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.Of course, it was not unusual for a Greek wife to stay at home the whole time, but for all that there must be a good deal of curiosity in the village.Leon’ had of course fully expected his wife to give him the promise, and the fact that she had not done so must by now be as embarrassing to him here, on the island, as it was in the capital, where his friends and business associates must be very puzzled indeed.Leon had obviously thought of something to put them off, but the present situation could hardly continue for ever.He was banking on her having a baby, and then she would be bound to him for a long, long while.She wondered what his reaction would be when he learned that his hopes were to be dashed.He had been gone less than half an hour when to her surprise she saw three men on donkeys coming up the path that led to the house.So few people came— Her eyes suddenly dilated and she stood rooted to the spot, unable to believe what she saw; and she still could not believe it even when the name fell from her lips.‘David.!’ No, it could not be! She was dreaming—seeing things.She managed to move, every nerve in her body quivering.David here, and with two other men! Yes, they were real enough, and in other circumstances she could have laughed heartily at the way they were sitting astride the donkeys, looking as if they expected to fall off any second now.A long way behind them trailed the owner of the donkeys, the old man who made a living by hiring them out to tourists from the cruise ships.He had just tottered into view, a stick in his hand, his vraga dusty, and faded from black to a dull, patchy green.‘David,’ ‘she whispered again, the awareness that here was freedom scarcely registering in her bemused mind.‘Tara!’ He had seen her and lifted a hand, then put it back on the donkey’s neck with some considerable haste.She walked a few faltering steps, her legs like jelly, her mind chaotic.Leon would not return yet.or would he? Obviously he had not see the men, down there on the harbour.He must have gone into the barber’s shop only minutes before the men got off the ferry.‘David!’ She found she could walk faster now, and then actually run.Davos was hurrying to the gate, but she was before him, opening it as the men dismounted.Within seconds David had her in his arms and she was crying against his chest.‘David,’ she sobbed, ‘oh, how did you know—? I mean, how can you be here!’ Near hysteria spread over her, causing her body to shake.Freedom! Here without any doubts at all was, freedom.‘Nothing could prevent her escape now, nothing or no one…One of the men was a Greek, a plain-clothes policemen, the other was a plain-clothes English policeman who managed to convey this to her while she clung to David, his soothing words mingling with the businesslike ones of the policemen.Davos was standing by looking exceedingly troubled.Tara asked the English policemen to make him go away.However, Davos merely moved some small distance, then stopped, lingering a small branch of a hibiscus bush as if he were considering doing something to it, but all the while his dark Greek eyes were shifting back and forth and it was plain that he was anxious for Leon to come back.‘Can we go inside?’ suggested the English policemen.‘Then we can begin to talk, and to sort this whole thing out.’The Greek moved over to speak to Davos in his own language and Tara said again, looking up into David’s face,‘How do you come to be here? It’s a miracle! I couldn’t believe it was you!’‘The police managed to get hold of a clue—after weeks of drawing blank,’ he told her, going on to explain that it was the porter who—having been off work for several weeks—provided the clue when, after making many other enquiries as to the people Tara had mixed with, the police returned to the hospital to ask more questions of the staff there.‘Tara darling, why didn’t you tell me that that damned fellow had sent you flowers?’‘I couldn’t—don’t ask me why I should be so reluctant to tell you, David.I thought it would be less upsetting all round if I just kept silent.’‘You also kept silent about the phone calls,’ the policeman inserted in tones of censure.‘If you’d told someone we’d have had you back long ago.’‘The police followed up the clue provided by the porter,’ David explained.‘With that bit of information they really got busy and the next thing was that the telephone operator, reminded of the Greek, then recalled that a man with a slight foreign accent had been trying to get you on the phone but you’d told her not to put the calls through.’ He paused and looked down at her with the same expression of censure as the policeman had just a moment ago.‘You told the operator that this man was making a nuisance of himself.’She nodded and coloured guiltily.‘I should have confided in you, David, and I don’t know why I didn’t.’ Her voice drifted away, her cheeks hot as she recalled the passionate interludes spent with the man who at that time was a stranger to her.It would have seemed odd indeed if she had complained to her fiancé that she was being pestered by a man, while at the same time participating willingly— eagerly—in the most ardent and intimate love-making with the man in question.‘If only you had, then he’d never have kidnapped you—you do realise that?’She was silent, not at all sure of his confident assertion, because, knowing her husband so well, she certainly would never take bets on his failing to do what he set out to do.The Greek policeman—who had been introduced to her by David as Phivos Meriakis—returned with the information that Davos was as uncommunicative as a deaf mute.‘Scared of his employer,’ he added in a disgusted and strongly accented voice
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