Love and Apollo by Barbara Cartland

up a narrow path that led to the top of a low cliff.
    She had read in one book that the small mysterious island of Delos lay very low in the water, as the author had said, ‘ with only the small hill of Cynthus to hold it from floating away. ’
    It took Valona a few seconds to reach the top of the cliff and then she found herself standing as she had longed to on the island of Delos.
    As she had expected the island was a mass of spring flowers. Anemones flooded the meadows that were filled with many gleaming columns and ruins of what had once been temples.
    Looking ahead of her Valona was still.
    Now she could feel the wind blowing softly around her and was filled with a sense of enchantment she had always known she would find in Delos.
    A dozen books had told her that a heavenly light always fell over the island and Apollo’s presence could positively be felt.
    As she stood there she could see the light flashing against white marble, which lay visibly among the flowers.
    Over the whole island the air seemed to be like a dancing quivering flame.
    She could not explain it, yet it was there just as she had expected it to be.
    Although she felt she must be imagining it, she was aware of the light glittering and shining high up in the air.
    There seemed to be a mysterious quivering, a low beating of silver wings and the whirl of silver wheels.
    She walked a little further along the meadow.
    As she did so, she felt the shimmering presence of Apollo himself.
    It was as though she could see him with her own eyes, and he was looking unbelievably handsome.
    Behind him lay the many white Temples built in his honour.
    As Valona moved very slowly over the anemones, she found herself remembering what she had read.
    How the Goddess Leto had given birth beside the wheel-shaped lake to Apollo, the fairest of the immortals, and his twin sister Artemis and how the whole earth had rejoiced.
    To celebrate the birth of Apollo, ‘ the islands of the Cyclades wheeled round in Holy joy .’
    Strange perfumes had wafted over the island and white swans suddenly appeared on the lake.
    Apollo had found his rightful home here and ruled the world from Delos, which he had conquered by the power of his beauty.
    For a moment Valona could not see ahead of her.
    She knew that there was hardly a square inch of the island that did not lie under the shadow of countless broken columns.
    No one lived on the island – the only inhabitants were the grey speckled lizards that sheltered underneath the stones.
    Yet in the expectant quietness of the scene around her, she became acutely conscious of the presence of some unexplained mystery.
    She remembered that in 426 BC General Nicias had decreed that Apollo was not being worshipped properly as a God should.
    He had led a large delegation from Athens to purify the island and there had been countless feasts, games and sacrifices.  The General had presented Apollo with an enormous bronze palm tree and then ordered a huge statue of Apollo to be erected on Delos to the glory and beauty of the God.
    Never had so many precious gifts been offered to a God and when he returned to Athens, General Nicias hoped that after all he had done he would now bask in the God’s favour.
    But the Athenian invasion of Sicily that he commanded ended in disaster in 413 BC and Nicias was captured and savagely put to death.
    The bronze palm tree fell over in a wild storm and the broken pieces which fell near the sacred lake lay there for two thousand years.
    Then the island was explored by the English in the reign of Charles I and the French came collecting pieces of the statues and other precious souvenirs.
    The great statue of Apollo, which had fallen to the ground, was gradually broken up and pieces were carried away to England and France.
    Much of the statue, Valona knew, remained on Delos, but it lay too far for her to go and see it.
    Yet she was aware that it was still there and was, according to all she had read,