Villa of Secrets, page 28
Finding the information difficult to grasp, I said, ‘Perhaps the traitor was connected to the British soldiers.’
He shook his head. ‘No. It’s someone here.’
‘I can’t believe it. Who would do such a thing?’
‘Yesterday, the Gestapo stormed the bamboo groves again. This time they tortured and killed Kapitanos Nikos and confiscated the radio.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘Who saw the radio, Dora?’
‘Kapitanos Nikos. Oh, no!’ This shocking news made me dizzy again. I shook my head and shrugged. ‘What radio?’
‘The radio that was in the box I gave you for Nikos. The person responsible for Nikos’s death knew about it. Are you telling me you never looked in the crate?’ I stared at him. ‘Dora?’
‘He was so full of life.’ I tried to grasp what Nathanial implied. ‘The lid was nailed down. I had no idea what was inside.’
Nathanial narrowed his eyes as if he had realised I was lying. ‘We’ve lost important equipment, Dora.’ He rubbed his hand over his mouth for a moment. ‘Even worse, the Kapitanos is dead. He glared. ‘We must discover who the traitor is before more lives are taken.’
Only Irini and I knew about the radio, and Irini had disappeared.
Josie, a good-looking fair-skinned woman about twice my age, stuck her head into the room and called, ‘Food!’
‘Get Giovanni, Josie. They can eat together. In fact, it’s getting late; they can sleep here tonight.’
Josie ladled two bowls of chicken lemon soup thick with rice. Nathanial and his woman left the kitchen, and moments later Giovanni entered.
‘Are you all right now?’
I nodded. ‘You’ve got some food. Let’s eat. I’m starving.’
Despite the upsetting information, I ate ravenously. We both licked our spoons when the bowls were empty. ‘I’m worried about Irini,’ I said.
‘Don’t fret. She’ll turn up with an explanation. You were brave yesterday, Dora.’ His voice was soft. ‘You killed our enemies and you saved a man’s life.’ He seemed distracted, then he took my hand. ‘Nathanial said you can stay here tonight.’
He gazed into my face. I understood his thoughts, lowered my eyes and shook my head.
‘Why?’ he said. ‘I want to sleep with you in a real bed. Spend the night in each other’s arms, all the way until morning.’
‘No, Giovanni. That will be the most precious night of my life, and I want to save it for . . . you know.’
‘But we won’t be able to’ – he swallowed hard – ‘until after the war. I’ve got no money for a wedding now.’
‘Wedding? You mean we will be married?’ I was shocked, happy, and sad all in the same instant. Somehow it set an appointment. An event for my family to come back to. A wonderful time in the future when this war could be forgotten and happiness would rule the day.
‘You will marry me, won’t you, Dora?’ He lifted my face, his slow-blinking eyes gazing into mine. ‘I love you, Pandora Cohen.’
Filled with emotion and unable to speak, I nodded.
He cupped my chin and kissed me tenderly. ‘Then I must make arrangements.’
Giovanni left the kitchen and returned minutes later. ‘Come with me.’
He led me up the red marble staircase, and out onto the Juliet balcony. A million stars twinkled in an ebony sky. An owl hooted. Crickets trilled their monotonous song and the warm air was laden with the scent of wild honeysuckle.
Nathanial joined us. He smiled and said, ‘Stand together.’ We did. ‘With the power vested in me as Capitano of the Andartes, I ask if you, Pandora, take Giovanni as your husband, to love and honour for always?’
I may have gasped, I’m not sure, but when I found my voice I looked into Giovanni’s eyes and said, ‘I do.’
Nathanial said, ‘Do you, Giovanni, take Pandora for your wife, to love and honour for always?’
Giovanni continued to gaze at me. ‘I do,’ he said softly.
‘Then place the ring on her finger.’
Giovanni pulled at a leather thong around his neck and as it emerged from under his vest, I saw a ring glint in the starlight. Nathanial cut the thong and Giovanni slipped the simple band of gold onto my finger.
‘I now pronounce you man and wife. Kiss the bride,’ Nathanial said. Giovanni took me in his arms and kissed me tenderly.
A great racket of clapping and whistling came from inside, and I realised the rebels knew what was happening. Someone struck up an accordion, raki was handed out, olives and bread on the table, and a party whooped into full swing.
