Moon of Aphrodite (12 page)

have more colour today. Our Greek sun agrees with you, it would seem.'

'Everything here agrees with me,' she said gently. Except one, she thought inwardly,

and this isn't quite the moment to bring him into the conversation.

'Josephina looked after you wel ?' he asked. 'She was hardly more than a child herself

when she came here to be nursemaid to your mother. She worshipped the baby. Maria

took Josephina's heart too when she ran away. In you, she sees her beloved child

restored. That is good.'

Helen smiled a little. 'As long as I don't break her heart again when I have to go home,'

she returned.

'This is your home.' The black eyes under the shaggy brows flashed with sudden fire.

'I hope it is,' she said. 'But I do have another one in London, and I have to return there

when this holiday is over. I thought that was understood when I agreed to come here.'

She met her grandfather's glare with apparent equanimity.

'Already you talk of leaving,' he grumbled in an undertone. 'Phoros does not appeal to

you?'

'It's beautiful.' Helen felt they were on dangerous ground, and tried to shift the

emphasis of the conversation. 'Is there only the one smal port? How many people

actual y live here?'

He shrugged. 'Not many. There are a few vil as, used by busy men as their retreat as

mine is. I built this vil a for your grandmother. I wanted our children to grow up away

from the city. I thought we would end our days here together. If I had realised how

long I would be alone here, I think I would have torn it down to its foundations.' His

hand came down on her shoulder. 'Do not leave me alone here, Eleni,'

She hesitated before replying. It was clear that her grandfather was trying to obtain

some kind of commitment from her, and this was something she did not feel able to

give. She had promised to spend a month here, but that was al .
Somehow she had to

make him realise that she had a life, responsibilities she could not ignore even if she

wanted to, back in England. Her father needed her, and not simply because she fil ed a

vital role at the gal ery. She had heard the phrase 'tug-of-love' many times, she thought

with a sense of despair, and hadn't realised it could apply to adults as wel as children.

She tried to smile. Grandfather, you're not being fair! Let's just take each day as it

comes, and make the most of every minute. Now, where are we going to have lunch?

Out on your balcony?'

'I think I would like to eat downstairs.' Michael Korialis gave the discreetly busy nurse

an openly defiant look. 'There is an arbour with a view at the end of tine terrace, and it

can be pleasant there. And Damon wil be joining us,' he added with evident

satisfaction.

Helen, out of the corner of her eye, saw the nurse pick up a tray with medicines and

head for the door. She smothered a sigh of relief.

'Can't we have lunch alone—or just with Thia Irini?' she added quickly.

He gave a grunt. 'My sister wil not eat with us. She dislikes meals taken in the open

air.: He gave Helen a narrow look. 'It is my wish that you become better acquainted

with Damon.'

Helen bit her lip, repressing an urge to inform him that she had nearly been more

intimately acquainted with Mr. Leandros than even her grandfather could wish.

She said, 'Did you know that he asked me to go swimming with him earlier?'

'You did not accept his invitation?' Her grandfather sounded faintly amused.

'No.' Helen paused, then settled for ambiguity. 'I wasn't sure if it was—safe to do so.'

Michael Korialis chuckled. 'Our gardens lead to a beach which belongs to this vil a.

There are no currents or dangerous rocks, pedhi mou.'

No, Helen thought, but deeper waters possibly than I have any intention of getting into.

She smiled up at her grandfather. 'That's very reassuring,' she said.

'Then the next time Damon invites you to swim with him, you wil go?'

Taken aback, Helen said, 'Why, there may not be a next time. He may not ask me

again.'

There was a rumble of laughter. 'I think he wil , my little one. Oh, I think so.'

He sounded almost approving, Helen thought with sudden apprehension, and that was

something she had to put a stop to light now. She had wanted to choose her own time

—the right time to make her accusation against Damon Leandros. Something told her

this was too soon, but the initiative had been taken away from her.

She said clearly, 'I hope he doesn't ask me. Grandfather. I find him total y detestable. I

don't want to worry you or upset you, but I've got to tel you that you can't trust him.'

'What are you saying?' The hand on her shoulder tightened suddenly.

Helen swal owed. Al the gleeful anticipation she had imagined she would feel had

vanished. Instead she was the stranger, the intruder, bringing bad news about a man

her grandfather knew wel and relied on deeply.

She said, 'I don't know exactly what his duties are round here, but I don't think making

passes—trying to make love to your female relatives—is among them. His behaviour to

me in London and on the journey here has been despicable!'

There was a long silence, and when she ventured to look up at him, he was frowning',

his shaggy brows drawn heavily together.

'Are you tel ing me that Damon has become your lover? This I do not believe.'

'Oh, no,' she said hastily. 'I don't think even he would dare to go that far, but he—he

kissed me—and —and humiliated me in other ways.' She was miserably aware that the

sense of outrage which had driven her so far was withering under the realisation that

her complaints were making her sound like an insufferable little prig. And she hoped

that Michael Korialis would not make her specify the other ways'.

'You find it humiliating for a man to demonstrate that he finds you desirable?' Her

grandfather's tone was dry suddenly. 'I had not thought that young Englishwomen led

such sheltered lives. Your compatriots who come to Greece on holiday give a different

impression.'

'You—you sound as if you're, defending him.' She shook her head in bewilderment. 'I

thought—I took it for granted that you'd be angry that one of your employees, however

highly you thought of him, should paw me around. I assumed you would fire him.'

'Fire him?' He stared
down at her as if she had gone mad. 'What is this you are saying?'

'

'It's slang,' she said miserably. 'It means—dismiss him from your employment—

dispense with his services, cal it what you like. At any rate, it means get rid of him.'

