Chapter Nine #2
“There could be multiple graves or just one. Or it could be nothing, just a bit of a hump in the ground. But it does look auspicious, I must say. What do you think, Deo?” she prompted him again, worried she was getting ahead of herself.
The viscount continued before Deo could.
“When we dug into it, there seemed to be something there. We hit stone with what looked like markings carved into it. That is why Robert wrote to Aberdeen. It seemed like something that should be investigated by people who knew what they were doing instead of us amateurs.”
“I think the first thing we need to do is uncover the cross fully and see what we can learn from that, then we will investigate the mound and any possible contents. Where is the cross?” said Deo.
“At the top of the mound, just under the shadow of that tree.” The viscount pointed to a huge gnarled oak tree looming over the higher ground.
The tree seemed to have taken root on the sloping base of the farthest side of the mound toward the east. Its trunk seemed to lean toward the mound, its lower branches brushing the sides of the mound, almost as if it were embracing it.
They walked up the slope and the viscount crouched down to scrabble through the leaf mulch that had accumulated until his fingers scraped against stone and part of the cross re-emerged from the covering of leaves. “There,” he said, rising and standing back to let Emily and Deo have a closer look.
Deo crouched and Emily knelt, while Deo brought out a trowel and a brush from his rucksack. He then scraped away the rest of the mulch and ran over the revealed surface of the cross with the brush to remove the finer fragments of dirt. It took several minutes of careful work to reveal it all.
Emily ran her fingers over the revealed inscription. “I think if we take a rubbing of this, we might be able to make out some of the missing letters. What do you think?” she asked.
Deo nodded. “It should certainly reveal more than we can see with the naked eye.” He withdrew some paper and charcoal from his rucksack, and Emily went to work on the rubbing.
“Before we can excavate the mound, we will need to move the cross,” said Deo, rising to his feet. “I expect it is exceedingly heavy. It will need a few of us to lift it.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, Deo,” said Emrys. “There are the two of us and Robert, and I believe Kenrick is due today. That should be enough. If Hereward were here, I daresay the two of you could do it between you—he’s a big as you are.”
“Surely the duke wouldn’t want to lift a dirty stone?” queried Emily.
“He wouldn’t miss this for anything,” predicted Emrys with a grin.
Emily went back to her rubbing and soon held it up. “I believe we have something. Deo, look at this.”
Deo got out his spectacles and jammed them on his slightly beaky nose.
“Hic iacet something GYN,” he read. “This next bit is hard to make out. Something starting with a C? And another word starting with a C? Filius WIG something?”
Emily peered over his arm and pointed to the C words. “These must be some kind of title or epithet, wouldn’t you think?”
He nodded. “Yes, I agree. What is a Latin title starting with C?”
“Comes,” they both said at once. Emily grinned and he smiled back. Comes was a Roman military title, which became equated later with the Frankish Count or the Saxons’ Eorl.
“We will check if it fits when we get back to the house and see if we can figure out what the other word is and the conjunction between them,” said Deo, rolling up the rubbing carefully and sliding it into a tube he had brought for the purpose.
Straightening, he turned his attention back to the cross.
“We will need some ropes to lift the stone and turn it. We will want to check the verso for any other inscriptions. I have some rope here, but I don’t think it will be enough.
I think we should come out this afternoon and raise the stone.
In the meantime, we should sketch it in situ and measure it.
And if we have time, we can begin on the identification of the damaged names back at the house. ”
The program laid out for the morning, the Ashfords left them to it, and Deo and Emily worked together until lunchtime when they headed back to the house with the rubbings, sketches, and measurements, leaving the rucksack on the mound for the afternoon’s work.
Emily was bubbling over with ideas about the cross.
It was so out of place. No crosses of this design had been found in England.
To her knowledge, all of the ones so far identified were found in Scotland or Ireland.
They were a symbol of British Christianity dating to the post-Roman period up to early medieval times.
Scholars were divided on their exact dating.
“I must ask Robert if he has a copy of John Nichols’s History and Antiquities of Leicestershire. I have one at home, but it’s in six volumes, so I didn’t bring it. I seem to recall he mentions some burial mounds or barrows around here somewhere,” said Deo.
“Oh, how splendid,” said Emily, skipping to keep up with his long strides. He was frowning at the rubbing he held in his hands.
Emily reflected that the morning had been one of unalloyed pleasure.
Working alongside him had been the best experience of her life, and his deference to her knowledge and expertise had her bursting with pride.
She couldn’t wait to start investigating the inscription. Would it be a name they recognized?
He had rolled the rubbing into a scroll and put it back in its tube. She caught his other hand and squeezed it for sheer joy. “Thank you,” she said, unable to keep her feelings in.
“For what?” he asked, startled. He looked down at her, his eyebrows cocked and his shocking red hair all mussed from rubbing it with his fingers. He had such a dear face, she decided, all those hard angles softened when he was relaxed and made him positively handsome.
“For treating me like a colleague,” she said shyly.
His face did soften then, and he said gruffly, “Of course. That was the whole point.”
She chewed her lip. “Everyone has been so kind and welcoming; I’ve never felt so comfortable.”
“I told you they would be.”
“Yes, you did. I like your friends, Deo.”
“And they like you.”
They continued onto the house and discovered that Lord Kenrick had indeed arrived with a friend.
Lord Kenrick was exceedingly tall, possibly taller than her husband, but not as broad or solid in the chest. He had a mobile face that was more cheeky than handsome.
But it was his companion that took all of Emily’s attention.
“Lord Bidenden,” she said through numb lips and thought that she was going to faint for the second time in her life.