“Do you think I came here easily to ask for your help? He is on the island, and when I saw him last week he was exceedingly drunk. And you say, ‘he doesn’t love me’,” she mimicked in a die-away echo, but her lined dark eyes were suspiciously bright. I don’t know how he kept away from you for four years.

“If there was a cure for you I would have given it to him! You are Alex’s one weakness.

“Does that matter, if he needs you?” Athene turned on her like a lioness defending a cub. The edge of her contempt stiffened Kerry. “Now perhaps you will go to him and tell him there is no other man in your life.” The settlement of a debt,” Athene emphasised, looking every year of her age. He had cut her out of his life sooner than risk that danger. He had been afraid to end up in the weak position he probably believed his father had held throughout his marriage. Now perhaps you may understand why Alex would find it very hard to trust a woman.”Īnd why he divorced me and why he wouldn’t come near me, Kerry added in inner anguish. He learnt that appearances could be deceptive. “His love for his father tied him to silence. How else could he behave?” she appealed tiredly. “He didn’t betray me, but I lost the son who loved and respected his mother that day. In the heavy silence, Athene took a deep breath. Athene might have strayed in the madness she described, but for a strong woman of deep, religious convictions her choice had been completely in character. As the implications of the sad, reluctantly advanced confession swept Kerry in a stormy flood, she swallowed hard sooner than betray a sympathy which would be fiercely rejected.

The veranchetti marriage