‘I wonder why he’s really going to leave early.’

‘He’ll probably pass the time with a floozy.’

‘If you mean-’ she said a name, ‘she’s hardly a floozy. Her husband’s one of the most influential men on the-’

‘Which makes her a high class floozy, and she’s keeping her distance now because her husband has put his foot down. Rumours reached him.’

‘He probably knew all the time,’ his wife said cynically. ‘There are men in this city who don’t mind their women sleeping with Lysandros.’

Stavros nodded. ‘Yes, but I gather she became too “emotional”, started expecting too much, so he dropped the husband a hint to rein her in if he knew what was good for him.’

‘Surely even Lysandros wouldn’t be so cruel, so cold-blooded-’

‘That’s exactly what he is, and in our hearts we all know it,’ Stavros said flatly.

‘I wonder about his heart,’ she mused.

‘He doesn’t have one, which is why he keeps people at a distance.’

As the car turned out of the gate Stavros couldn’t resist looking back to the house. Lysandros stood there at the window, watching the world with a brooding air, as though it was his personal property and he had yet to decide how to manage it.

He remained there until the car had vanished through the gates, then turned back into the room, trying to clear his mind. The conversation had disturbed him and that must be quickly remedied. Luckily an urgent call came through from his manager at the port of Piraeus, to say that they were threatened with union trouble. Lysandros gave him a series of curt orders and promised to be there the next day.

Today he would attend Homer Lukas’s wedding as an honoured guest. He would shake his rival’s hand, show honour to the bride, and the watching crowds would sigh with disappointment not to see them at each other’s throats, personally as well as professionally.