Page 145 of The Love Position

Sophia huffed out a short laugh. ‘I was just thinking about how much has occurred since the start of the year when you found the coins.’

Maggie nodded. ‘Mostly good stuff.’

‘Yeah…’ Sophia lapsed once more into silence. Her time with Isaac was one of the best and most surprising things ever to have happened in her life. Could she still dream of a future with him?

‘Come on then! We’re not going to find anything moping around.’

Sophia scanned the data again, even though she knew it better than the back of her own hand. ‘You’re right. Okay. I’ll mark out three test pits and record everything as we go. The first one is actually right under your feet.’

‘Okey-Dokey.’

Taking a step back, Maggie carefully cut the turf away, placing it to one side.

Sophia took another GPS reading just to double check the position, then Maggie removed a few inches of soil and scanned the bare earth with her detector.

Nothing.

‘Take that look off your face,’ Maggie scolded. ‘If there is anything down here, you know it wouldn’t be this shallow.’

Sophia took a big breath. ‘I’m just a bit on edge.’

‘I know, love, but don’t count your chickens till they’ve laid the golden egg. Okay?’

She burst out laughing. ‘Since when has that ever been a phrase?’

Maggie grinned. ‘Since I said so.’ She removed more soil and scanned again, even though the dirt didn’t look any different.

Sophia bit the inside of her cheek as Maggie worked down through four more silent layers. Was this going to be yet another thing she’d been wrong about this year? Was her gut as faulty as her head?

Shut up! Isaac isn’t Marcus! Or this dig!

A loud burst of sound from the detector made Sophia jump. She refocused on the bottom of the hole but couldn’t see anything.

Maggie handed her a trowel. ‘You do the honours.’

Taking it from her, Sophia knelt on the warm grass, reaching down and carefully scraping the soil away. The tip moved almost effortlessly until it snagged on something solid.

Maggie held out a smaller tool as if assisting a surgeon in an operation.

Heart racing, Sophia took it, gently feeling around the harder object.

A flash of gold below made her gasp.

‘Go on, love.’

Brushing the dirt away, Sophia saw a rounded edge. ‘It’s a torc,’ she stammered. ‘A huge one.’

Torcs were large golden rings worn around the neck or arm, and created by twisting wires together. Sophia could already tell this one was too large to be worn as a bracelet.

‘Around her neck was a large golden torc; and she wore a tunic of diverse colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch,’ Maggie murmured, reciting the only description of Boudica on record, made by the Roman historian, Cassius Dio.

Fingers trembling, Sophia carefully removed more soil, finding the ornate ends of the torc. She’d never seen one this size and weight before. Whoever wore it was as high a status as you could be in ancient Britain.

Then she uncovered vertebrae.

Sitting back, she breathed heavily, trying to keep her emotions at bay. She thought she’d scream with excitement at this moment, but instead she burst into tears.

Maggie clasped her weathered hands around Sophia’s muddy ones and squeezed.

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