The goddess of Mavisu Read online

  The door of the salon was already open and he took her in there and set her down on one of the cushions with unexpected gentleness, although there was nothing suggestive of gentleness in the fierce dark eyes that looked down at her a moment later. 'If you wish to prove how stubborn you can be,' he said in a deep, scornful voice; 'you are doing exactly that! For my part I cannot believe that anyone, even you, hanim, can be so foolish as to retard their own recovery simply to exhibit defiance! '

  Much as she disliked admitting it, Delia was

  obliged to some extent to see his point of view, but she felt rather small and vulnerable suddenly now that she sat at his feet. Her flesh still retained the warmth of his body and she felt strangely bereft without its tingling contact so that she looked up at him with a faintly appealing look in her green eyes that she was quite unaware of.

  `I—I wish you wouldn't call me hanim,' she said in a small voice, and Kemal narrowed his eyes for a moment before he answered.

  `It is the correct form of address for a woman,' he reminded her after a few seconds, and she wondered if she imagined the more gentle note inalnis voice.

  But only when you want to be very formal,' she ventured, her heart beating anxiously hard. 'With women you don't know very well or ' She hesitated and hastily looked down at her hands. `And you don't always use it, do you?'

  Again he studied her for several seconds, and he looked so tall and fierce that she wondered why she was not afraid of him. Then he sat down suddenly in one swift easy movement, his legs crossed in the traditional posture, on the cushion next to hers. Unhurriedly he took out a case and extracted a long flat cigarette from it, his strong fingers fascinating in their dexterity as he lit it and expelled a long plume of blue smoke from his lips.

  `Perhaps I should call you bebek instead,' he suggested with a hint of smile behind the concealing smoke. 'It would perhaps be more appropriate, although less complimentary.'

  `Bebek?' She echoed the strange word, looking

  puzzled, and his eyes glittered with malicious amusement as he looked at her steadily.

  `Baby,' he translated obligingly, and Delia flushed.

  `I see! ' She would have liked to get to her feet and walk out of the room had it not been for the effort involved, instead she glared at him indignantly and lifted her chin. 'I fail to see why you see me as a baby simply because I don't like taking orders,' she told him, and refused to be warned by the slight narrowing of his eyes. 'But I suppose Turkish women are accustomed to being treated like second-class citizens and you think I should be grateful to you ! '

  Even before she had finished speaking she could have bitten out her tongue, but it was too late now and Kemal's strong right hand was already crushing out the cigarette with a slow force so suggestive of violence that she shivered. He got to his feet and did not even look at her, but turned his back as if she was beneath his notice, and strode off.

  Delia watched him, her heart thudding relentlessly hard in her breast, then, spurred by heaven knew what compulsion, she called after him. `I'm sorry! ' Her voice sounded so small and uncertain that she scarcely recognised it, but she thought he hesitated. 'Please,' she insisted, encouraged by that slight hesitation. 'I really am sorry, Kemal Bey! '

  He turned, slowly, his dark eyes shadowed by half lowered lids, and for a moment she almost expected him to curse her, but then he strode back across the room in great long strides that brought

  him back to her much sooner than she expected, so that she caught her breath when he dropped down on to the cushion she sat on, facing her and so close their bodies touched.

  He gave her no time to say or do anything, but reached for her with his hands and pulled her into his arms, pressing her so hard against him that she let out a faint cry of surprise. The softness of the cushion yielded to their combined weights and his body forced her to sink back, her arms once more going instinctively around his neck while his mouth sought hers with a passionate fierceness that blotted out everything else but the urgent desires of her own senses.

  There was a fierceness in his kiss, a suppressed violence that suggested he was still angry, but there was also an irresistible hunger in the mouth that parted her lips with its force and it was that she responded to so eagerly. On the brink of complete surrender to her own desires, she was made aware of some alien sound in the big room, some distant voice that dragged her back from ecstasy.

  She fought hard for a moment against the arms that bound her and managed at last to turn her head, breathing erratically as she gazed with unseeing eyes at the slowly closing door. Turning again, she looked up into Kemal's face, and shivered at the look of dark passion that still lingered there.

