The Thread: 'Storytelling at Its Best' From Million-Copy Bestseller Victoria Hislop by Hislop Victoria

Author:Hislop, Victoria [Hislop, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Romance, War
ISBN: 9780755377770
Amazon: B00GVFP8IC
Goodreads: 19787283
Publisher: Review
Published: 2011-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

EXACTLY AS DIMITRI feared and precisely as his father hoped, Metaxas introduced further suppression of the unions and gave the police additional powers. Communists and left-wing activists were rounded up and put into prisons camps. Torture was used to extract confessions or to make prisoners name other Communists.

For several months, Vassili remained in prison. No one had been allowed to see him, and Dimitri and his friends met up with his father on many occasions to discuss what they could do. His warning was always stark.

‘I know you aren’t party members,’ he said, ‘but if you go to visit they’ll still mark you down as Communists. Keep away – that’s the best thing to do.’

One of the law professors campaigned for his release, even testifying that his student had been on the way to his class when he was caught up in the demonstration. Six weeks after his arrest, Vassili’s father received a letter. He opened it with excitement, expecting it to contain news of his son’s release.

‘Dear Kyrios Filipidis,’ it said. ‘We wish to inform you that your son passed away on 14 June. Cause of death: tuberculosis. If you wish to collect his personal effects, you may do so by the 18th of this month.’

He received the letter on that date.

Vassili’s father was too stricken by grief to visit the gaol, so Dimitri and his friend Lefteris went on his behalf. Dimitri knew that to sign his name on the form incriminated him, but he was proud to be the friend of such a martyr.

Tears of sadness coursed down his face at the funeral, but inside a fury was raging. Beyond any doubt, the authorities were responsible for Vassili’s death and Dimitri promised himself that he would never take the side of a government who encouraged such action. Surely Greece deserved something better.

On the surface, life in the city remained unchanged. Dimitri continued to attend classes at university and businesses such as the Morenos’ carried on as normal. From time to time Katerina joined Elias and Dimitri for a coffee but the tone of their conversation had changed. They were in mourning for Vassili and all three knew that beneath the normality of the city, anxiety was festering.

These days, Dimitri did his best to avoid his father. Even the occasional meal with him was more than he wanted. He was full of fear when his father was around, not because he was afraid of Konstantinos Komninos, but because he was afraid of what he might say to this man whom he now despised.

His mother seemed to understand everything without discussion. Never once did she question Dimitri when he left the house only moments before his father was due to return, or when he ate meals at strange times.

Olga understood Dimitri’s feelings for his father, and Konstantinos’ feelings for his son. From the day he was born, there had been no hint of love. She remembered how her husband had looked down at the sleeping child as though he were a specimen rather than his own flesh and blood.

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