Autumn Leaves at Mill Grange by Jenny Kane (the little red hen ebook .txt) 📗

knew to be lining up on his wife’s lips, Lord Hammett nodded encouragingly. ‘And why is it important?’

‘The church, the one I’m sure is hidden beneath the lawn, there’s a high chance it is the church of St Guron.’

‘The chap who founded Bodmin?’

Sophie was surprised. ‘You’ve heard of him, Father?’

‘My family has lived on Bodmin Moor forever, Sophie – of course I have. People have searched for it before. What makes you think that it’s here?’

Sophie took a sip of her cold coffee before explaining about the archives and finding the photograph, and how everything felt like it fitted together. Then she told him about how the researchers she’d contacted at Landscape Treasures had done more work, and they were in agreement that it was worth exploring. It really could be the church built in 1010.

Unable to hold her peace any longer, Lady Hammett dripped disbelief. ‘You said that the photograph you found dates from 1976?’

‘Yes, Mother.’

‘Well that proves this church, if it is a church, is not that special.’

‘Why?’

‘What archaeologist would leave such an important site un-dug for over thirty years? It was dismissed as unworthy then, and so should be now. The sooner they leave us in peace the better.’

Sophie couldn’t think of what to say. What if her mother was right? There had been so many important archaeological sites discovered in 1976, and only a tiny number had been investigated. Funds simply weren’t there to examine all of them.

‘They did.’ Lord Hammett crossed his arms. ‘My father was approached. He was ill at the time. Mother wasn’t against the idea, but with his cancer being so advanced… well, the Cornish Heritage Trust understood our situation and used their funding elsewhere. Mother always said she’d let them excavate one day, but after Father died, she faded fast, and in all honesty, Sophie, I forgot about it.’

‘You mean my grandparents wanted it investigated?’

‘Your grandfather loved local history. You two would have got on like a house on fire.’

‘I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me before, I—’

‘Sophie!’ Her mother glared at her with such weighted disappointment, that a passer-by would think she’d been accused of serious assault at the very least. ‘Your grandparents are not the issue here. I agreed for you to have a survey done to satisfy your peculiar need to look backwards, rather than forwards to a good life here.’

‘A life you want for me. Not the life I want.’

As if her daughter had never spoken, Lady Hammett continued, using the ultra-patient tone she adopted when she believed she was right and everyone else was wrong. ‘I did not agree for my garden to be destroyed, and for a lot of strangers and machinery to ruin my lawn, the view, and the peace and quiet.’

Sophie directed her defence to her father. ‘I know I went about it the wrong way, and I’m sorry. This isn’t just important to me, but to the area as a whole.’ Fiddling her cup in her fingers, she fixed her eyes on the crisp white linen tablecloth. No one had been so reckless as to drop so much as a crumb on it. ‘I imagined that, if they came and went while you were away, the household wouldn’t be disturbed, and I could have got the practical experience I needed.’

‘Needed for what?’ Her father’s glasses slipped down his nose as he leant towards his daughter.

‘My degree.’

‘Your what!?’ Lady Hammett upped her stare level from assault to murder.

‘Distance learning?’ Her father put down his newspaper. ‘Good for you, my girl. That shows guts. You’d have done well at university.’

Not bothering to remind him how much she’d wanted to go to Bristol to study, but that her mother had insisted that finishing school was more suitable for someone of her class, Sophie dared to allow herself a tiny bit of hope as her father went on.

‘And now you need practical experience, am I right?’

Sophie nodded, not wanting to speak in case she was dreaming and woke up.

‘Then, a compromise is required.’ He brushed his hands together as if the decision was made. ‘Why don’t you get yourself outside and apologise? It isn’t just your mother and I that are owed an apology. Then, if they’re willing to stay, we’ll get some boundaries established. Alright, Sophie?’

Lady Hammett’s mouth was opening and closing so fast that it was comical. Sophie, however, was too stunned to laugh. Getting up, kissing her father’s cheek, she ran out of the room.

She had a second chance, and she was going to take it. It was time to eat humble pie, apologise to the team, and show Shaun Coulson that she was an adult.

An attractive adult, with whom she intended him to fall head over heels in love.

Five

September 2nd

Thea spoke into her mobile as she paced the outer limits of the fortlet.

‘The thing is, Helen, I’ve examined the survey results so often I’m afraid I’m seeing what I hope to see, rather than what’s actually there.’

Thea pictured her former boss sat at her desk in Bath, twiddling her spiralled red hair as she listened. ‘As you know, Helen, there’s a fortlet on the other side of Exmoor, at Martinhoe. It has the standard formation of concentric earth and wooden banks and ditches you’d expect to find. The thing is: the one here looks as if it has a few regular edges as well as some circular construction. I’m beginning to wonder if it was built at the same time as Martinhoe, but then experienced a later level of rebuilding before eventually falling into disuse.’

Having promised Helen she’d email her over a copy of the geophysics results, Thea hung up the phone and strode towards the former scullery, now her permanent office. It wasn’t until she’d discarded her wellington boots by the back door that she remembered what had taken her to the fortlet at such speed in the first place.

Wondering if Tina was alright, and whether Sam had explained the presence of the letters, Thea peered around