Hearts of Stone Read Online Free PDF Page B

those Greeks who worked alongside him at the excavations on Lefkas. That’s where your grandmother enters the story.’
    ‘Eleni? How? She was only a young girl at the time. I’ve never heard anything about her being involved in any excavation.’
    ‘But she was there. She is mentioned in the diaries. Eleni Thesskoudis. There are several references to her being present. She was a friend of my grandfather, Peter, who was also there on the island, accompanying his father.’
    ‘What proof do you have that it was her, my grandmother?’
    ‘I have checked the records in Lefkada. I have traced her to England. That is how I found your mother’s name also. And yours.’ He reached down into his rucksack and pulled out an iPad. ‘Look. I will show you.’
    He swept his fingers over the glass surface and then turned the device towards her to reveal a black and white image. Anna leaned closer and saw that it was a scan of an old photograph. Three teenagers, two boys and a girl, arms on each other’s shoulders, sitting on a bench in front of several long tables piled with fragments of pottery and pieces of stone, some of which looked to have been sculpted. Beyond lay a patch of open ground dotted with shrubs and trees before the slope of a hill rose up in the distance. The boy on the left of the picture was darkly featured with wavy hair, a solid build and wearing long trousers and boots. To his side was a girl, also dark-haired, with similar Greek features, and to her right sat a taller boy, blond-haired and wearing glasses. All three were smiling and were clearly friends. She looked more closely at the girl and gave a slight start.
    ‘That’s her! That’s Eleni.’ She raised her eyes and saw that Dieter was smiling at her.
    ‘Your grandmother. You see, I was right about her.’
    Anna tentatively touched the screen with her fingertips and spread the tips apart to enlarge the image for a closer look at her grandmother. The grain of the image increased but it was still clear enough to identify Eleni from the similarity to a handful of pictures that Anna had seen when she had visited the house Eleni had lived in before she moved in with Anna’s mother. In fact, she had a vague feeling that she had seen this particular picture before and strained her memory to try and place it. Questions tumbled through her mind.
    ‘Who are the others? Where is this, and who took the picture?’
    ‘One at a time, please!’ Dieter edged back from her intent gaze. Anna took a breath to calm herself and let him continue. Dieter pointed to the taller boy.
    ‘That is my grandfather. Peter Muller. He was sixteen at the time. Your grandmother was a year younger. The other boy. Andreas Katarides, was the oldest, seventeen. They were friends of Peter, from Lefkada. That’s where the expedition rented a house while they conducted the search for the palace of Odysseus. Your grandmother was the daughter of the town’s police inspector, and Andreas the son of a poet who had come to live on the island. Spyridon Katarides. He came from a wealthy family in Athens, but eloped with one of the servants. They had a child, Andreas, but his mother died giving birth to him. The family were angry and disowned Katarides. All except an uncle who sent him a comfortable allowance to live on, and raise his son. As to who took the picture, that was my great-grandfather. He took it at the site of the main excavation on the island. Here, I’ll show you some more.’
    Dieter flicked his finger across the screen and Anna saw more black and white images, some of which showed the landscape of the island, some the inhabitants, roughly dressed peasants, townspeople, fishermen, some images of ruins and then a handful of pictures of German soldiers wearing mountain caps, with a white flower pinned to the side. One picture caught her eye.
    ‘Wait!’ Anna intervened. ‘Isn’t that him? Your grandfather. Go back one. There.’
    He stood, one boot braced on a rock, striking