The Highest Stakes of All (14 page)

She supposed she should ask about her travel plans—or at least what UK airport she was destined for. She’d find Chris and Julie’s address—ask them if they could put her up for a night or two while she tried to make some kind of rational decision about her future.

She pushed her chair back and rose. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get ready. I’ll only take the things I brought here with me, so it won’t take long.’

He took a table napkin and wiped Eleni’s sticky fingers. ‘As you wish,’ he said, after a long pause, adding, without looking up, ‘Eleni will stay with me while you make your final preparations.’

When she reached her room, Hara had already brought the small case which had arrived on Pellas with her. It was open on the bed, displaying its meagre contents, the black crochet dress and the white boots on top of the other things.

‘This is a day of much sadness,
thespinis.
Why do you go when you are needed here?’

‘Someone called Mitsa will be looking after Eleni,’ Joanna returned over-brightly. ‘She’ll be fine.’

‘I do not speak of the child, Kyria Joanna, but her father. Who is to care for Kyrios Vassos if you do not?’

Joanna retrieved the black dress and its body stocking and began to change into them. Leaving, she thought, the way she’d arrived.

She said haltingly, ‘Well, there’s you—and Andonis. And Eleni herself, of course. And there are plenty of other women in the world—especially his world.’ She tried to smile. ‘He once told me that one girl is very like another.’

‘Po, po, po,’
Hara dismissed with a snort. ‘That is when he knew nothing. Now he knows everything—and he suffers. You should stay,’ she added coaxingly. ‘Make him happy in bed. Give him more babies.’

Joanna shook her head. ‘That isn’t possible.’
Because it’s the last thing he wants. He’s made that clear.
‘I have another life in England,’ she hurried on. ‘And I need to get back to it.’
And somehow begin to heal.

Hara snorted again and went off, muttering under her breath.

She was fastening her case when Stavros knocked at the door. ‘Kyrios Gordanis requests you join him in the
saloni, thespinis.’

He took the case from her hand, and followed her to the stairs. Joanna went down them, the heels of the white boots clicking, her head held high, feeling the thud of her heart against her ribcage.

‘Please don’t let him offer me money,’ she whispered under her breath. ‘Just my ticket home and no more. I need to get through this with my pride left, if nothing else.’

And knew just how deep, how painful and how endless ‘nothing else’ might well be.

Andonis was waiting to open the door of the
saloni
for her, and, taking a deep breath, Joanna walked into the room beyond and paused, looking across at Vassos, his face pale under its tan and strangely haggard, the dark eyes fixed on her with an aching intensity that struck her like a blow—because she recognised it. Shared it.

Joanna took one quick, involuntary step towards him, then stopped as another voice said her name, and she realised for the first time that they were not alone.

Incredulously, she whirled round in the direction of the speaker.

‘Daddy?’ Her voice cracked on the word. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’ve come to take you back where you belong, Joanna.’ Denys Vernon crossed to where she was standing and kissed her awkwardly on the forehead. He was wearing a light-coloured suit with wide lapels and a flowered shirt open at the neck, all clearly expensive. His hair had been cut short on top, growing down into sideburns.

He looked sleek and prosperous, Joanna thought, but his eyes were restless and did not meet hers.

He added, tight-lipped, ‘Mr Gordanis has finally decided he has no more use for you, and has summoned us to fetch you.’

Vassos said nothing, but turned away, walking over to the windows, his body taut, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

‘Us?’ Joanna repeated without comprehension. She looked past her father at the sofa behind him, and her eyes widened as she recognised his companion. ‘My God,’ she said shakily. ‘Mrs Van Dyne.’

‘Mrs Vernon, if you don’t mind, honey.’ The older woman was her usual immaculate self in ice blue silk. ‘Which is a surprise for you, I can see.’ She shrugged. ‘But you were news to me, too, especially as I knew back in France Denys had been passing you off as some kind of niece.’

Her eyes went disparagingly over Joanna’s outfit. ‘Well, your millionaire seems to have got you cheap, my dear, unless you have some serious jewellery packed away in that little holdall. After all, he should pay for his pleasures, if that’s what they were, of course. You’re hardly the sophisticated type, but I presume he’s still going to be generous with the severance cheque.’