By midnight everyone was a little drunk. Giovanni whispered, ‘Let’s escape.’ And we rushed upstairs. In front of the bedroom door I’d been in earlier, he picked me up, carried me over the threshold, and placed me on the bed.
I took the wedding ring off. ‘I’m afraid of losing it, Giovanni; it’s too big.’
He pulled the thong from his pocket, slipped the gold band onto it, and tied it back together. ‘Then wear it like this until I can have it made smaller. It belonged to my mother.’
We abandoned our clothes and for the first time slept naked, all night long in each other’s arms. The happiest night of my life.
Afternoon, Saturday, 26 August 1944
I am back at the hut, and write this while Evangelisa and Xanthi are clearing a new kitchen garden at the edge of the woods.
Before I left the villa this morning, Giovanni and I ate eggs and bread with olive oil in the big kitchen. Nathanial came in and said I was to have a break for a week or so.
‘But I don’t want any time off, sir. We must end the war. I have to help my family return home!’ I cried. ‘Tell me how to get the radio back!’
But he was insistent.
Sunday, 27 August 1944
Where is Irini? She’s been gone for two days. I fear for her safety and miss her terribly. I wanted to keep our wedding a secret until I had told Irini about it myself. At midday, I met Giovanni under the cinnamon tree but I couldn’t relax.
‘I’m sorry, Giovanni. I’m so worried about Irini. Where can she be?’
‘It looks bad,’ he said. ‘That night, when I came to tell you where you were going, when you suspected we were being watched, you’re sure it wasn’t Irini? And are you certain she didn’t know about the radio?’
‘Of course!’ I lied. ‘How could you say such a thing!’ I turned and stomped back to the hut. He realised there was no point in following me.
I couldn’t believe Irini was an informer, but it didn’t look good. Her body was cold when I got into bed that night. She was the only one who had seen the radio and knew I was meeting Kapitanos Nikos. She also knew I was going to Kamiros Scala.
There was a simple explanation for these things, and I had to find it. Irini would never betray me – not ever – as I would never betray her. I felt sick at the thought of someone assisting the enemy when the lives of our families depended on the war ending.
*
Dear Diary, it is afternoon now and there is still no sign of Irini. With every hour, my concern deepens. After meeting Giovanni, I was sitting on the log outside the hut, contemplating all that had passed, when Evangelisa brought her hairbrush and started untangling my long hair.
‘I don’t know how you manage to get so much grass and twigs in the back of your hair, Dora,’ she scolded. ‘You really should wear a scarf when you go into the woods.’
She was full of questions: Where had I been? What happened? Had I received more orders through Giovanni? Did I think the Germans had captured Irini?
That very thought horrified me, and I decided I had to talk to Nathanial about my fears.
My sister was growing quickly, taking on responsibility for our comforts. She and Xanthi had dug a patch in the rich soil and planted tomato pips, and she’d cut the sprouting ends off the potatoes hoping they’d grow too.
‘I’m proud of you, Evangelisa. You’re doing a wonderful job,’ I told her as we went inside.
‘Xanthi’s teaching me so much, Dora,’ she said. We’re baking bread tomorrow.’ Clearly delighted, she fussed around the hut. She had even placed a jar of wild flowers on the table.
‘Where’s Xanthi?’ I asked.
‘She’s gone to meet one of the Andartes.’ She leaned forward, her eyes shining. ‘Don’t let on, but he’s her boyfriend.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘The other day, while you were away, she met him and came back with a love bite on her neck.’ Evangelisa nodded rather like Zeus. ‘I’m sworn to secrecy, but right after the war, she is going to get married and I’ll be her bridesmaid!’
‘That’s lovely.’
‘I wish I had a boyfriend,’ she said. ‘I watched you and Giovanni kissing. I want a boy to kiss me too.’
I remembered how Irini and I would study lovers kissing at the port. ‘When did you watch us?’
‘Ah, that would be telling.’
Monday, 28 August 1944
I hardly slept last night for worry about Irini. I plan to speak to Nathanial this very morning. His men might have heard something. Xanthi has gone to collect pine cones for the fire, and Evangelisa is arranging fresh wildflowers for the table.
Giovanni appeared in the doorway. ‘Can I speak to you outside?’ he said.
