Captain Corelli's mandolin (54 page)

`Not with a madman.'

`You don't want me to have hired it for nothing?'

`Yes.'

'I've got it for two days. We can go to Kastro, and Assos, and Fiskardo. We can sit on a rock and watch for dolphins.'

`Go bade to Athens. Old lunatic.'

'I've brought you a crash-helmet too.'

`I don't wear red. Have you ever seen me in red?'

`I'll go on my own.'

`Go then.'

It took an eternity of time to persuade her. As they veered perilously along the stony roads, she dung to his waist, white knuckled with terror, her face buried between his shoulder-blades, the machine thundering in her groin with a sensation that was at once deeply pleasant and thoroughly disturbing. Corelli noticed that she clutched him even more desperately than in the old days, and cynically he inserted some deliberate swerves into the series of those which were alarmingly accidental.

Pelagia clasped his waist tenaciously. She realised that over the years he had shrunk as much as she had expanded. He swerved suddenly towards the verge of the road, skidding a little and sending up a spray of chippings. 'Gerasimos save me,' she thought, and in search of safety put her arms right about his waist and linked her fingers together.

A venerable grey moped chugged and popped its way past them. It was adorned not with one but with three girls, all dressed identically in the briefest of white dresses. Corelli caught a glimpse of slender golden thighs, new-grown breasts, arching eyebrows over black eyes, and long loose hair so dark that it was almost blue. He heard a melody begin in rise up in his heart, something joyful that captured the eternal spirit of Greece, a Greek concerto. In composing it he would only have to think of driving along with Pelagia in search of Casa Nostra, and passing three young girls in the most exquisite first flowering of their liberty and beauty. The one driving the moped had her feet up on the fuel tank, the second one was touching up her make-up with painterly gestures and the aid of a small pink mirror, and the third one was facing backwards, her sandalled feet barely skimming above the surface of the road. She had a deeply serious expression on her face as she immersed herself in the newspaper and with elegant fingers tried to prevent the pages from flapping in the breeze.

Acknowledgements Particular thanks to Anne and Arturo Grant, Iannis Stamiris (the novelist), Alexandros Rallis of the Greek Embassy in London, Helen CosmMatos of the Corgialaiios Historical And Cultural Museum in Argostoli, Cephallonia, Giovanni Camisa, and the staff of Earlsfield Public Library in London. None of them, of course, are responsible in any way for my interpretation of the information that they gave.

I am very indebted to innumerable books, but in particular to the following: RICHARD CAPELL: Simiomata, Macdonald and Co, daft unknown.

MARIO CERVI: Storia delta Guerra di Grecia, Sugar Editore, 1965.

KAY CICELLIS: The Easy Way, Harvill Press, 1950.

JOHN Everest: Time After Earthquake, Heinemann, 1954.

NICHOLAS GAGE: Hellas, Collins Harvill,1987.

RICHARD IATRE B: Was in Italy 1943-1945, John Murray, 1993.

DENNIS Mwc>c SMITH: Mussolini, Weidenfeld and NirnLson, 1981.

E.C.W. MYERS: Greek Entanglement, Rupert Hart-Davis, 19SS.

MARCELLO VENTURE The White Flag, Blond, 1%6.

My apologies to Caroline for so many late meals and neglected duties.

A real struggle this one. Sorry about the delay. First of all de Bernieres tendency to 'make up' words threw 'word's spellchecker into a loop. Then after finishing the proofing last Friday I needed to rescan 6 pages - and the scanner conked out! I've played with the wires, the drivers, everything I could think of all week. Finally tonight after a full week of solid resistance, the old thing gave up and started working again. The next FatBastard Release will be The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth on Satuday 14th April, then another Cornwell (assuming the scanner behaves itself!)......Algernon

A FatBastard production. Scanned with Omnipage Pro 10. Completed and Posted 7th April 2001. Proofed (in UK English!) in Word 97. Reproofed for lit version 12
^th
May 2001. Some formatting may be altered slightly. If you find any other errors, either let me know at [email protected] or update the version no and repost. Not to be reposted without the FatBastard 'Logo' below.

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