Thea stared up at the ceiling. Now she was in bed, alone, she wasn’t sure why she’d needed to be in her attic room so badly.
After an hour of tossing and turning, she pulled a jumper on over her pyjamas and got out of bed. Padding along the corridor and down the stairs, she hoped Shaun was still awake. She needed to talk to him about what she suspected they’d found in the garden.
Knocking lightly, hoping he wouldn’t mind her contrary arrival, Thea poked her head around the door.
Shaun wasn’t in bed, but was seated at the little desk, the printed-out plans from Ajay spread in front of him.
‘What do you want?’
Shaken by his less than friendly greeting, Thea backed away. ‘I’m sorry, I… I couldn’t sleep. Suddenly I wondered why the hell I’d needed to be in that room on my own so badly and… I’m sorry.’
Shaun’s expression remained unreadable. ‘We walked home together and you zipped off to your room so fast I thought you were desperate for the loo or wanted to get a warmer jumper or something. You never said a word about wanting to be on your own, even though you had the chance. Then I found that bloody note.’
‘I didn’t mean to offend you, I just thought—’
‘No, you didn’t. You didn’t think at all, Thea. Did it cross your mind that this is our last night here? In this place, where we got together for the first time?’
‘I—’
‘No, it didn’t. You just wanted to go back to a time before us. A time when you could stay safe in the knowledge of being all sorry for yourself over John, and worried about Mill Grange and nothing else. Have you any idea how that made me feel?’
Forcing herself to stand her ground, and not be the Thea of old, who would have either apologised or run away or both, she said, ‘Actually I do. I made a mistake with that note and with not talking to you about it first. I was about to apologise to you, and I still will if you’ll let me.’
‘Go on.’
She could see Shaun was mellowing already, and it suddenly dawned on her that this was a man as insecure as she was when it came to relationships.
‘When I was in the attic packing away all my stuff earlier today, it felt right to end my journey at Mill Grange where it began. It wasn’t a case of ignoring all that’s happened, but of coming full circle in an attempt to let go. But once I was in bed, I couldn’t settle. Not just because of everything that happened today, but because I realised I didn’t want to work it out or think about it on my own. I wanted to share it with you. Is that okay, or should I go back upstairs?’
Shaun got up from his desk. ‘I was trying to learn my speech for the opening ceremony.’
‘Right.’ Thea wasn’t sure what else to say.
They stood, three metres apart, neither moving, but neither wanting to leave or order the other to go.
Eventually, Thea said. ‘I think we found a Roman fortlet today. Maybe even a fort.’
The light that she’d seen shine in Shaun’s eyes earlier came back. ‘That’s what I thought. Fortlet, rather than full-blown fort.’
‘If it is, then it’s situated in the perfect place to keep control of where the two rivers join and the terrain surrounding it. Take away the trees that are here now, then from the vantage point of the hill, you could see for miles.’
Their discomfort and hurt pride was forgotten in the face of the possibilities offered by the past. Thea sat at the desk, pulling Shaun’s printed geophysics plans towards her. ‘So the Romans established a legionary fortress at Exeter around AD 55. That base had a support network of smaller forts manned by a garrison of around 10,000 men spread across the surrounding geography.’
‘We’re a long way from Exeter here.’
‘We are yes, but Exmoor did have some outlying posts. To date we know that there are the remains of two fortlets at Old Burrow and Martinhoe. The second of those overtook the first after it fell out of use. Neither was very big; each held about sixty men.’
Shaun pulled a map out of his rucksack and opened it out, finding where Old Burrow was marked with his thumb. ‘Weren’t Old Burrow, and then Martinhoe built to keep the Bristol Channel under surveillance between about AD 55 and 75? Presumably they’d have been used to keep up communication with the Roman fleet which waited in the Silures of unconquered South Wales at the time.’
‘That would make sense.’ Thea added her own thumb to the map. ‘And then there’s a larger fort here, at Rainsbury.’ She tapped an area of Exmoor only a few miles away. ‘That’s why I’m sure this is a fortlet, not a fort. We’re too close to Rainsbury. There’s no need for anything other than a holding fort or territory marker here.’
‘Like a tomcat peeing on his land.’ Picking Thea up and tucking her onto his lap so they could study the map together, Shaun confessed, ‘I’m not going to be able to let this go. New owner or not, this is important.’
‘I know. Exmoor is one of the few places with Roman occupation this far south west. They usually stuck to earthworks and used little in the way of brick and wood like they did with the more permanent structures; they are so hard to find.’
‘But there were definitely bricks or stonework coming through in the geofizz.’
‘Exactly.’ Thea beamed up at Shaun, her excitement for their potential find helping kill off her stupidity in hurting his feelings by staying away from him on their final night at the manor. ‘Loads of such places could be hidden under buildings like Mill Grange. After all, the location is sought after for obvious reasons. The pleasure of the view for a start. Why would we imagine that just one generation wanted to use it for strategic or visual advantages?’
Shaun, who’d managed to concentrate on the map alone until he’d pulled Thea onto his lap, gave a ragged grunt of agreement, before abandoning his struggle with desire and allowing his eyes to fall on Thea’s cleavage. ‘At the risk of being told off, I think I prefer my current view.’
‘Over the discovery of the archaeological find of the year?’ Thea lifted his chin so that his eyes met hers.
‘Oh yes.’ Shaun’s voice became husky. ‘I think it only fair to tell you that, if you don’t intend to stay the night you should leave now. I won’t follow you, and I’ll understand you’re leaving as we have a big day tomorrow and the next day. We’ll need our sleep so…’
Thea silenced him with a kiss. ‘Who needs sleep?’