A Terrible Beauty (19 page)

“You misunderstand my associates, Mr. Chapman. They made inquiries as to the location of the piece and have informed me you insist you do not have it.”

“I don't have it,” Philip said, “and I cannot understand why you are bent on believing otherwise.”

“I find most men incapable of telling the truth the first time they're given the opportunity. Asking a question repeatedly, with encouragement as necessary, is the only way to an honest answer. Why did you come to me on the pretense of looking for the bronze, when your true purpose was to beg me to call off my men? I do not appreciate lies and subterfuge.”

Though he felt sweat beading on his face, Philip nearly laughed at the irony of Demir's statement. “I do want you to call them off, but it is your persistence regarding the object that tells me you are the only person capable of tracking it down. I want the bronze back. I do not know who has it, but I am happy to pay for the piece—whatever price you demand. Will you tell me the moment you learn where it is?”

“You are very determined,” Demir said. “It is a quality I admire. Furthermore, I find you wholly untrustworthy, a quality I often find useful in acquaintances. I shall contact you periodically to inform you if I have any information for you.”

“I shall be at Ephesus once I leave Constantinople.”

“I knew that already.” He smirked, as did his henchman, lurking in the background. “I will always know where you are.”

“And you are certain—quite certain—no one has the Achilles bronze?” Philip asked.

The man shrugged. “You are the only one who has ever claimed to possess it.”

“The man working with me that day was killed. Surely that supports my story. It certainly horrified me.”

“Yes, yes, this tribal justice is sometimes most unsettling to you Westerners. I would think nothing of it.”

“I am convinced he took the bronze from me, and I want it back. At any cost.”

Demir narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I do not doubt you will pay almost anything to retrieve it. I will be in touch, Englishman.” He rose from his seat and left the room, the burly man accompanying him, but not before he first extinguished the oil lamp, leaving Philip to feel his way out in the dark, terrified he had set something in motion he did not quite understand.

 

13

The sea had grown rough by the time we started our return trip from the volcano, and this, combined with heat, sunburn, and displeasure at what I had seen on the beach, left me in a foul mood. Back at the villa, I went straight to my bath, eager to wash the film of volcanic dust from my body. I scrubbed my hair clean, then ducked down to rinse out the suds. That accomplished, I leaned my head against the porcelain and slid until the water reached my neck. I lingered for some time, mulling what Jeremy had said to me. How had I managed to make such a bungle of everything?

Colin had not yet come up to our room, and although his mood had showed no signs of distress or discomfort during the rest of our visit to Nea Kameni, I could not help but worry I had hurt him. When my fingers began to prune, I climbed out of the tub and pulled on a comfortable, bright caftan. I could hear Jeremy and Margaret on the terrace below, but saw no sign of my husband. I decided to wait for him and sat on the balcony, reading Sophocles'
Antigone
until I heard his familiar step in the corridor outside our room. Tossing the book aside, I raced to the door and flung my arms around him as soon as he opened it.

“This is unexpected,” he said, kissing me, but only quickly. “I would take matters into hand in an entirely different way were I not so filthy.”

“Where have you been?” I asked. “You were in a better condition when we arrived home.”

“I received a response from our solicitor. He says the matter is most complicated and he would prefer to discuss it in person when we return to England.”

“That is disappointing,” I said. “I had hoped for a clear and immediate resolution. But surely reading a telegram did not leave you covered with dust.”

“No. I rode to the excavation and told Ashton what you saw and heard. I may not agree there is anything to it, but I could not in good conscience ignore your intuition when it has on so many other occasions proven to be correct.”

“Thank you,” I said. “You do know I would have felt the same concern for anyone, not just Philip, don't you?”

“I know it well, my dear.” He peeled off his jacket and started to unfasten the buttons of his shirt. “Ashton was grateful. He is rather skittish. I pressed him as to the cause, but he assured me I ought not concern myself. He does not have the bronze, and eventually whoever is looking for it will have no choice but to accept that.”

