by Neels, Betty
Lucius took her arm. ‘There’s time to climb a little higher to the Stadium,’ and the view was even better from there. They stood side by side, not saying much, and then took a short cut back to the village and the hotel. Half way down he stopped and turned her round to look at him.
‘You like it? Could you live here?’
‘Heavens, no!’ And then because she thought that she had spoken too baldly: ‘What I mean is,’ she said carefully, ‘it’s utterly beautiful, but it’s not like home—and its history is so violent...’
‘You would be content to live in Tew for the rest of your days?’
She considered. ‘Yes, but I’d want to go to London sometimes and perhaps go on holiday abroad, but I think I’d want to live in Tew for always.’ She sighed. Tm dull, aren’t I? and not clever enough to appreciate all this. I can’t think why you asked me to come...’
He smiled a little. ‘I did ask you to come, if you remember, Katie.’ And she had to be content with that; if he had refuted her suggestion that she was dull and not clever it would have been nice, but after all he was an old friend and had no need to pretend to her.
They went on down the path and presently had dinner, and for the first time Lucius gave her a glass of ouzo to drink. She screwed up her face after the first sip and gave it back to him. ‘It’s a bit...’ she began, not wishing to appear ungracious.
‘An acquired taste. Have a glass of wine instead. Shall we spend another day here, or would you rather go on up into the mountains?’
Katrina had had her fill of ruined temples and Greek legends, for the moment at any rate. She had enjoyed every minute of it so far but hadn’t had time to digest everything. She said, watching his face carefully for signs of annoyance: ‘Well, I think that would be rather nice—if we come back this way we could stop and see the rest.’
Lucius’s mouth twitched. The idea of cramming Delphi into an hour or so’s visit amused him, but his amusement was gentle and kindly. ‘That seems like a very sensible idea, Katie—we’ll do that.’ He glanced out of the window at the clear sky. ‘The landlord says it will be fine again tomorrow and much too warm for the time of year. We’ll leave after breakfast and see how far we can go.’
They got the obliging landlord to make them up a picnic before they set out, and he came to the door to see them off. ‘Not good weather,’ he frowned. ‘You should keep to the road. There is a good taverna at Gravia where they will give you beds and food. You plan to come back by the big road?’
Lucius got into the car. ‘We thought we might go back to Athens on the Eleana road, probably you’ll see us again in a couple of days.’
They road climbed steeply, high mountains on either side, the road becoming narrow, screened by firs, wild pears and plane trees. They stopped for coffee in Amphissa and then went on to Gravia, where they took rooms for the night, had more coffee and then, because it was warm, got into the car again and went on along the narrow road until they found rough grass between the trees and a sheltered spot amongst the rocks and shrubs.
‘It’s a strange sky,’ said Katrina as they spread their picnic. ‘It looks brassy—do you suppose there’ll be a storm?’ She looked around her uneasily. ‘It’s so quiet.’
‘Well, we are quite a few miles from the village and there’s nothing much around us. Shepherds’ huts in the hills, I daresay, and not many of those. But it is strangely quiet—no wind and this haze...’ He smiled reassuringly at her. ‘It makes a change from rain or snow.’
They ate their bread and goat’s cheese and fruit and shared the bottle of wine Lucius had put in the car, and all the while Katrina was aware that Lucius was only waiting for her to give him her full attention. She spun out her roll and cheese and then took much longer than she needed to packing up the remains of the food and the wine, but at last she sat back against a convenient boulder and said: ‘You wanted to talk, Lucius.’
He gave her a long, considered look. ‘That’s right, and I’ve waited until we found a spot where there would be no distractions, so that you’ll listen to what I have to say with your whole head and heart.’
