The Tomb of Zeus Read Online Free PDF

aunt Dotty's permanent wave, she thought, and for a dizzying moment she was unsure whether she would burst out into giggles or noisy retching. This culinary delicacy was surrounded by a moat of reddish-brown fluid, flecked with something vegetable that might have been mushrooms and onions. Her stomach clenched in a familiar pain. It seemed her body had retained a memory of the recent affliction at sea and was inconveniently sending her a warning.
    She'd been looking forward to her supper. She'd bathed and dressed in a little green silk frock from her trunk, a new pair of stockings, and a pearl necklace. With the example of Phoebe's artfully coloured face in mind, Letty thought it would very probably be acceptable to liven up her own washed-out pallor with a dab of rouge on her cheekbones and a touch of the warm coral lipstick she'd brought with her to impress or astonish Athenian society. Hearing the gong sound, she'd flung a soft green and blue fringed Kashmiri wrap over one shoulder and hurried down to the
piano nobile.
Gratifyingly, George and Theodore had stared when she'd entered the drawing room where they stood sipping dry sherry.
    “Good lord! The girl's a beauty!” George had exclaimed, stepping forward to welcome her. “I had no idea I was smuggling a sea nymph into the house.”
    “I think I shall have to greet you all over again, Laetitia. I had mistaken you for George's motoring engineer,” said his father. “Sherry, my dear? Ah, here come your fellow diggers. Boys, both. And a year or two behind you in experience, but capable—very capable. Dick! Stewart! Come! Let me introduce you to Laetitia Talbot. This is the young lady you're to escort around the museum tomorrow. Help her to get a feeling for the culture and understand the exhibits before she goes off to add to their number herself.”
    He paused and cocked a speculative eyebrow. “Laetitia will tell you she was up at Cambridge and she's a protégée and student of Professor Merriman—yes, another one of those. We are indeed favoured! Can it be that my old friend Andrew is becoming a little overprolific with his generous references? We shall have to wait and see! Laetitia would have us know she's worked in Egypt and France so, my boys, she's well ahead of you both in experience.” He smiled indulgently at Dick and Stewart. “But this is to be her first opportunity of
directing
a dig. In Crete. A good career move.” After the slightest hesitation, he added: “I take it a
career
is what the young lady has in mind? An excellent choice of site, if so. Well away from any mainstream excavations. And, of course, wherever you stick your spade in this rich earth, you turn up something notable. With a skilled team to back her, this young lady can hardly go wrong, I'd say.”
    Letty decided to hoard this statement, delivered with deceptive bonhomie, for closer inspection at her leisure.
    Dick Collingwood was the first to hurry forward with words of welcome. Studious-looking with an abundance of floppy dark hair, a slight stammer, and the earnest manner and aristocratic accent of Old Oxford, he was very like dozens of young men she'd worked with in London and Egypt. “Do call me Dickie,”
he told her, and went on to establish that one of his cousins had roomed at college with one of hers before the war…If she was one of the Cambridgeshire Talbots, that is…
    She thought she'd do well to reserve judgement on the second student, Stewart McGill. He held back, polite but cool, sifting every syllable she uttered, silently taking in every aspect of her appearance. She was entertained to see that the dark Scotsman, by his stance and his gestures, by the way he went to take up a position at Theodore's side, by the very cut of his hair, was emulating his employer. The prize pupil.
    “No architect?” she enquired, looking beyond them for the third man George and Phoebe had mentioned.
    “Not yet. He's been working at Knossos all day with the students from the