made him feel as if his face and his hair had been cinched by the fire spitting out of them.
‘Well, you may have a point there, but remember that the Imperial Workshops became rife with corruption and redolent with the complicity of the Imperial Court during times that money in the Imperial Treasury were scarce.’ Her voice spat irony. ‘Some of these illustrious master craftsmen, as you called them, had a very profitable sideline to make up for the shortfall by selling some of the product coming out of the Imperial Workshops at a lower quality and without the Imperial seal. The spanner in the works is that this bust is of a very high quality.’
‘That’s not bad reasoning. I’m impressed.’
‘Why would someone erase the Imperial seal? I suppose they would do it, if they wanted to fool you into thinking that it was an insignificant artefact?’
‘I guess that could be possible. But why would anyone do that? Unless…’
Katia went silent, her face reflecting her struggling thoughts. Then her face brightened up, as if divine inspiration just hit her on the head, which wasn’t exactly very often, Giorgos smiled to himself, not without a slight hint of spite.
He silently reprimanded himself. God, his very pious mother would kill him, if she could have known his dark thoughts. “I did not bring you up to be vengeful”, she would say. “Keep silent and turn the other cheek.”
Giorgos pressed Katia. ‘Unless, what?’
Katia looked at him, as if she had forgotten he was there and only just realised, and was annoyed at the intrusion. She wanted him to disappear and she waved her hand, as if he was an annoying fly that was buzzing around her head.
‘Unless it was intended that this thing should be passed off deliberately as a fake, because it was meant to be hiding something or be a clue for something.’
She almost hit the nail on the head, Giorgos thought. He just about managed to keep a straight face and not reveal anything. He believed he had just managed to successfully carry out the deception, when she looked at him as if she could see right through him into his thoughts.
‘What is it? You know something, don’t you? My God, you have found something, haven’t you? Giorgos, stop playing games. Now, come out with it. Tell me. Otherwise…’ She took a challenging stance.
‘Otherwise what, darling?’
‘Otherwise you’ll be sorry.’
‘Oh, I’m shaking in my boots.’
‘Giorgos…’
Now she was positively livid. Giorgos kept his cool.
‘No, Katia, I have not found anything, if you must know. I really haven’t. Would I have dared to hide anything from you, if I had?’
Giorgos’ face was a picture of innocence and challenge in equal measure. He was mocking her and she could see it.
‘Wouldn’t you? Yes, you would. Of course you would.’ Katia felt she should not believe him, but then had second thoughts and she went silent. ‘Then again, I guess not.’ She did, though, shake her head, as if she could not believe her own words, as if there was still something that bothered her, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
During that silence that descended between them Giorgos contemplated the fiery beauty standing in front him, with both her legs firmly planted on the ground, ready to bore holes in it, and her hands at her side, ready to fight the world.
Katia was standing there in that pose, staring at him, for what seemed an eternity. It seemed to Giorgos as if she intended her stare and stance to make him blush and shrink under its intense scrutiny and melt and cower down in shame, like a reprimanded naughty child that just broke the neighbour’s window or stole an apple from the neighbour’s orchard.
He saw it as a challenge for him to confess his undying love and devotion and submission to her, as the ultimate object of his affection and worship and reverence. Wishful thinking on his part, perhaps? Or did she feel the same? Or was it simply that she was obsessed with being adored and worshipped?
There was a deathly silence, an impasse. They were both just standing there facing each other, weighing up and circling each other, like two sumo wrestlers ready to engage. The tension was rising. Who was going to be the first to break the staring contest? Giorgos decided to stop this futile nonsense. He turned away and looked at the bust.
‘I think we should store it in a safe place straight away.’
He started to make his way to the exit. He made a half-turn and looked back at her, his eyes challenging her, and at the same time mesmerising her.
Katia could not move. She felt distress at the effect Giorgos was having on her and at her inability to neutralise that effect. She tried in vain to control her feelings and put a lid on them as she had always managed to do with everyone that threatened to get a bit too close to her for comfort; until now that is. If only she could just ignore that she was frustratingly falling in love with him. That was the main reason of her impatience with him. She was annoyed with herself, because she could not understand this feeling that was forcing her to go wobbly at the knees.
She was afraid, because she was not used to allowing her feelings to roam unprotected like this. She was strong and detached and had, so far, avoided exposing herself to this kind of emotion. That steely “ice queen” veneer had served her well in her professional life, had allowed her to stamp her authority and had earned her respect. She could not risk tainting that reputation. Was this part of her allure? She had never been short of offers and attention. But was that respect enough to solely sustain her?
She did not want to show Giorgos the slightest sign of weakness. She was tough, uncompromising and rude with him, as if to punish him for feeling like this, as if by making him feel worse, it would make her feel better. What she did not know was that she was deluding herself, as Giorgos knew. For her refusal to admit her feelings and submit to them, having tired of sending out subtle signs to make her see sense, Giorgos had decided to feign indifference.
He knew that by not acknowledging his infatuation with her, he frustrated her even further. Maybe it was his way of pushing her over the edge to the chasm of reason, so that she would open her eyes and see the truth that was staring her in the face. Making her life a misery by reciprocating her ‘undying love’, as he liked to describe her rough treatment of him, was apt. She deserved it.
Giorgos had had enough.
‘Are you coming or are you planning to stay there like a frozen statue for all eternity to be unearthed by archaeologists in the future who would be wondering who this fair ice maiden was?’
She made a beeline for him in attacking mode, but he subtly and easily avoided her. Her punch made painful contact with the lovely cool stone of the wall behind him. She winced in pain and holding her injured hand, started to rub it, to comfort it and nurse it back to health.
She followed him like a wounded puppy, but her posture and her expression showed that she would be forever defiant. They decided to call it a day.
CHAPTER 47
Limassol Castle, Limassol, Cyprus
Present day
Outside the castle, Katia relieved Giorgos of the bust and was very pleased with herself for the effect of her powers of persuasion over Giorgos, oblivious to the fact that Giorgos had already extracted what he wanted and did not need the bust anymore. They waived each other goodbye and went their separate ways. Giorgos couldn’t get out of there fast enough. He couldn’t wait to study the scroll.
As he made his way to his car, he felt that he was being watched, as if eyes were boring holes in his skull. He turned, but could not see anything suspicious. People were going about their business, buying and selling. Some men were seated at the coffee shop across the road playing backgammon and drinking coffee, strong and thick enough to make the spoon stand at attention. The blacksmith who had been there for decades was putting the