She felt sick and wished she hadn’t eaten all that cheese. She said carefully: ‘Is it so important?’ and then before he could answer: ‘Perhaps I can guess... You did say...’ She stopped on a gasp. The ground beneath her was moving, a gentle shudder so brief that she thought she had imagined it, and at the same instant Lucius was on his feet, pulling her to hers, his hand gripping her arm so hard that she winced, urging her at a run to where the grass had spread, rock-free and away from the trees, into a shallow bowl. He pushed her down on to the ground without ceremony and flung an arm around her as the grass heaved again under them. Katrina could feel the waves of movement surging up and subsiding again. Her voice came out in a squeak she strove to keep steady. ‘An earthquake?’ she managed.
‘Yes, love. Just keep still and if I tell you to do something, do it without wasting time. If it gets no worse than this, we’ll be quite all right.’
Nothing happened for perhaps five minutes; there was an uncanny stillness all around them which Katrina found nerve-racking. If she hadn’t had Lucius with her, she thought, she would have had screaming hysterics.
The next tremor was longer and stronger and a few boulders came tumbling down, and at the same time she became aware of a kind of subdued roaring from somewhere beneath her. It grew louder and she realised that it wasn’t beneath her any more but somewhere close by. She had had her face buried in Lucius’s shoulder, now she dared to lift it cautiously and fearfully peer around her. Not far away, perhaps a quarter of a mile, the foothills they had driven through were sliding gently away, rather like a blancmange which hadn’t quite set. She watched their progress in speechless horror.
‘Is that going to happen to us?’ she managed.
She had to admire Lucius’s calm voice. Did nothing, she wondered wildly, ever shake his calm?
‘No, because we’re going to move back, up the hill, on to the road. The tremors are going east to west, and the road runs north to south, so we may escape the worst of it. When I say get up and run, do just that, darling, make for our picnic spot and then the road.’
‘Will we be able to drive?’
She heard him laugh softly. ‘Very unlikely—I think we may have to walk.’
Katrina thanked heaven silently that she was wearing flat easy shoes—and then swallowed back the nausea as another tremor, like a giant slow moving wave, sent more boulders tumbling, but she got to her feet when Lucius said, ‘Now!’ and ran blindly; her hand in his; back through the rough ground, luckily still once more.
They gained the road and found the car at a crazy angle, one wheel smashed by a fair-sized boulder. There was nothing in it that they needed; they had their passports and money with them and the basket holding their picnic had rolled away.
‘Are we going to walk?’ asked Katrina, knowing quite well that there was nothing else to do anyway. ‘Is it far?’
A silly question; they must have come at least six or seven miles from the village of Gravia. Fortunately, it was downhill.
Lucius sounded comfortably reassuring. ‘Not very, and I think it may have missed the town to a large extent.’ He turned her round and looked at her up and down. ‘Are you all right?’ His voice dared her to be anything else, so she said in a still shaky voice: ‘Of course I am.’ But she was glad of his hand.
The road had been blotted out in places and they had to work their way round it here and there where there were deep fissures in the ground which Katrina found frightening, although she didn’t say so. They had been walking for about half an hour when there was another tremor and Lucius pulled her quite roughly to the ground and flung an arm around her. She hadn’t said anything, but she was shaking with fright and he bent and kissed her gently. ‘Poor darling, are you very frightened?’
‘Not if you’re here,’ she said, and instantly wished she hadn’t said it. It mystified her very much when he muttered someth
ing about not the time nor the place, and as the world quietened down once more, dragged her to her feet and hurried her on again.
The road seemed endless and twice as long by reason of the side-tracking they had to do. Katrina lost all track of time, she was thirsty and tired and hot, and she didn’t allow herself to think what they would do if Gravia had been damaged and there was no hotel. She could have cried with relief when Lucius paused at a bend in the road and said: ‘Good, there doesn’t seem to be much damage,’ and pointed to the scatter of houses below them, still a good mile away. But what was a mile with tea and the chance of a bath at the end of it? Katrina kept up a good pace and then faltered a little as they reached the main street. Gravia had missed the worst of the earthquake, but it had been damaged. There were cracks in house walls, sagging roofs and a broken water pipe, and some of the shops had had their merchandise spilled across the pavement as though a giant vandal had been on the rampage. But the hotel was almost intact; true, there were a good many tiles missing and the door sagged alarmingly, but the landlord came hurrying to meet them, pouring out excited comments.
