The Goddess Of Love Read online

“H-he said I had to try and – attract you in – wicked horrible words. That is why – when I came to – see you at your house – I wore Papa’s spectacles – so that you would not – think me attractive.”

  “I might have known,” Lord Warburton answered, “that there was no escape for either of us.”

  Corena went on to tell him how Mr. Thespidos had told her that she had to be a stowaway and how he had drugged her with the coffee she had drunk.

  After that she had known nothing until she woke up aboard The Sea Serpent.

  The way she spoke and the way she hid her face against him told Lord Warburton everything that he wanted to know.

  He knew now why there had been a barrier between them.

  Because of what Mr. Thespidos suggested Corena had been terrified of attracting him as a woman because it would seem vulgar and improper.

  There was a tender expression in his eyes that had never been there before as he said,

  “My darling, all that matters is that now you have told me, I can somehow contrive to extract your father from the clutches of this monstrous Greek!”

  “B-but he may – kill you – or torture you!”

  “And that would worry you?”

  “I love you – I love you – I don’t believe it – but I cannot help loving you. How could I do anything so wicked as to hurt – Apollo?”

  The words were slightly indistinct, but Lord Warburton heard them.

  “I am very proud, my darling,” he said, “to be Apollo and, if you think of me as the God of Light, then I must live up to my name and it is something that I have every intention of doing.”

  “B-but – suppose – suppose he seizes and – hurts you?”

  “That, my precious, is where you will have to trust me,” Lord Warburton said. “I know, because I love you, that I shall slay the dragon and both your father and I will be free.”

  “You must be careful – very very careful!” Corena warned him.

  “Trust me,” Lord Warburton said. “I only wish that you had been brave enough to tell me this before now.”

  “We are – not too – late?”

  Again the fear was there and Lord Warburton turned her face up to his and kissed her very gently.

  “If I am a God,” he said, “you have to believe me. As you are the Goddess of Love, I know, my darling, that the Gods themselves will look after you and protect you.”

  It seemed to Corena as he spoke that he glowed with a special light that came from Heaven itself.

  Because she wanted to believe him and his arms were very comforting, she surrendered herself to his kisses.

  She tried not to think of what would happen tomorrow.

  A long time later Lord Warburton said,

  “Now, my beautiful darling, I am going to send you to bed. I want you to sleep for what is left of the night and to help me tomorrow by giving me strength and courage in what I have to do.”

  “I – will try,” Corena said meekly.

  He rose to his feet, still holding her in his arms, and carried her from his cabin into hers.

  He put her gently down on the bed.

  He realised as he did so that she had not given a thought to the fact that she had been in his arms wearing only her thin nightgown.

  In her innocence and purity and her lack of self-consciousness it had never occurred to her while they were concerned with much more important and greater issues.

  At the same time he knew that few women would have felt as she did and none of those he had known in the past would have offered him their souls.

  “I adore you, my little Aphrodite!” he said.

  He pulled the sheets over her.

  In the moonlight it was difficult still to believe that she was real and not, as he had first thought, a stone sculpture of the Goddess he had always sought.

  Her lips were warm and, as he felt them quiver beneath his, he knew that no one could be more human, more exciting or more adorable.

  “Goodnight, my lovely one,” he said. “After tomorrow we shall be together. There will be no more dragons, only the love that you give to the whole world.”

  He kissed her again and then went from the cabin as if he was forcing himself to leave her and it was very hard.

  Only when he had gone did Corena close her eyes and say over and over again,

  “Thank You – God and please protect him – keep him safe – and save Papa – I cannot lose them.”

  She prayed and went on praying with an intensity that came from the very depths of her heart until from sheer exhaustion she fell asleep.

  Chapter Seven

  Corena was awoken by Hewlett coming into the room.

  Instantly she sat up, afraid because she had been asleep that something had happened and she was not aware of it.

  “Mornin’, miss!” Hewlett said in his usual hearty manner. “His Lordship says there’s no hurry and we shan’t be movin’ into Harbour for another hour.”

  Corena did not answer but merely lay back feeling very limp against her pillows.

  It was not only the exhaustion of her tears the night before, it was a feeling of helplessness.

  It was as if she was being carried along on a tidal wave and nothing she could do or say would stop it.

  Then she remembered that Lord Warburton had said that he loved her and she felt the words glow inside her as if the sunshine was burning in her heart.

  “I love – him! I – love him!” she whispered.

  She hardly noticed Hewlett come out of the bathroom and leave her cabin without speaking.

  It was unlike him as he was usually so talkative.

  However, she could think of nothing but that once she was dressed she would see Lord Warburton and be quite certain that he really loved her.

  Suppose last night had just been a dream?

  No she was certain that it was true.

  She dressed quickly, but took trouble in arranging her hair and put on one of her prettiest dresses.

  She now wanted him to admire her, she wanted to be beautiful for him.

