Chapter 14 #2
‘Not yet,’ Alex said, taking a seat at the table. ‘I’m not sure it’s really her, though, so…’
Corrine nodded and then went to get more plates and cups from the cupboard while Victor, his eyes suddenly keen, leaned across the table to Alex.
‘What did your expert say then?’
‘More or less what I told you on the phone,’ Alex replied.
‘Almost certainly Bronze Age. He only looked at them over Zoom, of course, so I think he was being cagey and wouldn’t be pinned down.
To be honest, I’d expected him to be more excited than he was.
He said there would be bits and pieces spread all over these hills, so he wasn’t surprised these had turned up. ’
‘He doesn’t want them?’ Victor asked, the disappointment evident in his tone.
‘I told him we were going to look for more, and he said if we found anything significant to let him know.’
‘Significant how?’ Zoe asked.
Alex shrugged. ‘He wasn’t very clear on that. I don’t know whether he meant a lot more items, or more important or rare items.’ He looked up at Victor. ‘You’re still game to go hunting?’
‘I am!’ Victor grinned. ‘If he wants more significant, we’ll give him significant! I’ve a mind to search my own land too. If there are things on yours, there’s bound to be some on mine as well.’
‘Imagine if you found a load of treasure,’ Zoe said. ‘What would you do? You could retire on the profit.’
At that suggestion, Victor looked mildly horrified, and Zoe had to laugh. ‘Retire? Why would I do that? Who’d look after this place?’
‘You could give it to Penny, like you’ve been saying for years,’ Corrine put in.
‘Penny doesn’t want it,’ Victor said. ‘Her and Leon would take it on if I asked, but they don’t really want it.’
‘You don’t know that for sure. They don’t say anything because they know you’ll be in your grave before you give it up, and even then you’d be bossing them around from the afterlife.’
Zoe and Alex shared a private grin. She’d had a horrible day, but an hour here in the kitchen of Daffodil farmhouse was making her feel better. She loved Victor and Corrine already, as Ottilie had promised she would.
‘Away with yer,’ Victor huffed. ‘I’ll give it up when I’m good and ready, but there’s plenty of work in me yet.’
‘If you don’t want the money,’ Alex said with a mischievous gleam in his eye, ‘I’ll take the treasure off your hands when we find it.’
‘Ah, I never said I didn’t want the money!’ Victor replied, matching his mischief. ‘I only said I wouldn’t use it to retire. Nobody’s going to see me complaining about a nice new car and some decent boots.’
‘A new car!’ Corrine scoffed. ‘You’d never get rid of Old Banger either! You love that thing more than me!’
‘You’re right, I wouldn’t. I’d have another one for posh drives out.’
‘It’d rot in the garage,’ Corrine fired back. ‘When do we go for posh drives out?’
‘What’s all this for?’ Victor reached for his cup, shaking his head. ‘We haven’t even found a scrap of treasure yet!’
‘But we might,’ Alex said.
‘It’ll be more arrows, I expect,’ Victor replied with the confidence of a man who was never less than pragmatic about his fortunes. ‘Not that I won’t enjoy the looking, mind.’
‘I’ll be digging again this weekend, I expect,’ Alex said. ‘I can’t get to it before then; I’ve got too much on.’
‘Suits me. I’ll walk over with my detector.’
‘I noticed that was out,’ Corrine said. ‘You didn’t waste any time, did you?’
‘Billie’s got a scan at the hospital tomorrow,’ Alex said to Zoe.
Zoe nodded. ‘You’ll be taking her?’
‘Yes. Is there anything I should know? Anything she needs to do beforehand?’
‘I expect the hospital have sent her a letter with the details. Does she have it?’
‘I don’t know – she hasn’t said. I’ll ask. Sorry…’ He seemed awkward now. ‘I don’t suppose you want to talk shop every time you’re out.’
‘I don’t mind it as much as everyone seems to think. I love my job, and nothing makes me happier than helping mums and babies. Anything you need to ask, just ask. I might not always have the answer, but I’ll always try to help.’
‘Aww…’ Corrine gave a warm smile. ‘Thimblebury is lucky to have people like you and Ottilie looking after us.’
‘We are,’ Alex agreed, his glance lingering on Zoe long enough to make her suddenly flustered.
‘We’re only doing our jobs. So…’ she added in a bid to take off the heat. ‘We were just talking about the five-hundred-year celebrations. What do you think? Should be fun, eh?’
