[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
."Tired?""Yes, but happy.I did enjoy it, Doneus.""Did you?" He fell silent and they drove the whole way to their cottage without speaking.But it was a pleasant silence and when they reached the house and got out of the car they stood at the bottom of the patio steps, as if by common consent reluctant to leave the soft and silent outdoors and enter thetiny cottage with its drab furnishings and dismal whitewashed walls.The night was balmy and filled with the sort of vibrancies and exotic perfumes found only in the East.A million stars shone down from a deep purple sky; an enormous moon shed its lustre over the fretted mountain peaks and the olive-clothed hillsides, spreading its lambency on to the still, unmurmuring sea, so that its surface sparkled and glittered like frost on a field.On the tiny island opposite a light here and there shone from the window of some cubic house nestling by the shore, while the graceful campanile of the church rose, clear-cut and dazzlingly white against the volcanic massif rising in naked fluted crests behind it.Not a breath of wind stirred the carob trees at the bot-tom of Doneus's garden; the palms and cypresses in the castle gardens towered, dark against the moonlit walls, and the graceful white yacht lay still, a mere toy from this angle and distance.It was a.magical night, a night for lovers, and instinctively Julie took a step which brought her closer to her husband.Was he aware of this magic? she wondered, and lifted her face, her lips parted and quivering slightly.He looked at her in the moonlight.Caught in the shadows, his face seemed in this moment to suit his name.He appeared hard and ruthless - cruel even, but his magnetism remained and Julie was profoundly affected by it.Such a wonderful afternoon and evening it had been.Her husband's embrace would make the perfect ending, his embrace, and his kiss.and more.He moved and Julie slid into his inviting arms, responding to his kiss, flirting with him, tempting, beseeching.He sighed as he held her away, his warm fingers sliding down her arms and enclosing her hands.A sudden flatness took possession of her; at home in England she had been sought after, admired and pursued.Had she no allure for this man who was her husband? Once she had, just for that one blissful night.She pressed against him, lifting her face to tempt again, to invite a kiss.Smiling faintly, yet with bitterness in his eyes, he bent his head and his lips sought hers.But there was only gentleness in his kiss, nothing more.Neither possessiveness nor desire; the kiss neither demanded nor enticed.And on releasing her he said in cool indifferent tones, "Come, Julie, it's very late.Poor Jason will wonder why he's been left alone so long."CHAPTER TENSPRING had come to the island and by the last week of Lent the harbour was filled with the newly-painted diving boats.On board men worked with feverish activity, preparing for the voyage, while their womenfolk baked bread and cooked the salted meat which the men would eat for the next five or six months.Julie stood on a high hill and watched the heavily-laden launches sailing to and fro between the quay and the ships which lay at anchor.Even from this distance smells from the outdoor ovens drifted up to her and she wondered how the whole town could fast when all this food was being prepared.But everyone did fast, and would continue to do so until every church bell on the island pealed forth in triumph and the great cry went up,"Christ is risen!"And then the feasting would begin.The town itself had taken on an entirely new aspect, with apparent prosperity everywhere, the result of the bankers'advances to the captains who always paid their divers so much money in advance in order that they could make provision for their families while they were away.But the tavernas were filled with men and Julie wondered just how much money would be left by the time the diving fleet sailed.It was a sort of reckless spending with, she supposed, a feeling on the part of the men that they might not return.For the past few months Julie had tried in every way she knew to repair the damage done by words which she now knew had not revealed her true feelings towards her husband.For gradually - and at first reluctantly - she had come to the self-admission that she loved Doneus, but owing to his own attitude of cool indifference she could not tell him of her love.He did not love her, that was plain, and her own innate pride prevented her from telling him what was in her heart.At first, she tried by all the wiles known to woman to create a situation where she could confess her love; but was prevented by her husband's coldness which eventually rubbed off on her.She too was possessed of an innate pride, a pride handed down from generations of aristocratic ancestors, and she became inwardly angry that a mere peasant could treat her in this cold dispassionate way.The result was that civility existed between them, and little else.On several occasions he had told her to go home, as he no longer wanted her to stay with him, and she knew he meant what he said.He did not want her with him, and she would almost flare up, on the point of asking him why he married her if he now wanted to be rid of her, but she refrained, anxious to smooth their path, not create obstacles.But with her own pride, and his, remaining in the ascendancy there was to be no smooth road for them to travel.Yet all the time Julie was being torn to pieces, and unhappiness turned to sheer agony as the days passed and Easter drew closer.She had seen many crippled men in Kalymnos, and always their features would change and she would see the drawn despairing face of her husband, would visualize his wonderful limbs deformed, see him unable to work.She would be with him always, of course, but she dreaded to think what this added injury would do to his pride.He would become embittered, would hate his dependence on her.At last she turned from her contemplation of the harbour and made her way across and down the hill towards the place where she could board the communal taxi.It was still early in the day and, restless and depressed, she did not enter the cottage but began walking along the dusty road, her unseeing eyes on the countryside, ablaze with all the glory of spring.Her footsteps were drawn to the pathway leading to the castle entrance, a pathway shaded by trees and running alongside a stream where pink oleanders blossomed all along its banks.She loved the island, and the people.She had even come to love the cottage and knew she could be happy there if only Doneus loved her, and would allow her to do the renovations she had in mind.The castle gates loomed before her
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]