The grip relaxed on her shoulder. He was shaking al over, she could feel it, and

apprehension seized her. Had she made him il again by her disclosures, brought on

another attack?

She made herself look up at him again, and her eyes widened in incredulity. Michael

Korialis wasn't shaking with
temper, but with laughter, leaning back in his chair, eyes

closed, and giving way uninhibitedly to his enjoyment.

'Ah, pedhi mou,' he said at last, recovering himself sufficiently to pinch her cheek

jovial y. 'Someone has been having a little joke with you, I think. I cannot-— fire

Damon Leandros.'

'Why not?' she persisted. 'It isn't—he hasn't got some kind of hold over you, has he? Is

that why he thought he could behave as he did with me?'

'No, no, my little one.' He was laughing again. 'Calm your fears, Eleni. Who has been

fil ing your head with this nonsense? And who has told you that Damon is in my

employment?'

'Wel , he did—at least I think so.' She was stammering a little as she tried to remember

what had exactly been said. Had Damon Leandros actual y claimed to be working for

her grandfather or had she taken it for granted? She began to feel slightly sick. 'You

mean— he doesn't work for you?'

'He does not. He has no need to work for me or for any other man,' her grandfather

retorted wryly. 'When his father, who was my friend, died, he was already a mil ionaire.

And when his older brother, to whom I was also close, was laid to rest, he inherited the

remainder of the corporation. He could buy this island if he wished, or ray entire chain

of hotels.'

'I see.' Helen felt numb. 'So the jet—the motor cruiser—they al belonged to him.' She

forced a smile. 'You're quite right—someone was having a joke with me. In fact Mr.

Leandros was amusing himself at my expense. But then I suppose anyone as rich as he

must be can do exactly as he pleases.'

'It would certainly be a brave man who chose to oppose the wish of his heart. But he is

my friend
,
Eleni, and our families have always been close.' She could hear anxiety in

her grandfather's tone, but was there a note of warning as wel . Was he trying to tel

her that Damon Leandros would make a bad enemy?

'He wil never be my friend, Grand father,' she said slowly. 'But for your sake I wil try

to be civil to him at least'

The nurse came back at that moment, suggesting diplomatical y xo Helen that she

might wish to wait for her
grandfather downstairs. Helen guessed that Michael Korialis

might have difficulty in rising from his chair unaided, and would not want her to see this

evidence of a physical weakness which she imagined lie despised. He approved of

strength, and of the strong, she thought, as she went downstairs, and this was prob-

ably why he liked Damon Leandros. Her instinct told her that if Damon had been a

weakling or a fool, her grandfather would have had no time for him, no matter how rich

he might be.

She started violently as she realised, on reaching the foot of the stairs, that the object

of her thoughts was standing in the doorway opposite, watching her. He had changed,

she noticed. He was now wearing cream close-fitting denim pants, and a navy shirt,

unbuttoned at the throat, and his hair glistened with damp.

He was smiling too, she recognised savagely. He knew as wel as it he had been an

unseen eavesdropper in that sunlit bedroom upstairs what had transpired between

Michael Korialis and herself, and was amused by it. From the first,
he had been

amused, she thought, her temper rising. It had been a game to him—taking her

misapprehensions and playing on them deliberately— feeding her just enough rope to

ensure that she would al least make an attempt to hang herself.

Damn him, she thought wildly, her fingers involuntarily bunching into fists at her sides.

And because he was a valued friend of her grandfather, she would have to put on a

show of civility, have to smile and pretend to share the joke, starting with this blighted

lunch party.

His smile widened as if he could sense her inner turmoil, pick up her vibrations, read

her thoughts.

'The sea was like silk, Eleni. You should have come with me. But there wil be other

times. I look forward to showing Phoros to you.'

It was her turn to smile—a polite stretching of the lips which he would rightly interpret

as total y meaningless.

'That's very kind of you, Mr. Leandros, but thanks to my grandfather I've already

imposed far too much on your time and patience already.' The words of a polite child,

she thought with inward satisfaction, and saw his eyes narrow.

'It wil be my pleasure.'

'But not mine.' Something in his tone, its faint arrogance perhaps, needled her. 'The

fact that you're a rich and important man, Mr. Leandros, hasn't changed a thing as far

as I'm concerned. Your company is stil completely unacceptable to me.'

She saw his dark brows draw together swiftly. Anger, she thought triumphantly, and a

touch of incredulity too. Physical y dynamic, sexual y attractive, wealthy— up to this

point in time, he must have thought he was irresistible.

'Is that so?' he said at. last. 'And yet there have been moments, particularly on board

the Phaedra, when I gained a very different impression.'

His eyes travel ed deliberately down her body, reviving memories she would rather have

left buried in her subconscious. The colour flared in her cheeks, and she heard him

laugh softly. 'Was I wrong, Eleni?'

'Oh, no.' By some miracle she managed to sound quite cool, even controlled. 'I'm sure

you'd make a wonderful lover—very practised, very expert,' she added with a curl of

her lip. But I'm not in the market for a lover—and I'm not for sale either, in case that's

what you were thinking.'

He smiled again, but it had altered. It was no longer amused, and. it certainly did not

reach his eyes.

'As you pointed out, I am a rich man, but I did not become so by offering to buy—

commodities I could obtain for nothing,' he said, and Helen heard herself gasp at the

insult. His voice continued relentlessly, 'If I want you, Eleni, I shal take you, so stop

trying to deceive yourself.'

'You're vile!' Her voice shook. 'Get out of here—get away from me!'

'As you wish.' He shrugged as if it was a matter of supreme indifference to him. 'A

lunch party would seem inappropriate under the circumstances. Perhaps you wil make

my excuses to your grandfather.'