‘That was wonderful. You’re a natural.’
Thea smiled at Andy’s kind words.
‘I fluffed loads of it. I’m sure I was going to say more than I did.’
Shaun slipped an arm around her shoulders. ‘You were great. And there’s no need to worry about what you’re going to say. You’re clearly knowledgeable and the anecdotes about doing up the house were fun. If people have any questions they’ll ask you.’
Ajay agreed. ‘You’re obviously passionate about the place.’
‘You’re very kind. I know this was never my home, but I’ve spent nearly every waking hour here for weeks. I’m going to miss this place.’ Thea ran a hand along the banister with affection. ‘I hope the new owner loves it as much as I do.’
‘I’m sure he will.’ Andy stared up at the moulded ceiling.
‘He?’ Thea pounced on the pronoun, her eyes landing on Shaun. ‘Do you all know who has bought Mill Grange?’
Andy backtracked fast. ‘I meant… well, I suppose I just said “he” automatically. Sorry. It could just as easily be a woman.’
‘Umm.’ Thea was not convinced. The idea that Shaun might have purchased it after all was fast re-forming in her mind. After all, now she thought about it, her attempts to ask him about the possibility had never been answered properly.
Ajay turned to Shaun. ‘We’d better get on if we’re going to finish up before we go.’
Gesturing towards the back doors, Shaun said, ‘If you guys get set up, I’ll be there to show you where to survey in a minute.’
Biting her tongue until their guests had disappeared outside, Thea dipped her head to one side. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to set Gertrude on you?’
Taking her hand, he winked. ‘Follow me.’
‘I repeat, what are you up to, Shaun Cowlson?’
‘Isn’t it obvious? I’m taking a beautiful historian for a walk around the grounds that she has been so much a part of restoring.’
Thea poked him playfully in the side. ‘That is not what I meant and you know it.’
‘Patience, woman.’ Shaun cradled Thea’s small palm as he walked her around the back of the house where the perambulation path Sam and the students had cleared. ‘Just imagine you are the lady of the house, being taken for a stroll by your suitor before lunch.’
‘That makes me sound like I should be a dog on a lead.’
‘I believe there are people who like that, but I was thinking more of a walk and a sneaky snog in the shrubbery.’
‘That can be arranged.’ Thea was about to kiss Shaun’s cheek as a deposit to what was to come, when she suddenly said, ‘Hang on, where is everyone?’
‘By everyone, I assume you mean Mabel and crew? I saw Sam heading into the woods earlier and I spotted Tina looking at the chickens out of an upstairs window.’
‘Did she look happy?’
‘I saw the top of her head. Hard to tell.’
‘Sorry, silly question.’ Thea moved closer to Shaun’s side. She began to relax, enjoying their rare moment of privacy during daylight hours. ‘And the others?’
‘Day off.’
Thea stopped dead. ‘What?’
Shaun, who had been expecting an avalanche of panic, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and pointed up at the manor. ‘I know you’re about to tell me that Open Day is in two days’ time and there is a heap of stuff to do.’
‘Well, it is and there is!’
‘Yes, but most of it can’t be done until tomorrow as it’s last-minute stuff. The marquee man isn’t coming until five o’clock this afternoon, and he brings his own team to put them up. Sybil is baking at her place and the manor is so clean you could eat off the floor. I think everyone deserves the day off before tomorrow, don’t you?’
‘Of course they do, but…’
‘I know I’ve been high-handed and all that, telling the volunteers to take the day off without consulting you, but I have good reason, I promise.’
‘Which is?’
‘Look up there.’ From their position at the back of the garden, Shaun gestured up the slope to where Mill Grange sat. The sun bounced off the grey slate tiles, making the specks of granite in the stonework twinkle in the morning light. The grass was mown, the flower beds blooming and the benches placed around the grounds were clean, varnished and lined in smart regimented rows. Any Victorian that happened to be passing would have most certainly approved. ‘You did that.’
‘I didn’t. I mostly sat in my office while other people did that.’
‘Don’t split hairs. You got it to work. You took all the volunteers and moved them on from doing a bit of painting here and a bit of weeding there, to the restoration of a manor house, inside and out, on a stupid budget in a tiny amount of time.’
‘It isn’t finished.’
‘It would have been if the Trust hadn’t kept moving the goalposts.’
‘I suppose so.’ Thea allowed herself to admire the view. There was no denying it looked fantastic. ‘I don’t suppose you know someone who will guarantee sunshine on Saturday?’
‘I don’t, but Mabel is bound to.’
Thea couldn’t help but laugh. ‘That’s true.’
‘It’s time to stop beating yourself up about what you haven’t done, and think about what you have achieved.’
‘I tell you what.’ Thea swivelled round to face him. ‘I will stop giving myself a hard time, if you will tell me the truth. What are you up to, Mr Cowlson? And this time, don’t sidestep the answer with guff about the volunteers earning a day off.’
‘But they did.’
‘I know they did. Now, tell me, or I’ll—’
‘You’ll what?’ Shaun picked her up, so her feet hung a foot off the ground and he could give her a kiss.
‘I have no idea, but I’ll think of something.’
Delaying his response with a kiss that felt as if it could stop time, Shaun reluctantly pulled away and lowered Thea to the floor. ‘I have something to show you. Then we’ll go and see how the AA are getting on.’
‘They weren’t just passing then?’
Shaun chuckled. ‘No one “just passes” here.’
*
Sam stroked Tina’s hair out of its right plait. The action of unknotting and teasing out the kinks in the blonde tresses was blissfully relaxing.