We sat on the log. Evangelisa followed.
‘Evangelisa, you realise this is the very best time to water tomatoes?’ I said. ‘If you’re hoping for really big ones.’
‘Oh, right.’ She grabbed the bucket and headed for the spring.
Giovanni smiled. ‘She’s cute, isn’t she?’
‘What did you want to tell me?’
‘Nathanial wants to see you. He said they’ve discovered who the traitor is.’
‘Who?’
He shrugged. ‘I have my suspicions, but it’s not for me to say.’
‘Is he still at the villa?’ I asked. Giovanni nodded. ‘Then will you stay with Evangelisa, while I go? I can’t leave her alone if there’s a traitor watching.’
*
All the way through the forest, I fretted. Who was the informer?
I sat with Nathanial on the stone wall outside the Villa. When he answered my question, I was speechless, I snapped my mouth shut and stared at him.
‘I can’t believe it,’ I managed. ‘Why would Xanthi betray us to the Nazis? She has nothing to gain.’
‘We have learned that her lover’s a Nazi. She’ll do anything for him, even give him information. You really had no idea, little one?’
I shook my head. ‘Would I leave my sister with her if I suspected Xanthi was capable of treachery? It’s too awful! I thought someone was following Giovanni and me the night before I left Kamiros Scala.’
I knew it couldn’t be Irini!
He nodded. ‘Xanthi will be dealt with. Is there anything else you want to talk about?’
‘I’m worried sick about Irini. She left without a word three days ago. It’s not like her. Something’s terribly wrong, I sense it. I don’t understand. We never have secrets, apart from what passes between you and I, capitano.’
‘Ah yes, now we come to Irini.’ Nathanial stared at the ground as if searching for words among the wild flowers and blades of grass. He rubbed his hand over his beard. ‘There’s no easy way to say this. I’m sorry, little one. Your friend Irini . . . her body was found this morning.’
Chapter 41
Naomi closed the diary. As the sun rose, she had caught up to Rebecca’s bookmark. She twisted her wedding ring. A family heirloom Bubba had said when she slipped it off her finger and gave it to Costa, before their marriage.
‘It belonged to my husband’s mother and then to me, Costa,’ Bubba had said. ‘Naomi’s mother, Sonia, wore it on her wedding day, and now it must go to her first-born daughter, your wife to be.’
Naomi regarded it as the most special thing she owned.
‘How come it wasn’t lost at sea, Bubba?’ she asked later.
‘Because the fates played a hand, child. Sonia’s fingers swelled when she carried Rebecca. When they went fishing for the very last time’ – her lips trembled and she took a moment – ‘that night, she oiled her finger and pulled it off, because of the discomfort. She intended to get it stretched a little.’ The old lady dabbed her eyes. ‘I found it by her bedside the next day and I’ve worn it ever since.’
Despite Naomi’s questions, Bubba had refused to talk about her wedding or about Naomi’s grandfather, who she now suspected was Giovanni.
She opened the diary and continued reading, eager to discover the reason for Irini’s tragic death.
Nathanial’s news escaped my logic. ‘Sorry, I didn’t understand you,’ I said, his words swimming around in my head, jumbled in my mind, impossible to comprehend.
His eyebrows bunched and a small vein throbbed on his forehead. His eyes flicked up to meet mine and stayed there. ‘The girl – your friend, Irini – from the hut. We found her in the valley. She’s dead. I’m sorry, little one.’ He lowered his voice, his right fist opening and closing.
‘The traitors – whoever Irini passed her information on to – tortured her and threw her body off the mountainside, and they’re going to wish they hadn’t.’
Nathanial’s words seemed delayed in the air between us before arriving in a nightmare of comprehension. My screams came in single file, straight from my heart, piercing the sky and ripping through everything sacred.
‘Irini!’ I shrieked. ‘No! This can’t happen. It’s impossible!’
Nathanial clasped a hand over my mouth and bundled me into the villa. ‘Shush, little one.’ He gave me a glass of raki and ordered me to drink it.
Irini . . . dead! I feared it, yet denied it to myself. She would never stay away from me, not for any reason on earth. Now, I couldn’t tell her the whole truth – that I truly loved her, that although I had secretly married Giovanni, our love was entirely different. How mean were the fates to keep that from us?
