Page 65 of Hold On

“What was that?”

“When Will next goes away, want to come and try out my camp bed?”

Dominic chuckled as he tipped another trowel full of soil into the bucket. “Bet mine is bigger than yours.”

Ren let out a loud laugh. “You know you’ll have to prove that. I could—”

“Good morning,” a woman said behind them just as Ren had been going to say Icould leave with you.We can go together.

Two volunteers had joined them. A woman and a man. Ren wasn’t sure whether he’d been saved from something or not. The woman was the one who’d laughed at his IKEA joke.

“I’m Victor. We were sent to work with you.” He had a foreign accent.

“Great!” Though Ren was thinkingshit.He didn’t feel the accent was anything to worry about, the guy sounded Spanish. But he looked tough, the sort of guy you’d pay money to without considering whether you actually owed him any.I have to stop being suspicious of everyone.

“I’m Maggie.” The woman waved.

“I’m Ren and this is Nic.”

Dominic had carried on working.

“Just copy what I’m doing,” Ren said. “Scrape, check for anything interesting, remove soil, put it in the bucket. Bucket to be emptied over there behind the tape. Will is pretty sure this is a road. That will have been evident from the geophysical survey, though this might be the site of a vicus.”

“Ah. Civilian settlement,” said the man.

Then said nothing else. Partly because no one could get a word in once Maggie started to chat. She was fifty-six years old, lived seven miles away and had always wanted to be an archaeologist. Her husband was dead and she had three grandchildren. They were treated to their names and ages and details of funny things they’d said or done. Ren wanted to tune her out but he had to pay attention for Will’s sake. Though why Will had put these two with them, he had no idea. It wasn’t as if he was any sort of expert. And now he and Dominic couldn’t really talk. And they needed to talk. Ren wanted him to stay or wanted to go with him. What he didn’t want was for Dominic to disappear from his life now he was just getting to know him.

They’d uncovered part of the road by mid-morning, a boring piece of excavation made fun by Ren’s commentary, talking as if they were digging up Tutankhamun, plus Ren freaking out when he found a worm in his hand. The section of flat stones they’d excavated was too wide to belong to a building, and had a slight camber. They hadn’t found any coins or pot shards, nothing worth the amount of glee those with him were showing.

“I’m rethinking you,” Ren said quietly to Dominic. “Excited about flat stones?”

Dominic shrugged. “I figured there’ll be ditches on either side that might give up treasures.”

“Coprolite? Someone might have squatted and…”

Dominic laughed. “I’m rethinkingyou. Coprolite is millions of years old.”

Ren grinned. “Oops. So it is.”

“This is so exciting,” Maggie said.

“Si!” Victor agreed.

Something about his enthusiasm looked off to Ren but then anyone who wanted to pay to do this, and got excited about an old road, had to have something wrong with them.

The four of them walked back to the kitchen tent and, after they’d washed their hands, joined the others for a drink and a biscuit. Chocolate biscuits. Will was clearly trying to impress. Dominic refused one.

“You okay?” Ren whispered.

Dominic nodded.

“You refused a chocolate biscuit. Do you need to see a doctor?”

Dominic’s mouth twitched. “Can you do me a favour? I need to go and see Col’s parents. They don’t live far away. Could you give me a lift? I’ll buy us lunch.”

“Okay.”

There was a lot of excited chatter about finds. One group had dug up a bronze coin in great condition with Constantine’s head on the front. Another had uncovered three pieces of Samian pottery. Maggie was oohing and aahing at everything. Victor stood chatting to one of the other volunteers, a guy who looked like his ears had been ripped off and reattached upside down.

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