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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
then the news came that you were found and you were alive but very
ill, and Diandros rang and I said to him lend the Maestro the villa.
"Please!" I said. "I am better now, I give up the villa to him."'
Annis halted in the doorway and watched Diona Munthe, on her
knees beside the stretcher on which Raphael lay. There was
something theatrical about her pose, her long, pale, swanlike neck
submissively bent, the black hair wreathed on top of her head and
pinned there with a diamante comb. Delicately, Diona placed a kiss
on Raphael's bandaged hand. 'Only get well, Maestro, that we may
all hear your music once more!'
Annis was reminded of a scene in some opera, and was irritated by
the look on Raphael's face. He was loving it. Well, of course he
would, wouldn't he? A famous, not to say very beautiful and sexy
woman kneeling in front of him, kissing his hand and calling him
Maestro in throbbing tones? His ego must be purring like a cat after
a saucer of cream.
'How generous, Diona,' he murmured, smiling. 'Just like you... kind
and tender-hearted, always Annis distinctly heard Melina sniff, and
looked sideways. Melina met her eyes, her mouth derisive,
impatient. She did not have a very high opinion of Diona Munthe
either. Annis grinned at her, suddenly liking her very much.
The little sound had alerted Diona Munthe to their presence,
however. She turned her head, green eyes narrowing. Raphael
looked at them, too, his lids half down over his mocking eyes. Annis
eyed him back, her mouth indenting. He need not think she cared if
he flirted with the singer. If he had known that Diona was going to
be here, perhaps he wouldn't have wanted her to come with him.
Well, she could always leave, fly back to London. Her angry,
defiant eyes told him as much, and Raphael considered her with a
glittering threat in his smile.
'Who is this?' Diona asked, getting to her feet in a graceful
movement. She did everything with grace, always aware of being
watched and always centre-stage.
Raphael introduced them lazily. 'Annis was injured in the
earthquake, too, and is here to convalesce.'
Annis smiled politely and put out a hand, but Diona ignored it.
'Diandros did not say you were bringing her!'
'Didn't he? He must have forgotten,' said Raphael, smiling.
Diona's catlike eyes held open hostility, her full mouth pouted
sullenly.
Annis wasn't surprised; she had met too many singers not to know
how they could react to any threat of competition. Raphael was both
important and influential, and his fame was growing every year.
Diona was at the top of her career, but she was shrewd enough to
want to get to know him much better. For an ambitious singer it was
always wise to get close to someone of Raphael's stature in their
business. She must have jumped at the chance of spending time
alone with him here, in such a romantic setting, especially when he
was at a low ebb physically, and, she had no doubt calculated,
vulnerable.
Had Diona been hoping to start a love-affair with him? He would,
after all, make a very useful lover for a singer. Annis swallowed, hot
with rage and jealousy as she realised that her own presence
wouldn't necessarily stop Diona making a big play for him. Diona
was too ruthless a player to back off because of another woman.
Well, I'm not staying here to play the third side of a triangle! she
decided bitterly. She was leaving as soon as a flight could be
arranged.
CHAPTER SIX
THE next day, Annis woke very early to a room full of blue shadows
and pale, primrose light and a beautiful silence which she
immediately registered since, at the hospital, she had woken every
day to the busy sound of the daily routine. Cleaners, doctors, nurses,
visitors- people trooped up and down the corridors, day and night.
Doors slammed, telephones rang, vacuum machines and floor
polishers hummed, voices and laughter came from all sides. She had
got used to it, it had faded into the background, but now she noticed
the absence of it as soon as she opened her eyes, and lay there
uncertainly listening to the sound of silence.
Gradually, though, she picked up little sounds she had not heard at
first: the murmur of the sea, apparently close by, dogs barking, hens
cackling, a shutter being pushed open somewhere in the villa and
something being shaken out of it. Annis lazily speculated on
whether a rug or a continental quilt was being shaken, and then
wondered with a yawn what time it was.
Leaning on her elbow, she picked up the clock and was surprised to
see that it was nearly nine. She became conscience-stricken at once.
They shouldn't have let her sleep. That was something else she had
become accustomed to in the hospital. Waking up at crack of dawn!
Annis sat up carefully and swung her legs out of bed. Getting
washed and dressed was a lengthy operation. She couldn't have a
bath, because of her strapped ribs and the plaster cast on her leg, so
she went through a slow process of washing herself from head to
foot, and then got dressed. Her unpacking had been done for her last
night while she ate her supper. She had very little with her, anyway,
since all her possessions had been lost in the earthquake. The day
before they had left Athens, Raphael had made arrangements for her
to be driven into the city to a department store where she was able to
buy a new wardrobe. He had insisted on paying for it and, as Annis
had also lost her Greek money, along with everything else she had
had with her, she had reluctantly allowed Raphael to lend her the
money, although she was determined to pay him back as soon as she
could. She had talked to her mother on the telephone before they
had left Athens, and her mother was making arrangements to cable
money through to her.
Annis hadn't been extravagant. She had bought the bare minimum of
clothes: sandals, lingerie, a couple of swimsuits, several thin
summer dresses, some shorts and tops and a pair of cotton trousers.
Melina had sent up a young Greek girl called Irena who had put
away all the clothes deftly while throwing fascinated glances at the
girl in the bed. Annis had tried to thank her, but Irena knew little
English, so Annis had communicated in sign-language, which had
amused Irena into giggles.
If I were going to stay on, I'd learn some Greek while I was here,
thought Annis, dropping one of her new dresses over her head and
shivering. Cool, ice-blue cotton, it felt very good on her skin, but it
wasn't the dress that made her shiver. It was the thought of going
away.
She didn't want to leave it made her feel sick to think of going and
never seeing Raphael again but the idea of watching Raphael and
Diona Munthe flirting was even worse; Later this morning she
would tell Raphael, ask him to arrange for her to fly back to Athens
and then home to England, but for the moment she couldn't bear to
think about it. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
