‘Well, you’re right, it’s certainly not Roman,’ Harriet said slowly, holding it up to her eyes as she tried to make it out. ‘But modern is a relative term. It’s old, though, but I’d have said eighteenth century, rather than much earlier. The writing’s faded but it’s in readable English.’
She spread the paper out and read the short message: ‘Dame Margery keeps the secret of Aelfryth’s Tears,’ followed by an illegible signature. Harriet turned the paper over, fruitlessly looking for further illumination. ‘That’s all there is.’
Rory shoved it down the front of his sweatshirt. ‘We’d better get a move on. Where’s this fox’s earth you want me to scramble through? I tell you, Harriet, you’re not like any teacher I ever had; your classes must have been lively.’
‘Fool.’ She headed towards the increasingly bright light. ‘Here, I think we can just about wriggle through here.’ She heaved a sigh and peered at her watch. ‘I wonder if Sam’s picked up my text yet?’
‘Sam? Text? What are you on about?’
‘Sorry, didn’t I tell you?’ She blinked in surprise. ‘Good Lord, I completely forgot to mention it. I sent Sam a text before we left the house, to tell him there was something going on in the Burial Field and we were going to take a look. As soon as he picks it up Sam will be galloping over the hill with the Seventh Cavalry to the rescue.’
‘You could have told me,’ Rory said, sounding aggrieved. ‘No wonder you weren’t in a state of total panic at being trapped underground. I’ve been in awe, thinking how brave you were.’
‘That’s boarding school. We were taught to be strong, capable women, not spineless jellyfish. It was the ethos of the school along with cold baths and lots of exercise. Mind you, I think we’ve both been pretty brave,’ she reproved him, though he saw a twinkle in her blue eyes. ‘But anyway, I also took the precaution of leaving a note in my bedroom, for Edith or Sam, whoever got there first. I just said there was someone digging around the old stone and it looked like Brendan and Mike Goldstein. And that I thought they were looking for the remains of the original villa, on the hunt for treasure.’
She shot him a disarming grin. ‘I’m sorry you were worried. And it would have given Sam or Edith a pretty horrible ten minutes or so, wondering if we were still alive under there. However,’ she squared her shoulders with a groan, ‘let’s get a move on and make our way above ground, because after that comes the difficult bit.’
‘And that is?’
‘Finding out where John Forrester and Brendan have gone.’ She made a face as she added, ‘And what they’re up to.’
chapter thirteen
As they made their cautious way across the fields, Harriet cocked an eye at her companion. He was looking a lot better, she decided, in spite of his extremely disturbed night. Happier too.
‘Are you getting on better with Edith?’ she asked tentatively and hid a smile as he reddened.
‘She’s suddenly stopped treating me as though I’m something the cat dragged in,’ he confided. ‘In fact, she….’ He halted, embarrassed, and Harriet tactfully turned to admire the sunrise.
‘You know why she was treating you like a leper?’ she asked casually.
‘No idea,’ he said. ‘Whatever the reason, she’s given up on it now.’
‘It was because Lara Dean told her or rather, hinted, that you were brother and sister.’
‘What?’ He was so astonished that he stopped in his tracks.
‘Shh.’ She frowned at him. ‘Keep moving and don’t make so much noise. We’ve no idea where Brendan and the vicar went.’ She glanced round fearfully, but the fields were empty of human life.
‘Yes, anyway; I dragged it out of Edith tonight, no it’s yesterday now, anyway, it was in the evening when she looked in on me. We had a very instructive ten minutes or so. She told me about poor old Oliver Sutherland and I knew there’d been something bugging her that was making you both uncomfortable. Apparently Lara saw an old documentary about heroes from Hampshire, including Major Richard Attlin, billed as the late son of a well-known local family, a bomb disposal expert who eventually died of wounds sustained years earlier.
‘They showed a picture of Richard and Lara was struck by the likeness when she met you. She put two and two together and made far too many then, out of spite, she told Edith, who hadn’t got the sense she was born with, and half-believed it.’
At the gate to the kitchen garden Harriet paused. ‘I’m going to ring the police now,’ she said. ‘I know we’ve no idea where Brendan and the vicar have gone, and I also know we’re going to have the Devil’s own job convincing anyone that the vicar is a murderer, but there’s a dead man in those ruins and he needs justice.’