Page 66 of The Village Midwife
‘So Billie seems good?’ she asked Alex as they followed in the wake of Victor’s longer strides.
‘It’s hard to say for sure, but I think so. She’s opening up a bit more. I thought about what you said,’ he continued, his gaze trained on the path ahead. ‘You know, about talking to her, telling her I’m there for her no matter what. She was a bit…Well, I feel as if we were both a bit embarrassed, to be honest – we don’t talk like that. But I’m glad I said something because she didn’t really answer it, but I think she understood. Thanks.’
‘No need to thank me. It was your doing.’
‘But I needed that kick up the backside to make me see that I had to do something. Are you always right about everything like that?’ he added, giving her a sideways look.
She smiled up at him. ‘Annoying, isn’t it?’
‘Infuriating.’
‘Keep up, you two!’ Victor called behind him, laughing as he did. ‘It’ll be dark at this rate.’
‘It’s barely eleven!’ Zoe shouted back. ‘Don’t be so bossy!’
‘If I’d known you were going to be such a slave driver, I wouldn’t have invited you!’ Alex added.
‘Too late now,’ Victor shouted back. ‘You’re stuck with me.’
Zoe lowered her voice. ‘Bless. He’s excited. Like a little kid. He was the same at the paddock – couldn’t wait to get done and come over here. Isn’t it cute?’
‘I have to admit, I’ve been looking forward to more searching myself. I’ve got no patience for the task, and I will be complaining if I don’t find a chest full of gold in the first ten minutes, but I’m still up for it.’
‘So that’s why I’m here, is it? To keep you both in line.’
‘I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.’
Victor stopped for a moment and scanned the landscape. ‘Where did you say it was?’ he asked, turning to watch Alex and Zoe catch up.
‘Over on that plateau.’ Alex pointed to a spot that was perhaps another two or three minutes’ walk away. ‘You can just about see where I’ve been digging there.’
‘Your eyes are better than mine,’ Victor said, ‘so I’ll take your word for it. At least I know where I’m going now.’
He started to walk again, and Zoe and Alex followed. Before too long she could see the beginnings of some foundations, which Alex had clearly intended to create many more of before he’d got distracted by his first find. A meandering trench of different depths spilled out from that original section. It washardly precision engineering, and Alex said as much as he noticed her looking.
‘I probably ought to try and make it more methodical. I expect if we had professionals up here, they’d do that and get better results.’
‘Will there be any professional digging?’ Zoe asked.
‘I don’t know. The expert I’ve been speaking to says there’s nothing of enough significance yet for that, though he’s happy to take what I do find off my hands for cataloguing, and if the department decides there might be a reason to come up, they’ll get in touch with me.’
‘But you still want to dig?’
He turned to her with a smile. ‘How could I resist? I wouldn’t be able to rest knowing there might be something amazing under the soil here and I’d never tried to find it.’
Zoe had to smile; his enthusiasm was infectious. She’d never been interested in this sort of thing before but found herself fascinated now. ‘What do you think you’ll find?’
‘I don’t know. I have no clue what sort of things might be there. It would be incredible to find something of value, like jewellery or something, but I doubt that’s going to happen. It’s more likely to be everyday stuff.’
Victor was already walking the length of haphazard trench when Zoe and Alex got there.
‘What do you reckon?’ Alex asked.
‘I reckon you’ve made a lovely mess,’ Victor replied.
‘I know, and it’ll get a lot messier by the time I’ve finished. Shall we get cracking?’
Victor flicked a switch on his detector while Alex meddled with his own, trying to remind himself how it worked. After a minute or so, he had it set and handed it to Zoe. ‘You’re chief detector today.’