  Her lips were warm and still tingled with his kiss and she looked up at him in silence for a moment before she found her voice. 'Some—someone came in,' she whispered, and noticed dazedly

  how quickly he frowned. Then his eyes searched her face slowly, as if he was seeing her for the first time, his hands still holding her, his body still pressing her back into the softness of the cushion.

  'That troubles you?' he suggested softly, but gave her no time to confirm or deny it. He eased himself upright and sat for a moment on the cushion beside her, then reaching down he drew her into a sitting position and held her for a moment before dropping his hands from her arms. 'Of course it troubles you,' he said, answering his own question, 'and I can only express my regret once again, Delia, for having ' his big hands spread meaningly. 'What can I say?' he asked.

  Delia shook her head, only now beginning to wonder who it was who had so discreetly closed the door again and left them. Sadi Selim would have been scandalised at such a scene and Clifford would certainly have made his presence known, so that left only her uncle and Madame Renoir, and of those two Delia thought the little Frenchwoman was the most likely.

  'Don't—don't say anything,' she begged, and looked for a moment at the strong, dark profile outlined against the-window and the broad hands that were clasped together though showing no sign of tension. 'I—I suppose I was partly to blame,' she ventured in a small husky voice, and Kemal turned his head slowly and looked at her, one brow raised, then his straight mouth twitched into the ghost of a smile.

  'Would it be ungallant of me to agree with you?'

  he asked quietly, and Delia blinked at him for a moment, uncertain what to say.

  `Perhaps not,' she whispered.

  Kemal got up suddenly, standing over her for a moment, his dark eyes unfathomable in the cool shadowy salon. Then he reached down for her hand and quite unexpectedly raised it to his lips. 'Try not to tempt me too often, bebek,' he said in a soft deep voice. 'I am too much a man to be able to resist you!'

  Her heart racing wildly, every nerve tingling, Delia watched him go, striding on long legs to the door—and he was gone before she could think of a reason for calling him back.

  CHAPTER SIX

  CLIFFORD had driven into Antalya during the morning for something the professor needed for the dig, but it was not until he mentioned the fact to Delia after lunch that she reminded him that she would have enjoyed the drive in with him. 'Of course I could have taken you,' he admitted, 'but quite honestly I didn't give it a thought, Delia. The professor was in such a hurry and I simply didn't stop to think about anything else.'

  `Not even me,' Delia complained ruefully.

  Clifford took her hands in his, squeezing her fingers gently. 'I'm sorry, my dear,' he said contritely. 'I didn't really forget you, of course, but the professor gave me no time to think—you know how impatient he always is when he wants anything.'

  Delia looked at him and smiled, obliged to recognise the truth of that. 'I know,' she acknowledged. 'He really has no right to call me impatient! '

  Clifford leaned forward and kissed her lightly on her cheek. 'I'll take you out again, Delia,' he whispered resting his forehead against hers and looking down at her, 'I promise I will, as soon as the professor gives me another free day, although heaven knows when that
will be. Everything's going so well at the moment—we've uncovered almost the entire stereobate now, the substructure of the temple, and we can see the layout as a whole!'

  His enthusiasm was as great as her uncle's and quite understandable, but Delia recognised that everything and everybody would have to take second place to his first love, no matter what protestations he made, and she smiled a little ruefully. There was a slightly breathless sound to his voice and his eyes gleamed, but while she acknowledged the reason for his exhilaration she could not share in it to the same degree.

  `It's very exciting,' she agreed. 'I only wish I could be there.'

  'Oh, but of course you can't, darling, I understand that,' Clifford denied, and she swallowed hard

  on the unfamiliar use of the endearment. 'It wouldn't be safe for you to be hobbling about on the uneven ground with that ankle, but I wish you could be with us too!' He looked at her bandaged foot, very much less swollen but still painful when she put her weight on it. 'How much better is it after a rest?' he asked.

  'Much better than it was,' Delia told him, but he frowned.