  But, when she looked in the mirror, she was aware that her eyes were frightened and she was very pale.

  The yacht had not moved from where they had anchored last night, but, when she was dressed and ready to go to the Saloon for breakfast, she heard the engines start up.

  She thought that they were moving slowly and knew that it could not be slow enough, because she was so afraid of what she would find when they reached Crisa.

  She went into the Saloon and, as she expected, Lord Warburton was already there.

  He was standing by the windows looking out at the land and for a moment he did not notice her presence.

  Then, as if she drew him by her thoughts and her love, he turned round and they stood just gazing as if they had never seen each other before.

  Until with a little cry Corena ran towards him to fling herself into his arms.

  “It is true – tell me it is – true!” she begged him.

  “That I love you?” he asked.

  He was smiling and she thought that she had not seen him look so happy before.

  Then the fear that grew within her made her say frantically,

  “I love you – but I am afraid – desperately afraid, that he – might hurt you.”

  He held her very tightly.

  “I told you to trust me.”

  He kissed her and it was a gentle tender kiss, as if he dedicated himself to looking after and protecting her.

  She thought as his lips held her captive that her agitation subsided and, although it seemed impossible, that he would save her father and himself.

  Lord Warburton released her and said quietly,

  “Now, my darling, you have to eat a good breakfast and, while you do so, you will remember that we are nearing the place where Apollo landed with the Shining Cliffs, which we will look at together, above him.”

  Corena sat down at the table and, because she knew that it would please him, trie
d to eat what was put in front of her.

  While she did so, Lord Warburton went on speaking of Apollo and his constant companion, ‘the sleekest and shiniest of all creatures, the dolphin’.

  To Corena it was as if she was a child again and her father was telling her stories of Greece.

  Even when she was very small she had found them more absorbing than fairy stories.

  Only when she had drunk her coffee and actually eaten quite a lot of what was on her plate was she aware that the yacht was moving into Harbour.

  She drew in her breath, feeling that the dragon was not waiting beyond the olive groves where Apollo had found him but would be on the quayside.

  Like a knife turning in a wound, she remembered the end of the lines from Homer that she and Lord Warburton had quoted to each other,

  “Make the sky clear and grant us to see with our eyes,

  In the light be it, though thou slayest me. ”

  She felt the words burning their way into her consciousness like fire.

  “Though thou slayest me!”

  Supposing Mr. Thespidos slew them all, her father, Lord Warburton and herself?

  She wanted to scream at the idea and then was even more afraid that if he slew the two men she would be left alive.

  She had not forgotten the way that he had looked at her.

  She knew that he had made the insinuations about attracting Lord Warburton because she attracted him as well, a thought that sickened her.

  She had not told Lord Warburton that she loathed him as a man.

  He had, however, read her thoughts and he put his arms around her as she rose from the table and said,

  “I love you, my adorable Goddess, and no other man shall ever touch you or insult you by his attentions. You are mine, completely and absolutely mine!”

  Corena turned her cheek against his shoulder.

  “That is – what I – want to be,” she whispered.

  “That is what you will be,” he said, “but dragons have to be attended to first!”

  She tried to laugh, but her voice broke on a tear and he said,

  “I am expecting you to be brave. Remember that I find in you ‘every sweet thing, be it wisdom, beauty or glory, makes rich the soul of man’.”

  Corena gave a little sob as she listened to Pindar’s words.

  It was what she wanted him to feel about her and knew that she must not disappoint him by not living up to them.

  The yacht took what seemed a long time, moving slowly with the land on either side of it towards the quayside at the end.

  It was a day of sunshine, but there was a freshness in the air that seemed somehow different from anything that Corena had ever smelt before.

  She knew too that the light on the land and in the sky was the light that the Greeks were never tired of describing.

  She tried not to think of the dreadful man who was waiting for them in Crisa.

  Instead she remembered that the Greeks believed that the body of Apollo poured across the sky.

  Intensely virile, flashing with a million points of light and healing everything he touched, he defied the powers of darkness.

  If Lord Warburton was Apollo, then Mr. Thespidos was the power of darkness.

  As she gave a little shudder at the thought of him, she looked up at Lord Warburton and thought that not even Apollo could be more handsome than he.

  She felt in a strange way that he exuded the power, the determination and the vibrations of the God she identified him with.

  He had been looking out at the land they were passing and the rocks that seemed bare but were gleaming in the morning light.

  Now he looked down at Corena and said very gently,

  “Believe in me! I need your faith as well as your love!”

  “It is – yours! It is yours – completely!” Corena cried. “And I – love you until I can – think of nothing else – except, of course, Papa.”

  There was a little tremor on the last words and Lord Warburton said,

  “He will be thinking of you and I cannot believe that like us he is not trusting in the Gods to protect him.”

  “Of course Papa will be – doing – that!”

  Lord Warburton led her to the sofa and they sat down side by side.