She paused. ‘Besides, there’s always the additional question of compensation. Poor Denys, suffering the trauma of being robbed of his own child and in such a way. He may be scarred for life. Plus, it’s cost us an arm and a leg getting here from the States, not to mention the inconvenience.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘That crazy little plane from Athens to that other island, then a boat trip, of all things.’

She glanced round her, lips pursed. ‘But at least, having snatched you, Mr Gordanis has kept you here in this hideaway, instead of flaunting you round the world as his floozie. Maybe we can keep the whole thing under wraps and get you decently married off, after all.’

‘Married?’ Joanna repeated in bewilderment, her mind whirling under the torrent of words.

The elegant shoulders were shrugged. ‘Well, you aren’t trained for anything, so Denys informs me. And you’re short on qualifications, so you can’t expect me to support you as well as him.’ She sniffed. ‘We daren’t risk the top drawer, of course, but there are plenty of young lawyers and executives at the country club. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem, especially when it’s known you’re my stepdaughter. Just as long as the newspapers don’t get hold of what’s been going on, which none of us want, I’m quite sure.’

She gave Joanna another disparaging look. ‘A few trips to the beauty parlour and some better clothes will help, of course. We certainly don’t wish to advertise that you’re second-hand goods.’

She nodded briskly. ‘So, when your father and Mr Gordanis have had their little chat about money, we can be getting back to civilisation, thank the Lord. And I want to make it quite clear that this—incident—is now permanently over, and we don’t refer to it again. As far as the world’s concerned, honey, you’ve been vacationing with friends.’

Joanna looked at the dark, unmoving figure by the window. The profile hewn out of stone. The rigid curl of his fists.

‘Yes,’ Denys joined in, his tone blustering, yet uneasy at the same time. ‘My wife is quite right. You’re going to pay for what you’ve done to my innocent girl. So don’t think you can simply hand her back and get away with it.’

‘No.’ Vassos’ voice was quiet and husky, with a note in it Joanna had never heard before. ‘I have never thought that. And believe me, Kyrios Vernon, I will pay. Pay whatever you ask, and far more besides.’

Now he knows everything—and he suffers …

Hara’s words were suddenly beating in Joanna’s brain. And, as if a new sun had arisen above the eastern horizon, illumining her entire world, she realised what she had to do.

Lifting her chin, she said, coolly and clearly, ‘I’m sorry to spoil all these careful arrangements, but I’m afraid it’s not quite as simple as that. Because I have no intention of leaving. You see, I realised this morning that I’m going to have Mr Gordanis’ baby, and that changes everything.’

There was a moment of stunned silence. Joanna was aware of Vassos swinging round from the window, his dark face incredulous.

‘Are you crazy?’ her stepmother demanded derisively. ‘My God, I’ll bet he has the known world littered with his bastards. One more won’t make any difference, you little fool. He’ll still dump you.’

She allowed her voice to become more coaxing. ‘Look, honey, you can’t be that far on. Nothing that a good gynaecologist can’t sort out for you. Cut your losses and come away before the press finds out and goes to town on you. Look what poor Maria Callas went through.’

‘Wait.’ Vassos’ voice cut across any further arguments she was about to marshal. He walked across to Joanna and took both her hands in his. He said gravely, ‘You told me once, Joanna
mou,
that you had no wish to bear me a child. Something I have never forgotten. If you have now changed your mind, tell me why.’

She looked up at him, her heart twisting at the searching, agonised tenderness in his eyes. She said softly, ‘I think you already know.’

‘Yet I need to hear you say it.’ His voice deepened. Became urgent. ‘Or shall I speak first? Tell you what is in my heart too?
S’agapo, matia mou.
I love you.’

He lifted her hands almost reverently to his lips, kissing the soft palms.
‘M’agapas,
Joanna? Can you love me, in spite of all the wrong I have done you? And will you stay with me and become my wife, and let us make each other happy for the rest of our lives?’

Her lips trembled into a smile.
‘S’agapo,
Vassos
mou.
I love you so very much. And I’d marry you today if it was possible.’

For the first time in weeks his face relaxed into something approaching the familiar grin. ‘I think it will take a little longer than that,
agapi mou.
But I also have no wish to wait. Nor any intention of doing so,’ he added softly, his lips brushing her ear, making her whole body thrill to his touch, and its promise.