  'I wish you'd have a doctor to see it, Delia,' he said. 'You'd probably be up and around much quicker if you had proper treatment and I'd feel much happier about it.'

  'It certainly isn't worth troubling a doctor with it now,' she insisted. 'If I thought it would make a difference to the time I have to spend resting it, I'd see a doctor, but there's no point when I'm just sitting here anyway.'

  'Missing all the fun,' Clifford suggested, and squeezed her fingers again. 'Poor Delia! '

  'I suppose I can't complain too much,' she admitted with a smile. But I do like to know what's going on.'

  Clifford looked as if he just remembered something, and he raised her fingers to his mouth and kissed them lightly, not looking at her as he spoke. 'I saw Selim while I was in Antalya,' he told her, and something in his voice, some note of harshness, suggested he had something more to say on the matter.

  She tried to do something about the rapid beating of her heart as she sought to steady her voice.

  She made no pretence of suggesting he referred to the old man, for Clifford always used Sadi Selim's full name. Only Kemal merited that rather derisive abbreviation. 'They have some business interests, I believe,' she ventured. 'It was probably in connection with that he was there.'

  'I hardly think so!' Clifford declared, and there was a gleam in his eyes she did not care for, though she tried not to let the depth of her interest show. 'He was talking to a woman in the car park near the bus station,' he went on. 'A tallish, rather attractive girl, obviously Turkish.'

  Recognising the description all too easily, Delia was appalled to realise how much she hated learning about Kemal's latest meeting with Suna Kozlu, but she did her best to seem no more than casually interested. 'Oh, that will have been Suna Kozlu,' she told Clifford. 'She was here yesterday just after you left me—she came to see Kemal.'

  'Did she?' It was plain from his raised brows that Clifford put much the same construction on the visit as Delia had herself, and was just as surprised by it. 'I thought Selim was a traditionalist,' he remarked, pursing his lips on possible implications. 'You know—keep the women in their place and all that. This girl looked very modern and emancipated, there was nothing suggestive of—of the harem about her!'

  'Why should there be? They don't have harems any more, as you well know! ' Delia told him, trying hard to concentrate on answering Clifford rather than on the reasons Kemal had gone into Antalya to

  meet Suna Kozlu. 'Miss Kozlu's training to be a doctor,' she added. 'I believe she qualifies next year.'

  Clifford looked at her curiously. 'You've met her?' he asked, and Delia nodded.

  `Twice, actually. Yesterday was the second time.' She fought hard to be fair about her impression of Suna Kozlu. 'She's—she's very pleasant.'

  Hmm! ' Clifford still looked thoughtful, as if the existence of Suna Kozlu gave him food for thought. Then he looked at Delia for a second or two with slightly narrowed eyes. 'Is it possible he's serious about this lady doctor?' he asked, and Delia curled her hands tightly.

  `How on earth would I know?' she demanded shortly.

  Clifford pondered the idea further, one elbow resting on his knee. 'It's possible, of course, that she's just ' His shrug was almost as expressive as one of Madame Renoir's and Delia found it hard to attribute such worldly ideas to Clifford. 'I imagine men like Selim still think in terms of a harem, even if they aren't legal any more,' he said, and Delia frowned.

  'Oh, you're just being—biased about it,' she declared without stopping to think what he could make of her swift defence of Kemal. 'How can you know what Kemal or anyone else feels, Clifford?'

  `Sorry! ' The apology was short and ungracious, and his grey eyes had a bright, angry look that she had seen there once before, and that time too they had been discussing Kemal Selim. He looked at her

  for a moment narrowly, his mouth too expressing the dislike he felt for her attitude. 'It just seems to me,' he said after a second or two, 'that the old rules allowed a man to have his cake and eat it too, and Kemal Selim is the type who'd do just that, given half a chance!'

  It was difficult for Delia to know how to answer him, for when she considered the events of the past few days it could be said that Kemal had been indulging himself rather in the way that Clifford suggested. He had been with Suna Kozlu three times to Delia's knowledge, and he had kissed Delia herself in a way that certainly did not suggest he thought of her as a baby, even though he had called her one. Finding the possible truth too discomfiting, she shrugged uneasily and refused to look at Clifford when she spoke.

