Aphrodite's Island by Hilary Green

with tears. He bent down and lifted her into his arms.
    ‘What’s the matter, Cressy? Don’t cry, darling. Tell Daddy what’s wrong.’
    ‘Mummy cross. Mummy shout at Cressy! Horrid Mummy!’
    ‘No, you mustn’t say that. If Mummy’s cross with you I expect it’s for a good reason. You must have done something wrong.’
    ‘Didn’t! Didn’t!’ The small face creased up and the tears began to flow again.
    Stephen felt an all-too-familiar sinking at his heart. ‘Come on. Let’s go and see what Mummy has to say.’
    Laura was in the kitchen. Stephen took in the half-smoked cigarette on the ashtray and the opened bottle of wine on the kitchen table. Almost half of it was gone and the kitchen was in a fog of tobacco and the smoke from pork chops being fried in too hot a pan. The radio was playing ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree’.
    She said, ‘Oh, you’re back then.’
    ‘Yes. Sorry I’m a bit late. I got held up.’
    ‘Oh yes? Little Miss Blue-eyes needed a shoulder to cry on, did she?’
    ‘Miss Blue-eyes’ was Laura’s name for a young teacher who had recently joined the staff in Stephen’s department. She was having a difficult first year and he had gone out of his way to help her, but Laura insisted on construing his kindness as the beginning of an affair. Stephen controlled his temper and said evenly, ‘No. It was nothing to do with school, actually. I’ll tell you about it later. Why are you angry with Cressida?’
    Laura looked round. ‘Oh, Daddy’s girl’s been telling tales again, has she? You ought to know better. She turns it on like a tap, as soon as she sees you. You spoil her, that’s the trouble.’
    ‘No, I think she’s genuinely upset. What happened?’
    ‘Nothing! It’s all very well for you, swanning in expecting your meal to be on the table. I’ve had a hard day at school, too, youknow. And then I have to pick Madam up from the childminder, and she’s done nothing but whine and grizzle ever since we got home.
“Play with me! Play with me!”
As if I had time!’
    ‘That’s not fair, Laura!’ he protested. ‘I don’t swan in expecting my meal to be on the table. Very often I do the cooking. And Cressida only wants a bit of your time and attention. After all, she doesn’t see you all day.’
    Laura slammed plates into the oven. ‘That’s right! It’s all my fault. I knew it would be. It was your idea that I should go back to work.’
    ‘I only suggested it because you seemed miserable stuck at home all day.’
    ‘Anyone with half a mind would be miserable stuck here with no one to talk to except a toddler. You should try it one day!’
    ‘So that’s why I thought you might be happier if you went back to work. Come on, Laura! You can’t have it both ways.’
    She put down the pan of potatoes she was draining and sat at the table. ‘I can’t have it any way! I’m wrong whatever I do.’
    He set Cressida down on her feet and went to put his arm round his wife. ‘No, you’re not. You’re just tired. We both are. Come on. Let’s get the dinner on the table and then I’ve got something to tell you.’
    He reached across and re-tuned the radio. The chimes of Big Ben vibrated around the kitchen.
    ‘Oh, why can’t you leave it alone?’ Laura exclaimed.
    ‘I want to listen to the news.’
    ‘I can’t think why. It’s the same every evening. I’m sick to death of hearing about Nixon and Watergate, strikes, prices going up, Edward Heath moaning on—’
    ‘Hush!’ Stephen said sharply. ‘Just listen a minute.’
    The announcer was saying, ‘In Athens today it was announced that the Greek junta which has been in control of the country since the revolution has abolished the monarchy and declared Greece a republic.’
    ‘Well, hurrah for them!’ Laura said, with a hint of sarcasm.
    ‘You don’t mean that! The colonels’ regime is one of the most repressive in Europe. It depends on the secret police and the use of torture to maintain