The Other Side of Midnight

She looked up at his eager face. This was her husband and if she wanted to keep her marriage, she would have to live where he lived. And how lovely it would be if it did work out. He would be the old Larry again. The charming, amusing, wonderful man she had married. She had to give it a chance.

"Of course I'm with you," Catherine said. "Why don't you fly over and see Demiris? If the job works out, then I'll come over and join you."

He smiled, that charming, boyish grin. "I knew I could count on you, baby." He put his arms around her and held her close. "You'd better take off that nightgown," Larry said, "or I'm going to poke holes in it."

But as Catherine slowly took it off, she was thinking about how she was going to tell Bill Fraser.

Early the next morning Larry flew to Athens to meet Constantin Demiris.

During the next few days Catherine heard nothing from her husband. As the week dragged by, she found herself hoping that things had not worke

d out in Greece and that Larry would be coming home. Even if he got the position with Demiris, there was no way of telling how long it would last. Surely he could find a job in the United States.

Six days after Larry had left, Catherine received an overseas phone call.

"Catherine?"

"Hello, darling."

"Get packed. You're talking to Constantin Demiris' new personal pilot."

Ten days later, Catherine was on her way to Greece.

Book Two

NOELLE AND CATHERINE

Athens: 1946

14

Men mold some cities, some cities mold men. Athens is an anvil that has withstood the hammer of centuries. It has been captured and despoiled by the Saracens, the Anglos, the Turks, but each time it patiently survived. Athens lies toward the southern end of the great central plain of Attica, which slopes gently toward the Saronic Gulf on the southwest and is overlooked on the east by the majestic Mount Hymettus. Underneath the shiny patina of the city one still found a village filled with ancient ghosts and steeped in rich tradition of timeless glories, where its citizens lived as much in their past as in the present, a city of constant surprise, full of discovery, and in the end unknowable.

Larry was at the Hellenikon Airport to meet Catherine's plane. She saw him hurrying toward the ramp, his face eager and excited as he ran toward her. He looked tanner and leaner than when she had last seen him, and he seemed to be free of strain.

"I've missed you, Cathy," he said as he scooped her up in his arms.

"I've missed you too." And as she said it, she realized how much she meant it. She kept forgetting the strong physical impact that Larry had on her until they met after an absence and each time it hit her anew.

"How did Bill Fraser take the news?" Larry asked as he helped her through Customs.

"He was very good about it."

"He had no choice, had he?" Larry said, sardonically.

Catherine remembered her meeting with Bill Fraser. He had looked at her, shocked. "You're going to go off to Greece to live? Why, for God's sakes?"

"It's in the fine print of my marriage contract," she had replied lightly.

"I mean, why can't Larry get a job here, Catherine?"

"I don't know why, Bill. Something always seems to go wrong. But he has a job in Greece and he seems to feel that it's going to work out."

After his first impulsive protest Fraser had been wonderful. He had made everything easy for her and insisted that she keep her interest in the firm. "You're not going to stay away forever," he kept saying.

Catherine was thinking of his words now as she watched Larry arrange for a porter to carry her luggage to a limousine.

He spoke to the porter in Greek and Catherine marveled at Larry's facility for language.