One Last Summer (2007) Read Online Free PDF

trip make her feel any differently about the choices she had made in life? Why was she going? What was she hoping to find after all this time? And – most importantly of all – had she been right to ask Laura to accompany her?
    She climbed the steps to her veranda and walked into her living room. Her diary was already packed in her hand luggage. She took it from the bag and unwrapped it. The words she’d written on the morning of her eighteenth birthday stared up at her from the page: It feels as though I’ve been away for ever. I can’t wait to feast my eyes on the dear, dear house and hug Papa, Mama and the twins …
    Greta didn’t get a mention, even then. But what was the point of returning to Grunwaldsee now? There would be nothing left of the house but bricks and mortar, and, after decades of Communist neglect and misrule, decaying bricks and mortar at that. Or worse still, a burnt-out ruin, or a factory erected on the site. Wouldn’t it be better to cling to her memories?
    She delved into her bag again and brought out another book, a hardback, its jacket yellowing with age. She ran her hands over the title and illustration. One Last Summer by Pyotr Borodin. A picture of a substantial house, white, wooden, gleaming through a pine forest. Totally wrong, of course, but how could the American artist who’d designed the jackets of the Stateside copies know what an East Prussian country mansion looked like?
    As she opened the book, two sketches fell out. One was of Grunwaldsee as she had last seen it: a long, low, classically designed, eighteenth-century manor, the simplicity of its façade broken by a short, central flight of steps that swept up to a front door flanked by Corinthian columns. The second was of a young man drawn from memory. She stared at it for a long time. When she finally laid it aside, she knew why she had to go back.

Chapter Two
    ‘Laura, it’s Claus.’
    Laura hesitated. Had her grandmother shown him the photocopies? It hadn’t occurred to her that she might discuss them with Claus, but her grandmother and Claus were so close …
    ‘Laura, are you there?’
    ‘Yes.’ She mouthed an apology across the restaurant table to her librarian dinner date and headed for the Ladies. ‘It’s just a surprise to hear from you. I wasn’t expecting you to call but it’s great to hear your voice. How’s Carolyn?’
    ‘Burgeoning. It’s going to be a girl.’
    ‘Wonderful. Our family can do with all the women it can get. Does Oma know?’
    ‘We told her last night. We took her to the airport this morning. She said you’re taking time out to go to Poland with her.’
    ‘Are you checking up on me or her?’ she asked.
    ‘Neither.’
    ‘Pull the other one, Claus. As you’re obviously dying to know, we’re booked on a flight from Berlin to Warsaw on Friday.’
    ‘You’re in Berlin?’ he said in surprise.
    ‘Aren’t mobiles great? No one ever knows where anyone is. But yes, I’m in Berlin. To be precise, in an extremely good Turkish restaurant. I’ve been working here for a month on a documentary about the Stasi for the History Channel, which I’ve just wrapped. So it’s the perfect time for me to have a break. And I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than take a trip with Oma.’
    ‘Oma didn’t tell me you were in Germany.’
    ‘Possibly to keep the peace. Before you ask, I haven’t called on your parents. It’s so bloody between you and your father I’d rather not get involved.’
    ‘Also, you can’t stand him,’ he pointed out mildly.
    ‘That, too,’ she agreed.
    ‘It’s just as bloody between my father and Oma as it is between me and him,’ he added defensively.
    ‘Perhaps at her age she may want to bury the hatchet.’
    ‘The only place to do that is in his head,’ Claus said, not entirely humorously.
    ‘I suggested she rest here for a few days before going on.’
    Laura deliberately changed the subject. Once Claus began to talk about his father he