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‘Oh, thank God you didn’t know!’ The sobs she’d been holding finally broke free and then her cousin was there, holding her tight, stroking her back.
‘Of course I didn’t know,’ he muttered, still sounding furious. ‘As if I’d ever keep something like that from you.’
‘Hope, please try to understand.’ Through her sobs, she wasn’t sure which of her uncles had spoken.
‘Leave her alone,’ Rhys snapped. ‘Leave us both the hell alone.’
Hope cried until there was nothing left inside her. When she finally lifted her head, it was to find she and Rhys were alone. ‘Don’t be too angry at your dad,’ she said. ‘He was only doing what he thought was the best to protect Mum, just like you’ve always protected me.’
Rhys’s eyes were like chips of flint, but he nodded once in acknowledgement. ‘I don’t care what the biology is, you are my little sister and you always will be.’
She hugged him tight again, wanting to believe that but knowing that something had changed irreparably for both of them. ‘We have a big brother out there somewhere,’ she said against his chest. ‘What if he needs us too?’
They talked for a long time before agreeing things would only get worse if they acted without understanding everything. Now her tears were spent and the first wave of shock had passed, Hope felt steadier in herself. Part of her wanted to look Ben up immediately, to jump in the car and race off to London and hunt him down. But it wasn’t only him she’d have to contend with. As far as they knew, her father was still alive and Hope wasn’t at all sure that she was ready to deal with him.
After discussing it with Rhys, they settled on a plan. They would wait for now, try and do a bit more research and find out what they could. If Ben was happy and settled, he might not want them barging into his life and turning everything upside down. ‘He wrote that letter,’ Rhys reminded her as they walked back towards the farmhouse. ‘He made the choice to cut us off.’
But he hadn’t known about her. Hope didn’t give voice to the selfish thought. Ben had grown up knowing his mother had chosen to leave him behind. He might not know the truth of why Mum had left him, but that was the reality for him. If he needed to shut the door on her, and the rest of the family by extension, in order to live a healthy, happy life, then they had to respect his decision. It hurt more than Hope had ever thought anything was possible to hurt. Like she’d lost a limb she hadn’t known existed and now her brain was torturing her with the kind of phantom pain she’d read amputees sometimes suffered from.
Their parents and Ziggy were all sitting at the kitchen table when they walked in, a united front, just as she and Rhys were in their own way. ‘We’re not going to do anything about this for now, and we’re both still too angry to discuss it,’ Hope told them without preamble. ‘But when we’re ready, the six of us are going to sit down and talk about this, and you have to promise you will tell us everything. No more secrets, no more lies and obfuscation by omission.’
It was her mother who nodded. ‘If that’s what you want.’
Rhys snorted. ‘None of this is what we want, but we all have to deal with the consequences of your actions. Either Hope and I are equals with the four of you, or we’re not.’
‘You’re going to tell us everything we want to know,’ Hope reiterated. She cast a questioning glance to Rhys, to see whether he wanted to push their advantage to the maximum.
He returned her look with one of flat determination before he turned to face the four older people. ‘And that includes the truth about Uncle Dylan.’
22
Cam found it hard to concentrate as he waited to hear from Hope. Rather than commit to full trenches, he and Barnie had decided to dig half a dozen test pits to check the widest area of the site possible. They’d marked out the one metre-square zones with a can of spray paint and now it was just a case of waiting for Declan’s workers to break ground. Cam had divided the team so he, Barnie, Cassie, Ed, Adam and Zoë would each supervise a pit. A couple of junior team members had been allocated to each group, one to record any finds that came out of the pit and the other to help with the excavations once the topsoil had been cleared. He’d assigned Scott to his own team so he could keep an eye on him; with his father due to descend on them next weekend, Cam was growing increasingly concerned about how stressed the boy looked. Stressed and distracted. ‘Earth to Scott.’ Cam waved a hand.
Scott blushed and shook his head, the glazed look in his eyes fading. ‘Sorry, I was miles away.’
‘Look, if you’re not going to concentrate, then maybe you should go for a walk or something. We can handle this.’
‘No. I’m fine. This is important and I promise to pay better attention.’
Cam was pleased to see Scott stiffen his spine a little and he clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Look, I’m a bit distracted myself this morning, so let’s help each other keep our heads in the game, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Scott’s smile faded. ‘Is everything all right? Is there something that I can help with?’
Cam was struck once again just what a good kid he was. ‘It’s a personal thing but not anything to worry about, I appreciate you checking, though.’
‘You ready?’ It was the groundworker.
‘Whenever you are!’
There was a small cheer as the groundworker stuck the edge of the turf cutter into the soil and worked his way around the highlighted square. Cam was too nervous to join in – his gut told him they were on to something special, but he’d talked down everyone else’s excitement at the survey results. One way or another, the next couple of hours would reveal a great deal.
* * *
‘I don’t understand.’ It was Scott who spoke, but he was only echoing what they were all feeling as they stared down into the small hole.
Cam crouched and scraped the soil back until he could loosen a broken brick from the soil and pull it free from the jumble of other rubble and rubbish. He turned the brick this way and that. It was old, not one of the identical ones moulded and fired by the thousands that made up modern homes and buildings, but nowhere near old enough to fit in with the ruined remains of the chapel. ‘We still need to get everything out, photograph and record it,’ he said, though he couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his voice. ‘Come on, give me a hand.’
It was only the first test pit, Cam told himself as he tried to keep calm. There could be any number of explanations. Once he’d got Scott started, he decided to check on the others to see how they were getting on.