  “There is no hurry,” he said, “everything has been planned and all you have to do, my precious little Aphrodite, is to obey me and try to appear unafraid.”

  “What – are you – saying?” Corena asked quickly.

  “When the ship is tied up I want you to go down the gangway to where I am almost sure you will see your father waiting for you on the quay.”

  He looked at her for a moment to see if she was listening and then went on,

  “You will throw your arms around him, as I know you will want to do anyway, and kiss him.”

  Corena was listening intently as he continued,

  “In your left hand I want you to carry a present for him, which you will hold up excitedly so that everybody can see it.”

  “A-a present?” Corena asked in a puzzled tone.

  “Put it into your father’s right hand,” Lord Warburton said as if she had not spoken, “then keep close beside him.”

  “And – what will – you be doing?”

  “I shall be waiting, my precious, to slay the dragon and save your father!”

  He bent his head with the last words and kissed her so that she could not reply.

  Although she wanted to go on asking him questions, she knew that he did not wish to say anything more and she was determined to please him.

  Only when he heard the engines stop, did Lord Warburton rise to his feet.

  “Wait here!” he said and it was a command.

  He walked across the Saloon and Corena knew that without being seen himself he was looking out through the glass door that led out onto the deck.

  She knew that from there he would be able to see the quay where they had just tied up.

  Because there was very little noise, Corena was certain that they were moored where there were no sightseers and she suspected, although she was not sure, few other vessels.

  Lord Warburton stood without moving for some minutes.

  Then he came back to say,

  “I think, my darling, your father is waiting for you.”

  Corena jumped to her feet and Lord Warburton said sternly,

  “Move slowly and carry your present for him as I told you to do.”

  Abashed, because for the moment she had forgotten it, Corena picked it up from the table. It was wrapped in white tissue paper and tied with a large bow of red ribbon.

  Then, as she held it in her hand, she knew that it was a revolver and looked enquiringly at Lord Warburton.

  “You father may need it,” he said very quietly. “Hand it to him so that, as he takes it, he grasps the handle.”

  “Yes – yes – of course.”

  She was very pale, but he loved the way she lifted her chin proudly as if she would not let whoever was waiting for them on the quay see how terrified she was.

  Lord Warburton took her hand in his and drew her out of the Saloon and, just before he opened the glass door onto the deck he said,

  “The Gods go with you, my beautiful darling.”

  She managed to smile at him.

  Then, as she went to the gangway, she saw that he had been right and her father was on the quay.

  He was standing a little way back from the yacht and there was a dark-haired man close behind him who she knew instinctively was his jailor.

  Much nearer to The Sea Serpent was Mr. Thespidos.

  He was alone, but one quick glance told Corena that there were four other men guarding her father.

  They were standing in the background, but were watching everything in what she thought was a threatening manner, their right hands in the pockets of the coats they were wearing.

  She drew in her breath.

  Then, with the pride that she knew Lord Warburton expected of her, she
began slowly to descend the gangway, holding up her present.

  A slight breeze from the sea fluttered the red ribbon it was tied with.

  She was aware that Lord Warburton was behind her.

  When she stepped on land, she ran to her father, crying out as she did so,

  “Papa – Papa! I am – here!”

  She flung her arms around his neck, at the same time pushing the revolver into his right hand.

  She felt his fingers close over it.

  Then, as she kissed him, she said, her words falling over themselves,

  “How are – you? You are – not ill? Oh, Papa, I have – missed you so – terribly!”

  “As I have missed you,” her father said and she sensed that the words came fervently from his lips.

  She saw then that he was very pale and that there were lines under his eyes as if he was ill. He also looked very much thinner than when she had last seen him.

  It was only a quick impression, for at that moment Lord Warburton must have descended the gangway and she heard Mr. Thespidos say,

  “Good morning, my Lord! I have great pleasure in welcoming you to Greece!”

  He was sneering and Corena could hear it in his voice.

  “I do not think,” Lord Warburton replied haughtily, “that we have met before.”

  “My name is Thespidos. I am here to inform you that you are now my prisoner!”

  “Your prisoner?” Lord Warburton exclaimed in apparent surprise. “I think you must be mistaken!”

  “No, my Lord, and let me say quite clearly so that you understand that, unless you come with me quietly and without any fuss, Sir Priam Melville, who has just been greeted by his daughter, will die!”

  Mr. Thespidos was speaking in the gloating oily way that had frightened Corena before.

  Now, as he drew a revolver from his pocket and pointed it at Lord Warburton, Corena, by a superhuman effort of will, did not scream in fear.

  Instead she only held onto her father.

  She was aware as she did so that the man behind him was holding not a revolver in his hand, but one of the long, sharp, deadly knives that could kill a man with a single thrust.

  He had the point of it against her father’s back.

  He was, however, watching the interchange between Lord Warburton and Mr. Thespidos with a smirk on his face.