PAGAN ADVERSARY (9 page)

'I wonder,' he said after another, longer pause, 'why no one has ever

beaten you soundly, Harriet mow.'

She had never felt less like smiling, but in spite of herself the corners

of her mouth turned up wryly. She said, 'Probably because I seem

to—to get along with most people.'

'And I think, for Nicos' sake, you are going to have to make an effort

to get along with me. Can we at least agree that his wellbeing is of

paramount importance?'

'Yes,' she acknowledged dully. She knew what was coming—another

reasoned argument why Nicky would be so much better living as a

millionaire's heir in Greece, rather than surviving just above the

breadline in London with her.

And the trouble was she couldn't think of a single riposte. All the

steam, the anger, the defensiveness had drained out of her. Her

protective shell had smashed, and she felt weary and vulnerable.

'Yes,' she said with a sigh, 'I think we can agree about that.'

'Progress at last,' he said mockingly. 'Shall I order some more

champagne?'

She shook her head, looking down at her hands still clenched tightly

in her lap.

'And you will stay today—for Nicky's sake.'

'Yes,' she said, 'I will—for Nicky's sake.'

They had lunch by the river, a very traditional affair of roast beef and

Yorkshire pudding, with strawberries and cream to follow, and Nicky

behaved impeccably by anyone's standards. He enjoyed eating, and

he also enjoyed being the centre of approving and admiring attention.

Harriet recognised rather bitterly that Alex had set out to win his

nephew over, and was succeeding brilliantly. She was ashamed of the

way she felt when Nicky stretched out imperative arms to his uncle to

lift him down from his chair when the meal was over.

A lot of people at neighbouring tables had been watching them during

lunch, which Harriet supposed was inevitable. Even if they couldn't

all put a name to him, Alex was clearly a celebrity of some kind. But

some of their fellow-lunchers had recognised him, Harriet discovered

as she passed the bar on the way to the powder room.

'This place must be getting fashionable,' an overweight man with grey

hair and a moustache was proclaiming. 'That tycoon fellow Alex

Marcos is out on the terrace with a floozy, and one of his few

mistakes in life, by the look of it,' and he bellowed with laughter.

It would give Harriet immense pleasure to have emptied his vodka

and tonic all over his opulently waistcoated stomach, but she passed

by grimly on the other side.

The powder room was momentarily deserted, and she took a long

rather weary look at herself. A floozy—and in particular Alex

Marcos' floozy? If it wasn't so funny, it could also have been sad.

Probably by now someone had enlightened the fat man that Alex

Marcos' taste ran more to voluptuous redheads than to over-slim

blondes in chain store dresses and very ordinary sandals. And that, of

course, when she thought about it—and she'd done very little else all

morning—was why Alex had turned her down last night.

Because that was what that scene in the bathroom had been all

about—Alex being cruel to be kind, pretending the onus was on her

whether their relationship proceeded to bed or not when, in fact, he

could have said quite simply that she wasn't his type— that he didn't

want her.

He was an experienced man. It wouldn't have taken him long to

deduce the way she was beginning to feel about fri™' and that was the

last thing he wanted, so he had decided to administer the death-blow.

It was shaming to think he had had to do it, she thought miserably.

She must have been terribly obvious. But then she had given herself

away that first evening 'when he had kissed her. She should have

remembered that he hadn't been motivated by passion, but by a

cynical compulsion to make a point. He had been determined to make

her respond, and he had succeeded only too well, but now he was

drawing the line, treating her with an aloof and slightly wary

courtesy.

It could be worse, Harriet thought with a sigh, but she didn't see how.

She took out her lipstick, contemplated it, then tossed it back in her

bag. To hell with it, she thought. She was an outsider trying to

compete in a race which was strictly an invitation event.

She left the hotel by the side entrance which led to the car park. At

first she couldn't see Alex and Nicky, but eventually they came into

sight, walking slowly from the direction of the gardens which sloped

down to the river. Nicky was trotting at his uncle's side, holding his

hand, occasionally giving a little hop of excitement, and as Alex

looked down at the child his harshly attractive features were softened

by a smile.

They were alike, Harriet admitted to herself with a pang as she stood

beside the car, and watched them approach. With their thick dark hair

and olive skins, it was little wonder that they had been taken for father

and son.

'I'm sorry if we have kept you waiting,' Alex apologised formally as

they joined her. 'Nicos wishes to give some bread to the swans.'

She made an effort to smile. 'Did he know what they were? Up to now

he's only encountered ducks.'

'Then it is clearly time his horizons were broadened,' Alex remarked,

and Harriet flushed at the implied criticism.

'By a trip to Greece, no doubt,' she said.

The driver had come round to open the rear door of the car and was

lifting Nicky in. Alex's hand closed suddenly round her wrist with a

grip that hurt.

'Are you still determined to fight me over this?' he demanded in an

undertone.

Harriet looked away, unable to meet his arrogant dark gaze. 'I don't

know,' she said after an unhappy pause. 'Please let go—you're hurting

me,' she added urgently as his fingers tightened.He muttered

something in his own language and released her, walking round to the

other side of the car. The return journey was accomplished in an

uneasy silence which Nicky, sitting between them, filled with his

own happy chatter about the 'Long ducks'. At any other time Harriet

would have laughed and hugged him to her, but now it seemed

unwise. He was going to be taken from her, she knew, and her best

course was to start letting him go, in her mind at least.