‘Just hold it right there.’ Nora Vernon was on her feet. ‘I’ve heard of this before—girls falling in love with their kidnappers. So what’s your thinking, Mr Greek Almighty? That it will be cheaper to fool her into believing you want her rather than paying us to take her off your hands? Well, forget it. A few sessions with a good therapist will stop that nonsense, and you can pay for those, too.’

She turned on her husband. ‘Don’t just stand there, Denys. She’s your daughter! She’s not thinking straight. You’ve got to do something.’

‘Yes, Kyrios Vernon,’ Vassos said harshly. ‘Do something, indeed. For the first time in your life behave like a father and give my Joanna your blessing and your consent to our marriage. Because whatever you or this—woman of yours may say or do, I shall take your daughter as my wife to cherish always.

‘And why did I have to send for you?’ he added contemptuously. ‘Why did you not seek me out long ago and force me to give her up, at gunpoint if necessary, after what I had done? I traced you without difficulty. Why could you not find me? What excuse do you have?’

He drew a deep unsteady breath. ‘Because I, too, have a daughter,
kyrie,
and I know now that if a man ever took her from me in such a way, I would find him and kill him. It has made me realise exactly the wrong I have done. Therefore I decided I must let Joanna go from me, even though I would be tearing the heart out of my body, because it might be my only hope of putting things right between us. But you—you never lifted a finger to rescue her,’ he went on, eyes blazing remorselessly at the man who stood, head bent, in front of him. ‘You left her to endure whatever treatment I chose to inflict on her while you saved yourself.

‘I am not sure you would be here now if your wife had not believed you could make “a fast buck", as I believe the saying is. Cash in on your child’s supposed disgrace at my hands.’ He shook his head. ‘Even so, I told myself if I restored her to you it would be a step towards forgiveness, and a new beginning for us both, even if I did not deserve such happiness.’

He drew Joanna close, his arm strong around her slender waist, his voice quiet and sure. ‘Because—unlike you—I would have come to the other ends of the earth to find her again, and, if God was good, to teach her to love me. To persuade her that my life was hers.’

His clasp tightened a little. ‘Our need for each other did not flower slowly and gently from trust and liking, as it should have done—I wish with all my soul it had happened that way—but it is no less real. And, no matter how it began, it is ending well. She is my woman, I am her man, and nothing can change that.’

He added curtly, ‘You will be notified when the arrangements for our wedding have been made, so that you may attend if you wish to do so. And, in time, you will be free to visit your grandchildren.’

‘Denys?’ His wife’s face was cold with fury as she got to her feet. ‘Are you going to stand that kind of talk from this—barbarian? Let him dictate to you?’

There was a silence, then Denys Vernon said tiredly, ‘What has he said that isn’t the truth? Of course I should have come to fetch her. I wanted to, Nora, as you well know. Asked for your help. But you wouldn’t allow it. Not until now—when you thought there might be money to be made. He’s right about that, too, heaven help us.’

He straightened sagging shoulders. ‘But I shall come to the wedding, and this time give my daughter away in the true and proper sense. That is if she can forgive me for the part I’ve played in all this.’ He added heavily, ‘You, Nora, will please yourself, as you always do.’

As she parted her lips to speak, her skin mottled with anger, he raised a silencing hand. ‘And before you tell me again that you took me from the gutter, I know it. I only wish I could feel more grateful.’ He took her arm. ‘Now, let’s leave while there’s still a way back for us.’

Joanna detached herself gently from Vassos’ embrace and went to him.

‘Daddy.’ She put a hand on his sleeve. ‘There’ll always be a way back. I discovered that a little while ago in this room, just when I thought I’d lost everything.’ She added more strongly, ‘And the past is exactly that. It’s over. So I’d love you to give me away.’

He said unsteadily, ‘Bless you for that, my darling. I’ve been so terribly ashamed—about everything.’ He paused. ‘I’ll be waiting to hear from you. From both of you.’ He took her in his arms and held her for a long moment while his wife, stony-faced, walked to the door.

Then he followed her, as Joanna watched, tears stinging her eyes.