Lucius put Katrina into a chair and listened, translating as best he could. ‘The worst of it missed this area, but there’s some damage; the railway is blocked, so is the road, he thinks. There’s no water, it has to be fetched from that bust pipe we’ve just passed. One or two people are injured, but none seriously, and he advises us to sleep out of doors tonight. He’ll get us a meal as soon as he can and boil some water for you to have tea or coffee. Our baggage is safe, so if you want to clean up I should, just as soon as we’ve had a drink.’
Katrina nodded. She was tired still, but her sensible nature was coming to the fore. ‘Do you suppose we might help with some of the clearing up? I don’t suppose we’ll be able to leave here for a bit, shall we?’
For answer he came over to where she was sitting and bent to kiss her, quite fiercely this time. ‘You’re a jewel, my darling! I can’t think of a single girl of my acquaintance who wouldn’t either be having hysterics or wanting to make up her face and wash her hair.’
Katrina tried not to dwell on the kiss. She said soberly: ‘I think I could have hysterics quite easily.’
‘Don’t dare. Here’s tea, drink it up like a good girl. I’ll be around when you get back here.’
She eyed him nervously. ‘Yes, but suppose there’s another tremor?’
‘I’ll be here.’ His smile was so tender that she turned away and almost ran to her room.
Someone had fetched water, so she did the best she could, put on slacks and a thin sweater and hurried back to the front of the hotel. There were a lot of people in the street, carrying bedding into the olive groves at the end of the town, sweeping up debris, hammering up broken windows and doors. There was no telephone, Lucius told her, and it would take some time before they knew how bad the earthquake had been. It would have missed Athens and the coast and it was to be hoped, done most damage in the mountains where there were few people and even fewer villages. ‘The tavernas are going to feed everyone presently; there’s no electricity, of course, but one or two oil stoves undamaged.’
‘What can I do to help?’
‘Help feed the children, I should think—I’ll ask.’
It was a job which needed no knowledge of Greek. Katrina helped out where she could and wished she could have done more. Lucius was shovelling rubble with some of the other men and the older women were still carrying blankets out into the open ready for the night. The worst was over, the landlord told them, the weather was already cooler and the sky had lost its haziness; now all would be well and they would be able to resume their holiday in a day or two. A pity about the car, he shrugged, but what could one expect?
Anything, apparently, thought Katrina, and wondered how they would get back to Athens. But she didn’t bother Lucius with questions, he wouldn’t know the answers anyway and he was far too busy. They had supper with everyone else later and presently, urged on by the landlord, took their blankets and pillows down the street and spread them out on the rough grass like everyone else. It was very crowded and extremely noisy, but Katrina was too tired to mind about that, only just before she slept she stretched out a hand to Lucius beside her. ‘If you don’t mind,’ she told him, ‘I’d like to hold your hand.’
His large firm grip was reassuring, as was his voice bidding her goodnight, and she was asleep within seconds.
They were in Gravia two days, and since they couldn’t get away, they turned to with a will and helped where they could. Katrina helped with the cooking and the washing of dishes and the cleaning of houses, and suspected that Lucius was enjoying himself. Speaking the language helped, of course. Katrina, using sign language and head-nodding and shaking, envied him that.
At the end of the second day an army jeep came through, bringing aid of all kinds and the news that the road was passable with great care, and since most of its occupants were to stay in Gravia to organise the clearing up, and the driver was to return to Athens immediately, Lucius and Katrina were offered a lift. They were given a rousing send-off as the jeep started on its return trip, and Katrina felt tears running down her cheeks as they turned a corner and the last of the houses was lost to sight. Lucius passed her his handkerchief, gave her time to mop her face, blow her nose and give a good sniff before remarking that they might return some day and renew acquaintance with the little town. He took the handkerchief from her, tucked her hand in his, and engaged in conversation with the driver until they reached Delphi, almost undamaged. Katrina hoped that he wouldn’t suggest that they stopped there, but he didn’t, and they drove on over an increasingly better road and presently reached Athens.
