Greek Wedding (19 page)

‘What do you suggest?' she asked Biddock now.

‘That you entrust the money and the stores you ordered to Captain Hamilton in the
Cambrian
. Best of all, I think you should arrange to travel in company with him. If you really feel you must go.'

‘He's sailing soon?'

‘He's at Corfu now. You'd best lose no time in your preparations. You'd like me to get a message to him?'

‘Oh yes, please.'

But Brett, returning from a visit to the Resident, with whom he had made firm friends in the course of the winter, told her that he had anticipated Biddock. ‘It's the obvious answer,' he said. ‘I'll feel very much safer rounding Cape Matapan in company with the
Cambrian
.'

‘So we're all going?' Jenny jumped up from where she had been sitting on the floor, packing books.

‘I see no alternative,' said her brother. ‘Phyllida and I can hardly go jaunting off on our own, and I'm certainly not going to leave you here without Aunt Cass to look after you.'

She kissed him impulsively. ‘Darling, dearest B, I was so afraid you'd decide, after all, to leave me behind with Cissie Biddock.'

‘Heaven forfend,' he said. ‘God knows what mischief you'd get up to. There's a letter from my uncle, by the way.'

‘Full of reproaches?'

‘Naturally. Helena's married.' Even now, he found it hard to say it.

‘Not really!' Jenny did not share his difficulty. ‘Has she caught her Earl at last? I'd never have thought it.'

‘My uncle does not name the lucky man.' His tone was repressive. Then, relenting. ‘From what he says, it does not sound as if he thought it a good match. And that, of course, is all my fault, like everything else.'

‘Oh, poor B!' And, irrepressibly, ‘Aren't you just glad you're safe out of it? But when do we start? How is Mr. Brown getting on with his blessed gudgeons? Will Captain Hamilton really let us go along with him? Tell me quick!'

‘In one word, I suppose?' He could not help laughing at her. ‘Well, to begin at your last question and work back: the Resident's written a moving plea to Captain Hamilton on our behalf. He seems sure he will help us. Hamilton's a good friend to the Greeks.' He might be answering Jenny, but he was
speaking to Phyllida. ‘And Brown says the gudgeons are perfect, much to his surprise, and he should be able to get steam up tomorrow. Then it's merely a question of waiting for the
Cambrian
. I think it will be best if we all move aboard at once. We'll be a tight squeeze, I'm afraid, since I intend to take Marcos along. My Greek's still not nearly as good as yours, Phyllida, for all my studies this winter, and I'm not sure how the Greek Government would feel about your acting as my official interpreter.'

‘No,' said Phyllida thoughtfully. ‘They do seem to treat their women as beasts of burden, don't they? I've noticed the refugee families; the father walks along with nothing to carry but his pistols and yataghan, and his poor wife follows bowed down with such of their possessions as they have managed to save. But, surely, with intelligent Greeks like the Government it would be different?'

Brett was discouraging: ‘I doubt it, and so does the Resident.' Had he succeeded, at last, in putting a doubt into her head about Alex? He hoped, but did not think so.

The
Helena
's engines were as good as new. Sailing swiftly and safely in company with the
Cambrian
, they reached Aegina to find chaos compounded. Penniless and without authority, President Zaimis' Government had made a feeble and unsuccessful attempt at relieving Athens, but was really more occupied by its feud with the opposing factions of Kolokotronis at Hermione and Kondouriotis on Hydra. The navy had turned to piracy, and what remained of the army to brigandage for lack of pay. The inhabitants of Argos had been reduced to closing their city gates and threatening to fire on anyone who approached. Worst of all, the Egyptian leader, Ibrahim Pasha, had taken astute advantage of the chaos in the Morea to persuade whole Greek villages to submit to him as a lesser evil than their own predatory soldiers.

‘I don't know what to do.' It was their second night in harbour at Aegina, and the bad news had been coming in all day. ‘I just don't know what to do,' Phyllida said again as she stood at the rail, gazing unseeingly southwards to the blue-shadowed mountains of the Morea.

