Authors: Roberta Latow
Larry closed his eyes and drew in a long, deep breath, held it
for several seconds, and when he opened them it was with a sigh. He felt tremendous relief, incredible happiness. It was over, he had cracked the case. He knew it. Manoussos knew it. Larry could see that by the expression on his face. And it was the lack of expression on Chadwick’s face, just a hint of a smile in her eyes, the manner in which she raised her chin and flicked her hair back with a quick snap of her head, that confirmed to him just how right he was.
‘Well, Larry, what’s the next step? My guess is New York, that the Martin & Snell agency will make its findings and assumptions available to Chambers, Lodge, Dewy & Coggs, who will then make them available to Warren and Diana?’ she challenged.
‘The meeting is already set up for three days hence.’
‘Chadwick, is that all you have to say? Larry has created a scenario that puts you square in the picture of colluding with your husband, acting as an accessory to the death of a human being in full mental and physical health. For God’s sake, if he’s got it wrong this is the time to stand up and say what really happened. And if nothing other than what you claimed at the time of Hannibal’s death happened, then at the very least tell Larry he has got it all wrong. Your silence condemns you.’
‘It’s not my silence that condemns me but you, Manoussos and that does surprise me. You listened to Larry. How sad for us that you really didn’t hear what he was saying.’
‘Don’t patronise me, Chadwick, I don’t deserve it.’
Larry rose from his chair and said, ‘Clearly you two have things to work out. I’ll walk ahead and meet you at the boat. Take your time.’
Chadwick reached across the table and took Manoussos’s hand in hers. She kissed it and her voice had a tremor of emotion in it when she told him, ‘I didn’t mean to be patronising.’
‘Then what did you mean, Chadwick?’ asked Manoussos, his anger dissolving, his heart warming towards her for the sadness in her voice, for the love for him so evident in her eyes.
‘I love you very much and the life I have living with you. We fell in love at first sight. It was not a one-sided thing that happened to us nor was it just one kind of love. It was sexual and
still is sexual, was and is, on my part, for the total being, the very heart and soul of everything you are and have ever been. I know you had and have those very same feelings for me. Ours has been a love lived totally in the moment, from moment to moment, thrilling for the adventure of constantly discovering something new and fresh to add to this life we’re living together. The past, other lives and experiences before we met, they moulded us, made us what we are and what we are is what we fell in love with, not the stories of our lives, dead and gone forever.’
Tears were brimming in Chadwick’s eyes. Manoussos thought his heart would break for the love for her that was tearing it apart. He placed several bank notes on the table and rose from his chair. His hand still in hers, he drew her up and into his arms.
Together they walked several paces from the coffee shop before they stopped and Manoussos caressed her face. He kissed her eyes and licked a tear from the corner of one then kissed her the lips. His mind was spinning with fragments of Larry’s summary of Chadwick’s life with Hannibal, of his conclusions as to what had really happened the night her husband died. Their kiss deepened and his love rose above his anger at what he had perceived as deceit and lies, and drove it away for what he realised had to be forever.
‘Then you were never running away from anything?’
‘Just refusing to carry the baggage of the past into the present.’
‘Something that Warren and Diana couldn’t do but you had every faith that they would one day be able to do?’
‘I’ve always been strong on faith.’
They walked the coast road back to the port in silence seemingly wrapped up in the heat and beauty of the day, the scent of wild flowers pushing up through the barren landscape, the perfume of the sea. Manoussos was severely shaken by the realisation that in the four months he had been living with Chadwick he had been happier than he had ever been in his life because
he
had not carried the baggage of his past into their relationship. Yet he had expected her to, and furthermore for him to approve or disapprove of.
He stopped and took her arm, turning her to face him. He took a
long look at her, this beautiful and remarkable woman who loved him. This was the moment of truth for him. He must embrace her faith, her profound belief that living in total freedom in every breath she took was the only truth, that the past was an illusion in the same way as the future is. She lived in the here and now, in the moment, and he knew that she was right to do so.
‘I don’t think I could live without you, Chadwick.’
‘Well then, it’s a good thing you don’t have to.’
‘Oh, thank God. I thought you might no longer want me.’
‘I don’t give up my happiness so easily, and I thank all the gods that you don’t either.’
Livakia was making ready for a christening. That, in itself, was not unusual but the sheer size of this particular event was the cause of great excitement. The child’s parents, who had deprived themselves of a large and lavish wedding, were not stinting on this occasion. People started to arrive on the Thursday before the Sunday of the christening. Very nearly every house in the village was being used to accommodate guests from the surrounding mountain villages, from the towns and hamlets of Crete, from Athens and various other places in Greece as well as housing a set of international friends belonging to Chadwick and Manoussos.
