Page 45 of The Forgotten Boy

“Trapped in a tunnel? Not this one, at least. Not from this direction. I doubt anyone’s moved those rocks since the archaeologists my granddad referenced from 1870.”

“Then why was Jasper Willis out here?”

The eternal, unanswerable question. Except that Jasper had answered it: he said the ghost boy had led him to this spot. Even accepting the unbelievability of that, what would be the purpose?

Joshua was sifting through the loose soil they’d moved around the opening, his face closed off in thought. Diana allowed herself to watch him, appreciating his capable hands, his palms toughened by regular riding, the line of his jaw, and the hollow beneath where his jaw and ear met. She imagined pressing her lips to that spot and felt herself flush when Joshua’s hands stilled. Had he realized she was watching him?

But he didn’t turn to her, not right away. Instead, he used just his fingertips to brush at something that had caught his eye in the debris.

“Well, well, well,” he murmured.

“What is it?”

Joshua plucked the object and held it between his fingers for Diana to see.

“Is that …” She narrowed her eyes and leaned closer, staring at the thin disk. “Is that a coin?”

“An old coin,” he corrected her. “Possibly Roman. They still turn up from time to time around here.” He handed it to her. “For luck.”

She stared at the dark circle, grimed with age. It didn’t look particularly lucky.

Joshua stood, his left leg catching. He expertly rebalanced and offered Diana a hand. She allowed him to help her up and then kept hold of his hand.

A million things swam through her head: Jasper’s broken leg, the possibility of open doors at night, how to stop vulnerable boys from conjuring ghosts when she herself had seen an entire troop of medieval horsemen riding into Havencross this morning. And was the war ever going to end, and would the terrible tension that she felt snap when it did end?

Joshua didn’t pry, didn’t push, didn’t try to pretend. He simply pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. And for just a few minutes, Diana was at peace.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

JULIET

2018

The morning after her Berwick visit, Juliet woke to Rachel’s cleaning and gladly accepted a freshly baked scone with her coffee.

“I owe you,” Rachel said. “My boys are deliriously happy at seeing Uncle Noah so often, even if it is just hello and goodbye.”

“Oh, I’m not trying to—I told him he doesn’t need to come over so often. Any questions I have I can ask by phone or email. Really, he’s been very helpful.”

When Rachel murmured amused agreement, Juliet threw caution to the wind. “Is he … does he … he must have had girlfriends. Or boyfriends,” she added hastily.

“He had a partner, Allie, for three years, but she emigrated to Australia eighteen months ago. Noah doesn’t even want to move to London, so that was the end of that. I imagine he’s not lived the life of a monk in Newcastle, but he hasn’t talked about anyone like he’s talked about you all these weeks.”

“That’s nice,” Juliet managed.

Rachel had an eye roll that spoke volumes. “You are lame, the pair of you. Do you know what he’s been asking me? ‘Do you think I’m moving too fast, Rachel? Do you think Juliet’s over her divorce?’” With the stern tone of a mother, she added, “Get on with it and don’t make me lock the two of you up in this house together.”

Juliet flushed and laughed. Her breath swooped in a way she hadn’t felt since her earliest days with Duncan—anticipation and desire and hope mixed into a concoction that could make one feel drunk.

Focus, she told herself. Work.

She had just about reached the end of the war in the school nurse’s records from 1918 and picked up her reading there. The weekend before November 11th, a third-year student had apparently broken his leg while outside the school during the night. The nurse didn’t offer a lot of commentary in her entries, but to this one she’d added: Must proceed gently with Jasper re. ghost boy. And find a way to barricade the outer doors.

Barricade the outer doors? Juliet wondered if that was about keeping outsiders from coming in—or keeping the boys from getting out. Considering that this boy Jasper had been outside in the middle of the night, probably the latter. And it seemed to be connected to the Havencross ghost.

She told Noah about that entry when he called that night, then answered his questions about her visit with Daniel. He made all the appropriate noises of satisfaction and interest she could wish for. “What’s your next step?” he asked.

“I thought I’d explore the chapel ruins. The solicitor who hired me brought up some boxes of Somersby family history, including the original site plans from when Gideon Somersby had the property surveyed before building the main house. I think there might be tunnels marked on this old survey, so I thought I’d take a look.”

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