Table Of ContentTHE AWAKENING OF
ALICE
Violet Winspear
"When I have finished with you, sweet icy girl," Stefan said grimly,
"Damoskinos will have the anguish of knowing that you have
endured the ultimate at my hands!"
Alice Sheldon was trapped on a lonely island in the Aegean,
kidnapped by a man intent on avenging the murder of his fiancee.
Haunted by the ghost of a tragic love, he meant to make Alice his
instrument of revenge.
How could she convince him that Damoskinos didn't even know of
her existence?
CHAPTER ONE
TRAVEL was said to broaden the mind, but throughout the journey to
Greece the mind of Alice Sheldon seemed bent on a wheel that went
round and round in a tormenting circle, She stared beyond the
window at the sky and saw imprinted there the pretty, frightened face
of her young sister.
'He'll kill me!' Alberta's seductive tone of voice had held a note of
panic that made it shrill. 'No girl promises to marry his sort and then
backs out—apart from which I've sold the ring he gave me in order to
pay for my airline ticket. I'm flying out to Harry, so don't try and
change my mind. Now his wife's dead—you know she drank and
made his life miserable—we're free to be together. I never cared for
Ionides. It was his money that attracted me, and he must have
guessed how I felt. As if any woman could love someone like him!'
'What do you mean by that remark?' Alice demanded. She had never
met the Greek whom Alberta had met on holiday in Crete, though she
had assumed that he was a number of years older than her sister.
'You've never talked much about your Greek tycoon, so you'd better
tell me what you mean.'
'Well, he can't walk.' Alberta gave Alice an impatient look. 'He's
paralysed from the waist down, which speaks for itself, doesn't it?'
Nothing had ever shocked Alice more than to have this sprung on
her, added to which Alberta announced that she was running out on
the man. She and Alberta weren't all that dose and led their own
lives, but it felt like a jet of icy water in the face to learn that her
sister was going to add insult to injury by jilting a man who had the
misfortune to be disabled.
'He hardly sounds as if he could kill you,' she said. 'I suppose you're
saying that in order to ease your conscience.'
'You don't know Greeks.' Alberta gave a toss of her blonde head and
her big china-blue eyes dwelt rather scornfully on her sister's plain,
bespectacled face. 'Not his sort! He has bodyguards who are
absolutely devoted to him. If he wanted to have a girl beaten up,
they'd do it for him without batting an eyelash.'
'Don't be so melodramatic!' Alice exclaimed. 'Civilised people don't
behave like that -'
'No,' Alberta agreed, 'civilised people don't, but there's something in
Greek men you just wouldn't understand, never having met one.
Ionides has tons of money, all of which he's made from his fleet of
tankers and cargo boats, and he has only to snap his fingers and
someone does his bidding. I—I'm scared, Alice. I love Harry and I
just can't live without him, and I'm frightened Ionides might hurt him
in some way.'
'You're letting your imagination run away with you,' said Alice. 'How
can a man who can't even walk hurt someone who works miles away
in Ceylon? Do talk sense, Berta. If you don't want to marry the man,
then go and see him and explain how you feel. Tell him Harry is now
widowed and that, .you've known each other since you were
teenagers. I'm sure if he has the brains to make a fortune, he'll
understand -'
'He won't,' Alberta insisted, running a distracted hand through her
hair that was as softly fair as a child's. She had a deceptively innocent
appearance, but Alice knew there was a streak of wilful selfishness in
the angelic-looking Alberta, who had led Harry Melvin such a dance
that he had finally married a much older woman, to the regret of both
of them. Alice could understand her sister's feelings up to a point, but
she was certain Alberta was being over- dramatic in her statements
about this Greek whom she no longer wanted now Harry was free to
marry her. It was all too true that Alice had never met a Greek—most
men were inclined to ignore her and she had grown used to an un-
romantic life, even though she was only twenty-four. Surely Greeks
weren't that vengeful!
'To a Greek,' said Alberta, twisting her fingers together, 'an
engagement is almost as binding as a marriage, and Ionides only let
me return to England so I could buy my trousseau here. Then Harry
wrote to me and asked me to go, to him, and it seemed such a pity to
waste all those lovely clothes on Ionides when I could go to Harry
looking like a dream, especially after what he's been through with
that woman -'
'I gather Ionides Damaskinos paid for the clothes?' Alice interjected.
'Of course. Where would I get the money? My wage at the dress shop
hardly runs to haute couture, and what Daddy left me has long gone.
Oh, Alice, can't you help me? You're so sensible and you've always
helped me when I've got myself into a jam.'
'And what sensible thing do you suggest I do?' Alice spoke dryly. 'Go
to Crete and offer myself to the man as a substitute for his blonde
Venus?'
Alberta, who was rather lacking in a sense of humour, gazed at her
sister in utter amazement. 'Offer yourself in my place?' She gave a
scornful toss of her head. 'Men as rich as Ionides are only interested
in women for their looks, and you haven't any, have you, Alice dear?'
Alice smiled, too used to this little line of sarcasm to be hurt by it any
more—as their father had always pointed out, she was the brainy one
and Alberta was the pretty one. 'You got yourself into this jam, Berta,
now you'd better get yourself out of it. My advice is to be frank with
the man—I'm sure there are other pocket-sized Jean Harlows for him
to choose from.'
