She shot out of the lift and into the cold, windy street. It was Loukos she was angry with, but it was Colin who walked by her side and who came in for the backlash of her indignation.
'Didn't you mind his giving me the brooch?' she demanded, tossing her red hair back over her shoulders.
'Why should I? It looks a nice piece,' Colin replied.
Charity came to a full stop. All the disappointment she had felt in him all day came to a head. If she could have brought herself to touch him, she would have hit out at him.
'Is that all you can say? That it's a valuable piece? Is that all you care about? Well, it isn't enough! He made me kiss him too!'
'Why not?' Colin said easily. 'We were all there in the same room. It didn't mean anything. All the people here go round embracing each other all the time, the men as well as the women. Besides, you didn't mind, did you?'
'Yes, I did!' she stormed. ''I minded very much! If you'd been anything of a man you would have called him to account for kissing me. I belong to you, don't I?'
Colin's startled expression would have made her laugh at another time. 'I say, steady on,' he said. 'We may be thinking of getting married, but I hadn't thought of your belonging to me exactly. If you ask me, you're making a great fuss about nothing.'
'I'm not! He was expecting you to protect me from him -and I was too!'
'Then you're in for another disappointment,' Colin told her, refusing to get annoyed. ''I was rather glad he wanted to kiss you, actually. It makes our position a bit stronger. It's no good getting all het up, Charity. I'mnot going to quarrel with you, whatever you throw at me. I know you well enough by now to know that it's your hair talking and not the real you. And if you take my advice, you'll go on playing Loukos Papandreous along, just as you have been doing. From what his aunt was telling me, he has an eye for a pretty girl and is generous with it'
Charity stared at him, her anger so great that she was speechless. She swallowed the lump in her throat, her disillusionment so great that she felt she could taste it. She forced herself to walk slowly forward along the pavement, not caring any longer if the passers-by did see that she was crying.
'Colin, you don't love me at all, do you?'
He shrugged. 'Oh, I don't know,' he said. 'I always knew I'd marry you in the end, I suppose. I hadn't thought it would be quite so soon, but that was before Alexander came into our lives. I don't much care to start our married life with a ready-made baby that has nothing to do with me. I
think I'm owed something for being prepared to take him on, and I think, if we play our cards right, Loukos will see things my way. Did you hear him at lunch, talking about the ships he owns? That man must be loaded! Oh no, Charity my girl, you're not going to quarrel with me, and you're not going to quarrel with Loukos Papandreous either. If he wants to kiss you now and then, that's okay by me. As long as he comes across with a marriage settlement, he can do as he pleases for the short time we'll be here.'
Charity broke into a run. 'Well, it isn't all right by me!' she shouted at him over her shoulder. 'I don't have to marry you! He won't give me Alexander whether I do or not - he said so! And I don't want to marry you. I hate you!'
But Colin only laughed. 'You'll marry me,' he said certainly. 'He doesn't want Alexander, that's for sure, but he won't let you have him without a husband to be a father to the child. You'll marry me, Charity Archer, because I know how to make him give up Alexander'
'You?'she cried scornfully. 'You think you can get the better of Loukos?'
Colin nodded. 'I know I can,' he said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Perhaps it was celebrating Christmas abroad that had upset her, Charity told herself. There had to be some reason why she felt at odds with herself and everyone else at the same time. It had been four days since she had seen Loukos and yet she was no closer to getting him out of her mind than she had been on Christmas evening. Why had he had to kiss her in the first place? She had been doing fine until then. He had been Alexander's uncle, a foreigner, a man who had held an attraction for her, it was true, but not this commanding figure who made her feel like a puppet ready to respond to his lightest touch on the strings.
She tried to think about Colin and found that really she preferred not to think about him at all. She had alwaysliked Colin, as had her father, but at the moment all she felt was an increasing impatience with him. Poor man, he could hardly open his mouth without her jumping down his throat! And yet the last thing she wanted to do was to antagonize him, because he was the only passport she held to the control of Alexander. He had said he could outwit Loukos and get Alexander for her, and she had no reason not to believe him. She would marry him, of course she would marry him, and then everything would be well and she would wonder why this madness had taken her in Athens making her hesitant and miserable and quite unlike herself.
For the last four days she had hardly seen anything of Colin, which had been partly by her own choice, but must have been partly by his as well, and had seen nothing of the Papandreous family at all. It was only then that she realized how lonely she was. She even went down to the bar to look for Colin and felt a surge of gladness when she saw him
there, drinking his inevitable whisky.
