Aphrodite's Smile by Stuart Harrison

Author:Stuart Harrison [Stuart Harrison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007388066
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2012-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

Alex was still sleeping when I got up in the morning. She was lying on her side, one arm thrown around the pillow, the early light like warm honey on her naked back. I watched her, overwhelmed with unfamiliar feelings. Not least among them was an uncertainty which alarmed me. What happened now I wondered? Did we live happily ever after? I thought briefly of Alicia. I had believed that I loved her once, but that had all fallen apart. Alex had said herself that until a few days ago she’d been in love with Dimitri. I couldn’t help wondering if love was such a powerful emotion that any relationship based on it was doomed to failure. Hadn’t somebody once said love is blind? Did that mean it raised expectations which were so high they couldn’t be met? Did it mean the very faults which precluded lasting happiness became invisible?

My doubtful philosophising didn’t make any difference however. As I watched Alex sleep I was consumed with feelings for her. There was already nothing I could do. I wanted to be with her. I wanted to go to sleep with her every night and wake to find her beside me in the mornings.

Though I was tempted to wake her, I resisted the impulse and instead slipped quietly out of the room and went down to the cove for a swim. The water was fresh and cool. I swam hard out into the middle of the cove and then back to shore again and when I emerged, breathing heavily and dripping onto the stones, I felt renewed. After I’d towelled off and put a T-shirt on I walked back up to the house. When I got there I was surprised to see that Kounidis was already up. He was sitting on the terrace drinking coffee.

‘Ah Robert, you have been for a swim I see. I hope it was pleasant?’ He gestured to a chair. ‘Please, sit down. Eleni will come in a moment and fetch you coffee. Did you sleep well?’

‘Very, thank you.’ I wondered if it was merely the light or was there a certain knowing flicker in his eyes?

‘I have always been an early riser myself. It is the best time of the day. When it is still, and one can think,’ he said. ‘I have been considering what you told me yesterday about your father. It concerns me greatly. This man who attacked you, you did not get even a glimpse of him?’

‘It was dark. He was tall and strong, that’s about all I can say.’

‘He did not say anything?’

‘No.’

‘When I saw you go down to the beach earlier I telephoned Miros Theonas. He has been unable to find anybody who saw anything unusual at the time you were attacked.’

‘That doesn’t surprise me. Theonas doesn’t believe there’s anything suspicious about my father’s death. Or he doesn’t want to believe it.’

‘Do you still think that the person you disturbed on the Swallow was searching for one of your father’s journals?’

‘I’m fairly certain he was looking for something.

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