Then the great goddess Pallas Athene told Robbie Grenn
exactly what to do.
* ♦ * ♦
The following morning, Robbie secured a special permit to visit Stephanie in prison. The Deputy-Governor received him and handed him over to the head wardress, with instructions that he should be allowed to talk to the prisoner for half an hour, on the same footing as if he were her lawyer.
In consequence, he was taken to a waiting room in which there was no barrier between prisoner and visitor, but simply a wooden table and a few chairs. Stephanie was brought there and the wardress who escorted her took a chair in the corridor outside.
Stephanie's hand was still bandaged and her face was drawn; but she raised a faint smile as she entered the room, and said: Tt's nice of you to come, Robbie. I hadn't expected to see you again.'
He cleared his throat and asked: 'You know what they intend to do with you?'
She nodded. 'Yes. They told me this morning. I'm not to be charged with the others. I'm to be handed over to my Legation to be repatriated.'
'And we both know what that means.'
'Don't, Robbie, please. I ... I'd rather not talk about it.'
'But I must. I want to know if you think there is any chance of their letting you off.'
She shook her head. 'No. They'll add it to my other crimes that I was responsible for bringing about V&clav's death. For that, they would never forgive me. If only they'd kill me and have done. But they won't. They . . . they'll send me to the uranium mines. But please, please-'
Seeing her intense distress, Robbie cut her short and said: 'I've come here to suggest a way out for you.'
'There isn't one,' she said pessimistically. 'I know you'd help me if you could, Robbie. But there's nothing you can do.'
'Yes, there is,' he blurted out. 'I can marry you. If you are married to me, you'll become a British citizen. No one will be able to send you back to Czechoslovakia then.'
Her blue eyes wide open to their fullest extent, she stood staring at him as he hurried on: 'Of course, I know you don't love me; so I'm not suggesting that it should be a real marriage, although it would have to be a legal one. We . . . we'd live together only as we did in Rhodes. I'd take you to England with me. Then, after a few months, I'd let you divorce me. But you'd be safe there. And, later on, perhaps you'd meet some nice chap that you liked . . . and . . . and-'
Tears suddenly welled out of Stephanie's eyes and began to run down her cheeks. She laid her sound hand on his good arm and choked out:
'Of course I'll marry you. Even if you were the most revolting man on earth, any woman in my position would be crazy to refuse such an offer. But . . . but tell me something. Down by the pool at Olympia. Did you . . . did you do what you did just because you wished to humiliate me ... to be avenged? Or because you wanted to? I mean, had wanted to for some time?'
'Well, I was angry with you,' Robbie admitted. It was that which gave me the courage. But I'd been having to struggle with myself for days, not to seize hold of you and kiss you as though I'd never stop.'
A radiant smile suddenly broke through Stephanie's tears, and she whispered: 'Then need we . . . need we think about a divorce? Oh, Robbie, you're so different from any other man I've ever known. So kind, so gentle, so brave. Everything a woman could ever want. I think I've loved you from the very moment I met you.'