Apollo's Seed. Anne Mather

go and speak with Maria myself.’

      ‘Oh, no—please—I mean——’ Martha glanced awkwardly at her husband. ‘I think it would be better if I left right away.’

      ‘You forget, there is still the matter of the divorce to discuss,’ put in Dion bleakly, and his father bowed his head politely and left the room, alone.

      With his departure, Martha felt an increasing weight of tension. Dion in his father’s company was barely tolerable, Dion alone was terrifying. It wasn’t that he frightened her exactly, although his anger did send frissons of apprehension along her spine, but she was afraid of the power he had over her, the dark power that both attracted and repelled, and which had driven her to the very edge of sanity during those first weeks after she had left him.

      Dion, for his part, seemed curiously loath to break the silence that had fallen between them, and while Martha sipped nervously at her lemonade, her eyes darting anxiously about the room, he walked heavily over to the windows and stared indifferently out to sea. She thought he was composing how next he might humiliate her, and she was shocked when he asked suddenly:

      ‘Why did you do it, Martha? Why did you leave me? Did I ask you to go? Did I threaten you with divorce? If this man meant so much to you, why did you not tell me before the child was born?’

      Martha put her glass down carefully on the corner of the desk, and then, arming herself with what little composure she had left, she said: ‘You know why I left you, Dion. You couldn’t possibly expect me to stay with you after the things you said. I may not have the Myconos money, but I do have some pride, and no one——’ her voice cracked ignominiously, ‘—no one, least of all my husband, is going to call me a tramp and get away with it!’

      ‘Poli kola, what would you call it?’ he demanded, turning then to face her, his eyes narrowed and provoked. ‘How was I supposed to react? Should I have said—of course, I understand about these things! It is natural that my wife—my liberated English wife—should need the admiration of more than one man! No!’

      Martha drew an uneven breath. ‘It’s hopeless. You’re unreasonable! You just won’t listen——’

      ‘Oh, parndon!’ His features were hard and angry. ‘But what am I supposed to listen to? More lies? More evasions? You dare to come here pleading for this man, knowing you are causing nothing but pain and embarrassment to me and my family, and you think I am unreasonable!’

      Martha sighed. ‘Roger Scott is a family friend,’ she said wearily. ‘Just a family friend.’

      Dion left the window to join her by the desk, regarding her coldly as she stood her ground. ‘And is he the father of your child?’ he asked bleakly. ‘This family friend?’

      ‘No!’

      Martha’s denial was automatic, but she realised as she spoke that it might have been simpler not to answer him. She was getting into deep water, and until she had had time to think about the divorce, time to consider what she was going to do about Josy, she should not make such unequivocal statements.

      ‘Then who?’ Dion was relentless. ‘Someone in London, that I know. Someone your sister introduced you to, perhaps? She never wanted you to marry me, did she? That was never in her scheme of things. She would enjoy hurting me through you, wouldn’t she?’

      Martha gasped. ‘That’s a rotten thing to say! And it’s not true. Sarah’s not like that. She cares about me, that’s all. She knew that money was your god, and she was afraid I might be stifled by it. She wanted me to be happy, but she was not to blame for our incompatibility.’

      Dion’s face darkened ominously. ‘We were not incompatible!’ he declared angrily. ‘At least, not before she interfered.’

      Martha trembled with indignation. ‘You could always find excuses for your own inadequacy, couldn’t you, Dion?’ she taunted, and then gulped convulsively as his hands fastened on her upper arms.

      ‘Have a care what you say to me, Martha,’ he grated harshly. ‘You are my wife still, and in my country that counts for a little more than it does in yours!’

      ‘Are you threatening me, Dion?’

      She squared her shoulders bravely, but the pressure of his fingers through the thin cotton of her shirt was agonising. She would have bruises there tomorrow, she thought tremulously. Dion did not know his own strength, and once she would have gloried in the raw passion of his nature. But now she was aware of so many other things, of the savagery in his face, and the anger in his voice, of the power he possessed to destroy her at will, and the painful awareness that he was the only man who could make her run the whole gamut of so many conflicting emotions.

      He looked down at her and saw the apprehension in her face, the uneasy anticipation of what form his retribution might take, and a low groan escaped him. He had never struck a woman, and despite the chasm that yawned between them, he could not strike her now. His eyes, boring into hers, clouded with impatience, and her lips parted to allow a tiny gasp of relief to escape her.

      ‘I should kill you!’ he muttered, his teeth grating together. ‘You tell me you do not want a child yet, that it is too soon, that we need time to be alone together, before we assume such a responsibility. And I agree with you! I am happy to have you to myself——’

      To possess me,’ put in Martha unevenly, and winced as his fingers tightened.

      ‘Etsi—to possess you, as you say,’ he agreed harshly. ‘And was not that possession to your liking also?’

      ‘Dion, please …’ Martha’s cheeks flushed, but he ignored her.

      ‘No matter,’ he said, his lips twisting. ‘The truth is, you betrayed me with another man, you let him give you the child that you denied me. And for that you deserve more than my contempt!’

      Martha shook her head. ‘There’s no point to this discussion——’

      ‘Is there not?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Why should you care if I enjoy—torturing myself in this way?’

      Martha tried to twist away from him, but it was to no avail, and with a feeling of desperation she exclaimed: ‘You’re not torturing yourself, Dion. You’re torturing me! You’re hurting me! Will you please let go of my arms?’

      ‘Why should I?’ Instead of doing so, he jerked her towards him, and now she could feel the bones of his legs against her shaking knees, could smell the clean masculine aroma of his body, mingling with the heat of his breath. ‘I have anticipated this moment since your letter to my father arrived. I wanted to hurt you, to humiliate you, to see your disappointment when we saw through your puny schemes.’ He paused, his eyes dropping briefly to the panting rise and fall of her breasts. ‘And I wanted to see how the years had treated you, to see whether you had suffered, as you made me suffer!’

      ‘Dion!’

      She gazed up at him helplessly, conscious that against her will, he was arousing her awareness of him as a man, a man moreover who had been her husband, and who had once been able to weaken her limbs by the simple exchanging of a glance. She didn’t want to remember these things, she didn’t want to acknowledge that instinctive attraction between them, that had tom down the barriers of race and society, and made them both prisoners of its urgent expression. It was not love, it had never been love, on his part at least, she exhorted herself, but that didn’t prevent the devastating effect he was having on her senses.

      ‘The child?’ he muttered huskily, holding her eyes with his. ‘Is she like you? Does she have your colouring? Your slenderness? Your determination?’

      Martha trembled, pressing her hands against her chest, keeping them away from him with a supreme effort of will power. ‘Y-yes,’ she admitted at last, ‘she is like me. She’s quite tall for her age, and slender, and she does have a very definite will of her own.’

      He nodded, slowly, his mouth taking on a downward curve, as remorse