As the car purred through the suburbs, she glanced at Alex. 'Would it

be too much trouble to drop me at the flat? I—I'm sure you'll

enjoy-your afternoon with Nicky far better without me.'

His mouth twisted. 'Saint Harriet the Martyr,' he jibed. 'I think not,

however. Nicos might decide to stage another demonstration of how

indispensable you are to him.'

'I don't think so. He seems to be much more used to you now and. . . .'

Alex shook his head. 'The moment you are out of his sight he is

looking for you, becoming anxious,' he said impatiently. 'He can be

diverted, but only for a short time.'

She said colourlessly, 'He stays with Manda—the girl who looks after

him while I work.'

'Ah yes,' he said. 'Because he knows that when work is over, you will

come for him.'

'You speak as if I were to blame in some way. What was I supposed to

do after—after....' She-paused, swallowing, recapturing her

self-control. 'The authorities suggested I let him be fostered, but I

didn't want that. I felt I'd be betraying Kostas and Becca if I let that

happen. Are you telling me now I was wrong? How did I know that

you were going to arrive, staking your claim?'

'You did not, of course, but you might have guessed,' he said. 'Did

Kostas never warn you that what our family has, it holds—for ever?'

'You didn't hold him,' Harriet said unevenly.

Alex smiled cynically. 'He would have returned eventually,' he said.

'When he came to realise how much his little bid for independence

had deprived him of, and once his infatuation for your sister had

faded, as it surely would have done.'

Her lips were parting to call him a swine when she was aware of a

tiny whimper from Nicky. He couldn't grasp the conversation, but he

could pick up the vibrations and be upset by them, and Harriet, with a

little gasp of compunction, turned away and stared out of the window,

her" eyes blinded with angry tears that she refused to shed.

Once back in Alex's suite, she excused herself in a small taut voice

and went into the bathroom, bolting the door behind her. She bathed

her stinging eyes with cool water, and let the tap splash over her

wrists, calming her racing pulses. She found it impossible to

understand why Alex was so bitter still about Kostas and Becca. Even

if he felt, as he obviously did, that his brother had married beneath

himself and his family, then surely it couldn't matter any longer.

Harriet sighed, wishing that Alex had met Becca just once. Her

vibrant gaiety and charm must surely have captivated him as it had

done Kostas.

When she was sure she was once more in control of her temper and

emotions, she returned to the sitting room.

Alex was standing alone by the window, staring down into the street

below. He turned as she entered, and gave her a long thoughtful look.

'Where's Nicky?' Harriet looked around her, puzzled by the hush

which had fallen over the suite.

'Yannina has taken him for a walk,' he said coolly, it seemed to me it

would be best if we continued our discussion in private.'

'There's nothing to discuss,' she said in a low voice. 'I—I can't win

against you. I won't stop you taking Nicky, or make any kind of fuss.

It would be selfish to try and deprive him of the kind of advantages

you could give him. I've always known that—I just didn't want to

admit it.' She swallowed. 'But you will be— kind to him? You won't

blame him because he's Becca's child as well as your brother's?'

'Holy God,' he said slowly, 'what kind of a monster do you think I

am?' His voice was icily furious, and Harriet shrank inwardly.

But she lifted her chin, and kept her voice steady. 'What does it matter

what I think? It won't make the slightest difference to—to what you

intend to do. Will I be allowed to write to him, when he's older—send

Christmas presents?'

He said something succinct and violent in his own language and came

over to her. 'Sit down,' he ordered, and she obeyed, because she was

afraid if she hesitated he might make her do what he wanted, and the

thought of being touched by him again, even in anger, was an

unbearable one. She thought he might be going to sit beside her, and

her whole body tensed uncontrollably, but he remained standing,

looming over her, his dark brows drawn together in a thunderous

frown.

He said quietly and coldly, 'Yes, it was my intention to take Nicos

away—it would be pointless to deny it. But I had not realised then

how strong the child's feeling was for you—how necessary you had

become to him. It would be an act of senseless cruelty to separate you

so absolutely.' He paused. 'So there must be a compromise.'

She looked at him bewilderedly, trying to decide what he meant. Was

it possible that he was going to let Nicky stay with her, but contribute

to his support?

He said, 'When I take Nicos to Greece, you will have to come with

us.'

Harriet had been leaning back against the cushions, but now she shot

bolt upright, sending him a horrified glance.

'No!' she almost choked. 'No, I won't. It—it's impossible!'

'How is it so?'

Because I don't want to see you any more, she thought. Because I dare

not spend any more time in your company than I have to.

She said, 'Because, as you once reminded me, I have my own life to

lead. I have a home—a job. They've been good to me—the company I

work for—very understanding, but they're not going to make

allowances for ever. And jobs are hard to come by at the moment.

And my flat—it may not seem much to you, but....'

'These things—they mean more to you than Nicos?' he demanded

coldly.

She gasped, 'Of course not!'

'Then you imagine that if you oblige me in this, I should leave you

homeless and without employment?' he asked with contempt.

Harriet shook her head. 'I—I don't want charity.'

'And I do not offer it,' he returned impatiently. 'We shall reach a

proper agreement before you leave.

This was going too fast. She said, 'I don't know yet that I'm leaving

for anywhere.'

'Always this resistance!' Alex flung his hands up in a kind of angry

resignation. 'When you thought I was prepared to take Nicos from

you, you argued. Now I say that you can go with him, and you are still

arguing!'

'Put like that, of course, it all sounds so simple,' Harriet said defiantly.