Page 143 of He's the One

“But I’m going to grumble about it.”

“Of course you are.” Col caught a glimpse of red fur coming towards them. “Oh, look who’s here. Someone else who loves you.”

Theo turned. “Isla!” He produced a couple of dog biscuits from his bag and handed one to Col. When Theo bent to offer the biscuit, Col did the same.

“Morning, beautiful,” Theo said. “How are you today?”

The fox chomped the biscuit down. Theo stroked her back and she moved up against him, rubbing her head against his leg. Col’s heart raced. To be so close to a wild animal was thrilling. He was still holding out his biscuit, but she didn’t take it. Then, just as he thought she was going to run off, she nipped it from his fingers, then brushed against his leg, curling her tail around it before loping away.

Theo beamed. “She approves of you.”

“Were you going to dump me if she didn’t?”

“After what we’ve been saying? No. I’d have covered you in bacon and pinned you down. She’d have been all over you then. I would too.” He moaned. “I love crispy smoked bacon too much to ever be a vegetarian.”

Col straightened up. “So are we there yet?”

“Nearly. It’s the next field. The East Meadow. I’ve never looked there. Don’t set your expectations too high, unless you’re hoping for a collection of nails or a piece of barbed wire.”

They climbed over a gate into a field that had a sign sayingPrivate no admittance.Col smiled when he saw Isla following.

“Does she usually come with you?”

“Sometimes. I don’t kid myself it’s my company she’s after, just more biscuits.” Theo set up the detector. “I usually use headphones. It makes the sounds clearer and it’s less annoying if there are other people around, but I won’t put them on to start off with so we can both listen. Watch what I do.”

He began to swing the detector over the ground, keeping it close to the surface and gradually moving forward.

“When you hear a beep, you go back over the same place again and swing the detector until the sound repeats itself.”

“How can you tell whether it’s worth your while to dig?”

“That’s why you check again. The more consistent the sound, the more likely it is to be something worth looking for. I have a frequency chart that shows me what it might be. Ah, hear that?”

Theo took off the harness and gave the detector to Col. “Find it again.”

Col swung the detector and heard the beeps.

“Something?” Col asked.

“Yep. It’s consistent, which is a good sign. I dig in a square, keeping the sides the width of the shovel. See?” He lifted away a slice of turf. “You should leave the area as you found it you… ooh.”

“What?”

Theo crouched over the hole, rubbing something in his fingers. “Wow.”

Col came to his side. “What is it? Ring pull?”

“Coin.” He handed it to Col.

Col cleared off a little more of the soil, then used the cloth Theo handed him. “It looks old.”

Theo took it back. “It is. I can’t believe we found this so fast. It’s Roman.”

“How can you tell?”

“Latin words. The name Crispus. Flavius Julius Crispus was a Caesar, not an emperor. This coin is called a Crispus. Look, there’s an altar and globe on the back. Sometimes there are images of two captives.”

Col was seeing a different side of Theo.

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