to the corridor.
‘He really is the limit. Has all the girls eating out of his hand, drooling over his muscular thighs in shorts, but it cuts no ice with me,’ she said, looking down at her ring. ‘My fiancé is back home and we’re getting married when I finish my scholarship out here.’
They found their way to another common room with a huge stone fireplace and armchairs, the walls filled with yet more leather-bound books.
‘This is where we relax in the evening.’ Joan pointed out a dining room and stairs leading up to the study bedrooms. Penny was getting the full tour of the student quarters.
Joan’s narrow room was as bare as a monk’s cell. There was no space here for their lesson. The whole hostel had an aura of study and academia, and Penny felt her confidence slipping as she wondered how she would fit in. But she sensed the students had fun too. They seemed lively, older than she was – teachers, researchers, graduates on tight budgets.
‘Everyone has their own project and digs to write up, finds to record, theories to argue. There are open meetings you must attend if you want to know where the latest excavations are heading. Our Director has one next week. Then we often go out for dinner later, somewhere cheap but lively. I think you might enjoy that side of student life but keep away from Jardine. He’s like an overgrown Boy Scout. He’ll have you racing over mountains as if they were hillocks. What’s all this about “a mountain goat”?’
‘Just a joke. I like stalking in the hills in Scotland. I’d enjoy a decent hike. I’m getting soft in the city.’
‘You toffs live in a different world. It’s all just a game to you, isn’t it?’ Joan sneered. ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering to take up a profession. You don’t need to work, do you? Jardine is just the same. Neither of you is made for the rough and tumble of life at all.’ Joan sat moodily smoking, looking out of the window. ‘You’ve no idea how hard it is for ordinary mortals to follow our dreams.’
‘And you have no idea how many lies and evasions I’ve had to make just to be sitting in this beautiful building seeing a world I can never be part of,’ Penny snapped back, waving her hands around at the books and pictures. ‘We’re not so different. At least you have an education and a world to go back to, whereas I am dependent on the whims of my family. I’m not even capable of striking out on my own. For me there is no prospect but of a suitable marriage, a gilded cage with the door shut.’ Penny felt tears welling up and slumped down in despair.
‘Steady on, I didn’t mean to pry,’ Joan whispered, putting her hand on Penny’s shoulder. ‘Sorry . . . Let’s just do the tour and then go into town. Better if we do our work in the villa in private. You’re going to have to toughen up, though, you know, if you want to join us in the real world, young lady.’
Penny tried to smile back. Joan was trying to be kind but she didn’t understand how much Penny was envying her life, her freedom, her knowledge. She resolved not to waste one hour of this wonderful opportunity. This was what she’d always longed for, and such a chance might never come again.
Joan’s lessons became the highlight of the day for Penny. Effy got quite jealous when she was too busy studying to go shopping or to the beach. Penny took every chance offered and often found herself in the company of other students as they sat drinking coffee in a fug of blue smoke, spinning out their ouzo and
meze,
putting the world to rights, planning how they would fund their next excavations, studying for exams in a world that was looking increasingly unsettled. Everyone borrowed English newspapers to read about Herr Hitler and Mr Chamberlain’s attempts to find common ground. There was talk of appeasement and the rise of Fascism. Penny recalled the violence in the backstreet with the Blackshirts and their slogans. What if the unrest spread? She
‘He really is the limit. Has all the girls eating out of his hand, drooling over his muscular thighs in shorts, but it cuts no ice with me,’ she said, looking down at her ring. ‘My fiancé is back home and we’re getting married when I finish my scholarship out here.’
They found their way to another common room with a huge stone fireplace and armchairs, the walls filled with yet more leather-bound books.
‘This is where we relax in the evening.’ Joan pointed out a dining room and stairs leading up to the study bedrooms. Penny was getting the full tour of the student quarters.
Joan’s narrow room was as bare as a monk’s cell. There was no space here for their lesson. The whole hostel had an aura of study and academia, and Penny felt her confidence slipping as she wondered how she would fit in. But she sensed the students had fun too. They seemed lively, older than she was – teachers, researchers, graduates on tight budgets.
‘Everyone has their own project and digs to write up, finds to record, theories to argue. There are open meetings you must attend if you want to know where the latest excavations are heading. Our Director has one next week. Then we often go out for dinner later, somewhere cheap but lively. I think you might enjoy that side of student life but keep away from Jardine. He’s like an overgrown Boy Scout. He’ll have you racing over mountains as if they were hillocks. What’s all this about “a mountain goat”?’
‘Just a joke. I like stalking in the hills in Scotland. I’d enjoy a decent hike. I’m getting soft in the city.’
‘You toffs live in a different world. It’s all just a game to you, isn’t it?’ Joan sneered. ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering to take up a profession. You don’t need to work, do you? Jardine is just the same. Neither of you is made for the rough and tumble of life at all.’ Joan sat moodily smoking, looking out of the window. ‘You’ve no idea how hard it is for ordinary mortals to follow our dreams.’
‘And you have no idea how many lies and evasions I’ve had to make just to be sitting in this beautiful building seeing a world I can never be part of,’ Penny snapped back, waving her hands around at the books and pictures. ‘We’re not so different. At least you have an education and a world to go back to, whereas I am dependent on the whims of my family. I’m not even capable of striking out on my own. For me there is no prospect but of a suitable marriage, a gilded cage with the door shut.’ Penny felt tears welling up and slumped down in despair.
‘Steady on, I didn’t mean to pry,’ Joan whispered, putting her hand on Penny’s shoulder. ‘Sorry . . . Let’s just do the tour and then go into town. Better if we do our work in the villa in private. You’re going to have to toughen up, though, you know, if you want to join us in the real world, young lady.’
Penny tried to smile back. Joan was trying to be kind but she didn’t understand how much Penny was envying her life, her freedom, her knowledge. She resolved not to waste one hour of this wonderful opportunity. This was what she’d always longed for, and such a chance might never come again.
Joan’s lessons became the highlight of the day for Penny. Effy got quite jealous when she was too busy studying to go shopping or to the beach. Penny took every chance offered and often found herself in the company of other students as they sat drinking coffee in a fug of blue smoke, spinning out their ouzo and
meze,
putting the world to rights, planning how they would fund their next excavations, studying for exams in a world that was looking increasingly unsettled. Everyone borrowed English newspapers to read about Herr Hitler and Mr Chamberlain’s attempts to find common ground. There was talk of appeasement and the rise of Fascism. Penny recalled the violence in the backstreet with the Blackshirts and their slogans. What if the unrest spread? She
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