'Hullo, stranger,' she greeted him lightly.
He frowned up at her, making no effort to get up. 'I've been here,' he said. ''I didn't think you wanted to see me, skulking up there in your room by yourself!'
She flushed. 'Not skulking!' she objected. 'I've been trying to make up my mind about things'
'I thought you already had!'
She sat down opposite him, regarding him thoughtfully. 'Oh?'
'You made up your mind, my dear, when you asked me out here to help you. That was your moment of decision.' He smiled, but she felt more uncomfortable than warmed by it. 'Mine was to come to your rescue. What's more, I don't think we shall have any difficulty in getting our way. It would be better if you would play along with Loukos, though. I don't want him getting suspicious.'
'Why should he be?' she demanded.
Colin smiled again. 'It's better that you don't know too much. Just agree with everything he proposes and leave the rest to me!'
Charity shivered, suddenly cold. 'But, Colin, I'm afraid'
'Oh, heavens! I know he turns you on, but you wouldn't like to live the rest of your life with him, would you? A few kisses won't matter in the long run. You'll have Alexander to console you - think about that!'
'And you?' she said.
'When we get back to London, I'll cling to you both like a leech, my pet. I know when I'm-on to a good thing!'
'You mean you love me?' Charity asked, determined to get that at least quite straight in her mind.
'Haven't I always? Relax, Charity, you haven't a thing to worry about any longer'
'But I do worry!'
He gave her an impatient look. 'I've told you there's no
need! All you have to do is to leave everything to me. That's simple enough, isn't it?'
'It would be if I loved you,' she said slowly. 'I'm not sure that I do. I feel so muddled about everything. You'll have to be patient with me. In England I thought I loved you, but everything was different then.'
Colin laughed. 'It isn't half as important as you imagine,' he said. 'That sort of love doesn't last long anyway. You'll find we'll settle down together quite happily. There's nothing like a little money to help oil the wheels, and we'll have that if I have my way.'
She was so chilled by this bleak view of life that she didn't think to ask him where the money was coming from. She began to wish that she hadn't come downstairs to find Colin. She didn't like the cold way he looked at her, and she didn't like the way his lips thinned almost to nothing whenever he smiled at her.
When the barman came over to her and said she was wanted on the telephone, she knew such a sense of relief that she was afraid. Surely she couldn't want to get away from Colin as much as that?
To make it all much, much
worse, when she heard Loukos' voice on the wire her heart turned right over and, if he had been physically present, nothing would have prevented her from walking straight into his arms. As it was, she stood by the telephone in a shattered silence, trying not to sound as desperate as she felt.
''I rang up to thank you for having us for Christmas,' she said abruptly. 'I got Electra.'
''I know,' he said. 'Electra told me. That is one reason why 'I am phoning now. I have been away these last few days, but now I have returned to Athens and am at your disposal to show you something of my city. Would you like that?'
Charity took a deep breath. 'Yes,' she said.
'Just yes?'
'What do you want me to say?' she countered.
'You could say that you missed me and that you can't wait to see me again.' This was so close to the truth that, apart from a slight gasp that could have been of annoyance, but which she knew was caused by a fluttery warm excitement that she had no business to be feeling at all, she kept a breathless silence and hoped that he would take that as sufficient encouragement to go on. He did. 'Have you been to Sounion yet?'
'S-Sounion?'
'I'll pick you up at the Tower of the Winds at half past two. Bring your watchdog with you and then I can tell you to your face that your nephew has inherited more than your red hair, he has a few of your ways as well.'
Charity swallowed. ''I don't know if Colin will want to come.'
'He'll come,' Loukos said with unexpected certainty. 'I don't know' Charity began.
'Tell him you're afraid to be alone with me,' Loukos said calmly. 'That won't offend your conscience, because it is true.'
Charity didn't like to say that she had already told Colin something along those lines - and much good it had done her. 'How - how do you know?' she asked.
He laughed. 'I'll tell you this afternoon,' he said, and with that she had to be content.
Fortunately, Colin seemed to be only too willing to go to Sounion. 'It's important that he thinks we haven't anything else to do but have him show us round,' he muttered. 'You especially have got to be available,Charity. I don't think you'll find it a difficult part to play,' he added dryly.
