“But that’s ridiculous,” Lomax said.
“You were badly wounded, perhaps even a little delirious. How can you be sure? In such a state, a man does Strange things.”
“Not a chance,” Lomax said stubbornly. “I didn’t talk, Father. Believe me.”
The old man sighed. “It’s painful to have to tell you this, but I can see that I must. Colonel Steiner made no secret of the fact that he had persuaded you to give him the information he needed in exchange for your life.”
Lomax feit as if a cold wind had passed over his face. “But that isn’t true,” he said. “It can’t be. I didn’t tell Steiner a damn thing.”
“Then who did, Captain Lomax? There was no one else. They were very thorough, you know. They even included me.”
Lomax looked at him incredulously. “They arrested you!”
Father John smiled gently. “Oh, yes. I too sampled the delights of their concentration camp at Fonchi.”
Lomax buried his face in his hands. “This thing’s beginning to seem like a waking nightmare. Did you know that Alexias Pavlo actually tried to kill me a little while back?”
Pain flashed across the old man’s face. “So it has started already? And violence.breeds violence. This waa ùwhat I was afraid of.”
Lomax got up and paced nervously across the aisle. For a moment he stood there staring into space, a slight frown on his face, and then he turned quickly.
“If I’d really been guilty of this terrible thing do you think I’d have dared show my face here again, even after seventeen years? I know these islands and their people. 1 spent four years in the mountains with them. They believe in an eye for an eye and they’ve the longest memories in the world.”
“A good point,” Father John said, “but it could be argued that the situation here has taken you by surprise. That you were not aware of what took place as a consequence of your action.”
Lomax stood looking at him feeling curiously helpless and then weariness flooded through him in a great wave.
He slumped down, his shoulders bowed in defeat. “For God’s sake, what’s the use?”
The old priest stood up. “Believe me, my son, I harbour no resentment against you, but I fear the evil that your presence here may produce. I think it would be better for all of us if you left on the steamer that brought you here. You still have time.”
Lomax nodded. “Perhaps you’re right.”
Father John murmured a blessing. “I must go now. My presence in the streets may help to prevent any expression of violence when you leave.”
He moved away along the aisle and Lomax stayed there on the bench, his head in his hands. He was past caring, his mind numb, gripped by a force he seemed unable to cope with. All the strength was draining out of him and he leaned forward and rested his head against a pillar.
Someone ran in through the entrance of the churcl¯ and paused and then steps sounded on the stone flags of the aisle.
It was the perfume he first became aware of, strange and somehow alien in that place, like lilac fresh after rain, and it tingled in his nostrils bringing his head up sharply.
A young girl was standing there in the half-darkness, a scarf covering her head peasant-fashion. She was breathing heavily as if she had run a long way and she stood there staring down at him and no word was spoken.
His mouth went dry and something that was almost fear i 30 moved inside him because this thing was not possible. “Katina!” he said hoarsely. “Little Katina Pavlo.”
She moved closer, a hand reaching out to touch his cheek and her face became that of ? beautiful, mature woman in her middle thirties. In the candlelight it seemed to glow, to become alive.
“The Germans told us you were dead,” she said. “That the boat in which they sent you to Crete was sunk.”
He nodded. “It was, but I was picked up.”
She sat down beside him, so close that he could feel the warmth of her thigh through her linen dress. “I was in one of the shops buying supplies when I heard you had come in on the steamer from Athens. I couldn’t believe It. I ran all the way.”