Page 21 of The Love Position

She cringed at the anger in his voice. ‘An hour or so ago. I’m the only one here—’

‘What have you found?’

‘A sword, human remains and a coin so far. I—’

‘Don’t move and don’t touch anything else. I’m on my way.’

He cut the call.

Sophia took a quick breath, then another.

Calm down. It’s okay.

Sitting on the cold ground, she dropped her head.

Remember what Isaac said. Try to breathe through your nose.

Usually, it was her brother’s voice that came to mind when she was experiencing anxiety, but now it was Isaac’s.

You’ve done nothing wrong. This is your dig.

But no matter how she tried to convince herself everything would be fine, butterflies with razor-sharp wings flapped inside her, cutting the inside of her chest until she was drowning in a sea of adrenaline.

Come on!

She rang Maggie.

‘You still staying at mine tonight? Are you on your way?’

‘I’ve done something bad and Marcus is going to kill me.’

‘What’s going on?’

Sophia told her.

Maggie blew out a breath. ‘Good for you, Soph. You trusted your instinct. He can’t stay mad when you’ve discovered something this incredible. Want me to come down?’

‘I’d love that, but you know how he can be with you…’

‘Yeah, you’re right. No point in poking the rat.’

Sophia giggled. ‘Don’t you mean “bear”?’

‘Nope. Now take photos before he starts clomping about in his size sevens, banging on about the bloody Roman Empire.’

‘Maggie, you are naughty, but that’s good advice. I’ll ring you when I’m on my way to yours.’

Over the next hour, Sophia documented everything she’d unearthed, but left it in situ. A discovery like this happened maybe once a lifetime and changed the entire focus of the dig. She couldn’t wait for the team to get back onsite the next day so they could see what else was buried there.

The sun was heading for the horizon when Marcus arrived, stomping across the field, his black coat flapping behind him like broken wings.

He didn’t even bother greeting Sophia, going straight to the test pit and dropping to a crouch.

Her pulse rocketed as his body froze. Then he stood and faced her, his eyes bright.

‘This is big, Soph.’

She nodded.

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