Charity didn't care what he thought. She went with him into the restaurant, but she didn't taste a single mouthful of what she ate. She changed her mind half a dozen times as to what she should wear. She even thought of consulting Colin about the problem, but he had his own problems to worry at, and she didn't like to interrupt his thoughts. In the end she
wore a pale green pair of trousers with a turtlenecked jumper of exactly the same colour. She thought she looked rather nice, but Colin said nothing when he saw her except that if she didn't hurry up they would be late.
At Charity's behest, they walked to the Tower of the Winds. She was glad to find that they had arrived first, because the sight of the Tower brought back an overwhelming memory of the first time she had seen Loukos, walking like Apollo towards her. Colin thought the ancient clock rather a boring edifice and said so, loud and long. Charity first tried to defend the beauty of the carvings that depicted the eight winds, and then relapsed into a huffy silence when Colin could barely bring himself to look at them.
She didn't notice Loukos at first and wondered how long he had been standing by the side of the road, leaning over the rails that rose sharply by the side of the Roman agoraand looking down at her.
'Hullo!' she called up to him.
He raised a hand to her and began to walk down the street to the entrance of the agora.'Are you ready to go?' he asked.
She nodded, suddenly shy of him. She looked over her shoulder for Colin and saw him coming slowly over the rough ground towards them. His walk was stooped and he looked thin and rather ineffectual. Charity longed to tell him to hold his head up, but of course she couldn't do that and so she frowned at him instead.
'I have the car at the top of the steps over there,' Loukos went on, pointing up the slope behind him. 'Go ahead, Charity, and get in. It is cold out here and that coat of yours is not very thick. I'll wait for Colin.'
There were more steps than Charity had expected. She hurried up them, not looking back because she didn't want to see how Colin would greet Loukos. She didn't want to feel ashamed of him any more, and she did feel ashamed of him because he was so ungracious to all the Greeks - not
that Loukos couldn't have put him in his place if he wanted to do so. Panting a little from the exertion of running up the steps, Charity got into the back of the car, leaving the front seat free for Colin. He would expect it of her, of course, for he always said that a man's legs were too long for the back seat of any car, but that wasn't entirely why she had left it for him. That was because she wanted to have the opportunity of comparing the two men without them knowing what she was doing. It was an odd form of masochism, Charity told herself, because she already knew that any life and vigour Colin possessed was drained away by Loukos' greater attractions.
The men got into the front seats without looking at her. Colin was laughing a little, but his expression was cold. 'This is good of you, Mr. Papandreous,' he was saying. 'Charity hasn't wanted to do much sightseeing. I don't think she cares for Greece much, but she ought to see as much of it as she can before going back to England, don't you think?'
'She has time,' Loukos answered.
Colin laughed again. ''I can't spare her for long!' he protested.
'No? But she will be coming to Greece often enough to see Alexandros. 'I have been meaning to speak to you about this. Naturally, we shall see that her fare is paid whenever she comes.'
'That's good of you, but I don't think it will be necessary,' Colin said. 'If you won't let her have the child, I think a clean break will be the best for us all. Charity gets upset easily.'
Loukos glanced briefly in Colin's direction. 'Then it is up to us to upset her as little as possible. We will discuss this some other time.'
Charity jumped. If only she trusted Colin, she wouldn't mind leaving it all to him, but she wasn't sure that he wanted Alexander, she wasn't sure of anything about him!
'I want to be there when you discuss it,' she announced from the back. ''I think not,' Loukos said quietly. 'But why not?' she protested.
He smiled at her in the driving mirror, completely at his ease. 'Colin will speak for you. We can discuss the matter more freely if you are not there. You must see that, Charity. How can Colin say what he wants himself, if he knows that you want something different and will think him disloyal if he voices his own doubts?'
'But he doeswant what I want!' she exclaimed.
'Then you have no need to worry,' Loukos returned.
There was no arguing with him! Charity turned impulsively to Colin, but her first words died away before she had spoken them when she saw the amused, almost gleeful expression on his face.
'Are you going to agree to my being excluded?' she demanded hotly.
'If that's the Greek way of doing things I don't see why we should object. You don't make things very easy for me, Charity. It will be all right!'
She blinked, well aware of Loukos' sardonic sideways look at them both. She couldn't think why Colin was so confident of getting his own way. She knew now that in the end they would have to do exactly as Loukos decided, and so, if she felt angry with anyone, the logical object of her wrath should have been the Greek, but it wasn't. She felt an anger against Colin who was so smug,and sure of himself, and half-baked when compared with Loukos!
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