“His tent and his possessions were mangled by someone in the midst of a dreadful storm,” I said. “That does not suggest an individual who is likely to give up his quarry.”

“I agree with you, but Ashton now believes Reiner misread the scene, and that the destruction was likely due to the storm itself.” He kicked off his boots and headed for the bathroom, flinging his shirt to the ground on the way.

I scowled. “How can he believe that when no one else's tent suffered even the slightest damage?”

“He is aware of that and credits it to the same bad luck that has haunted him since his ill-fated safari in Africa.”

“Is there anything else we ought to do?” I asked.

“No,” he said, disappearing into the bathroom.

“Then that settles the matter,” I said with a shrug.

He popped his head back into the bedroom. “Settles the matter?”

“You know I have always respected your opinion. If you do not consider further action necessary, I agree.”

“If I did not know you better—” he started.

“No one could know me better.” I put my hands on his chest, the hard muscles still warm from the exertion of riding. “And I would have it no other way.”

“Leave me to my bath, wicked woman,” he said, a familiar glint in his eye. “I shall see to you when I am finished.”

*   *   *

We passed the following fortnight in a state of calm respite. Colin borrowed Kyros's boat and took us on a cruise around the island. We walked into Fira and visited the small museum in town, whose collection grew with each new season of Professor Hiller von Gaertringen's excavations. It now included some very pretty pots as well as numerous older objects, including the stark but charming Cycladic figures from island civilizations predating that of Pericles' Athens by several millennia. Each afternoon, we chose a different vantage point from which to view the sunset, sometimes hiking all the way out to the top of Skaros, sometimes taking the horses to Oia, on the northernmost tip of the island, and sometimes staying at the villa, watching from the comfort of the cushioned benches of our terrace, while munching on fresh fruit and drinking cool wine.

Our patient, whom the doctor from Oia was now visiting only every third day, had showed no signs of improvement, but we took the fact that his condition had not further declined to be encouraging. Beyond his presence in the house, the events surrounding Philip's arrival were no longer a topic of our conversation. Margaret decided Jeremy ought to marry one of the beautiful local girls and spent a great deal of time searching for a suitable candidate for him, much to his chagrin. I could almost have believed Philip's return to have been nothing more than a dream, were it not for the increased vigor of Colin's marital attentions to me. Although his efforts were much appreciated, I could not help but wonder if he was trying to erase any memories I might have of similar, shall we say, activities. If so, he need not have bothered, but I was not about to tell him that, given the spectacular results of his endeavors.

“The time has come for us to consider our next destination,” I said one morning when the two of us were taking breakfast on our balcony instead of on the terrace with our friends. “We are all thoroughly relaxed from our stay here, and it would be best if we left before Margaret starts marriage negotiations with any of our neighbors.”

“We could go to Rhodes,” Colin said. “Bainbridge might like the crusaders' palace there.”

“I was thinking we should go to Olympia. It is not a simple journey, but the excavations there—”

“Perhaps it would be best to ask Bainbridge. He is, after all, the one meant to benefit from the trip.”

I had no choice but to agree, and was heartened when Jeremy warmed to my suggestion of Olympia.

“I quite fancy a run around the stadium there,” he said. “You know how put out I was at not being given a medal when they brought the Olympics to Athens in '96.” His younger brother had competed in the marathon, and Jeremy, who had climbed down from the stands to run the last leg of the race next to him, felt his own exertion more worthy of recognition than Jack's.

“Capital!” Margaret said. “We shall stage a race, but only if you agree to dress in proper ancient attire.”

“You shall not catch me there, Margaret,” Jeremy said. “I know they were, er, unclothed while competing. Emily told me when we were at Delphi.”

“I am beginning to believe this trip is having a deleterious effect on you,” she said. “What fun am I to have if you don't remain your willfully ignorant self?”

