The Girl Under the Olive Tree by Leah Fleming Read Free Book Online

bodily functions. ‘Bad luck, old girl,’ was the best the men could manage in the days that followed.
    Penny wanted to hug her sister better but she couldn’t give back what had been so cruelly taken from her. They brought Evadne home and she lay in bed curled into a ball, not speaking. Penny knew then she’d not be leaving with the Boultons as planned, and she hated herself for feeling relief at this terrible time.
    Walter was glad she was staying on and wired home to tell the family of the change of plans. It was strange how their sad loss would be Penny’s salvation. Even Mother couldn’t begrudge her extended stay, phoning every day to check Evadne’s progress and threatening to come out herself if she were needed, but insisting they all be home for Christmas. Then, she promised, trying to rally their spirits, there would be preparations for the big coming-out dance in the spring, which Penny would be sharing with Lady Forbes-Halsted’s daughter, Clemency.
    It was a grateful Walter who insisted that Penny must continue her interest in archaeology and drawing at the British School of Archaeology, arranging for her to have private drawing lessons in the autumn term. She could stay on, using their villa as her base, living the life of an expat. Penny could barely believe her good fortune: to be treated at last like a grown-up and given freedoms unknown to her at home.
    As Evadne recovered her strength, if not her spirit, they grew ever closer. Penny was discovering that suffering was a great leveller. It took no heed of age, status or wealth. She learned to be useful and to be independent, but how she wished she could have achieved her sense of responsibility and freedom some other way. But fate had dealt this cruel hand and she was here now, for better or worse.

2001
     
    I woke with a start. Dozing off in the afternoon was getting to be a bad habit and thoughts of returning to Crete had brought the past so close in my dreams.
Dear Evadne, how much I owe you for my freedom and how relieved we all were when you eventually got your reward
. Effy and Walter’s precious daughter, Athene, arrived after the war was over, a strange child, not unlike myself, who brought us such joy and, later on, sorrow when she contracted leukaemia and died young.
    How those halcyon days stretched out before us. Athens had a vibrancy that seduced my senses and lured me to its heart. I thought that heady time of learning and independence would never end. But then came the dreaded day when I had to make the biggest decision of my young life, cutting for ever the silken threads of family loyalties, choosing to abandon everything I’d ever known in my bid for romance and adventure.
    How on earth did I ever do it? I often ask myself and the answer is always the same. You were young and the young have no fear. Only that desire for freedom gave me the courage to change my destiny.

Athens, 1937–1938
     
    Miss Bushnell arrived one morning at the villa to give Penny the once-over. She would not commit herself to taking on a student until she was sure she was serious about the subject. She herself was on a scholarship to the British School, seconded from a girls’ grammar school in the north of England. She was tall, her fair hair bleached by the sun, and wore round spectacles. She was about the same age as Evadne and eager to make a new career in archaeology. She’d been recommended to Walter by the Director. She peered now at her new charge with suspicion and Penny tried to look enthusiastic. This was an important interview.
    ‘What have you read? What experience have you had? How’s your Greek?’
    Penny shoved all her drawings of museum artefacts under Miss Bushnell’s nose
. ‘Ela.’
    Miss Bushnell peered at them closely, then glanced up at her with interest.
    ‘You’ve got an eye but
our
work is all about accuracy of line and shading. You’ll need a better selection of pens and pencils . . . I can’t provide equipment. I