Tina’s head was on his shoulder, her eyes were closed. As they sat in comfortable silence, she thought her heart would break for the man next to her. He’d saved lives, lots of them, and yet he was crippled with the knowledge that he hadn’t saved three of his friends. Tina was used to solving problems; it formed the largest part of her job after finance balancing. This however, was one problem she couldn’t solve.
‘It’s okay.’ As if reading her mind, Sam said, ‘I’m not expecting you to find a solution to this. There isn’t a solution, there’s just finding a way to live.’
Staying where she was, not wanting the spell to break, Tina whispered, ‘I’d like to help you though. Find a way I mean.’
‘I’d like that. I have to tell you though, I have nightmares. There’s a long way to go before I reach where I want to be.’
Tina shifted her legs, so they hooked themselves around his, bringing them as close as they could get on the walled garden floor. ‘Where do you want to be?’
‘In a house, with the woman I love and a family.’ Sam swallowed. ‘Does that sound corny?’
‘No. It sounds perfect.’
‘And to be working in a worthwhile way. Doing something good for other people.’
‘Like this?’ Tina nodded towards the chicken coop they’d built together.
‘Or something similar. I’ll need to earn some money again soon. My forces pension can only stretch so far.’
‘I’m working. We’d be okay until you’re ready, especially if we are only paying camping fees, not rent. The ultimate savings plan.’
Sam stopped stroking her hair and turned to look at Tina properly, his eyes searching her face for any sign that she could be joking. ‘You would live in a tent with me?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you have possessions and you need to be smart for work and…’
‘And there are a million problems, but you forget, I’m a problem solver. I’ll think of something.’ She kissed him slowly. And don’t forget, I have a room in a rented house, so I can leave my stuff there until the lease ends in three months, and we’ll have worked something else out by then.’
Sam was in shock. ‘You really want to?’
Tina started to laugh. ‘You can’t be that surprised surely?’
‘I’m hardly a rich older dude with a BMW.’
‘You’re better than that. You’re real.’
*
Thea hesitated as she peered through the gap in the wooden gate into the walled gardens. ‘I’m not sure we should disturb them.’
Shaun smiled as he followed Thea’s line of sight. ‘At last! I was beginning to think Sam wouldn’t tell her how he felt.’
‘I could say the same about Tina. Sam is so far from her usual type. Thank goodness.’
‘Sam did ask me to find him before we went back to the AA though.’
‘Oh, so Sam knows what’s going on, does he?’ Thea’s eyebrows rose. ‘Well! So much for me being in charge.’
Shaun stuck his tongue out at her as he pushed open the door as noisily as he could so that the human occupants of the garden were warned of their approaching presence.
*
Deliberately keeping a few paces behind the men as they left the walled garden and headed towards the part of the garden where the woods merge into the grass, Thea whispered, ‘Are you two properly together now?’
‘Yes.’ Tina couldn’t stop the beam that spread across her face. ‘It’s not going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it.’
‘Did he tell you why he can’t go inside?’
‘He did.’
‘Good.’ Not wanting to put Tina in a position where she might have to break a confidence, she didn’t ask more questions, but covertly pointed towards the men in front of them. ‘Have you any idea what they are up to, beyond the fact that they’ve organised for a geophysics scan of the grounds?’
‘Well, there’s only one reason they’d want one of those, isn’t there?’
Thea agreed, ‘Because they think there’s something to find under the ground archaeology wise and…’
Both women came to the same conclusion at the same time.
‘The Trust!’ Thea spoke before Tina, who was nodding manically. ‘That’s why they sold! If there’s even a sniff of an expensive excavation to pay for, it would eat up all their funds.’
‘Especially after that financial cock-up ate into the funds all that time back. I wondered why Mill Grange was the house that the Trust chose to sell when there are other houses less accessible for public visits that they could sell. This is finally starting to make sense.’ Tina scooped her loose hair up into a loose bun, in a manner that showed she meant business. ‘But they’d need a reason to scan. Geophysics is expensive; you can’t just do it on a whim, even if you’re friends with a TV archaeologist.’
‘Which means Shaun found something on one of his walks.’
The girls ran towards the van.
*
The pot shard was small. Even with Thea’s practised eye, she was sure she’d have missed it in the undergrowth. Shaun however, with his more recent experience – and, as it turned out, his suspicion there was something here to find in the first place – hadn’t missed it.
‘And you’ve just found one?’ Thea held it in the middle of her open palm and traced the shape with a fingertip.
‘So far.’ He watched as Tina and Sam stared at what looked like a square-ish stone. ‘It was here. Exactly here.’
Thea crouched to where Shaun had stuck a tent peg he’d borrowed from Sam, at the very edge of the hinterland between the sloping lawn and the path between the woods and garden. ‘How much can Andy and Ajay do before someone at Landscape Treasures starts asking questions about budgets?’
‘Only four square metres.’
Thea traced a rough shape in the air with a finger. ‘Then, if you agree, I think they should use this as the right edge and run north and east.’
Shaun pulled out his phone and showed Thea a text he’d sent Ajay a few days earlier. It said “North and East from find. As much as budget will allow.”
‘You know what it is, don’t you?’ Shaun asked.
‘Oh yes.’ Thea stroked it reverently. ‘And so do you.’
‘Well, we don’t.’ Tina and Sam had linked hands as they stared at the recently washed shard.
‘It’s Roman. Part of a mortarium to be precise.’