Let me go!”
She began to struggle against him.
She knew only too well that she was really helpless against his greater strength.
As his lips sought hers, she moved her head sharply from side to side and gave a little scream. Even as she did so, feeling that she was helpless in Cyril’s arms, a voice called out angrily,
“What is going on here?”
Weena knew at once that it was David.
And then with a tremendous effort she managed to extract herself from Cyril’s arms and threw herself against David.
“Don’t you dare interfere with me,” Cyril said in an offensive tone. “I was here first and it’s no business of yours who I am and what I’m doing!”
As he spoke, he drew back his arm as if to strike David,
who moved quickly.
To Weena’s astonishment he hit Cyril so hard that he lost his balance and fell over backwards onto the deck.
“Damn you!” he shouted up from the floor. “I’ll not have you treating me like this.”
David did not answer.
He merely took Weena by the arm and walked her quickly down the deck towards the helm.
She was feeling too shaken to do or say anything.
Because he had one arm round her waist and was pulling her along with him, she walked as quickly as he wanted her to do.
They reached the helm and he then sat her down on the same seat they had sat on before, which was under the Captain’s bridge.
“How on earth did you get mixed up with a fellow like that?” he asked almost angrily, as he sat down beside Weena.
“He was playing bridge with my brother,” she said, “and so I spoke to him earlier. I had no idea that he would behave like that.”
“He is a cad and certainly no gentleman,” David said. “I suppose we must expect there to be all types of people on this sort of vessel.”
He spoke scornfully and she thought that perhaps he normally travelled in large expensive ships and for this voyage he may not have wanted to waste his money.
It was, however, something she did not want to talk about.
She therefore said to David,
“Thank you! But I am afraid the man you knocked down will be very angry.”
“Let him be, he was behaving abominably.”
“He frightened me,” Weena murmured.
“It’s not at all surprising. In future you must be very careful and not be alone.”
Weena managed to smile.
“That means I will have to stay in my cabin,” she replied. “The moonlight is so beautiful on the sea that I had to come up on deck.”
“Then you must have someone to escort you and look after you,” David suggested. “That can be me until I disembark at Gibraltar.”
“Is that where you are leaving the ship?” Weena asked him, trying not to sound disappointed.
“I intend to as I want to see the monkeys again and I thought of spending a short time in Portugal.”
Weena smiled.
“You are so lucky and I have read about Gibraltar and, of course, Portugal, Spain and all the countries in that part of Europe. But I have never had the chance of visiting them.”
Rescued by Love Page 6