‘Wait.' It was the only advice Brett could give, and his heart bled for her. ‘If Hamilton cannot persuade the rival governments to unite,' he went on, ‘perhaps Cochrane will manage it
when he gets here. In the meantime, I'm sure Hamilton is wise when he urges you to say nothing about your proposed gift. If news of it gets out, you'll be badgered as poor Byron was. I'm delighted to find that Alex has had the sense to say nothing about it.' He was also, privately, a good deal surprised, but that was not a thing to say to Phyllida.

‘Anyway,' Jenny gave a great sigh of pure happiness. ‘We're here. We're actually in Greece itself! I never really believed we'd get here. B, darling B, say we can go and look at the Temple of Aphaia tomorrow?'

‘I'll see, kitten, but I'm not sure that this is really a time for sightseeing.' He had been on shore himself that day and did not much want Phyllida to see the crowded refugee camps on the island, or hear the stories of the fugitives who had escaped from the Acropolis when Fabvier fought his way in at Christmas.

Jenny jumped up to join Phyllida at the rail. ‘It all looks so beautiful—and so peaceful—those delicious little white houses, and the men sitting about on the quays—it's hard to believe they're at war.'

‘It
is
hard to believe it,' said Brett. ‘The men idling on the quays there are soldiers who ought to be with Gordon and Karaiskakis outside Athens.' Too late, he saw where this was leading.

‘Why aren't they?' asked Phyllida, and answered herself: ‘For lack of pay, I suppose. Oh, Brett, shouldn't I—?'

‘No,' he said. ‘If you'd met the chiefs of this government, as I did today, you'd know it would be madness. Pay their soldiers and they'll send them to Hermione to intimidate Kolokotronis and his gang.'

He was actually relieved to see the
Philip
come swooping into the harbour a couple of days later, and even more so when Alex urged Phyllida as strongly as he had to do nothing for the time being. ‘I know it's maddening for you,
kyria
, but we must wait, now, until Lord Cochrane gets here. Nothing's happening, over there at Athens. Gordon and Karaiskakis are sitting in their two camps, and the Turks are between them, at Saint Spiridion, laughing at them. But I've good news for you, just the same.'

‘Another letter? Oh, thank you, Alex!' Once again it was an indescribably dirty and tattered old piece of paper, but the message it carried was reassuring. ‘He says I'm not to believe all I hear,' she exclaimed. ‘Things up there aren't so bad as
Fabvier's been painting them. I wonder why?'

Alex laughed. ‘Think,
kyria
! You can't blame General Fabvier if he's drawing it a bit strong; he wants to be relieved, doesn't he? I've heard it said he's not best pleased to be shut up there in the Acropolis while Sir Richard Church is made Commander-in-Chief outside. He didn't at all intend to stay there, in the first place. He meant merely to throw supplies into the Acropolis and fight his way out again. No wonder if he's getting impatient!'

‘But, Alex, isn't there something we can do?'

‘Not for the moment,
kyria
. That's just what I have come to talk to you about. I'm ashamed to have to confess it, but I don't think it's safe for you to remain here.'

‘Safe?' She could not believe her ears. ‘Here? At Aegina?'

‘It's the
Helena
,' he explained apologetically. ‘Your beautiful steamship, milord. You've heard, of course, of the excitement Captain Hastings' steamship, the
Karteria
, created when she arrived? And she was invaluable up at Athens until she was damaged. We miss her badly now she's being repaired. Well, you can see, the
Helena
, being so much smaller, might be even more useful for reconnaissance and inshore work. She's a daily temptation to Kondouriotis and his pirates on Hydra and Spetsai. Suppose they should get control of the government, what's to prevent them from seizing her, on some trumped-up charge, one day when there's no ship of the Great Powers in port?'

‘Yes,' Brett said. ‘I've been afraid of that. Captain Hastings himself warned me not to let any of the Greek captains on board, on any pretext whatever.'

‘You're wise,' said Alex. ‘Though I hate to admit it.'

Jenny laughed. ‘But you're a Greek captain yourself, Alex. Shall we throw you into the harbour?'

‘Why, so I am,
Kyria
Jenny, but also, I hope, your friend.'

‘Of course. I was only teasing. But what do you want us to do? Disguise the
Helena
as a
caique
, or hide her in one of those secret bays Greece is so rich in?'