',You always were envious of me,' Alberta said sulkily. 'Now you've
got the needle because I've got two men wanting me while you
haven't a soul in sight who cares two hoots about you. It's exciting,
having two men on a string, but I want Harry and I've never stopped
wanting him, so I'm going to cut loose from Ionides. Only I can't face
him. I shall fly off to Ceylon right away -'
'Using the money from that emerald ring which by rights should be
returned to your fiance.' Alice wasn't in the least envious of her pretty
sister whom men had always wanted to spoil, one way or another, but
she was disturbed by such heardess treatment of a disabled man who
had probably wanted Alberta as an adornment rather than an adoring
lover. Love was probably no real part of the arrangement, but all the
same it would anger and shame him to be let down in this ungrateful
way, especially after paying out all that money for a trousseau
Alberta was going to use to dazzle another man. From all accounts
rich men didn't mind what they spent on pretty women, so long as
they reaped the pleasure of the woman's company.
'I'll send Ionides a wire,' Alberta said defiantly. 'He'll have to accept
the fact that I've changed my mind about marrying him——' She
broke off and shivered visibly. 'The trouble is he has such a fearful
temper and there's a lot of talk about him on the island which he
owns. They say he took vengeance on the man who made his sister
unhappy, and then there was the mysterious death of the nursemaid
who allowed his sister's little boy to drown -'
'Good grief!' Alice gasped as if a fist had landed in her stomach.
'It's like something out of Eugene O'Neill, isn't it?'
Alberta ran a tremulous hand over her soft blonde hair. 'But it's all
true—his sister Elektra told me, no doubt to try and frighten me off.
She had this little boy from this man Who was already married, and
that's regarded as rather awful in Greece, but Ionides took to the child
and treated him like a son. Anyway, soon after the poor kid was
drowned his nursemaid was found dead in the swimming- pool.
According to the verdict they called it suicide while the balance of
her mind was disturbed, but the island abounds with rumours to the
contrary. The whispers are that Ionides paid someone to do away
with her.'
Alberta drew a shaky breath and her big blue eyes were fixed upon
Alice's face with a kind of childlike trust in her -ability to straighten
out the tangle she had got into. 'Now you can understand why Ionides
scares me, can't you?'
Alice frowned, for if there was even a few shades of truth in what
Alberta had told her, then Ionides Damaskinos was a complex and
possibly dangerous man. 'Yes, you'd better go and marry Harry,' she
said at last. 'I shall go to Greece and explain things to the Greek
tycoon.'
'You'll really do that?' Alberta exclaimed. 'He'll take his temper out
on you.'
'Will he?' Alice slid the frame of her spectacles more firmly on her
nose. 'Well, he can't damage my looks, can he?'
Alberta stared at her sister and for once she seemed shaken out of her
self-complacency into some faint realisation of what it must be like
for a young woman to go through life being ignored by young men,
and being left out of all the varied excitements associated with
romance. But having accepted long ago that girls in specs weren't
attractive to the opposite sex, Alice had settled for a career and was
doing quite well as a commercial artist whose work was bought by
the women's magazines. Too often had she been hurt at dances and
the swimming club, left to wilt like a wallflower while Alberta
collected more partners than she could cope with.
No more did Alice venture where she might again hear a young man
say to his companion: 'I bet there's no fun in kissing Alice Sheldon.
She's such an owlish little school- marm compared to that gorgeous
sister of hers, who's a real honeypot, old boy, who can get stirred up
in the most delicious way!'
They had laughed in a knowing way, and Alice had been left in no
doubt that Alberta had experienced the audacious sensuality of being
close to a man, of having his lips on her skin and his pleading
entreaties in her ears. Alberta would love it all, and laugh at it. Alice,
whose heart was warmer and whose feelings were far more sensitive,
felt sure she would go hungry for the attentiveness of a man. She
wore glasses and had one of those quiet, reserved faces that
concealed much of her inner self. She couldn't bubble like
champagne and flirt with Berta's assurance ... it just didn't show that
she had warmer blood in her veins.
She buckled her safety-belt as the jet zoomed in for a landing at the
Hellenikon Airport a few miles outside Athens, and wondered what
would be the reaction of Ionides Damaskinos when she confronted
him instead of the curvaceous Alberta with her ready smile and spun-
gold hair.
Why, Alice wondered, was she taking on the task of telling the Greek
that he had been jilted? Was it because she felt sorry for him? Or was
she a romantic fool who felt some kind of need to scorch her untried
wings in the fury of a scorned lover?
Half an hour later the cab drove her into the glimmering, dusky heart
of Athens, where a few minutes later she was signing the register at
the reception desk of the Hotel Metropolis where she had booked a
suite for a week.
The rooms were bright and comfortable and Alice had the comfort of
knowing that she could request room service in English and not have
to gargle with her consonants in an attempt to speak the Greek words
contained in her tourist guide-book. What a language! It looked as
intricate as Arabic, and some of the men she had noticed looked as
dark as Turks.
She walked about the bedroom in her bare feet, a habit when she was
alone, arranging her clothes in the. closet and drawers provided.
Having unpacked she then wanted to take a shower and have some
supper—something Greek, she decided, and picking up the receiver
of the telephone she confidently asked for room service, holding the
phone away from her as a deep, harshly resonant voice struck against
her ear.
'I wish to order a meal,' she said. 'You speak English? I was told at
the reception desk -'
'Yes, madame, I speak English. What do you wish to order?'
' Alice frowned slightly, for there was something so brusque about
the voice that she was half inclined to wonder if she was speaking to
the hotel manager instead of a more lowly member of the hotel staff.
'I—I rather fancied moussaka—it's a pie of minced meat and
aubergine, isn't it?'
'A very Greek and tasty dish, madame,' he replied. 'Might I suggest
small stuffed marrows and sweet new potatoes to go with the
moussaka?'
'Oh, that sounds perfect.'
'A melon to start with, madame, and perhaps a Turkish pastry and
coffee to complete your meal?'
'Perfect,' she said again, and found herself staring at the receiver, the
warmth of a flush in her cheeks. There was something utterly male