I don’t know how long I vented my distress in the villa, but gradually the hysteria left me. With my heart nothing but splintered shards, I continued to hear the echo of Nathanial’s words, ‘Your friend, Irini, she’s dead.’
Oh, Irini, what you feared so much would happen to me has happened to you! Why is life so unjust? I was the one who had killed, yet you suffered torture and murder. Is this my punishment for killing?
I found Nathanial sitting on the wall outside.
‘Where is she? I must go to her,’ I said, my voice thick with emotion.
‘We buried her. You shouldn’t see her, believe me.’
I ran at him, pounding my fists violently at his chest. ‘Please, I have to! You don’t understand, Nathanial. I loved her with all my heart and I never told her! I pretended we were only the closest of friends, and now I can’t tell her at all.’
He stood firm, taking my blows until I collapsed, sobbing, into his arms.
‘Nathanial, please, take me to see her.’
‘Like I said, they tortured her, little one. They blinded her.’
‘Blinded?! Please, I’m begging you!’
Nathanial sighed. ‘All right. We’ll go together.’
We walked side by side, his hand on my shoulder, through the woods, up towards the Catholic Cloisters of Mount Filerimos. The wind howled through the pines above our heads, like miserable ghosts watching us mourning the death of my true love. Outside the walls, between the trees, a patch of freshly turned ground marked Irini’s grave. The nightmare that so far had only been words now became real. My skin shrank over my body.
Irini, sweet Irini!
‘I want to look upon her face for the very last time,’ I said in a whisper.
He shook his head. ‘No, you don’t, little one. The bastards were cruel to her. It would break your heart, I promise you. Better to remember her as she was.’
‘No! Will you listen to me? I have to see her. I have to,’ I insisted. ‘You can help me or not.’ I fell to my knees and raked at the earth with my bare hands.
He knelt and helped me dig, until we came to a white sheet, about half a metre down. ‘Turn away for a moment,’ Nathanial said.
I did, guessing he closed her eyes. I think I appeared calm on the outside, almost comatose – yet inside, I exploded with grief, regret, and the most terrible sorrow. Had my whole life been lived on a journey to this moment? The greatest part of me lay dead in the ground. We shared everything, our most secret thoughts and feelings.
Nathanial got to his feet. ‘I’ll wait by the building while you say goodbye.’ He walked away.
I unfolded the corner of Irini’s shroud. Her eyes were closed, and her face pale as porcelain, After brushing her raven hair back, I kissed her forehead and then hugged myself recalling her cold body the last time we slept together. Nothing I could say would change what had happened but as my grief mounted, I sensed her presence in the air around me.
‘Irini!’ I howled into the wind. ‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this. You tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen. Now, this is my punishment!’ I stared about wildly, expecting a sign that she understood. ‘You’re taken from me but I’ll always love you, Irini, until the day I die; and then we’ll be together again.’
I knew she could hear me. She’d understand my tears; my grief mirrored hers because Irini had been my life and soul.
A climbing rosebush, heavy with white blooms, hung over the cloister wall.
‘I’ll be back in a moment, my dearest friend,’ I whispered, getting to my feet. I ran to the shrub, held out my skirt, and gathered the petals off every flower.
After returning to Irini’s side, I surrounded her head with the virgin-white rose petals, their scent as sweet as her breath when she laughed. ‘You’ll be in my heart as long as I live. And I swear on my life, I will kill the person who did this to you.’
Leaning forward, I kissed her lips before I lifted the corner of the shroud and placed it gently over her. Tears streamed down my face as I scattered a handful of earth upon the sheet.
I turned to the sky. ‘Irini!’ I cried out, and gripping the hem of my dress, I tugged at it with all my strength, welcoming the pain in my wrist, wanting more than I was able to bear. The cloth tore apart and I ripped it all the way to my waist. I started to say the words that go with the Jewish tradition of rending the clothes of life, ‘Blessed are You, Our God, Ruler of the Universe, the True Judge.’ But it was impossible to disguise my anger at God and His angels. He’d stolen Irini from me! My punishment because I’d killed three soldiers? They were Nazis who’d taken my family away and Irini’s loved ones too. What God would consider this as just? What sort of God allowed such a diabolical imbalance of fairness?