‘I didn’t even know there were any celebrations,’ Alex said. ‘When’s this?’
‘It was Michaelmas,’ Victor said. ‘But I think they’ve had to move it because there wasn’t enough time.’
Alex frowned. ‘I probably ought to know, but when’s Michaelmas?’
‘September. It’s been and gone,’ Victor said.
‘Magnus was putting up a poster,’ Zoe said. ‘It’s happening at the end of the month now. Seems too cold for that sort of thing, but I’m guessing they’ve got it in hand.’
‘Much better, if you ask me. Always more than enough going on in September as it is. For us at any rate.’
‘I’m surprised nobody realised the anniversary was coming up,’ Zoe said. ‘Everyone around here seems really hot on things like that.’
‘Oh, they make a show of saying it,’ Victor said. ‘But they’re all too busy with their own things. Still, I expect it’ll go all right, and if it doesn’t, what’s to be done? You ought to get involved,’ he added, looking at Alex. ‘It’d make you some friends in the village.’
‘I don’t know…I’ve got a lot going on up here, and I’m not sure anyone in the village wants to be my friend.’
‘You’ll need them onside if you’re going to get your camping field up and running.’
‘You might be right. Who would I go and see? I mean, I don’t have a clue what I can offer, but I could have a think about it and see what I can come up with.’
‘Magnus would be a safe bet, wouldn’t he?’ Zoe asked Victor.
‘Him and Geoff are usually at the centre of things,’ Corrine said. ‘If it’s not them you need, they’ll know who else to talk to.’
‘Sounds like a good place to start then,’ Alex said thoughtfully. ‘I’ll go and see them when I can.’
The conversation turned back to the finds on the fields of Hilltop, and it was clear that Victor was more excited about them than Alex was. And while Zoe enjoyed listening to them for a while, half an hour later she found herself surprised by a violent yawn.
She laughed. ‘God, I’m sorry! I’m not bored, honest!’
‘That’s all right,’ Corrine said. ‘You must be tired.’
‘It’s been a long day, to be honest,’ she said. ‘I think I might go home.’
‘Would you like Victor to walk you back across?’ Corrine asked.
‘I’ll be all right – I have my torch.’
‘I’ll go as far as the path with you,’ Alex said. ‘I need to get back anyway.’
‘So soon?’ Corrine asked and then glanced between the two of them, a knowing look suddenly appearing as she backed down. ‘I dare say being outside all day does take it out of you.’
‘And I’ve got an early start tomorrow for Billie’s appointment,’ he said. ‘If you want, Victor, I’ll pop over again once we’re back from the hospital; otherwise we can arrange to meet up at the weekend.’
‘Don’t come away on my account,’ Zoe began, but he got up from his seat.
‘It’s no bother. Like I said, I was thinking I ought to get home anyway. It makes sense for us to walk together.’
Zoe could have put up more of a fight, but she didn’t want to. Against her better judgement – which was the way she seemed to be operating all the time these days – she wanted his company and him to herself, if only for a few minutes, and the temptation of his offer was too much to resist.
After thanking Corrine and Victor and bundling up in coats, Zoe and Alex followed the beam of his torch and headed towards Kestrel Cottage.
Victor had put sporadic lighting along parts of the path from Daffodil farmhouse to Zoe’s home, but it still never felt like enough – not that she’d ever utter a word of complaint because she knew if she did, they’d end up overcompensating, and by the week’s end there’d be a row of motorway-worthy lampposts spanning the entirety of their land.
‘They’re so lovely, aren’t they?’ Zoe said as they walked, buffeted by winds that seemed to be blowing from every angle.
‘Victor and Corrine? They’re great. I don’t think I could have asked for better neighbours.’
‘I think he might be more excited about your arrowheads than you are.’
‘You might be right,’ Alex said, and though she couldn’t see it in the gloom, she could hear the smile in his voice. ‘He’s been telling me about some of the other finds around here from over the years.’
‘I had no idea he was such an archaeology buff.’
‘Me neither. Just goes to show.’
They were silent for a moment, and when it started to feel too heavy, Zoe began again. ‘How’s Billie feeling? In herself, I mean? Is she looking forward to the scan? I always think it makes such a difference when you see your baby on the screen – it reminds you that they’re really in there.’
‘I think so,’ he said, but she could hear caution there. ‘It’s a strange time for her. This wasn’t how…’
‘How she expected things to be?’
