Moon of Aphrodite Read Online Free PDF Page A

room, however luxurious, was not
    improving the condition. She needed something to take her mind-off the journey ahead
    of her, and the stern old man waiting for her at the end of it.
    She stil did not real y understand why she was here. She hadn't wanted to come, and
    now she was here she was beginning to realise just how alien her new environment
    was. People said that these days foreign capitals were growing so much alike that
    anyone dropped into one blindfold would be hard put to it to decide where he was.
    They would never be able to say that with Athens, she thought. Even on the journey in
    from the airport, she had realised it had an atmosphere al of its own, and the glimpse
    she had caught of the mighty Acropolis had been breathtaking.
    She glanced at her watch, which she had remembered to alter to local time. She had
    several hours to kick her heels in before they set off again. Surely she had time to do a
    little sightseeing.
    She slipped on a pair of low-heeled sandals and reached for her bag. She had brought
    some travel ers' cheques in London and changed a few pounds into drachmas. It wasn't
    a great deal, but it would be enough to pay her bus fare up to the Acropolis, and
    maybe buy her a coffee and a pastry at one of the pavement cafes she had noticed on
    her way to the hotel.
    She slipped on a pair of sunglasses as she went down in the lift. Not that she real y
    believed that anyone would try to stop her if they saw her leaving, she told herself, but
    Damon Leandros had been very positive about her resting in the heat of the day, and
    perhaps the hotel staff might feel that his orders should be reinforced.
    The foyer was ful of people as she stepped out of the lift and she walked past the
    reception area without being observed by anyone, and through the enormous swing
    doors into the sunlight.
    After the air-conditioning of the hotel, the heat outside struck her like a blow. She
    stopped at one of the news-stands and bought aguide book in English, and walked
    along slowly reading it. She didn't feel conspicuous in the slightest. Every second
    person she saw seemed to be a tourist, and no one seemed to be in a hurry. Using the
    map in her book, she managed to find her way to Omonia Square, and there she
    hesitated, final y plucking up courage to ask a passer-by where she could catcha bus
    for the Acropolis. He gave her a wide smile, then launched into a flood of Greek, inter-
    spersed with a few words of very broken English, before seizing her guide book from
    her hand and writing down the numbers of several buses across the top of the page.
    She was about to thank him and turn away when another man standing nearby decided
    to take a hand . Waving a peremptory finger, he seized the stub of pencil the other had
    been using and began to write a list of alternative numbers, beaming at Helen
    occasional y while his conversation with the first man became more and moreheated.
    Helen, aware of the curious glances of some of the passers-by, was becoming
    embarrassed by the raised voices and violent gestures. She tried to interrupt, but the
    two Greeks were by now far more interested in their argument than anything else, and
    after standing there rather helplessly for a moment, she decided to try and find the way
    to the nearest bus stand by herself. Next time she wanted to know anything, she
    vowed silently, she would ask a policeman!
    The heat was becoming oppressive now, and she was beginning to wish she had taken
    Damon Leandros' advice and stayed in her suite with the shutters dosed. Perhaps it had
    been offered as advice, and less as an order, she might have Celt more inclined to
    accept it, she told herself in self-justification. It was gal ing to be issued with
    instructions as if she was a child who could not be trusted to think for herself.
    There seemed to be a great many buses about, but none of them seemed to bear any
    of the numbers she had been given, she realised rueful y as she stared around her.