‘Precisely that. I should feel much safer if you were where only I could find you. Just until Cochrane gets here—' He turned to Phyllida and Brett. ‘There's a bay under Cape Sunion that we use, my friends and I. If you'd let me guide you there—'

‘On the mainland?' Brett was amazed. ‘But the Turks?'

‘Would never come there in a thousand years. It's as good as inaccessible by land, and invisible by sea. And it's known as a haunt of mine and my friends. You'd be safe there. No Greek would dare molest you; no Turk would ever find you.'

‘That may be true enough,' Brett agreed reluctantly. ‘But still I'm not sure—'

Alex took his arm to lead him a little apart from the others. ‘There's something else.' They were out of earshot now, their voices drowned by a fiddle being unmelodiously played on the crew's bit of deck. ‘I was glad to hear you had not let the ladies go ashore. There's talk of the plague in that camp of huts outside the town. It may only be talk, but if you've been there, you know what the conditions are like. And if it should get a hold—in a place as overcrowded as Aegina—anything could happen. Quite aside from the infection, there's the question of panic. Suppose someone were to decide that the
Helena
would be a good way to escape?'

‘But this secret cove of yours: you really think we'd be safe there?'

‘My life for yours, milord.' He held out his hand. ‘You know, I think, how I feel about the
Kyria
Phyllida. Do you think I would put her at risk?'

‘No, I don't.' Brett took his hand. ‘When shall we start?'

They encountered an unexpected obstacle in Phyllida herself. Their brief conference had given her time to think. When they returned to announce that they intended to sail that same night, she surprised them both with a decisive, ‘No.' And then: ‘I'm sorry, Brett … Alex … I know you mean it for the best, but I can't. Go and hide—out of touch—without news—while Peter is in danger every moment? Don't you see, Cochrane might arrive when you were away, Alex. We might not hear of it—the moment for my intervention might pass without my even knowing about it. Besides, I
cannot
believe the
Helena
won't be safe here at Aegina—safer, if you ask me, than hidden as you suggest. After all, the ships of the Allied Powers are in and out of the harbour here all the time. And I, personally, think better of your fellow countrymen than you seem to do.'

‘But there's more—' Brett intervened to explain about the threat of plague.

‘I'm sorry,' she said again when he had finished. ‘Of course in
that case we'll all stay on board the
Helena
. You and Marcos will have to go ashore, I suppose, Brett, but I know you'll take every precaution.'

‘But, Phyllida, think of the danger … To you, to your aunt, to Jenny—'

‘I am thinking of it, and I mind, horribly, that I must expose the rest of you to it. But—I'm sorry to have to remind you of this—I've chartered the
Helena;
I have the right to decide where she goes. And, please understand this, Brett, I have decided.'

‘Oh.' His face tightened. ‘Of course, if you put it like that there's no more to be said.'

‘Forgive me,
kyria
.' Alex contrived to snatch a moment alone with Phyllida in the lee of one of the paddle-wheels. ‘I understand now that I should never have suggested your hiding. There's no end to the surprises you have for me. An Amazon! An Athene! But you will let me leave one of my own men on board with you, as a protection?'

‘Oh, thank you, Alex! You think of everything. I
should
be grateful! I'd never forgive myself if anything were to happen to Jenny and my aunt.'

‘And I,
kyria
, would never forgive myself if anything were to happen to
you
. I'll speak to Milord Renshaw about the man, with your permission?'

‘Oh yes, please do. He's angry with me, I'm afraid. It will come much better from you. And stay to dinner, Alex? It will make things easier…'

Was this a mistake? She wished, afterwards, that she knew just what Alex had said to Brett. It was certainly very far from having the effect she had intended. He treated her throughout the evening with a tight, controlled courtesy that she found hard to bear. But Alex was at his most charming and kept them absorbed with his stories of alarms and adventures at sea. Many of these involved Peter, and Phyllida could have listened to him for ever. ‘Oh, yes,' Alex said. ‘He's one who can take care of himself, my Brother Petros, but how should he not be,
brought up by such a sister! You have never asked me,
kyria
, what Petros told me about you.'