Page 9 of Hold On

“Here. Wear a pair of my trousers. Inbuilt knee protectors.” Will handed them to him along with a trowel and a brush.

“I have to start today?” Ren gaped at him.

“What had you planned on doing? Sitting by the pool?”

“Is there—?”

“If there was, you couldn’t use it. Anyway, if you hang around any dig site for long enough, there’s bound to be a pool of water form eventually. You can sit next to it and imagine yourself in the Caribbean.”

Rentsked.

“Come on. This place is brilliant. Wait until you see it.”

His brother wasn’t talking about Asquith Hall, which had looked pretty impressive as they drove in, but the field they were heading for.

“I told you how this came about, didn’t I?” Will said.

He had, but when Will was talking, Ren didn’t have to and that was fine. “Tell me again.”

“The marquess’s son was out with his metal detector and found a Crispus and a Roman brooch inside a few minutes. The following day yielded more finds and when they flew a drone over the area, they saw regular shadows that indicated the outline of building foundations. The marquess contacted an old friend, Andreas, my boss. We came out to have a look and started the dig a couple of months ago.”

“How long do you have access?”

“As long as we like, within reason. This field was full of wild flowers and there were no plans to cultivate it.”

“Oh dear. The nature brigade will be after you.”

Will chuckled. “They’ll grow again. Hey, guys!”

All heads lifted when Will called out.

“This is my brother Ren. Ren, meet Gethin, Laura, Katrina, Franz, Christian, Dan who’s the cook, and Brett, the site supervisor. There are others around somewhere.”

“Ghosts, are they?” Ren whispered.

Brett came over rubbing his hands on his trousers. “You’ve probably forgotten our names already.”

Ren chuckled. But he hadn’t. He was very good at faces and names.

“Brett will show you around and tell you what you can do to help. I’ll be back this afternoon.”

Ren turned to glare at his brother. Will hadn’t told him he was leaving immediately.

Brett held out his hand. “Good to meet you.”

“Whereabouts in the States are you from?” Ren asked.

“Dallas, Texas.”

“Many Roman villas there?”

Brett laughed harder than he should have. “Why do you think I’m here?”

He didn’t want an answer, did he?

“The geophysical survey was mind-blowing.” Brett made a gesture with his arms that Ren took to mean his mind had been blown, though he was managing to walk at the same time so probably not.

“You know what a geophysical survey is, right?”

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