Chapter Eleven
Six days later
After twelve days of work, from sunup to sunset, barring their one rained-out day, their rotating crew of men from the local
village had made excellent progress.
Dom stood at the edge of the wide trench they’d dug and swiped sweat from his brow. He couldn’t keep his eyes off Tess, who’d
crouched down at the lowest point amidst the grid they’d laid out. When she’d returned from her visit to Fenbridge this morning,
she’d been anxious, almost vibrating with eagerness to get started again.
Over the course of the previous day, they’d found some bits of metal, what Dom suspected was part of a sword, and Tess had
detected further changes in the soil. The object that had been sunk in the ground was sizable, based on the pattern of darker
soil. Every sign indicated they were getting closer to something of significance.
Unfortunately, they’d also found evidence that they weren’t the first to dig into the mound in an attempt to extract treasure.
They could see that the robbers’ trenches weren’t as deep as Dom, Tess, Tristan, and the crew they’d assembled were prepared
to dig.
Tess glanced up and Dom flicked his gaze away, loath to be caught staring at her legs and backside—again. Even after nearly two weeks of working with her side by side for much of the day, he found her presence, and her long legs in her very practical trousers, damnably distracting.
“Can you come down here?” she called.
He started off immediately, careful to tread on the boards of wood they’d laid out.
When he got closer, he could see the excited glint in her eyes and the little smile edging up the side of her mouth.
“There’s something here.”
He squatted down in front of the spot she indicated, noting the spot’s distance from the other objects they’d found. She’d
carved around her discovery and a hint of metal could be seen through the hard-packed dirt around it.
“I . . .” She swiped her brush from the set he’d given her across the edge gently, then lifted her eyes, as green as the fields
around them, up to him. “I think it’s gold, Dominic.”
His gut clenched. His mouth went dry. His heart began a wild thud in his chest.
It seemed too soon, and at too high a level in the soil, to be anything of significance, but one of the robbers’ trenches
might have shifted something. They could have churned up items as they dug and yet not discovered them.
“Don’t stop,” he urged, for her movements had grown slow, almost reverent. He still wasn’t convinced. He needed to see it
uncovered, cleaned off, and in the bright light of day.
She seemed to be holding her breath as she swept the brush over it again and a piece of crusted earth shifted, revealing a
deep, rich red circle that glowed in the sunlight. Like a cabochon. Garnet, he guessed. Possibly a ruby or even a spinel like
the one in the imperial crown.
“Breathe, Tess. You’ve found something for certain. Let’s see more of it.”
As more dirt fell away, it became clear that the object was only a broken piece. Perhaps it truly had been struck and damaged and then tossed to higher soil by a robber’s shovel decades or even centuries ago.
“Perhaps it’s nothing more than someone’s lost brooch,” she said, a hint of doubt creeping into her tone. “Medieval, do you
think?”
She held the broken piece in her hand and offered it up to him.
He pointed with his pinky finger at the edge, still obscured with crusted soil. “Can you clear this bit away?”
When she did, excitement welled inside him like a basin overflowing, and he beamed at her, only barely resisting the urge
to sweep her up into his arms.
“That’s not medieval. The knotwork, the setting of the gem. This is what we’re looking for.” He pointed at the edge, which
was entirely filled by engraved spirals and interweaving knots. “This style . . . There’s an Anglo-Saxon cross in a churchyard
in Cumbria with almost the exact same style.”
“The Bewcastle Cross. I’ve never been as far north as Cumbria, but my father had been. He made sketches of it.”
“I wish I could take you.” The words were out before Dom could think better of it. “You’d find it fascinating,” he added,
to temper the idea that he wanted to travel with her.
Never mind that he had such thoughts more and more as he lay in his bed at the inn and pondered the days spent with her. He
wasn’t certain where his next expedition would take him, but whenever he mused on it, Tess would be there with him. Tempting
him. Distracting him. Letting him taste her and pleasure her and lose himself inside her.
“Dominic? Where did you go?” she asked in a bemused tone.
He closed his eyes a moment to shake the erotic thoughts away and then opened his eyes to find her watching him with naked curiosity.
“Woolgathering.” He gestured toward the piece of gold in her hand. “Now that we know we’re on the right track, we will only
find more the farther we go, don’t you think?”
Rather than answer him, she got lost studying the object she’d found. She cradled it in the palm of her hand, no bigger than
a postage stamp, and used the brush to dust away a bit more soil.