The earthquake had been a mere tremor in the city and there had been no damage. Their driver set them down outside the Grande Bretagne, bade them a cheerful goodbye, and drove off as the doorman came down the steps to meet them and summon a porter to take their bags. Katrina could only understand a small part of what he was saying, his English was fragmen-tal and heavily interlarded with Greek, but there was no mistaking the welcome they received from the hotel manager when they reached the foyer. Katrina, led to her room with a tray of tea carried hard on her heels, peeled off her clothes, drank her tea and soaked in a hot bath, thinking of the food she was going to eat presently. It was heavenly to get into one of her pretty knitted outfits and spend time on her face and hair and then go through to the sitting room where Lucius was waiting with drinks. ‘It seems like a dream,’ she observed, sipping sherry, and marvelled at Lucius’s elegance—twenty-four hours ago he had been shovelling away a tumbled wall, covered in dust, sleeves rolled up and exchanging jokes with the man he had been working with.
‘Bad in places, but on the whole, very nice.’ Lucius stared at her so hard that she looked enquiringly at him.
‘Have I got a spot or something?’ she asked.
He shook his head. ‘No—I was thinking that you have the kind of face a man can look at forever and never grow tired of.’
She finished her sherry and put the glass down. She sought for something lighthearted to say and came out with: ‘You mean nothing startling...’
‘No, I mean something tranquil and gentle and steadfast—they add up to beauty, Katie.’
She carefully undid the knot of her belt and retied it, not looking at him. She must take care not to imagine things—he was being kind as an old friend was kind, nothing else. She said gravely, ‘Thank you, Lucius—that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.’ And when he didn’t answer: ‘Could we go down to dinner? I’m very hungry.’
He agreed at once, looking amused, and all they talked of during the meal was of plans for their return home in a day or two’s time. And after their meal they wandered outside and sat down for coffee as they had done before. And just as before they hadn’t been there long before the cosy little lady stopped by their table. ‘Well, fancy seeing you again!’ she declared happily. ‘Hasn’t it all been exciting? There’s bee
n an earthquake, you know...’
Lucius smiled down at her. ‘Yes, we’re just back— we were there.’
Her eyes grew round. ‘How very interesting! I should so like to...’
Her sister, looming at her elbow, cut her short. ‘We shall be late for our meal,’ she reminded her severely. She eyed Katrina with sternness. ‘It has to be hoped that your experience has had a sobering effect upon your way of life,’ she remarked acidly. ‘Gallivanting around Europe is no way to behave, and you’re old enough to know better.’
Katrina stared at her, round-eyed. It was Lucius who answered, his voice very quiet, but there was a note in it which made the woman draw back a step.
‘I think you don’t know what you’re saying, Miss...er... This young lady, far from gallivanting round Europe, leads an exemplary life in a small village where she does a great deal of good work. She is, moreover, my future wife. Be good enough to bear that in mind. Good evening.’ He turned to smile at the upset face of the woman’s sister and sat down again. When they had gone he said: ‘Sorry about that, love. Not a nice woman at all. I’m sorry for her sister.’
‘Well, she did rather take me by surprise,’ Katrina grinned suddenly. ‘Thanks for the splendid reference!’
‘And every word of it true, Katie. Darling Katie!’ He smiled at her and took her hand lying on the table. ‘We shall be a very happy couple.’
Chapter 9
Katie sat and looked at him, searching her head for the right answer and coming up with nothing at all, her heart beating so loud and fast that she felt sure he must hear it. When Lucius said, still smiling: ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’ she shook her head and said with convincing lightness: ‘No, of course I don’t. I expect you’ve said that to dozens of girls.’
His grey eyes became cold; he said coolly: ‘This is obviously neither the time nor the place.’
‘What for?’
‘The talk we were going to have. If you remember, we were just embarking upon it when the earthquake started.’
