Autumn Leaves at Mill Grange by Jenny Kane (best free e reader .TXT) 📕

finally doing what it was told. ‘It’s a beautiful morning. I’m sure the house could spare you for a while if you want to go to.’

Deciding not to mention that she hadn’t gone because she was afraid of not fitting in, Tina chopped off the carrot tops. ‘This walk will be something Sam offers as part of the retreat. So it’s best he leads them alone now; make it a proper trial run.’

Mabel seemed satisfied with Tina’s answer as she poured some more boiling water into the stock.

Wondering how she’d cope if she ever had to entertain their guests alone, Tina was relieved to hear the distracting crunch of tyres over gravel.

‘Are we expecting anyone else?’ Mabel eyed her soup ingredients, weighing up if they’d stretch to an additional mouth to feed.

‘Not to my knowledge. I’ll go and investigate.’

*

The woman by the battered blue Land Rover had a mass of curly copper-coloured hair, tatty dungarees and a pair of hiking boots that had obviously seen many miles’ service. Even without asking, Tina knew she was looking at an archaeologist.

‘Can I help you?’

Swinging round, her smile creasing a myriad of freckles in the process, the woman held out a hand. ‘Forgive my unexpected arrival. I’d say I was just passing, but that would be a lie.’ Seeing the confusion on Tina’s face, she quickly added, ‘Sorry, my enthusiasm gets the better of me sometimes. My name is Helen Rodgers; I used to work with Thea at the Roman Baths.’

‘Of course!’ Waving a hand towards the back door, she said, ‘I’m Thea’s friend, Tina. Would you like to look around?’

‘I would love to.’ Helen followed on Tina’s heels. ‘Is Thea about, or is she digging?’

‘She’s in her office. Come on, we’ll go there first.’

*

Thea stared at the email. It didn’t matter how many times she read it, the wording didn’t change.

Treasure Hunters had upped their offer to film the Mill Grange dig by a thousand pounds.

‘But why?’ Thea chewed the end of her pencil as she tried to think logically. So far, she hadn’t announced their find beyond asking a few fellow Roman historians and archaeologists for their opinions on how to proceed. The only person she’d shown the geophysics plans to was Helen, and she’d expressly asked her not to share them. ‘Treasure Hunters don’t even know if it’ll be a good site yet. Neither do we, come to that, and…’

The sound of chatter and footsteps drumming along the tiled corridor outside the old scullery made Thea switch her attention to the door. She was sure she recognised the voice.

‘Helen! It is you.’ As she was embraced by her former boss, Thea asked, ‘What are you doing here?’

She shrugged. ‘Curiosity. No other excuse than that.’

‘Sounds like a good reason to me. You should have let us know, we’d have got a bed ready.’ She looked at Tina. ‘Sam wouldn’t mind someone else staying, would he?’

‘Not at all, especially if that someone was an expert on Roman stuff.’ She had a thought. ‘I’ll go and tell Mabel we have an extra guest for lunch and grab some hot drinks. What would you like, Helen?’

‘Black coffee would be most welcome. But please don’t worry about a bed; I’ve booked into the local pub.’

As soon as Tina had gone, Thea pulled out the survey results and all the notes she’d made so far for the fortlet, from estimated measurements to her dig plan and plonked them out on the table. ‘You want to see the house first or the site?’

‘Both.’

Thea laughed. ‘Forgive me for saying so, but you’re coming across as a lot more relaxed than the last time I saw you.’

‘That was at work, where I’m all head-curatorish.’ Helen glanced at her dungarees. ‘Outside of work I’m far more, umm, me.’

‘Good!’ Thea gestured to the documents spread across the desk, glad to be distracted from the Treasure Hunters email. ‘I think I’m on the right track here, but I’d appreciate your wisdom.’

‘Wisdom?’ Helen laughed. ‘That could be asking a bit much, but I’ll give it a go.’

*

Cradling their mugs of coffee, the three women stood at the far edge of the fortlet. Tina watched Thea and Helen as they talked about walls she couldn’t see and ditches that were invisible to the eye. ‘Sometimes I swear Thea has x-ray vision.’ Tina smiled as her friend pointed to the corner of a wall that wasn’t there.

Helen nodded. ‘It’s why I employed her. She sees what was once there before the rest of us get anywhere near. Nine times out of ten her hunches as to how buildings or settlements were laid out are correct.’

‘Only nine times out of ten?’ Thea stuck her tongue out at her former employer. ‘I must admit, before we stumbled across this site, I’d forgotten how much I loved the discovery side of the job.’

‘I’d have sent you out to view potential sites more often, but you were so good at your in-house job at the museum, that somehow it never happened.’

‘Well now I get to do both, which I love.’ Thea stopped talking, unsure if she should go on without Sam being there.

‘You left a “but” hanging in the air there.’ Tina frowned. ‘Has something happened? Has Shaun said he can’t make the dig date after all?’

‘Dig date?’ Helen looked from Tina to Thea. ‘Shaun, as in Landscape Treasures?’

Thea was surprised. ‘You know about Shaun’s connection here?’

‘Of course I do. You advertised him opening the place, remember? The Mill Grange Open Day back in July.’

Thea shook her head. ‘I’m such an idiot!’

‘You’ve lost me.’ Helen sipped her coffee. ‘Why an idiot?’

‘Treasure Hunters. That’s how they knew and why they’re so keen!’

Tina lowered her cup mid mouthful. ‘They’ve been in touch again?’

‘Early this morning. They’ve upped their offer. It’s still a bit vague; in excess of six thousand pounds now, rather than five, but I couldn’t see why. I mean, we don’t even know for sure that this is a significant site and—’

‘We do and it is.’