“What do you think it could be?” She looked up at him, flashing a grin.
That simple blink of a smile made his mouth water. That one kiss they’d shared haunted his nights, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
He forced himself to focus on their find. Good grief, it was why he was here, and yet the thrill of what it portended didn’t
feel nearly as powerful as whatever was between him and Tess Hawthorne. Or could be, if she’d let herself have it.
“It’s hard to say.” The piece was small enough that it could have formed part of a decorative element on any number of objects.
“Perhaps a bracelet, or part of a buckle or breastplate. This is a burial trove, presumably, and there might be many decorated
elements.”
“I wish we could find the rest,” she said longingly. “I wonder how much of what’s below has been damaged by robber trenches.”
“There’s only one way to find out.” Dom suspected this find was a false lead in terms of its depth, but it was also an indicator
that they were digging into a hoard that would ensure his reputation and become the highlight of Van Arsdale’s museum.
That treasure-hunting intuition he’d had about this place, and that he and Eve got a hint of the previous autumn, was proving true.
“We keep digging,” Tess said as she looked down the length of the long trench they’d already carved out of Fenbridge’s land.
One of the village men seemed to catch her eye and stood to wave his arm and draw them both over.
“Found something,” he shouted.
“What is it, Bromley?” The man was one of their most determined workers, though Tess had stressed the importance of keeping
him and Tristan a healthy distance apart when they were at the dig site together.
“Found more than one,” another village man named Townsend put in.
Bill Bromley deposited an object encrusted in compacted soil that had the shape of a very large pin, almost like a nail. It
reminded Dom of spikes he’d seen used on the construction of a railroad line.
“Where?” Dom asked him.
Tristan approached with a clipboard and the drawings with measurements that he’d made and updated each day of the dig.
He eyed Bromley warily and then focused on Dom. “Here, here, and two others approximately equidistant on either side.”
“Equidistant,” Tess repeated.
Dom’s hand shook a bit as he reached for Tristan’s drawing, then mentally sketched out what he imagined they might have stumbled
upon. “We need to widen the trench,” he told them. “Tess, where did you find the soil changes?”
She stepped forward, running her finger along the same line where they’d found the spike-like objects.
“Rivets,” Dom breathed, then looked at each of them in turn. “I think . . . we may have found rivets. And if we did, there will be more to find.”
“What are you thinking?” Tess asked. But before he could answer, her gaze snapped wide. “A ship?”
“Maybe.”
“And being so close to the river, entirely possible,” Tess said. Dom could all but hear her mind churning. “Some prince or
king of East Anglia might merit such a burial. The Venerable Bede mentions a King Raedwald and his sons Eorpwald and Sigeberht.
Could we have found the resting place of one of those kings?”
“I don’t know. We keep digging and find out. And we breathe not a word of this to anyone until our hypothesis is confirmed.”
Dom shot a look at Tristan. “Let’s double security on the site overnight.”
“Should we find a dragon to sit atop it too?” Tristan quipped.
“Not quite the level of subtlety I had in mind,” Dom told him. “But there’s never been more reason to estimate the worth of
what we may yet find.”
“Won’t be easy to gather extra men tonight,” Bromley put in.
“Why’s that?” Dom would double their wages if needed. Van Arsdale had paid generously for this dig and wouldn’t wish to lose
any of it.
“The village fair,” Tess and Tristan replied in near unison.
“I’ll stay,” Townsend offered. “I can find another to do the same. The fair goes on for days. Won’t mind missing the first
night.”
“Good. Thank you.” Dom waited until Bromley and Townsend departed to turn to Tristan. “We could hire more men too, if you’re
able to gather them. The faster what’s below us is found, the faster—”
“We fill an American museum and you can go on to further fortune and glory,” Tristan quipped with his usual easy smile, though there was a bite to his words, highlighted by a knowing glance Tess’s way.
Dom found it hard to meet Tess’s gaze, but when he finally did, what he saw there cut through him like a blade.
“I’ll go and make my notes before heading to the fair,” Tristan said. “I’ll see you there, Tess?”
She nodded but said nothing as her twin departed.
“I’m sorry . . .” Dom started but hesitated to say more. He realized he had more than one thing to apologize for. They’d still
avoided any mention of the kiss, which suggested she regretted it. That ate at him, especially considering that a day didn’t