AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I thought not,’ says Kate.
‘You were great,’ says Cathbad. ‘Passionate but also calm and articulate.’
‘Thank you,’ says Ruth. Perhaps it’s part of the sixth sense but often Cathbad says exactly what you want to hear. While Kate is collecting her belongings, Ruth tells Cathbad about the trip to Grime’s Graves.
‘Be careful,’ says Cathbad.
‘Of what? Falling down a shaft?’
‘That too, but I meant be careful of Leo. If he wants to see you, it’s because he wants something from you.’
‘Nelson suggested that I contact him.’
‘Well, Nelson wants something from you too.’
Ruth doesn’t encourage this train of thought. ‘What’s Leo like?’ she asks. ‘You must have known him quite well, twenty years ago.’
‘He’s charismatic,’ says Cathbad. ‘I told Nelson that he was like Erik but, where Erik was a teller of tales, Leo finds out what you want and then offers it to you.’
‘That sounds very sinister.’ Ruth wonders what Leo thinks she wants. To be accepted by Cambridge academia? To save her department? To discover the truth about Emily Pickering?
‘It can seem very benign,’ says Cathbad. ‘All those years ago, I was quite lost. I was living in a commune, missing Erik and the camaraderie of the henge protests.’ He grins, perhaps thinking of the fact that he and Ruth had been on opposite sides about the henge. Ruth, part of the excavation team, had been instrumental in removing the timbers.
‘Leo was kind to me,’ says Cathbad. ‘He knew I wanted a friend. He knew Mark wanted a father.’
‘What did Emily want?’
‘I was never sure,’ says Cathbad, rather sadly.
When Ruth and Kate get home, Zoe is in the front garden, tying hollyhocks to a stake. Flint and Derek, Zoe’s cat, watch from their separate doorsteps. Kate greets her aunt casually and goes into the house. Ruth sits on the step beside Flint, who allows her to stroke him.
‘I saw you on telly,’ says Zoe. ‘You didn’t tell me you were going to be on.’
‘I didn’t know,’ says Ruth. ‘I didn’t even have time to put on any make-up.’
‘You looked great,’ says Zoe. ‘And were so articulate.’
‘Really?’ says Ruth. ‘I didn’t say half the things I meant to.’
‘You were terrific,’ says Zoe. ‘I can’t believe they’re closing your department. You didn’t say anything about it on Sunday.’
Zoe sounds slightly hurt. Ruth says, ‘We were having such a nice day. I suppose I didn’t want to think about it.’ Which is mostly true.
‘How can they do that, though? Just close down an entire subject?’
‘It’s happening a lot,’ says Ruth. ‘This government seems biased against archaeology. They’ve scrapped the A level and now they’re closing university departments. Boris Johnson claims to be a classicist but he seems pretty anti-history, if you ask me.’
‘Maybe he doesn’t want his own skeletons dug up,’ says Zoe. ‘What will you do?’
‘We’ll fight it,’ says Ruth, ‘but I’m not feeling that confident.’
‘You could get a job anywhere,’ says Zoe. ‘Not that I want you to move. Not after I’ve taken all this trouble to track you down.’ She smiles but Ruth knows there is truth in her words. Zoe had originally rented the cottage because she knew it was next door to her half-sister, although Ruth had been unaware of the relationship at the time. It’s been a long journey, in every sense.
‘I don’t want to move,’ says Ruth. And, right then, in the golden evening, breathing in the scent of the garden and the sharper tang of the sea, she means it.
‘By the way,’ says Zoe. ‘Someone came looking for you today. A young woman.’
Ridiculously, Ruth thinks of Emily Pickering.
