Page 10 of Hold On

“When your mind gets blown? Yeah.”Oh God, turn off the sarcasm.

Brett laughed and Ren had to fight the urge to sigh deeply.

“Geophysical surveys cover a range of detection methods used to map the contrasts between the soil and buried archaeological remains,” Brett drawled.

Ren nodded.Thank you, walking-talking textbook.“I know.”

He hoped to avoid a lecture but Brett carried on. “We collect readings in a systematic fashion measuring magnetic, electromagnetic and moisture contrasts.”

“Using magnetometers, earth resistance meters and Ground Penetrating Radar systems?”

“Yeah.” Brett looked at him as if he was a particularly bright pupil, rather than scowling at him for being a smart arse, which was almost disappointing. Nor was the guy flirting, so he was probably scared of Will.

“What have you found?” Ren already knew but while he was being talked to, he wasn’t sitting in a hole, breathing in dust and getting his nails dirty.

“A Roman villa and associated buildings all lying within a ditched angular enclosure. The part we’re working on was the control hub. But the really exciting thing is we found a mosaic. Small but where there’s one…”

“Hmm.”

“Want to come and see some of our finds? They’re under that canopy.”

Ren tried to make appropriately appreciative noises as Brett lovingly described bits of metal that looked like nothing, and pieces of pottery that some poor sod would spend hours if not weeks putting back together. A fiendish jigsaw invented by the devil because you didn’t know how many pieces were missing or whether they all belonged to the same thing, and you mostly couldn’t cheat by looking at a picture of what the object was supposed to look like.

When Brett had run out of things to eulogise, he gestured to the brush and trowel Ren still held. “Ready to have a go?”

No.“Excited about it.”Not.“Just tell me what to do.”Please don’t.

“Digs are very sociable events. Don’t feel you need to keep quiet and carry on.Heh-heh. Tea breaks and group lunches are all part of the fun.”

Oh Jesus save me. Now! Is there a communal campfire singalong to look forward to? Please say no.“Point me towards a patch of ground that needs turning over.”

Ren thought Brett was going to have a seizure. “Do you know how to dig?”

“Guess who was my brother’s assistant from when I was a small boy.” Dragged out in all weathers to do the grunt work, though Will had paid him in chocolate until their mother found out.

Brett chuckled and added, “Lucky you. Will is wonderful.”

“Just put me somewhere out of the way where I’m not going to do any damage.”

“Okay. Don’t forget there could be hidden holes. You shouldn’t need to take your boots off yet but… well, watch where you put your feet. And…Will said to make sure you took things easy. So have a break whenever you like.”

If Will had told anyone even vague details of why he was supposed to be taking things easy, Ren would exact a painful revenge.

Maybe Brett had got the message, because he set Ren up well away from everyone else.

“Dirt into buckets, then use a screen to sift through the contents in case you missed anything. If you make a major find, give me a shout.”

That wasn’t going to happen because there was no way he’d been put anywhere that looked promising. Ren dropped to his knees, and starting at ground level, slowly scraped away the soil using the side of his trowel, gripping it where the handle met the metal, as his brother had taught him. He knew Brett was watching, but once he’d shown he was being careful, the guy wandered away.

Ren did understand what Will loved about this, seeking out lost, abandoned and broken pieces of past lives to build up pictures of how people used to live. But really, it was just poking around in dead people’s rubbish and involved a lot of manual labour, removing dirt, mud and mould, and sometimes shit, in often horrible conditions, for mostly little reward. Except for those times when theydidfind something spectacular that made everything worthwhile. Too slow for Ren.

But it wasn’t as if he had anything better to do than move soil from one place to another, though he’d rather have been doing it with a mechanical digger. He was still recuperating. Not fit for the work he usually did. Not fit for anything. Not even this. He swallowed hard.Pack that shit up right now, you whinging fucker.

He kept scraping and sifting, scraping and sifting. Boredom was going to get him before his body protested.

“Hiya!”

Ren glanced up. Long-legged, long-haired Katrina sauntered over and crouched down beside him. She’d tied up her shirt under her breasts and undone one too many buttons to make sure her assets were on display.

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