Love and the Gods
Page 11
There were no lights in the portholes and the Duke guessed that the seamen were asleep.
He was the first to leave the rowboat and climb up the rope ladder onto the deck.
Still without speaking because the words would not come to his lips, he walked down the companionway to his cabin.
He reached it still in the same haze of feelings that he had experienced on Delos.
Then he remembered, just as he was about to open his bedroom door, that they had left the other cabin in a mess.
It would be a mistake if by any chance one of the Stewards opened the door tomorrow and he would see that something had been taken out of the large case that had been brought aboard in London.
‘I must put the blankets back into it,’ he thought, ‘and shut it up.’
He opened the door and now for the first time he realised that his lantern was still in his hand.
He then lit it again and could see in its light that the cabin had indeed been left in a real mess.
He closed the door behind him and put the lantern on the dressing table.
As he did so, he became aware that the packing case containing the statue of Aphrodite that had been in the corner had fallen over and was lying on its side.
He wondered why it had fallen and he hoped that the exquisitely carved Goddess he had to present to Queen Victoria had not in any way been damaged.
So he bent down and tried to pull the packing case back into place.
It was, he thought, heavier than he expected, but he managed with some difficulty to stand it up as it had been before.
It was then he thought that he had better look at it in case in falling over the statue had smashed.
It had been in perfect condition when the King gave it to him and it would indeed be incredibly embarrassing if he had to bring it back to Athens to have it repaired, worse still, if it was broken and he had to plead for a replacement.
It was not difficult to undo the packing covering it and he knew that it had been put on in a hurry.
He pulled it open.
It was a relief to see that the coloured blankets still completely covered it.
If nothing else, they would certainly have prevented the head from being broken off and, if he was fortunate, they might have kept it from being damaged in any way.
Slowly the Duke peeled off the covers one by one.
Then, as he lifted the last cover, he was suddenly struck into immobility.
He thought he must be dreaming.
Looking at him with frightened eyes was not the head of Aphrodite that he was expecting, but the face of Princess Thalia.
For a moment there was complete silence.
The Duke felt that his experience with Apollo must have affected his mind.
Then Thalia stammered in a tremulous voice,
“I am so sorry – I tumbled over – but I fell asleep.”
The words came jerkily from her lips.
There was a long pause before the Duke managed to ask,
“What are you doing? Why are you here?”
“You said – you would help me, Your Grace, but – I knew that they would think it best for me – to go back to my uncle.”
She gave a sob.
“When His Majesty was called away,” she went on, “I knew this was my only chance of escape.”
“What have you done with the statue of Aphrodite the King asked me to convey to Queen Victoria?” the Duke demanded.
He had not spoken since they had left Delos and it seemed now as if his voice was that of a stranger. It did not seem to belong to him.
“I hid it behind the sofa,” Thalia answered. “And when they find it, I hope they will not be angry with you.”
The Duke thought they might think him extremely rude or perhaps they would not believe the servants when they said they had packed the object they had been ordered to.
They had then found the statue wrapped in coloured blankets waiting for them in the sitting room!
But the Duke knew that the real question he had to answer was what, now that Princess Thalia was with him, he should do with her.
She was still looking at him pleadingly.
After a moment he remarked,
“You could easily have been suffocated and I am sure you felt very cramped.”
“I think it will be difficult – for a while to stand on my legs,” Thalia replied. “Or are you – perhaps – going to throw me into the sea?”
Unexpectedly, even to himself, the Duke laughed.
“I will not do that, Thalia, but I am astonished and totally flabbergasted to find you here when, as I expect you are only too well aware, I was looking for the beautiful statue of Aphrodite.”
“I am very sorry to have impersonated her in such – a way,” Thalia replied humbly, “but I knew that I could not escape my uncle – while I remained in Athens and I might not have – the chance of climbing the Parthenon again.”
“You promised me you would not do so,” the Duke asserted sharply.
Then quite suddenly, he began to chuckle.
“I don’t believe it. Just how can it be possible that you were clever enough to stow away on my yacht? And what am I to do with you now you are here?”
“You can, of course, push me overboard and – I am not a good swimmer – ” The Duke did not speak and she carried on,
“Or you could stop at the next island – and tell me I must go home on my own.”
The Duke thought, looking so amazingly lovely as she did, she would easily find someone who would escort her to anywhere she wished to go.
At the same time she might also be very frightened by any man who found her alone.
“I suppose,” he said, “as you have come uninvited onto my yacht, I must be now hospitable and treat you as a welcome guest.”
Her eyes lit up and she asked eagerly,
“Would you really do that? May I please stay with you, Your Grace? Oh please, please – don’t send me back! If you do, I will have to die rather than marry that horrible ghastly Russian.”
“Those are two things you must not do,” the Duke said. “I therefore invite you, Your Highness, to join me on my yacht, although I am not, at the moment, quite certain where I am going.”
