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‘We’re a bit early, I hope you don’t mind.’
Cam raised his head to welcome Hope, the words he’d been about to say dying on his lips. Her voice had sounded bright and cheery, but there was no mistaking her pale skin nor the dark shadows marring the delicate beauty of her eyes. Is everything okay? He swallowed back the question and pushed himself to his feet, the dogs still milling around his ankles looking for attention. ‘I was just going to make a coffee, so you’re right on time.’
Hope’s smile was a pretty good effort, but it didn’t quite mask the strain etched on her features. ‘It’s a shame you’re not a medical doctor as I could do with a drip so you can feed it straight into my veins. I didn’t have a great night’s sleep.’
So, there was something. Still, he knew the last thing any woman wanted was to be told she looked a bit rough around the edges. ‘I can’t manage a drip, but there’s a drawer full of coffee pods so I can keep brewing as much coffee as you need.’
‘That’ll do nicely.’ Hope clicked her fingers at her dogs. ‘Come away, you two and leave poor Cam alone for five minutes.’
The dogs roundly ignored her and Cam couldn’t help but grin. ‘Those training classes…’
Hope held up a hand. ‘I know, I know! There just aren’t enough hours in the day at the moment.’ Stepping forward, she took both labs by their collars and pulled them back. ‘Leave him alone, I said.’ Sooty whined, while Sweep managed one of those absurdly innocent looks only dogs who knew they were in trouble were capable of.
‘Honestly, they’re fine. I’ll get a couple of bowls of water for them and I’m sure they’ll settle once they get over the excitement of being around someone new.’ He hesitated halfway to the kitchen, thinking about the pristine new furniture. ‘Should I fetch a towel or a blanket to cover the sofa?’
She laughed, and it lifted the tired lines from around her face, the sound filling the room with sunshine. ‘They’re naughty, but not that naughty. If you can get that water, I’ve got some treats in my bag that will keep them quiet for a bit.’
Cam returned with the bowls to find both Labradors sitting at Hope’s feet, their attention rapt on the two rubber Kong toys she was holding. He didn’t think he’d seen the puppies that still before, although Sweep’s – at least he thought the one with the streak of white across his eyebrow was Sweep – tail was hammering a tattoo of excitement on the tiled floor.
‘Good boys,’ Hope said with the kind of affection that made Cam consider sitting at her feet as well, before she set the two toys on the floor beside the open window. The dogs flopped on their bellies, one paw curled around each of the toys as they worked to try to retrieve whatever treats she’d stuffed inside it. ‘There, that’ll keep them busy.’ Hope dusted off her hands and rose to her full height beside him. ‘Now, didn’t you promise me a coffee?’
They were on their second cup and halfway through a packet of custard creams Cam had found in the cupboard when they finally settled at the dining table in front of his laptop. A stack of documents he’d retrieved from his bag sat to one side, but they were both focused on his screen.
‘This is the timetable I’ve mapped out. The first few days will be tied up with getting everyone settled in and familiar with the site and the rules. Then we’ll move on to a full walking survey by one team while the other focuses on carrying out a geophysical one. Barnie’s going to lead the walking team and it’ll be a good chance for some of the newer students to learn how to read the land, look for signs of previous developments, scour around for any surface finds.’
‘Do you pick much up from the surface?’ Hope asked him, the tiredness chased away by her obvious interest in the topic.
‘You’d be surprised. If the land was ploughed, then we’d be bound to find all sorts of things – flints, maybe even the odd shard of pottery or a bead.’
‘We’ve got some agricultural land but that’s outside the main boundary of the estate.’ Hope gave him a half-smile. ‘The family owns several of the farms in the surrounding area.’ She looked a bit embarrassed, like she should apologise for her family’s good fortune.
‘That’s too far. Does your cousin ever use the area we’re interested in for grazing? That disturbs the ground enough to unearth things now and again.’
Hope paused to consider the question. ‘Not recently, but I can check with him if you like because he may well have done in the past?’
Cam shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter to the survey, I was just pointing out reasons why there might be things to find on the surface. That badge you found wasn’t too deeply buried in the soil if the digger turned it up in the first couple of shovels.’
‘Speaking of which, I had a chat with Declan, who was the site manager for my house project. He’s happy to come along with a small team to handle whatever groundworks you might need. He’s also had a chat with his boss and can make himself available as the site manager for the duration of the dig if that would be useful for you. He’s got all his health and safety qualifications and he’d be happy to work with you on risk assessments, supervision of works, under your lead, of course.’
It was the kind of help which could prove invaluable and would certainly free up Cam to be able to focus more on the archaeology. ‘It’s not something I’d budgeted for.’ He had a line in for the groundworks, but not a fully qualified site manager.
‘If you want him, then cost isn’t a problem. I want this to run as smoothly as possible and while you and your team are on our land, then you are my responsibility. I’d feel better if there was someone around whose sole focus was on the safety and security of the site and everyone working on it.’
Cam’s shoulders relaxed. ‘Then I’d be delighted to have him. Honestly, it’d be a huge weight off me, thank you.’
He watched as Hope made a note in the planner she’d brought with her and marvelled at the neat rows of script, the divided sections of a to-do list, appointment reminders, even a little shopping list. He smiled to himself as he spotted the words ‘dog trainer’ and a number that had been underlined three times and he wondered how many pages she’d carried that over from. It surprised him she was so low-tech about things when his entire life was managed through the phone resting on the desk beside him. It linked to his office calendar, which the formidable Mrs Cotteridge maintained for them all. No one was allowed to add anything without funnelling it through her, which Cam had found annoying at first until he’d circumvented her system and double-booked himself for two equally important meetings and had to go begging to her for help on how to fix it. When Hope reached for her phone and repeated the note, he couldn’t help himself. ‘Isn’t that a bit of a waste of effort?’
Hope set her phone aside. ‘Only if you’ve never lived in the middle of nowhere and a storm took out the local mobile phone network the day after a contractor managed to dig up the village’s main internet cable while trying to repair a broken water main. We had to rely on the landline and our memories because we’d automated everything.’ She closed her planner and patted the pretty floral cover. ‘Plus I get to indulge in my love of gorgeous stationery. Right, how about you show me what you’ve found in your desk survey?’
They spent the next half an hour going through the timeline of the estate that he and Barnie had been piecing together, opening up copies of records he’d found online to support their findings. ‘Barnie’s the genealogy expert and he’s found the establishment of your family title dating back to the reign of Henry VIII. As he said last night, hopefully he’ll be able to fill in the gaps once he’s had a chance to go through your family archives.’
Hope pulled a face. ‘About last night. I owe you an apology for the way my family behaved. I don’t know what got into them, to be honest, because they’re normally so good at keeping up appearances.’
He didn’t miss the hint of sarcasm in her tone and he recalled again how she’d muttered about secrets. There was definitely something going on beneath the surface with her and her family and he reminded himself to tread carefully. Knowing she was waiting for a response, he opted for the truth. ‘I did feel a bit awkward, but more for your sake than mine. I know I can speak for Barnie when I promise you can trust us to be discreet.’
‘Thank you.’
‘The same applies to whatever we uncover through the archives and from the dig itself. We’re working for you on this project, and though I might be interested in publishing something should we uncover anything of significance, you would have final sign-off on any reports or papers produced.’