  'It doesn't concern me what Kemal does,' she told him in a voice that was dismayingly hard to control.- 'And I'd be glad if you'd change the subject, Clifford.'

  `Of course, darling! ' He leaned forward again and kissed her, then glanced at his wristwatch and pulled a rueful face. 'I'll have to leave you,' he said, `much as I hate to, Delia, but I'll sound out the professor this afternoon and see if he'll let me have at least another half day off, perhaps tomorrow.'

  `It would be nice to go out somewhere,' Delia said, feeling quite sorry for herself as he got to his feet. 'I get a bit fed up sitting around!'

  `Poor darling! ' Clifford bent again and kissed her lightly. 'I'll be back to see you as soon as I can!'

  Clifford had been gone no more than ten minutes when Kemal came into the salon and Delia felt the swift colour in her cheeks when he looked across at her and half smiled, his wide straight mouth suggesting that he knew Clifford had been obliged to leave her.

  It was discomfiting to have him come in so soon after she had been discussing him with Clifford, and she hoped that if he stayed she could exert more control over the situation than she had yesterday. He seemed in no hurry to leave, but took a cigarette from a box standing on one of the numerous small tables in the room.

  Once again she watched those long, strong fingers with an almost hypnotic fascination and despaired of her own weakness. The long, lean body, its sensual vigour only partially civilised by a formal suit in light grey and a white shirt, leaned above the small table, then straightened slowly as he turned his head and looked across at her. He wore no tie and his brown throat had a small pulse at its base that throbbed steadily; his eyes narrowed against the rising smoke, dark and unfathomable, looked at her steadily for several seconds, then briefly he smiled.

  `You are feeling sorry for yourself?' he guessed, and Delia instinctively lifted her-chin in dissent.

  Not at all! ' she denied, her voice not quite steady. 'I've been talking to Clifford, he's only just left me.'

  ' That short, expressive sound seemed to serve him in all manner of ways, but usually it con-

  veyed satisfaction, she thought. 'Then he cannot spend the afternoon with you as he had hoped, hmm?'

  Delia shook her head. 'He's working,' she told him, 'as I should be if it wasn't for this wretched ankle. They're getting on wonde
rfully well, so in the circumstances, there's not much hope of Clifford being spared for some time now.'

  'So you, are left to pine alone while your goddess has everyone's attention, huh?'

  Delia looked at him curiously. 'My goddess?' she asked, and Kemal smiled, shaking his head.

  `You are the archaeologist, Delia Hanim,' he said. 'Surely you are aware of the connection between yourself and Artemis, are you not?'

  Delia frowned, completely foxed for the moment. Way back in her childhood she remembered being told something about her name being mythical in origin, but both, her father and her uncle's interests had always been in the more human side of archaeology and the mythical legends were only vaguely familiar to her.

  `I don't claim to be an archaeologist,' she denied, `but 'I believe my name does have some significance, although I can't remember if ever knew exactly what it was.'

  Kemal's dark eyes glowed in a way that made her tremble despite the hint of mockery in his smile. `And I thought you a romantic,' he said. 'Yet you do not know the connection between yourself and the goddess Artemis whose temple you have discovered!'

  'A romantic?' She looked at him uncertainly for a moment, unsure how true it was, then after a moment she glanced down instead at her clasped hands. 'I—I suppose I am,' she said. At least I find the old legends very interesting, although I confess I don't know a lot about Artemis.'

  One dark brow arched curiously and he sent another spiral of blue smoke drifting like a screen before his face. 'May I presume to lecture you?' he asked and, when she nodded silently, he sat himself in the armchair facing her and crossed one long leg over the other. 'You know that the Greek goddess Artemis was known to the Romans as Diana?'

  'Yes, I did know that,' Delia admitted, fascinated by the fact that he seemed far more knowledgeable than she had expected. She looked at him briefly again from the corners of her eyes. 'Are you interested in archaeology, Kemal Bey?' she asked.