Invincible Summer Read Online Free Page A

great-grandchildren will be coming here long after we’re gone, don’t we Hugo?’ said Benedict’s mother. ‘It’s wonderful to know that all this beauty will be preserved for them.’
    Was Eva mistaken, or had Marina cast a twinkling look in her direction?
    ‘Indeed,’ agreed Hugo. ‘And one does so need a bolt-hole to escape the unwashed hordes every now and then. Far from the madding crowd and all that.’
    Eva responded with a non-committal smile. She wasn’t wholly confident that if the world was divided up into the Hugos and the unwashed hordes that she herself wouldn’t fall into the latter category, and was relieved to spot Benedict making his way back across the terrace towards them.
    ‘I see you’ve met Dad,’ he said as he joined them.
    ‘Well, sort of,’ said Eva, blushing as she realised she hadn’t actually introduced herself.
    ‘Oh, silly me for not doing the introductions,’ said Marina. ‘This old curmudgeon is Hugo, dear,’ and then, turning to her husband, continued, ‘and Benedict’s young lady here is Eva.’
    ‘Ah, I’m not exactly Benedict’s young lady, we’re more, you know, friends,’ Eva said as she shook Hugo’s proffered hand and felt her cheeks further redden.
    ‘Bloody hell, just ignore them,’ muttered Benedict. ‘They marry me off to every girl I so much as glance at. It’s supposed to be an old family tradition that the Waverleys marry young, but they’ve got more chance with Harry than me. Come on, let’s go for a swim before they start planning the nuptials.’
    ‘Better unpack and grab my bathing suit,’ Eva said, glad to be extricated from the situation but cursing Benedict silently for his false assurances.
    ‘Eleni’s already unpacking for you,’ he told her. ‘She’s the housekeeper and she’ll do all of that while you’re here. Woe betide you if you attempt to put her out of a job by making so much as a sandwich for yourself. Come on, I’ll show you where your room is.’
      
    Her ‘room’ turned out to be more of a suite, composed of a capacious bedroom, a dressing room big enough to comfortably house a sofa and several wardrobes, and a generous bathroom with free-standing tub in front of French doors looking out towards the sea.
    Eva stood and boggled at her surroundings. ‘Sweet Jesus, Benedict. This is what you’ve meant all this time by your family’s holiday pad? Not exactly a flat in Benidorm, is it? I mean, I’ve always known that you weren’t a pauper but seriously, just look at this place.’
    Benedict shuffled his feet awkwardly. ‘Well, obviously property doesn’t cost half as much here as in England.’
    Watching him squirm it suddenly all made sense: the reason that Benedict had never invited her to his home despite visiting her in Sussex several times during university holidays was not that he was embarrassed by her but by his own background, which was apparently far more opulent than the others had imagined even in their wildest flights of speculation. Eva found herself feeling somewhat sympathetic; Lucien was already prone to calling him Gatsby, and he would have a field day if he could see this place.
    An awful thought occurred to her. ‘Shit, what am I going to wear?’ She grimaced at the memory of Marina in her crisp white linen dress and silver butterfly necklace. ‘Look at these cushions, and this bedding, and these sofas. The entire place is colour-coordinated. It’s all white and…what would you even call that? Taupe?’
    ‘I know, terrifyingly tasteful, isn’t it? My mother’s in her element here. She likes to think of herself as dreadfully modern, so she considers it a welcome escape from all the mahogany furniture and gilt mirrors at home, the old family stuff that my father would never dream of parting with.’
    ‘It’s impeccably, immaculately tasteful,’ Eva agreed, thinking of the peeling lino at home and feeling faint with embarrassment at what Benedict must have made of her determinedly