up there.” His face glowed passionately. “Who knows what
I’ll find?”
“You’re going to leave me here and spend the whole
fortnight alone on that mountain?” she asked incred-
ulously.
“You’ll have Pallas and Sam to keep you company,” he
answered vaguely. “I thought the idea was that you should
have fun with Pallas while I work on the site? You know
you’re never very keen on site work, Kate.”
Angrily conscious of Marc’s amused gaze, she was
silent, and Peter took her agreement for granted. “Well,
I’m very grateful,” he told Marc. “I’ll be off now, then.’' He
shook hands with him, kissed Kate absently and was gone
before she had time to think.
She looked at Marc coldly. He was leaning back in his
chair, his face sardonic.
“You do not look too happy, Miss Caulfield. Your fiancé
will be quite safe, I promise you. My car is taking him as
far as the road goes. We do not have too many roads on
Kianthos. Jake will help him carry up the camping
equipment, and see the camp set up. He has plenty of food
with him. And the goatherds will visit the Peak once a day,
as they always do, with their goats. If anything went
wrong, they would let me know.”
“Goatherds?” she asked curiously.
“There’s a village on the other side of the peak. They
keep goats and have some olive trees. Cheese and olives
are the staple diet, you know. Goat’s cheese and goat’s
milk, and fish, in season. They call the peak To Angkistri.
It means The Hook. There is a local legend about it which I