Read Online Hearts of Stone by Simon Scarrow - Free Book Online

Give it a try some time.’
    ‘Maybe . . .’
    The conversation died as the truck made its way up the slope leading out of the valley. At length the gradient eased and the track joined a more established dirt road running along the side of a hill. To the left the trees gave way to stunted growths amid the parched rock. To the right the slope fell away towards the sea and the islands of the Ionian. Far off lay the mountains of the mainland, stretching along the horizon, stark in the absence of any haze. Peter’s spirits rose, as they did every time they reached this point in the drive back to Lefkada. And he made a sudden resolution that he would return to the island, to this very place, whatever his future held in store for him.
    ‘I shall miss this . . .’
    ‘Really?’ Heinrich shrugged. ‘It’s a all a bit too primitive for my taste. Take this road, for example. Typical of Greece. Probably hasn’t changed much since the days of Odysseus. You’ve seen what they’re doing back home. Fine new roads that cross the land from border to border. Quite a sight.’
    Peter smiled at the competing views of what constituted a spectacle. For him there was a timeless beauty to these islands rising from the sparkling Ionian Sea. A feeling that was given an added warmth by the proximity of his friends in the rear of the truck. By his closeness to Eleni. He turned and looked through the narrow window at the rear of the cab. He could see the worn wooden rail immediately behind and the dark curls of Andreas’s head. To the side were the longer tendrils of Eleni’s dark hair, flicking about in the hot air swirling round the vehicle.
    ‘All right back there?’
    Andreas shifted round and sat up, clutching the edge of the rail. A moment later Eleni joined him, grinning happily through the window. For a moment all three exchanged a glance and then Andreas laughed spontaneously.
    ‘What is it?’ asked Peter.
    ‘Nothing.’ Andreas reached forward and shook his shoulder. ‘Nothing at all! Just this. Just us being together now.’

Chapter Six
     
    P eter had washed and changed by the time his father returned from the excavation site. He was sitting on the balcony of the hired villa, a single-storey structure next to the sea, on the edge of the small town of Lefkada. There were four private rooms as well as a large formal room, used as the expedition’s office, and a kitchen where a local woman prepared meals for the Germans. A handful of outbuildings stood a short distance from the villa. The largest and most secure was where the tools and finds were stored.
    The sound of singing came from within as Heinrich prepared himself for the dinner appointment with Andreas’s father. Karl Muller climbed the short staircase to the balcony and paused to take his hat off and mop his brow as he admired the view. The villa was in the shadow of the hill the local people called Vouno. The peaks on the mainland were bathed in the red glow of the setting sun and heat was just starting to fade from the air as insects buzzed and whined through the dusk. He glanced at his son and turned to stare out across the sea, both sharing the moment in contemplative silence. Then, with a sigh, he paced along the balcony and sat on the wicker chair beside Peter. His son poured him a glass of water from the jug and handed it to him.
    ‘Thank you.’ Dr Muller smiled gratefully and raised the glass and steadily drained it before setting it down on the small table between them. ‘I needed that.’
    He settled into the chair before he continued. ‘I went into town before I came back. I had to send a last report to the university. There was a telegram waiting for me. All the travel arrangements are confirmed. There’s a train from Rimini to Vienna, and another from there to Munich. We’ll be leaving on the ferry from here the day after tomorrow.’
    Peter’s stomach lurched. ‘So soon?’
    ‘I’m afraid so.’
    ‘There’s not much time then.’
    Karl