‘Exactly. I think she’s torn. She wants the baby, of course, because it’s all she has left of Luis.
She doesn’t say it to me because…well, I’m sure she would have found it easier to share with her mum, if we still had her, but I think she’s terrified.
Sometimes I get the feeling she doesn’t want to admit the baby is there because she’s scared of doing it alone. ’
‘But she’s not alone – she has you.’
‘It’s not really the same, is it?’
‘Probably not.’ She regarded him thoughtfully, wishing she could see his face in the darkness. ‘She told me that you lost your wife. Christmas, wasn’t it?’
‘Around then.’
‘I can’t imagine it. Ottilie –you’ve met her, I imagine – she lost her husband, you know. She never stops thinking of him, even though she’s with Heath now and she’s happy. I suppose that’s how it is for most. For you…?’
‘God, yes, but even I’ve started to recognise that life goes on. I know for sure that if Jennifer were here, she’d tell me the same. I try to convince myself that helps, but some days are harder than others…’
‘It sounds like she was a smart woman. Is Billie very like her?’
‘You noticed she doesn’t look much like me? Yes, she’s the image of her mum. Lucky for her, eh?’
‘She’s beautiful. I thought how pretty she is the first time I saw her. Your wife must have been too.’
‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I think so, but I might be biased. I wish I could help her through this, but sometimes, when I look at her pain, I feel as if I’m drowning under the weight of it.
I know I lost Jennifer, but we had twenty-four brilliant years, enough memories for me to dig into when I’m down.
In fact, we met when we were teenagers, and when I think of it that way, I had more of my life with Jennifer than without and I feel really lucky.
But Billie has none of that. Her life with Luis was only just beginning. And then…it was over.’
‘How did he die?’
‘Motorbike crash on a mountain road. Hairpin bend that he took that bit too fast. The worst of it is, the road was so deserted nobody found him for hours, but if they had, he might have survived. I always think that now we’re back home, if he’d had the same accident on a busy road here, it wouldn’t have been the same at all. ’
‘God, that must have been so hard for Billie.’
‘It was. Still is.’
The low walls around Kestrel Cottage began to appear in the distance. ‘I’m all right from here,’ she said.
‘I might as well go the whole way with you now. It’s no bother, and I’d feel happier knowing I’d seen you home.’
She let out a sigh. ‘I don’t suppose it’s that far. All right then.’ She wondered whether he was expecting to be invited in.
Just as she thought about how she might word that invitation without giving him the wrong idea, he spoke into the gap.
‘The man who came over when I was last at your house. That was your…?’
‘Ex. Ritchie. We’re on good terms still, and he was only coming to see how I was settling in.’
‘Ah. It’s good that you can be friends.’
Thoughts of Ritchie had suddenly clouded her judgement.
Or perhaps they cleared it. While he was still in her life, in whatever capacity, was she able to get involved with another man?
And why was she thinking that way? Nobody had said anything about romance – certainly not Alex – and a new relationship would complicate her life in ways she didn’t need.
Right now, even inviting him in without any romantic subtext seemed like a bad idea.
‘I didn’t mean to pry,’ he said. ‘Tell me to keep my nose out if it’s something you don’t want to talk about.’
‘It’s not that. There’s nothing to tell, really.’
‘If you’re still such good friends, there’s no possibility that you and him will…’
‘Get back together? No, none at all.’
‘Right. Not that it matters; I was only wondering. Making conversation, you know…Ignore me; none of my business.’
There was a text message from Ritchie still unanswered on her phone, and she was reminded with more force than she’d like that she needed to do something about that.
She hadn’t known what to say, and she hadn’t wanted to think about it, not when she had Alex beside her and she was fighting the urge to invite him inside.
Not when his tone was telling her that he wanted the same.
Was it in her head? She could imagine a flush, a hopefulness in his face that she couldn’t see in the gloom, and she wanted it to be true.
As they arrived at the gate, Zoe smiled up at him.
‘Thanks for seeing me home. I’ll get a report at the surgery, of course, but if Billie wants to talk to me about anything at all after her scan, she’s more than welcome to come over.
Of course, ask her to message me first to make sure I’m in – no point in her having a wasted journey. ’
‘I’ll do that. Thank you. You’ve been…well, thank you.’
She made her way up to the front door of Kestrel Cottage, and by the time she’d turned back to see where he was, he’d already been swallowed by the darkness of the hills.