Colin made arrangements for the boat that had brought us from Athens to collect us. It would arrive in five days and, instead of returning us to the capital, take us on a leisurely cruise around the Peloponnese, docking at Katakolon, a short distance from Olympia. As our departure approached, I oversaw our packing, and had nearly finished with my final trunk when a commotion outside the house brought me to my balcony.

Below, Philip and Fritz, in a hideous state of disarray, perspiration causing dust to stick to every exposed inch of their skin, had arrived on donkeys that looked only slightly less disheveled than their riders.

“Heavens!” I cried, and they looked up, Fritz waving an exhausted greeting. “What has happened? You two look a fright.”

Philip, clutching at his arm, slid from his donkey and collapsed on the ground with a dull thud. I ran back inside and downstairs, calling for Colin, and rushed to the front of the house, where I knelt next to the fallen man. His arm was bleeding—the result, I deduced from the rent in the sleeve of his jacket, of a bullet.

“I never intended that you would see me in such a state, but Reiner insisted we come,” he said, meeting my eyes and giving me a weak smile before his lids shut and he slipped from consciousness. My husband, only a few steps behind me, appeared almost the next instant, with Jeremy and Margaret fast on his heels. Colin carried his injured friend into the house, back to the Etruscan room where he had stayed before, and placed him on the bed.

“We need iodine to clean the wound,” he said as he removed his friend's jacket and ripped the sleeve of his shirt to expose the injury.

“I shall fetch the doctor,” Jeremy said. “I know the way to Oia.”

“I will go with you,” Fritz replied, but I stopped him.

“No, you stay,” I said. “Tell us what happened.” With a quick nod, Jeremy was off and Margaret had gone downstairs to get iodine from Mrs. Katevatis, who kept in her kitchen every supply for which one could ever find a use.

“Wir haben ohne Unterbrechung durchgearbeitet—”

“English, please, Fritz,” I said.

“
Ich bitte um Verzeinung.
We had been working without interruption for these past weeks, everything going extremely well. The professor is due to return tomorrow or the next day, and we wanted to have as much of the stoa cleared as we could before his return. We found an exquisite Roman decoration that—” He stopped himself. “
Es tut mir sehr leid.
I forget myself. The details are not important. Today Chapman—Ashton—went down to the site of the theatre to check our workers' progress there, but before he reached it, someone started shooting at us.”

“At all of you, or only him?” Colin asked.

“It is difficult to say, Hargreaves. It happened so suddenly. No one was hit but him. His wound—”

“Is superficial,” Colin said. “I have seen much worse. The bullet did little damage and exited cleanly. He passed out due more to exertion and stress than blood loss, and should recover fully in a very short time. I have stopped the bleeding. The doctor will be able to determine how many stitches he needs to close the wound. I myself would say he requires approximately five or six.”

I studied my husband's face and wondered when, exactly, he had seen much worse and how he knew so much about treating bullet wounds. I was aware the work he undertook on the Continent on orders of the palace was often dangerous, but I had not ever considered the matter in detail, fearing that doing so would cause me too much agony while I was awaiting his return.

I snapped myself back to attention. “Your workers?” I asked. “How are they?”

“Unharmed, but frightened. We will have trouble persuading them to return to the site tomorrow.”

“You cannot think of starting back up so soon,” I said. “No one should return there until we figure out who did this.”

Margaret appeared with iodine and smelling salts, which Mrs. Katevatis believed had the power to arouse anyone from any state, a tenet she clung to despite the fact they had done nothing for the other injured man currently under our care. They did, to her delight, bring Philip around at once.

“What a mess I am,” he said. “Deepest apologizes for once again disrupting you in this manner. You must think my aim is to turn the villa into a hospital.”

“Think nothing of it,” I said. “Did you see who did this to you?”

“I did not. Was anyone else hurt?”

“No,” Fritz said. “The men are safe.”

“Safe at home, I imagine,” Philip said.

“Yes, I saw no point in making them stay today, but will speak to them about coming tomorrow.”