Several yachts were already anchored in the bay, their owners and guests kept going to and from the harbour to the port in small motor launches decked with blue and white silk flags and bunting. People remarked that there had never been such a happy occasion on such a grand scale in Livakia.
D’Arcy and Max had taken it upon themselves to make arrangements for the flowers in the church as well as at the port, where the reception after the church service was being held: a sit down luncheon for the entire village and other guests. Max flying in and out of the port with flowers and trees and several different groups of musicians who were there to play at the many private lunches and dinner parties given in honour of baby Alexandrine Marianna Stavrolakis, the first born of Chadwick and Manoussos.
Overland from Chania and Iraklion came the food and wine and several chefs who had agreed a truce with those of the Kavouria and Pasiphae in order to work together to create a
luncheon never to be forgotten. The champagne arrived, cases of it, by boat; vintage Bollinger was Elefherakis’s gift. Mark was in charge of organising the many Greeks who wanted to participate in the after-dinner speeches and he declared that he would recite one of the epic Cretan poems. Rachel wrote a poem for the parents, Alexandrine and the event. No one had the heart to ask her not to recite it.
Chadwick had written to Andrew Coggs and Sam, those good men who she had saved and who, in return, had sought to save her. She invited them to the christening to share in this new life she was now living. The invitation had also been issued to some of the many friends she and Hannibal had spent so many years with. They had all accepted and had now been enjoying themselves in Livakia for two days. Diana and Warren, who after Larry Snell’s report had abandoned any thought of proceeding against Chadwick but who had not been in contact with her, were asked, along with Larry Snell and Max, to be god parents to Alexandrine. Larry and Max had accepted but neither Diana nor Warren had even given her the courtesy of a reply.
Chadwick had left the excitement and fun going on in the port to climb to the church on the cliffs to dress the small interior with white tulips and lilacs and to light a few candles, to meditate in the peace and beauty of the place she had grown to love so very much. This place was where she felt closer to god and godliness. As she was about to leave she took one last look into the dark interior shimmering in the afternoon sunlight that streamed in through the door. She felt Hannibal’s presence as close as if he were standing next to her. Something grazed her cheek, she touched it with her hand, and sensed his kiss, his love for her was still as strong as ever. Whether it was a kiss of the spirit or the imagination she didn’t know, but she knew that he loved her and blessed her. ‘Hannibal,’ she whispered.
A warm breeze caressed her, enveloped her and for a few seconds she bathed in it. Tears came to her eyes and she became engulfed in a sense of love and well-being. The tears vanished and she closed the door, locked it and placed the key in its hiding
place. She looked out to sea and it was at that moment that the
Black Narcissus
came round the headland in full sail, the sound of her ship’s horn echoing against the cliffs.
Chadwick’s heart skipped a beat, she felt that special surge of happiness that she always felt when she knew she was about to see Manoussos. He was on board having left in the early hours of the morning to go and meet the
Black Narcissus
who was bringing in several more friends, whom Chadwick had never met, and Alexandrine’s god-father-to-be Larry Snell. For one brief moment she felt a pang of regret for her other family; Diana, Warren, their children, Bill Ogden, who couldn’t bring themselves to love her without Hannibal. That was the only flaw to this happy occasion.
She waved to those on board the
Black Narcissus,
aware that they might not even spot her there among the cliffs, then she hitched up her long white linen skirt into the narrow white snakeskin belt of her backless sun dress and started to run down the cliff path to the port. She would be standing on the quay where the schooner would dock as it dropped anchor.
She had timed it perfectly. The sails were down and she heard the anchor splash into the water and saw Manoussos and Larry at the prow. Chadwick rushed on board and hugged Larry first and then Manoussos with a long passionate kiss. He placed his arm round her and she asked, ‘Where are your friends? Oh no, have they not come?’
‘They have, they’re below. Close your eyes, they want to surprise you.’
The happiness in both Manoussos and Larry’s face was infectious, she felt as if her heart was singing and closed her eyes.
Footsteps on the deck and muffled giggles and laughter. ‘Now! Open your eyes,’ ordered Manoussos. She did and Diana, tears in her eyes, rushed forward into Chadwick’s arms.
‘I knew you’d forgiven us when you asked Warren and I to be god parents. All we have to do now is forgive ourselves.’
The two women hugged each other. Hannibal’s grandchildren rushed forward before Warren could get to her, and more kisses and hugs followed. When he did reach her, they clasped each
other and kissed and he said, ‘Even when lost in our madness we never stopped loving you, we just never knew how to cope with the loss of our father. Thank God you did.’