“You will not go back to Greece?” Thalia asked him nervously.
“I did not intend to return quite so soon,” the Duke replied. “I suppose you could hide in one of the cabins while I go ashore, but that would be rather frightening as well as boring.”
“Please allow me to stay with you until you reach England,” Thalia begged. “I had an English Governess at one time. I am sure if I can find her, she will let me stay with her until I find some work I can do.”
“And just what would that be?” the Duke asked her cynically.
Thalia shrugged her shoulders.
“I can teach children Greek. I also speak quite a number of other languages. The only difficulty might be that I am a foreigner and the British would not let me in.”
The Duke thought the real problem would be that she was far too beautiful to be independent and earn her own living – certainly too enchanting not to be chaperoned when she was alone with him on his yacht.
Aloud he suggested,
“I think that all these problems can wait, at any rate until the morning. What I want to do now is to go to bed.”
“Because it was rather stifling being wrapped up in those blankets and shut up without any air,” Thalia said, “I am very thirsty.”
“I will find you something to drink. Quite frankly, after this extraordinary escapade of yours, I think it should be a glass of champagne!”
He did not wait for her to answer, but walked out of the cabin and up to the Saloon.
As he expected there was a large bottle of unopened champagne in the ice bucket in case he wanted a drink.
Taking the bottle and two glasses he walked below.
He was aware, as he did so, that Jenkins was in his cabin.
; He thought perhaps he would be wise in sending his valet to his own room and then he reckoned it would be more difficult in the morning to tell him the truth than it was at this very moment.
He walked into the Master cabin and closed the door behind him as he began,
“I have just discovered, Jenkins, that we have a stowaway on board. She is a Princess who has run away from her relatives because they are forcing her to marry a particularly unpleasant Russian.”
Jenkins looked surprised, but did not speak.
“It is a problem,” the Duke went on, “you and I will have to face in the morning. But I think it will embarrass her to meet you now, so go to bed and then I will look after myself.”
It was typical of Jenkins to listen without saying anything.
After a short pause he said,
“Very good, Your Grace. What time do you wish me to call you?”
“Eight o’clock. And say nothing of our stowaway until we have spoken to her in the morning.”
“I understand, Your Grace,” Jenkins replied.
He took the bottle of champagne from the Duke and opened it and then without saying another word, he walked from the room closing the door behind him.
The Duke found it amusing.
He had never known Jenkins, at any time, not to be able to cope with a situation however unusual and however dangerous.
Then he went into the cabin next door.
Thalia was standing and by the light of the lantern, she was looking into the mirror and tidying her hair.
She turned round when the Duke appeared.
“I have tried to make myself look more presentable. But being shut up for so long, I don’t feel that I will do you or your fabulous yacht any credit.”
“You have not seen the yacht yet, but you will do so tomorrow. So now come to my cabin and have a glass of champagne and then I will find somewhere for you to sleep.”
There were naturally several other cabins on board The Mermaid.
The Duke just wondered if the beds were made up. Perhaps the Stewards, thinking he would be alone, had left them without sheets.
In which case, he thought, he would have to offer Thalia his own bed.
As if she knew what he was thinking, she followed him into the Master cabin.
“I don’t want to be a nuisance, Your Grace. After falling asleep when I was supposed to be a rigid statue of the Goddess, I can sleep anywhere. Even the floor is not too hard!”
“What a bad host you would make me appear,” the Duke countered. “You must think of me, not of yourself.”
Thalia laughed.
“You are being very kind and very understanding. I was really afraid that you would rage at me and even throw me overboard.”
“I may do so tomorrow, but like you I need a glass of champagne. Suppose we now toast each other for being clever enough to survive.”
“If anyone has to survive it has to be me,” Thalia murmured. “But you have only yourself to blame for what is happening. If you had let me do what I intended to do, when I climbed to the top of the Parthenon, none of this would have happened.”
“Think how boring that would have been for you, Thalia. You cannot be at all certain they would welcome you in the next world – if there is one – and it would have upset the sightseers to find your crumpled body lying on the stones at the bottom of the Parthenon.”
He saw Thalia give a little shiver.
“Now you have decided, as I told you to do, that life is important. You therefore have to live your life in the future to the very best of your ability, even if at times it is extremely uncomfortable.”
“Like pretending to be Aphrodite, Your Grace. My legs are aching and I am not certain that you will not have to carry me about tomorrow.”
The Duke knew that she was teasing.
“You are very light, Thalia, and I daresay that I can sling you over my back if I am going to climb a mountain. Or perhaps you are right and I should drop you into the sea and instruct you to swim home!”
“I don’t think you will do either of those things, but I promise you I have no wish to be an encumbrance or to spoil your holiday if that is what this is.”
