Unknown by Unknown Read Free Book Online

tourists.’ He drew his companion forward, his hand gentle on her arm. ‘Lara has fallen in love with our island,’ he said, ‘and she would like to meet you.’
    Anna stood quite still, looking back into the flawless face of the other woman with a fascination which was difficult to explain. No immediate greeting came to her mind, no words which could possibly describe how she felt. It was as if they had met before, long ago when all the ruined shrines and temples round about them had been peopled by men and women of a different age and culture whose emotions had been fundamentally the same as their own. The older woman was holding out her hand.
    ‘Your wonderful, wonderful country!’ she said in accented English. ‘I am much in love with it, and Andreas has been so kind, showing me the places that will interest me most. You also take strangers around, Miss Rossides,’ she added with a slow, enchanting smile. ‘I heard you explaining to your guests about that wonderful castle of Kolossi and I am fascinated by its story. How well you explain everything that is past!’ The tone of voice, the interest in those compelling half- sad eyes appeared genuine enough, yet Anna found herself holding back from complete acceptance.
    ‘It’s part of my job, at least for today,’ she explained. ‘Normally we have a proper guide but she has a throat infection and was unable to come.'
    ‘Is that what happened to Helen Stylianu?’ Andreas asked. ‘I wondered. By the way,’ he added, ‘this is Lara Warrender. She has lived in America for a long time but now she is considering Cyprus as a new home—a villa somewhere in the mountains, perhaps.’
    Anna waited for him to complete the introduction, but apparently he had no need to do so. Lara Warrender already knew who she was.
    ‘I hope you will find what you want in the Troodos,’ she said almost stiltedly. ‘There are plenty of holiday homes there to chose from.'
    Lara smiled. ‘At the moment we are looking for a flat for Andreas,’ she said, ‘but, of course, you will know about that. He is determined to have a place which is his own apart from the hotel.’
    Andreas stood aside for them to walk along the narrow pathway together, but Anna shook her head.
    ‘I must wait for my party,’ she pointed out. ‘We are going on to Pelea Paphos and the Temple of Aphrodite.’
    ‘Don’t forget I Petra tou Romiou!' he laughed. ‘It will bear retelling although it is only a legend, after all.’
    Anna drew in a quick breath, aware that he was reminding her deliberately of the past.
    ‘What is this legend that you keep so much to yourself?’ Lara demanded, immediately interested.
    ‘It’s about a hero—a Greek—who was supposed to have thrown a large boulder from the top of the hill of Ktima at a false queen who had spurned his love,’ Andreas explained without looking at Anna. ‘It missed her, of course, and fell into the sea, where it can still be seen!’
    ‘Perhaps we will go there, also,’ Lara suggested, ‘if it is on our way to Paphos.’
    Andreas looked at his watch. ‘I doubt if there will be time’ he said ‘if we are going on to Troodos after we have seen the flat. We can come back another day.’
    Which meant that this was no casual friendship, Anna thought, as she turned back to collect her scattered party, no brief encounter in an hotel lounge which would last for a week or two and then be forgotten.
    She drove away from the Temple of Apollo determined to dismiss Andreas and Lara Warrender from her mind for the rest of the day, but she could not avoid a stop at the legendary White Rock where Aphrodite, daughter of the foam and goddess of beauty and fertility rose out of the sea. So many times in the past she had come here, sometimes with Andreas and sometimes alone, and she was forced to remember him vividly as if he was by her side now, standing in that high place above the sea. She avoided a visit to the Rock of the Greek, however, telling her party