The Tower of the Winds

by Elizabeth Hunter

'No?' His expression softened and she caught a glimpse of something in his eyes that set her heart racing. ''I think we owe you the whole story, my love, if the mere sight of Ariadne's kiss of gratitude for sorting out her life can upset you enough—'

  'It didn't look like gratitude!' she interrupted tartly.

  He shrugged. 'Ariadne is an actress. She makes the most

  of any scene. You may believe me that it was only gratitude, though, because she has never liked me very much, not even now I have found her a husband and provided her with a substantial enough dowry to make him marry her! It was always Nikos with her. When he married Faith, she became engaged to another man and we all hoped for the best. But it was not to be. Nikos asked her to go to Delphi, to be with him, and they had a rather unsatisfactory affair. I think Nikos was tired of being nagged by your sister, and Ariadne never made that mistake! When Faith found out, as she was bound to do, she determined to leave Nikos and take the baby with her. That is when she sent for you.'

  The colour drained from Charity's face. 'But you all said that shewas to blame!'

  'Your sister was very much at fault! She made no secret of why she had married Nikos. If he had been a poor man, he would never have had a chance with her! When he decided to go to Delphi, she fought him all the way and made his life a misery because there was no doubt about how he felt about her. As his wife, she should have foreseen that he would find comfort somewhere else. She should have changed her ways and made him want to come back to her, especially when she found that she needed him and, maybe, even loved him herself. She should have waited in his house with her son and learned what it means to be a wife instead of a spoilt child! But she was too angry to think of anyone but herself. First, she sends for you whom she has not seen or bothered about for years! Then she flings herself out of the house when Nikos tries to have things out with her, killing both herself and him. Neither of them had any business to be driving in such an emotional atmosphere, and all of it quite unnecessary!'

  To Charity it sounded a harsh judgment on her im-petous, self-absorbed sister. No, the Greeks did not forgive easily, she thought with a shiver. They had found Faith wanting in the womanly qualities they held to be so import-

  ant and they had condemned her for not being like themselves. But it had not been all her fault.

  'She probably didn't know what to do,' Charity excused her. 'I can understand how she felt.'

  ''I wouldn't allow you to leave me under any circumstances!' he bit out with superb arrogance. He sounded very sure of himself. But then, Charity reflected, he had reason to be. She had told him that she wanted to be his wife on any terms, and she had proved it by marrying him when she had thought him in love with Ariadne.

  She smiled. 'How would you stop me?'

  'I'd find a way. 'I don't think your defences would be very strong against me if I made up my kind to turn you intoaloving wife. Your red hair doesn't only make you bad-tempered!' His eyes laughed into hers. 'Besides,' he added, 'your warm heart would betray you. You would worry about me and you'd have to come back to see if I was perfectly happy without you, feeling as guilty as if you'd murdered me!'

  ''I would not!' The remarkable lack of conviction in her denial made her want to laugh. How ridiculous she was being, when they both knew that nothing would make her leave him, no matter what he did to her. 'Poor Faith!' she sighed. 'I wish she'd been happier.'

  Loukos' eyes met hers and she thought she caughtaflicker of anxiety in his. 'Are you happy, loving me?' he asked.

  'Very happy,' she responded. There would be times, she knew, when she would long for the land where she had been born and had grown up, when she would long even more for the sound of her own language and the different customs of her English friends, but there would never be a time when she would regret being Loukos' wife. She gave him a brief look of inquiry. 'What was it you were going to tell me? Or was it that, about Faith?'

  He shook his head. 'It's something I should have told you long ago, but I thought you already knew.' He fingered the

  ring on her hand with a slight smile. 'My darling Charity, didn't you really guess that I love you? That I determined to marry you and make you mine when I first saw you at the Tower of the Winds? But what must you do but produce this Colin of yours whom anyone could see would never appreciate you or make you happy! Didn't you feel that I loved you when I kissed you on Christmas Day, or at Daphni when you would only promise to marry me because I could offer you Alexandros?'

  She gazed at him, wide-eyed. 'I only knew that I had fallen fathoms deep in love with you,' she confessed. ''I didn't know what to do!'

  'And last night? You must have known that I loved you!'

  'You never said so,' she said in a low voice. 'I thought that you were content that I loved you. And I do, Loukos. I love you so much that it hurts! You don't know how much! I don't expect you to love me like that, but if you could love me a little bit—' She broke off at the look on his face. 'Loukos?'

  'A little bit!' he repeated. 'I spent most of the night telling you how much I loved you! Oh, Charity, agapi mou,my darling, the sooner you learn some Greek the better!' A muscle flickered in his cheek. 'Though you must have a very odd idea of me if you think I could make love to anyone who was not my beloved as I made love to you last night!'

  'I thought—' she began. She veiled her eyes with her eyelashes, peeping at him through them, delighted to find that she had the power to move him, just as he could make her melt inside with love for him. 'You may not be Apollo,' she went on, smiling a little, 'but, to me, you are one of the godlike kind of men. You had only to look at me and what chance did a mere mortal like me have?'

  He caressed the back of her neck with a fierce pos-sessiveness that made her gasp. 'None at all!' he said. 'Let's go home, Charity. We'll send Alexandros and Electra to stay

  with my mother for a while. 'I find I want to have my wife to myself for a bit.'

  She looked up. 'Loukos, you do indeedlove me?'

  'I do indeed love you,' he agreed, smiling at her earnestness. 'And, quite shortly, I shall prove it to you all over again!'