Free The Girl Under the Olive Tree by Leah Fleming Page A

superb at what they do. Mercy is so agile she can even outstrip John on their mountain treks. Ask their advice and you’ll not go wrong.’
    ‘You’re not cross with me then?’ Penny asked.
    ‘Why should I be cross? What you do is up to you. You’re following your dream, good for you. I just hope we get enough peace for the school to get on with its business. I’d hate anything to happen to all the excavation work we’ve done in Egypt and Greece.’
    As they sat in the shade they looked to passers-by like any young couple out for a stroll, but Penny knew as far as he was concerned she was a nuisance, just a kid who behaved as mixed-up girls often did. He’d befriended her and she’d let him down, and now he was letting her down gently. He was off to follow his own destiny and she wasn’t part of it.
    She suddenly felt flat and despondent, especially with Joan’s accusations still ringing in her ears. It was true that Bruce was the first man to excite her imagination and interest, but she realized now it was all a silly childish fantasy. He was confident, handsome in a rugged sort of way. She’d imagined she was special to him but she wasn’t and never had been. He’d burst that bubble and she must hide her disappointment. How could something be over when it hadn’t even begun?
    Better make the most of this moment alone with him, save it up to chew over on a rainy day in the future, she sighed as she tucked into the last of her cake.
    Only one thing mattered and that was her chosen career; the chance to do something interesting and be useful too. She would make the most of her opportunities and show her family that Penny George would succeed.
    Penny braced herself for a tearful reunion with Evadne and a telling-off from Walter, but no one was at home when she called. Kaliope said they’d left as planned, then shut the door in her face. She was in disgrace and on her own now.
    Funny how the next few weeks seemed to be full of farewells. Everyone was disappearing into the hills, across to Crete or returning home on vacation. Joan left for England and Penny found lodgings with Miss Margery McDade, a retired teacher who taught music and sometimes helped out washing and cataloguing artefacts in the stratigraphic workroom.
    The Pendlebury expedition did not need her services so it was back to washing dirty artefacts from recent digs, and drawing practice and trying to remember all the things Joan had drummed into her. Money was tight and she was glad to have learned all Joan’s little schemes to stay afloat, but she sold her pearl necklace to fund her stay.
    Athens was hot in early June and it was a relief to find coolness in the wooded groves of Mount Lycabettus whenever she could. She toured sites with Margery as her guide, just like any tourist: first to the sacred groves of Delphi, north of Athens, in the steps of pilgrims thousands of years ago who had come to hear the Oracle’s prophecies. Then they visited the Temple of Apollo high in the hills of the Peloponnese, built 2,000 years ago, through the rough winding tracks, down to the finger-lines of coast at Mani. Later they found the ancient city of Mycenae where the School was doing excavations, and it was Penny’s turn to show Margery around the site. The party invitations from Walter’s friends dried up on hearing about her disgrace. She was left to fend for herself, much to her relief. There was always a book to read, a museum to visit and lots of time for reflection, but life on a shoestring was not easy. Thank goodness for pupils wanting to learn English, and cheap food from the markets. Margery would always make her meals stretch for two. If she went hungry sometimes, it was the price of this new-found independence.
    The silence from Stokencourt Place was deafening. Sometimes she felt she’d made a terrible mistake, doubts creeping in as she floundered around the fringes of the shrinking student community, hoping for distraction from her guilt, but