Thalia thought for a moment before continuing,
“If you will put me down at Marseilles on the way home, I expect I can find my way to Paris where I have several friends who were at school with me.”
“Do you think you could reach them safely?” As he asked the question, he was sure that Thalia would get into endless trouble of her own.
She was too exquisite and too unusual not to attract men wherever she was.
He was afraid too, that her school friends would be glad if her visit to them was a short one.
“You are looking very serious,” she commented. “Is it because you are thinking I am a nuisance and you want to be rid of me?”
“I was thinking that you would not be particularly welcomed by any of the girls of your own age, for the simple reason that you are far more beautiful than they are likely to be.”
Thalia gazed at him,
“Are you really saying that seriously?” she asked.
“Very seriously. That is why tomorrow when we are not tired, we must sit down and think exactly what you can actually do without having to return ignominiously to your uncle.”
“You know the answer to that. I am not going back to him. Even if you could prevent me from climbing the Parthenon, I will find some other way, although it may not be easy, of disposing of myself.”
“You will not do anything of the sort,” the Duke replied angrily. “You will be sensible and somehow the Gods will tell us what you will do and where you will go.”
“Are you talking seriously, Your Grace? Or are you in reality laughing at the Gods because we, the Greeks, believe in them?”
“I would never laugh at the Gods,” the Duke said, “especially Apollo.”
He was thinking of all the strange sensations he had felt in the cave.
Then it suddenly struck him that perhaps Apollo himself knew that Thalia was hiding on his yacht.
And he was telling him that it was his duty to look after her.
‘How can I possibly do anything else,’ he mused, ‘when Apollo himself has made sure I will do so?’
Because he was silent, Thalia was looking at him.
Now she said,
“Please let’s be sensible for a moment. I promise I will not do anything to upset you, but I cannot and will not return to Athens. I will go anywhere you tell me, but not to Greece.”
The Duke held out his hand.
For a moment, she hesitated.
Then she put her hand in his.
“Now just you listen to me, Thalia. I have saved you from doing what was wrong and wicked. So now, I feel you are my responsibility and I must find a solution to your problem. What I want you to do now is to trust me completely and then perhaps we will find the answer.”
He felt Thalia’s fingers quiver in his.
And then she said,
“Thank you, thank you so very much for being so wonderful. When I saw the statue of Aphrodite waiting to go aboard your yacht, I knew I would be safe only if I was with you.”
She paused for a moment before she added,
“I felt as if the Goddess Aphrodite, to whom I have always prayed, was telling me what I should do.”
The Duke remembered what Apollo’s statue had meant to him.
Perhaps Thalia had the same feeling about Apollo as he had experienced in the cave.
“What we will both do,” he suggested “is to follow the advice of Apollo, which I am sure he will give us if we both pray hard enough.”
“Do you really believe that?” enquired Thalia.
“Yes, I do believe it. If you had asked me that question when I was in England, I would not have known the answer. But now I am sure it must have been Apollo who told me when I reached the top of the Parthenon that you intended to kill yourself and that I had to stop you.”
“I am very prepared to believe,” he continued, “that, when I took you to the Palace, Apollo told you he was coming here with me and provided you, quite simply, with the packing that was intended for Aphrodite.”
Thalia gave a little cry.
“Do you really believe that? If you do, it’s the most marvellous thing that has ever happened. My uncle has always laughed at me for believing the Gods were guiding me. He is a Christian and he scorns the ancient Gods of Olympus and is convinced they have misguided the Greek people for many centuries.”
“The Gods have not only helped those who live in Greece, but people who live all over the world have reason to be grateful for the part Greece has played in developing our civilisation.”
“How can you be English and say such things?” Thalia asked him.
“Perhaps I am well read and that is what I think you are too, Thalia.”
“They laughed at me at school because I wanted to learn so much. Not only about my own country but about the whole world. What I long to do, which I thought so impossible, is to travel to all the countries I have read about and see the whole world.”
‘As I have been lucky enough to do,’ the Duke thought to himself.
“But,” Thalia went on, “the people round me wish me not to live my own life but to do what they tell me.”
There was a note of both bitterness and fear in the way she spoke.
The Duke had not relinquished her hand and now he tightened his fingers.
“I think we both know now that is what we have to do. To explore the world and perhaps give to other people some of the love, beauty and intelligence that comes to us directly from the Gods.”
“How can you believe that and be an Englishman?” Thalia challenged him again.
“Who knows, in my last reincarnation, I may have been a Greek. Perhaps, although you are not aware of it, you were an Englishwoman.”
Thalia gave a little cry.
“Oh, do let’s talk about it! What you say is so exciting and at the same time so unusual. My uncle would never talk about such issues and conversation in his house was always dull and boring.”
“That is something mine will never be. Now if you finish your champagne, Thalia, I want you to go to bed. Tomorrow morning we will sort everything out one way or another.”