Page 40 of The Village Midwife
‘Like a woolly mammoth?’ Zoe quipped.
‘Imagine.’ Alex grinned, and the sight of it did something unexpected and yet not unwelcome to her. It was a tiny thing, but it felt like such a significant shared moment that she didn’t know what to make of it. ‘It would be cool if there were some pots or treasure or something.’
‘Dad,’ Billie cut in with a withering look. ‘There isn’t going to be treasure.’
‘I know, but I’m still going to have a look. It might be good for business if I do find something else.’
‘You won’t be able to carry on building if you find a load more,’ Billie said.
‘I’m no expert,’ said Zoe, ‘but that sounds about right. They were digging foundations for a new office block in Manchester a few years back and they found old factory workings from the Industrial Revolution. Work was stopped on the building until they’d excavated it all. If that’s what they do for the Industrial Revolution, imagine what they’d do for a load of…what did you think it might be?’
‘Not a clue.’ Alex shook his head. ‘Corrine, you said it was a Bronze Age hoard they found in Keswick?’
Corrine gave the tiniest shrug. ‘I think so, but it was quite a few years ago, so my memory might be failing me.’
‘Well,’ Zoe continued. ‘I would imagine if you found something interesting enough, someone somewhere would want to dig it up to make sure there wasn’t anything more buried deeper down.’
‘Unless you don’t report it,’ Billie said.
‘But like you said’ – Zoe turned back to Alex – ‘a big find like that might be good publicity for your pods. People who are interested in that sort of thing will want to come and stay. You could even make a feature of it, couldn’t you? I mean, I’m not trying to tell you how to run?—’
‘That’s actually not a bad idea,’ Alex said, giving her another one of those smiles that were like jolts of pure desire. ‘That settles it. I’m going to do some more digging tomorrow.’
‘Maybe get those ones checked out first,’ Billie said, angling her head towards the tiny slivers of metal in his hand. ‘They might be a load of old junk, and there’s no point in breaking your back digging up more if they are.’
‘They’re older than that,’ he said, looking at them, his tone giving the impression that he was willing them to be something far more exotic than junk from 1985.
As she looked, Zoe had to agree. She didn’t know anything about archaeology, but even she could see they were very old and crudely fashioned, and looked like the sort of thing she’d seen dug up onTime Teamon the rare occasion she’d caught it while flicking through the TV channels. And his sudden enthusiasm was infectious. This might be the most animated, the most positive she’d ever seen him. She wanted it to be something exciting for his sake because she could see what a wonderful effect the notion had on him. She was suddenly excited for him, and if she’d been in any position to offer help, she’d have been tempted to dig with him.
‘I’d imagine you could find out more online,’ she said. ‘There must be pictures of similar things that have been found. It mighthelp you to figure out if youmighthave something old or not. I bet there are Facebook groups too for that sort of thing – you could upload some photos to see what people think.’
‘I wouldn’t do that,’ Billie put in. ‘You’ll have every weirdo in the country driving over here to dig around themselves.’
‘You wouldn’t have to say where you found them,’ Zoe said, unable to keep the tone of offence out of her voice.
‘People have a way of working it out,’ Billie replied flatly. ‘You wouldn’t have to say where you’d found them. I’d bet there’d be a load of metal detectors up and down that field the day after you’d posted.’
‘I think you might be right,’ Alex told her. ‘But there must be some expert somewhere who can tell me.’
‘I can ask Victor,’ Corrine said. ‘He might remember more about that other find than me, and he might know who to ask.’
‘Could you?’ Alex dropped the bits back into the drawer and returned to the table. ‘That would be amazing.’
‘I should warn you,’ Corrine added with a wry smile, ‘when I do tell him, he might be one of those metal detectorists going up and down your land. He’s got one, you know. Hasn’t had it out in years, but it’s there at the back of the shed, and I don’t think he’d need much encouragement to dust it off.’
‘Boys and their toys, eh?’ Zoe said, and Corrine rolled her eyes.
‘Enough to drive a sane woman mad.’
‘I’d better put the kettle on again,’ Alex said. ‘Totally forgot about it.’
Zoe was about to make a joke about it when her phone bleeped a message. She pulled it out to see Ritchie’s name. With a frown and a curse under her breath, she switched it to silent and slipped it back into her pocket.
‘Everything all right?’ Corrine asked.
‘Yes,’ Zoe said briskly. ‘Something and nothing. Someone I can’t speak to right now.’
‘Ah…’ Corrine gave a knowing look.
