‘With your help, we’ll keep this discovery quiet for as long as possible. But in my experience news inevitably leaks out sooner or later, and you’d be surprised at the nighthawks who will turn up looking for a piece of treasure to keep for themselves.’
Outside the tent it had grown chilly and the sky was overcast. Another van had arrived, this one marked ‘Lockyer Security’. A very large shaven-headed man sat in the driver’s seat, frowning over a print-out.
Amos stood in front of Chris. ‘Can you give me any idea of how long?’ he asked yet again.
‘How much time my team will be granted to complete the excavation is the decision of the county archaeologist, and that depends on how important he judges the findings to be, in terms of local and national history.’
Amos’s lower jaw was protruding now, a dangerous sign. ‘And so?’
The archaeologist sighed. ‘If I have to put a frame on it I’d say something more than a few days, but not as long as several months. We’ll do the job as quickly as we can.’
‘Thank you,’ Amos said, as if he were dismissing the most unreliable of witnesses.
Chris turned to Katherine, who stood a yard behind her husband. ‘I’m sorry,’ he told her.
Katherine’s smile was transforming. Miranda saw it, and so did Polly, although Amos wasn’t looking at her. ‘Please don’t be,’ she said. ‘There’s no need.’
As he passed Kieran, Colin asked him, ‘Did I meet your brother, at the Griffin in Meddlett, with a girl called Jessie and a dog?’
‘Yeah, that’ll be him. Damon.’
‘I thought so. You’re very alike.’
‘Not really,’ Kieran frowned.
The security guard lumbered out of the shelter of his van, and Amos made his comment about monkeys and the zoo.
They sat in the kitchen, over the remains of dinner. Selwyn had taken the blue chair next to the range and he balanced it on two legs and drank whisky as he surveyed the room. They had been talking all evening about the day’s discovery. Amos insisted that he was no expert on the exact terms of the Treasure law, whilst leaving no doubt at all that he knew far more than the rest of them. He explained that if they fell within the definition of treasure, the finds would belong to the Crown. If they turned out to be spectacular, or historically significant, they would probably be bought by a museum. There might be a reward for the landowner.
‘The best reward I can think of would be to get my house built,’ he growled.
The others sighed. They had heard this enough times already. Miranda cupped her chin in her hands and looked at Amos.
‘Jake would have loved the Warrior Prince of Mead.’
‘The Warrior Prince?’ Selwyn tried out the sound of it, dangerously tipping his chair and steadying himself with one hand burrowed amongst the tea towels and laundry hanging from the bar at the front of the range. ‘This could make us as famous as Sutton Hoo. English Heritage will come and put up a tearoom. There will be boxed fudge, and a coach park.’
‘No, there will not,’ Miranda said sharply.
‘Amos might decide otherwise. He owns the land, I believe.’ Whisky made Selwyn malicious.
‘Shut up, Sel,’ Polly advised.
Amos got up from his chair and crossed to Miranda’s side of the table. He hovered behind her chair, not quite able to do what he wanted, which was to hug her.
‘Mirry, let’s promise each other this minute in front of witnesses that whatever happens, this land business and prince business and the skulls and archaeology drama will not compromise our friendship. I solemnly promise there will be no tearoom, and certainly no fudge. Can you forgive me for happening to own the little acreage under which the bones have turned up?’
Miranda had never been immune to the force of his deliberate charm.
She answered solemnly, ‘I promise, too. And there’s nothing to forgive. The prince belongs to Mead itself, regardless of whose bit of turf he’s lying beneath. That’s what Jake would say.’
‘I wish he were here, too,’ Amos said. He sketched a sort of kiss in her direction and went back to his seat. Smiling dangerously over the rim of his glass, Selwyn studied him.
Polly’s mobile rang. She took it out and inspected the display.
‘Omie, hello darling. Are you all right?’
‘Doesn’t anyone else want another drink?’ Selwyn called out.
‘Yes, that’s Dad.’ Polly glanced up. ‘Sorry, all. No, Omie, that’s not what I meant. Of course I’m not apologizing to anyone for you ringing me. What’s the matter? Wait a minute.’ She got up and went out into the hall. They could hear her talking, and then she moved further away. Selwyn let his chair crash forward on to all four legs.
Katherine carried dishes to the sink, then leaned to look out into the yard. It was raining hard, and puddles glimmered in the porch light from their wing. Polly and Selwyn’s side was a darker slab of darkness.
‘Pretty bleak for the guard,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t like to be out there with only the dead for company, would you?’
‘They’re not going to come back,’ Colin said.
Miranda broke in, ‘No. Except, in a way they have, haven’t they? We’re thinking about them, peering down the centuries, dressing them in our minds in their necklaces and attaching stories to their lives and deaths. I can’t get that child’s skull and ribs out of my head.’
Amos took Katherine’s arm. ‘Come on, old girl. History’s all bones. We’re going to bed now.’
The Knights went out into the yard. Colin collected up his book and laptop, and said goodnight. Selwyn and Miranda were left alone.
‘Barb,’ Selwyn began softly, in the voice that he used only for her.
‘No.’
His mouth curled, making him look dangerous again. ‘Is that no generally, as a blanket edict, or in relation to something specific?’
Since the bathroom day, Miranda had avoided being alone with him. Now the possibility that Polly might step back into the room at any moment held her in a bubble of tension. Each of her senses was amplified. Miranda could imagine so vividly what it would be like if he left his chair, took her in his arms and put his mouth to the hollow formed by her collarbone, that it was as if he had actually done it. She swallowed, her mouth dry.
‘Just no,’ she whispered.
‘I want to touch you.’
‘I know.’
They listened to the rain.
‘What shall we do?’ he asked, as much of himself as to her.
‘We’ll live here at Mead, value our friendships,
